John A. Lent

Korean telecom policy in global competition: implications for developing countries

United States efforts to open the Korean telecommunications market have been incessant and tenacious, to the extent that Korea is the only country to be twice designated by the US as a priority foreign country (PFC). Through major restructuring driven by the Korean government, the telecommunications infrastructure of Korea has been strengthened and expanded, and in the process has posed a threat to the US telecommunications industry. Thus, since the late 1980s, the Korean telecommunications industry has been monitored and threatened with trade sanctions by the United States Trade Representative, and all internal restructuring has been closely related to bilateral negotiations with the US, and multilateral negotiations in the Uruguay Round. Based on interviews with key Korean telecommunications personnel and analyses of public documents, this research examines the Korean telecommunications market, telecommunications policies relative to the US and WTO, and the recent economic crisis that has affected the stability of the industry. The paper also offers five major recommendations to government and industry policymakers, including a more active and positive stance toward liberalisation, the relinquishing by bureaucrats of their monopolistic power over policymaking, the securing of an open and transparent policymaking process, and, in relations with the US, and the mobilisation of regional and multilateral organisations to ensure fair competition in telecommunications.

Local comic books and the curse of Manga in Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan

The comic book industries of the East Asian countries of Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan have long contended with the inroads made by Japanese manga. These have included dwarfing the sales of domestic comics and affecting the styles of local cartoonists. Yet, despite these and other formidable problems, comics thrive in each country largely through risky manoeuvres such as the creation of new genres, the conversion from rental to sales markets, and pirated to legitimate operations. This paper, with information culled from government and comic industry officials and cartoonists, focuses on these developments.

A Content Analysis of National Media Coverage of Asian News and Information

It has been stated that foreign news is not given more coverage in United States daily and weekly newspapers because of the diversity of national media capable of doing a better job of presenting international information.’ If this assumption were accepted, it would be expected that in a given day one would be exposed to abundant amounts of foreign news via television networks, newsmagazines and prestige dailies such as the New York Times and Washington Post. This study attempts to look at this assumption, limiting itself to the coverage of Asian news. Specifically, the research questions of this study are: 1. How much Asian news would an American have available if he watched a national network newsshow, read two of the nation’s most prestigious dailies and one of its newsmagazines for a six-day period? 2. Does Asian news usage in United States mass media relate more to crisis situations and trivial information, or to political-governmental news or to ongoing developmental projects in Asia? 3. Does Asian news usage in United States mass media

Press Freedom in Asia: the Quiet, But Completed, Revolution

A 1971 book on Asian newspapers which I edited carried the title, The Asian Newspapers’ Reluctant Revolution. In the five intervening years, events affecting press freedom in Asia have been so significant and rapid, that were a similar title used today, it would include the words, ’completed revolution’. Governments have pressured the media rigorously and systematically in recent years, promoting a ’guidance’ concept to be used in conjunction with national development aims, promulgating and altering press laws, suspending newspapers and arresting journalists, restructuring the media to include more official management and ownership, levying economic sanctions and controlling foreign correspondents and the images they impart of developing Asia. These changes in the press have come about at the same time Asian governments have succeeded in altering Western-transplanted notions of democratic rule. Government spokesmen emphasize that developing nations need discipline, a strong leader at the top and central direction, and that they cannot afford the luxury of democracy. To maintain centralized government, the trend in Asia is toward one strong person rule and in-family power concentrations. Singapore is virtually a one political party state with Lee Kuan Yew cemented in power; the National Front of Malaysia has nearly wiped out opposition parties and political parties are outlawed in Nepal. Kuomintang and Chiang power have ruled Taiwan since 1949; the Philippines and India are without a viable opposition, as are other nations too numerous to mention here. As examples of in-family power concentrations, in India and Sri Lanka, a daughter and a wife of former prime ministers rule; in each case, the present leaders’ sons are being groomed for eventual succession. In Malaysia, the leadership is plagued with nepotism; brother-in-law Hussein Onn replaced the late Abdul Razak. The Philippines succession order seems to be from husband to wife; relatives of President Marcos and his wife are perched in many key governmental offices. In Taiwan, the power was passed from father to son. In Sheikh Mujib’s Bangladesh, relatives were scattered among important bureaucratic posts.’ Most of these family power cliques far outlive the terms of office to which they were elected. And in all instances, the

Government Policies Reshape Malaysia's Diverse Media.

