tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80369051721611767952024-03-18T04:35:11.054-07:00Public Diplomacy and International CommunicationsThoughts and comments about public diplomacy, soft power and international communications by Gary Rawnsley.Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.comBlogger113125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-24245900884890332982023-07-09T10:09:00.000-07:002023-07-09T10:09:32.437-07:00In Hallyu We Trust? Takeaways from a forum on Hallyu and Soft Power<p><span style="font-size: medium;">Last week I attended the 2023 Asia Forum co-organised by the Goethe University Frankfurt and the Research Project on Cultural Entrepreneurship and Digital Transformation in Asia and Africa. The theme of the forum was <i>In Hallyu We Trust? Revisiting "Soft Power" in the New World Order of Cultural Production</i>, and it brought together experts from a variety of geographic regions and disciplines, including cinema and cultural studies, politics and international relations, cultural industries and economy, and area studies. My own talk that opened the forum was titled '"I don't know what it means" (Donald Rumsfeld): reflection on soft power, politics, and culture". I questioned the value of focusing on culture and suggested that Hallyu reflects South Korea's values and democratic political culture, its vibrant civil society, the free spaces for creativity, innovation, and collaboration, and indeed subversion, and the government's commitment to the arts and culture. In other words, the soft power is revealed in the infrastructure - the 'enabling environment' - that has allowed and encouraged Hallyu to develop and flourish. Just knowing that someone somewhere in the world is watching a K-drama or downloading a K-pop song does not indicate soft power. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">After two days of intensive and challenging, but illuminating discussions I was moved to consider my takeaways from this meeting.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">1. The definition of soft power remains elusive; and this is not necessarily a problem, for the absence of a precise definition opens spaces for the kind of interdisciplinary dialogues we had at the forum. My talk was part of a panel on the theory of soft power; and while soft power informs and is informed by disciplinary theoretical perspectives, especially in International Relations, I am not aware of a theory <i>of </i>soft power. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">2. However, while we may not require a single and precise definition of soft power, there is still much confusion about whether soft power is a resource or an instrument. I opt for the former, suggesting soft power is generated within political, social, and cultural structures and is then communicated. It is a by-product of: the legitimacy and the credibility of actors, institutions, and processes; the behaviour of actors at home and abroad, and the company they choose to keep; the levels of transparency, accountability, and the capacity for correction; the free flow of ideas, genuine dialogue, discussion, and the freedom to consider and circulate ideas that challenge and possibly subvert the political and social norms; and the capacity to build networks for collaboration, especially within civil society. It is the final two markers of soft power in this list that provide the environment for creative inspiration and innovation that transpire in the cultural industries and create such phenomena as Hallyu. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">3. Moreover, there is a still a frustrating level of confusion about the differences between soft power (a resource) and the instruments built to communicate it (public and cultural diplomacy, transnational cultural relations, branding). These terms are too often used interchangeably and as synonyms for soft power. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">4. The field needs to move on from referencing work published on soft power over thirty years ago that may be considered out of date and which suggest a stationary and stagnant field. Instead, we should recognise the valuable recent scholarship undertaken by different authors from those writing about soft power three decades ago and in different locations that advance our understanding in new and significant ways. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">5. Participants at the forum called for a shift from focusing on the state and/or nation to understand alternative loci of soft power. Also, we can and should do more to broaden our approaches beyond single geographic case-studies and adopt more thematic approaches - race, class, gender, and indigeneity were mentioned. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">6. We are still some way from understanding effects. The methodologies, especially among practitioners, still prefer the bean counting we associate with the awful and unhelpful soft power rankings that are commissioned and published on a regular basis and which turn soft power into a beauty contest. It was encouraging that several contributors to the forum had undertaken qualitative work, which means we can begin to understand how soft power influences the opinions, attitudes, and behaviours of the audiences for cultural products that may communicate soft power. But I still seek evidence to convince me that familiarity with, attraction to and the popularity of Hallyu translates into "soft power outcomes".</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">7. Soft power is not just about attraction. It can also repel, inspire fear, and encourage suspicion, and represent odious values and behaviours. I suggest this means we do not need yet more categories of power to understand what are essentially soft power processes. The term 'sharp power' is particularly unnecessary if we accept the categories of soft and smart power.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">8. Finally, the power of soft power does not reside in the source - in governments, civil society, or the cultural industries. Rather the most powerful agents are audiences who choose whether and how to respond to public and cultural diplomacy programmes or flows of cultural products; and we must always be mindful that one man's soft power or cultural diplomacy may be another's propaganda, cultural imperialism, or even a form of hard power. