[FoME] Asian Communication Handbook 2008 and other new AMIC titles

[Christoph Dietz]

AMIC will launch new book titles at its 17th AMIC Annual Conference taking place in Manilla, the Philippines on the 14-17 July 2008:

Asian Communication Handbook 2008
Indrajit Banerjee & Stephen Logan (eds.)
552pp  2008  ISBN 978-981-4136-10-5
SG$100 (Asia) / US$74 (others)
The ACH 2008 provides a comprehensive overview of media developments in Asia. It begins with a series of theoretical and critical papers that provide a context for the discussions on media development and specific national systems. The theoretical papers here cover many of the most significant issues in the Asian media landscape. A first set of contributions cover several critical issues, including the role and responsibility of the media in promoting peace and development, managing media pluralism and promoting diversity, fostering knowledge societies through the use of information and communication technologies, and media and their role in structuring the public sphere. Another series of articles cover issues such as media globalisation and localisation, the role of the media in national development, the equilibrium between the government and the market in China, and the challenges facing schools of journalism and mass communication. The section ends with a set of articles covering media and terrorism, new paradigms within communication research, community radio and people's empowerment, and the impact of new media on traditional forms of broadcasting. The theoretical perspectives section is followed by the country profiles. This edition covers a total of 21 countries in Asia. Each chapter begins with a brief country background as it relates to the development of the current media and communication scene, including relevant history, geographical and political issues, and the state and rate of development. Each country report is then followed by the supporting statistical section presenting key concise data for the country.

Media & Conflict Reporting in Asia
Shyam Tekwani (ed.)
206pp  2008  ISBN 978-981-4136-05-1
SG$40 (Asia) / US$30 (others)
The 13 significant case studies presented here examine the challenges faced by media practitioners reporting on conflicts across the diverse media ecologies of Asia. Significant themes covered include: how media culture affects the way conflict is covered, including aspects such as resource limitations, different standards of professionalism, government intervention, and the degree of importance given to the concept of independent media; how media bias can be aggravated by competing demands of various ethnic, religious and political groups, and how bias among journalists can contribute to spiralling violence; how journalist can face an 'identity barrier' in terms of access to news and sources; and how the media can be affected by poor working conditions, pay, training and recognition, and a lack of physical or financial security. The chapters provide a valuable range of perspectives on reporting about conflicts within Asia.

Free Markets, Free Media? Reflections on the political economy of the press in Asia
Cherian George (ed.)
170pp  2008  ISBN 978-981-4136-07-5
SG$35 (Asia) / US$26 (others)
Press systems across Asia have undergone dramatic change in recent decades. The grips of authoritarian governments have been prised open by democratic forces in the Philippines, South Korea and Indonesia. Other regimes, such as China and Vietnam, retain tight political control but have allowed the growth of aggressively market-driven sectors that have transformed the media landscape. This faith in markets forces, though nowhere unconditional, has been strong enough to have tilted decisively the discourse on and practice of press freedom. However, there are also large costs and benefits that fail to be incorporated in the decision-making of producers and consumers operating within markets. From diverse vantage points, the writers in Free Markets, Free Media? pause to reflect critically on the impact of market forces upon efforts to build and consolidate more democratic media in Asia. Issues addressed include the argument for public funding to support media diversity, the need for grassroots media to better reflect non-elite priorities and concerns, developments in newsroom practices, biases in profit-oriented news media, and challenges to investigative journalism.

South Pacific Islands Communication: Regional perspectives, local issues
Evangelia Papoutsaki & Usha Sundar Harris (eds.)
290pp  2008  ISBN 978-981-4136-08-2
SG$40 (Asia) / US$30 (others)
This publication brings together significant scholarly contributions on communications issues by researchers working across the region. It aims to create better understanding of what affects the communication and information flow in smaller nations and how these impact on national development, governance and the creation of more cohesive societies. The value of such a publication lies in the comparison it enables between different regions and countries at different levels of development. The work of the contributing authors provide glimpses of the prevalent issues and perspectives without necessarily providing a definitive picture of this diverse region. As editors we hope this publication will draw out significant relational possibilities by bringing together scholarly writing on communication issues and highlighting the perspectives of Pacific scholars and practitioners thus contributing to the knowledge base in island studies.

Media & Development in Asia: Regional perspectives
Indrajit Banerjee & Madanmohan Rao (eds.)
396pp  2008  ISBN 978-981-4136-07-5
SG$50 (Asia) / US$37 (others)
This book brings together some of the most outstanding and novel papers on media and development presented at the AMIC Annual Conferences in Bangkok, Thailand, in July 2004. It features over a dozen contributions from around the region, providing a wealth of fresh case studies as well as breaking new ground in highlighting emerging frontiers of media development discourse in Asia, comparing regional development along multiple dimensions and frameworks, and pointing the direction towards further media initiatives at a national level. The papers selected are grouped into three key themes: media and development; new narratives and political discourse; and media impacts and capacity building. Part I addresses macro-level impacts and policies pertaining to media and development in Asia. Part II deals with more direct media issues such as new narratives and emerging forms of political discourse and groupings in Asia. Part III shifts the focus to traditional media impacts on youth and tribal audiences, as well as new media impacts on the education and business sectors. The contributors to this book have highlighted not just an interesting range of media and development issues in Asia, but have also introduced a good variety of media research methods. These include quantitative assessments of media impacts in society, comparative and longitudinal frameworks for evaluating regional ICT competitiveness, structural analyses of political and activist communication systems, in-depth case studies of individual organisations, and broad-based surveys of stakeholders in ICT4D.

Send book enquiries/orders to: Ms. Angie Chew angie at amic.org.sg 

Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC)
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
Nanyang Technological University, 31 Nanyang Link, Singapore 637718
www.amic.org.sg