,Numerous nations of the Third World, culturally pluralistic, economically d c prived and politically newly emergent, have embraced the notion that, if they guide their mass media to promote national harmony, unity and consciousness, many aims of national development can be met. Usually, in the process of such guidance, ownership patterns are altered to allow more government participation; functional roles are set by restrictive laws and ofiicial campaigns. Often the result is a mass media system more controlled than the colonial one which the nationalists fought to remove. A nation strongly supportive of the guided press notion is Malaysia, a former British colony of approximately 11 million people, diversified by ethnic origins, languages and religions. According to 1970 population figures, Malaysia is made up of 46.67% Malays, 8.72% other indigenes, 34.14% Chinese, 8.97% Indians and Pakistanis and 1.50% other immigrants. The four main languages in use are Bahasa Malaysia, the language of the Malay ethnic community (now declared the national language); Chinese, made

Women and Mass Communications: The Asian Literature

From at least the 1870s, when Young Allen, an American missionary in China, used his Chiao-hui hsin-pao to promote women’s education and to campaign against footbinding,’ there have been media efforts and controversies concerning women’s roles in Asian society. Between 1891 and 1918, at least the Philippines, China, Indonesia and Korea had periodicals specifically designed for women. The first in the Philippines, El Bello Sexo, published in 1891, was an illustrated weekly of fashion, morals, literature and history ; two years later, El Hogar (The Home) appeared with an all female staff. 2 In China, between 1902 and 1911, periodicals appeared which were operated by women who firmly believed their feminism was an integral part of nationalism. Usually colorful figures, these women journalists were &dquo;misfits in a society where the feminine norm remained the shy, illiterate wife or daughter.&dquo;’ By 1918, women of China had a more traditional publication for their sex, equivalent to a weekly Ladies’ Home Journal.4 4 In Indonesia, the first women’s writings were in Dutch magazines at the turn of the century, followed by stages when magazines were meant for the Dutch and indigenous elites, then for the masses, published in various dialects. In 1906, a Chinese newspaper in Indonesia carried a regular page in Malay for women. In 1928, a women’s periodical, Doenia Istri, began to question whether women should follow Westways or even continue speaking Dutch.’ Korea had

ASEAN mass communications and cultural submission

The inundation of library shelves and journal pages with books and articles on media imperialism in the Third World has been smothering. Much of the literature has been rhetorical, over-generalized, unsupported by examples and facts, accusatory and, not in a few instances, over-anxious to prove one side’s rightness or wrongness. In the process, some important information has been missed. For example, much literature discusses media imperialism as though Third World nations are so submissive or defenceless that they have not tried to counter the onslaught of foreign communicators. Also, the writers of this literature, having split into two camps reminiscent of another cold war period, have neglected ’foreign’ media influences that one Third World nation can inflict upon another. In this article, an attempt has been made to look at mass communications and cultural submission in one region of the world-the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which consists of Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines. Besides examining the complaint of these societies that they have been unduly influenced by outside media, an attempt will be made to show that in

Grassroots Renaissance: folk media in the Third World

AbstractTraditional folk media, thought to be a dying breed in many developing countries, are currently being given a new lease of life. Current interest is growing, not only in efforts to preserve the indigenous arts but also to promote them as effective communication media to sell development messages. However, as John Lent has found, the role of folk media as agents of change is not as deterministic as one would expect for there are also several limitations.

Caribbean mass communications: Selected information sources

The following material is drawn from a 700 page volume just published (citation on page 324) and is based on the authors many years of research and teaching in several Asian countries. Dr. Lent is a member of the journalism faculty at Temple Universitys School of Communications and Theater. The following bibliography is the first in a series being gathered by Dr. Lent and assembled by a number of area communications specialists, which the Journal will publish over the next two years. The next segment of the series will deal with Caribbean Mass Communications.

Commonwealth Caribbean Mass Media: History and Development

* Dr. John Lent is a lecturer and the coordinator of communication studies at the Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. He conducted research in the Caribbean during the summer of 1968, 1970 and 1971. A book manuscript has been prepared from his findings. He is the author of five other books, the latest of which is an edited volume on Asian broadcasting. Dr. Lent wishes to express his gratitude to Professor Leslie G. Moeller and the late Dr. James W. Markham for their guidance during his Caribbean studies. Mass media development had a relatively late start in the Commonwealth Caribbean, the archipelago of British and former British islands strung out from Bermuda off the coast of South Carolina to Trinidad and Tobago off the shoreline of Venezuela.’ The situation was not much better in other parts of the Caribbean, most islands being in their second or third century of development before printing presses were added to other paraphernalia of modernity. For example, the Dutch West Indies did not have a press until 1790; the French Caribbean islands, not until 1727, and the Spanish territories, about 1696 .2 The first newspaper in the British Caribbean was the Jamaica WPekly Courant, published as early as 1717. The first British settlement in the Caribbean, St. Christopher, was occupied in 1623 and had its first press in 1747.3 In 16‘_’4~’, John Powell