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The forum coincided with the publication of two books:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The second edition of <i>The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power </i>that I co-edited with Naren Chitty and Lilian Ji. You can find more information here <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Soft-Power/Chitty-Ji-Rawnsley/p/book/9781032039268" target="_blank">Handbook of Soft Power</a> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">and <i>The Oxford Handbook of Digital Diplomacy </i>edited by Corneliu Bjola and Ilan Manor and which includes my chapter on 'Soft power in the digital space', another prominent theme of our forum in Frankfurt (see <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-digital-diplomacy-9780192859198?cc=us&lang=en" target="_blank">Handbook of Digital Diplomacy</a>) </span> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p> </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><p></p></blockquote><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /><p></p>Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-9157156577974780512021-10-04T02:12:00.000-07:002021-10-04T02:12:13.625-07:00Political Propaganda in Mexico<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">When we commissioned the chapters for the </span><i style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Edward Elgar Handbook on Political Propaganda, </i><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Yiben, Noon and I hoped to include contributors who would adopt a unique perspective on their subject or analyse propaganda through case-studies that receive little attention in the existing literature. We are delighted that the Handbook contains two chapters on Mexico, a country with a fascinating political system and culture. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The first is written by my former PhD student, Ruben Arnoldo Gonzalez. Ruben is a journalist and scholar, currently working as a researcher at the Institute of Government Sciences and Strategic Development in Mexico where he chairs the Centre for Political Communication Studies. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The second is co-written with my colleague, Penny Franco Estrada, the Director of the Language Centre at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, and also a former journalist. Through writing this chapter I learned a lot about presidential politics and elections in Mexico and about Internet memes - their contribution to the production and dissemination of propaganda. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Both chapters are concerned with political propaganda in Mexico's 2018 presidential elections which saw the electorate choosing a left wing candidate (known as AMLO). Therefore this was a landmark election: not only did it break a monopoly on political power by right and centre right governments, but also demonstrated the continued power of the media and the growing power of the internet and social media to influence the outcome. However, it is important to note that the political culture was also a significant reason for AMLO's success, especially high levels of corruption and crime and popular dissatisfaction with the way previous governments had failed to manage these problems. The election therefore demonstrates that propaganda does not function in a vacuum, but must be socially aware to work. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I reproduce the abstracts here. We are now finalising the proofs of the manuscript and the book is on schedule for publication in December 2021. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The Mexican 2018 presidential election in the media landscape: Newspaper coverage, TV spots, and Twitter Interaction </span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Ruben Arnoldo Gonzalez</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: justify;">The 2018 elections can be considered a watershed in Mexican contemporary politics. They were the largest in the history of the country (more than 3400 candidates ran for federal, state, and municipal posts), a left-oriented candidate was elected president for the first time, more than one hundred politicians were killed or injured during the process, and polarisation was the hallmark of the messages from both the candidates and their supporters. This chapter offers a comprehensive overview of the presidential election from three different angles: newspaper coverage, television spots, and candidates' Twitter activity. The empirical evidence indicates that, rather than specific political proposals, propaganda shaped much of the content in the Mexican media landscape during the campaigns. </div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Political propaganda and memes in Mexico: The 2018 presidential election </span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Penelope Franco Estrada and Gary Rawnsley </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">On 1 July 2018, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) won the presidential election in Mexico. This is the first time in Mexican history that a candidate representing the political left has won an election with an overwhelming 53.19 per cent of the vote representing more than 30 million voters. The turnout was an historic high - 63 per cent, bringing to an end a century of rule by by a centre-right party (PRI) and most recently by a rightwing party (PAN). In the 2018 election, social media became an arena for electoral competition, with campaigns either supporting AMLO or discrediting him as a candidate. All social media platforms were streamed with memes, videos, and political propaganda calling him either a hero or a populist. Many used the example of left governments in South America, with comparisons between Venezuela and Mexico. These memes warned social media users about the risks of voting for the left and for the 'Messiah' figure, while AMLO's campaign focused on highlighting the poor results of past administrations. In this chapter we explore how memes were used as weapons against AMLO in 2018, whether they were effective political instruments, or if memes directed against him actually increased the levels of polarisation. </span> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /></div>Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-51994075676213108092021-08-27T08:07:00.001-07:002021-08-27T08:08:13.483-07:00"Believe Me": Political Propaganda in the Age of Trump<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It goes without saying that our <i>Edward Elgar Research Handbook of Political Propaganda</i> had to include a chapter on President Donald Trump, and I accepted the challenge of writing it. It took a while to find the correct angle of approach. After all, so many books and articles - academic and otherwise - had already analysed Trump's use of propaganda, what could I add? Finally I settled on the fascinating way Trump's propaganda seemed to follow down to the very last detail the Institute of Propaganda Analysis so-called 'seven devices', first published in the 1930s. Indeed, it seemed that Trump was often following a road map, ticking off each technique as he went along. This gave me the framework to sort through his words, mainly on Twitter, and provided the structure of the chapter. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Two further observations were important. First, that Trump's propaganda did not create the political and social environment which gave him his election victory. As all students of propaganda understand - and in his histories of Nazi propaganda David Welch has done far more than most to emphasise this point - propaganda does not and cannot operate in a vacuum. It is fed by, and in turn feeds, the context in which it operates. Trump identified and exploited a particular turn in American politics, especially one that called for 'America first', and encouraged such slogans as 'drain the swamp' and 'build the wall'. Trump did not create this climate, but he certainly profited from it and gave it a voice and visibility.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The second realisation was his relationship with the media. It was depressing to read the many excellent accounts by journalists who covered the Trump campaign and the White House. Journalists are not the enemy of the people, and to label them as such in a democratic system gives succour to those regimes across the world that routinely imprison, torture, and execute journalists for doing their job. However, the news value of first candidate then President Trump meant that news organisations had to question their complicity in building the Trump phenomenon. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The subject was a moving target. Every day of his presidency provided yet more clear examples of propaganda (there was absolutely no subtlety involved) and it was unfortunate that I had to complete the chapter before the full effects of Covid were felt, and before the final dramatic days of his administration - from the election of November 2020 through the storming of Congress and Joe Biden's inauguration in January 2021. Twitter has deleted Trump's posts, but they can still be found via several on-line archives. The one I found most useful is https://www.thetrumparchive.com/ </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><u><span style="font-size: medium;">"Believe Me": Political Propaganda in the Age of Trump</span></u></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">President Trump called on his listeners to believe him, his use of this epistrophe revealing a need to emphasise his credentials and experience. Trump was president in a post-truth environment, characterised by claims of 'alternative facts' and 'fake news', circulating faster than ever before through social media networks and distributed by 'mainstream media' that exist in a symbiotic relationship with both the political culture and the information found on social media platforms. Using the framework offered by the Seven Propaganda Devices, first categorised by the Institute of Propaganda Analysis in 1937, this chapter analyses the 'weaponisation' of information by President Trump and his administration and their war on the media, concluding that news journalism in America is as responsible for the rise of Trump as the voters who elected him. </span></p>Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-90046446640173168812021-08-21T03:49:00.000-07:002021-08-21T03:49:27.847-07:00World Propaganda and Personal Insecurity by Naren Chitty<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I am delighted that my friend, Professor Naren Chitty, agreed to contribute the opening chapter to the forthcoming <i>Edward Elgar Research Handbook on Political Propaganda</i> (scheduled for publication in December). </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Naren is Professor International Communication at Macquarie University where he founded the Soft Power Analysis and Resource Centre. We have worked together on the <i>Journal of International Communication </i>with Naren as the Editor-in-Chief, and as co-editors on the <i>Routledge Handbook of Soft Power.</i> We are now preparing the second edition with Dr Lilian Ji. Naren was awarded the Order of Australia for his services to education. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I have always admired Naren for the breadth of his understanding of global communications, and he approaches the subject from multiple - sometimes unexpected - angles. It is only fitting that Naren should be the first chapter in our Research Handbook as he provides a valuable overview that conceptualises many of the discussions taken up by other contributors. Here is the abstract.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><u><span style="font-size: medium;">World Propaganda and Personal Insecurity: Intent, Content, and Contentment</span></u></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In this chapter propaganda is viewed as all-encompassing and meta-ideological. A big tent concept, it includes both political and sociological forms. The latter may have political uses or outcomes. Propaganda can be crafted at all levels of human interaction. The focus here is largely on the international level, and a constructivist view is taken. It is argued that propaganda operates at two levels - cooperation among states, and competition between states. Cooperation between states leads to, or is led by, the construction of normative superstructures - diffused international regimes. These regimes are associated with particular periods of history. Under a big tent definition they constitute propaganda. Contests of influence by states lead to each constructing its own normative superstructure, or propaganda bubble. Normative superstructures or propaganda bubbles are identified for three periods of history. The first was the 'Cold War and modernisation' period that promoted a new diffused regime of North-South development cooperation. The second was the 'globalisation and terrorism' period that promoted globalisation and prosecuted the war on terrorism. The third is our present 'fractured globalisation' period - fractured by populist reactions to the Western working classes' under-performance and Chinese over-performance - accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic. New propaganda is emerging around international competition and cooperation. Propaganda bubbles within the US have grown salient, with consequences for foreign policy. Also discussed are intent, content, and contentment. Some sociological propaganda is not intended influence. However, political influencers draw on such pre-existing resources. Political propaganda invariably seeks to influence, and both authoritarian and liberal societies seek to influence. Content may be crafted with virtue and virtuosity to generate contentment among receivers. Rhetoric should go beyond virtuosity of composition to include civil commitment. </span></p>Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-81367157330018782562021-08-03T02:42:00.001-07:002021-08-03T02:53:23.541-07:00The Edward Elgar Handbook on Political Propaganda<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I am pleased to announce the <b><i>Edward Elgar Handbook on Political Propaganda</i></b> that I have edited with Yiben Ma and Kruakae Pothong is scheduled for publication in December 2021.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The editors have assembled a team of internationally-renowned scholars, each of whom has contributed what we think is a new and exciting perspective on propaganda. We decided not to adopt an historical approach: for example, there are no chapters in the book about the wars of the Twentieth Century. It would be difficult to equal either the breadth of cases or the depth of scholarship found in <i>Propaganda and Conflict: War Media and Shaping the Twentieth Century</i>, edited by Mark Connelly, J Fox, Stefan Goebel and Ulf Schmidt (Bloomsbury, 2019). Rather, apart from Nicholas Cull's chapter on Apartheid era South Africa and Naren Chitty's meta-overview of the subject, the <i>Edward Elgar Handbook</i> examines exclusively contemporary case-studies, including Brexit, Donald Trump's presidency, anti-semitism within Britain's Labour Party, Cambridge Analytica, Boko Haram, the war in Syria, Islamic State, and the way propaganda has shaped discourses around refugees and migrants. We also include more conceptual chapters that consider propaganda from fresh perspectives: how media literacy can confront modern propaganda, and the value of 'fact-checking'; the connection between propaganda and piety and altruism; how 'fake news' has affected trust and behaviour; and the construction of 'propaganda bubbles' in a landscape characterised as 'fractured globalisation.' </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The editors dedicate this volume to three giants in the field of media and communications studies who inspired us and so many of the contributors, as well as generations of scholars and students across the world:</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Professor Nicholas Pronay, founder of the Institute of Communications Studies at the University of Leeds and a pioneer in the field of historical approaches to propaganda</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Professor Philip M. Taylor, 1954-2010</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Professor Jay Blumler, 1924-2021 </span></p><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;">I present here the contents list. You can find a link to the publisher's first advertisement here: <a href="https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/research-handbook-on-political-propaganda-9781789906417.html">Handbook on Political Propaganda</a></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Introduction: <i>Gary D. Rawnsley, Yiben Ma, and Kruakae Pothong</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">World Propaganda and Personal Insecurity: Intent, Content and Contentment by <i>Naren Chitty</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Democracies and War Propaganda in the 21st Century by <i>Piers Robinson</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Fake News, Trust, and Behaviour in the Digital World by <i>Terry Flew</i> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Cambridge Analytica by <i>David R. Carroll</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">'Believe Me': Political Propaganda in the Age of Trump by <i>Gary D. Rawnsley</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Information War Paradox by <i>Peter Pomerantsev</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Digital Propaganda as Symbolic Convergence: The Case of Russian Ads During the 2016 US Presidential Election by <i>Corneliu Bjola and Ilan Manor</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Getting the Message Right in Xi Jinping's China: Propaganda, Story Telling and the Challenge of Reaching People's Emotions by <i>Kerry Brown</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Political Communication in the Age of Media Convergence in China by <i>Xiaoling Zhang and Yiben Ma</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Xi Jinping's Grand Strategy for Digital Propaganda by <i>Titus Chen</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Constructing its Own Reality: The CCP's Agenda for the Hong Kong Anti-Extradition Bill Movement by <i>Luwei Rose Luqiu</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Sexuality and Politics: 'Coming Out' in German and Chinese Queer Films by <i>Hongwei Bao</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Compassion 'Spectacle': The Propaganda of Piety, Virtuosity and Altruism within Neoliberal Politics by <i>Colin Alexander</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Political Propaganda and the Global Struggle Against Apartheid, 1948-1994 by <i>Nicholas J. Cull</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Refugees, Migration and Propaganda by <i>Gillian McFadyen</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Bexit Uncertainties: Political Rhetoric vs British Core Values in the NHS by <i>Georgia Spiliopoulos</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Media, Antisemitism and Political Warfare in Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party, 2015-2019 by <i>James R. Vaughan</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Terrorist Propaganda by <i>Afzal Ashraf</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Propaganda Through Participation: Counter-Terrorism Narratives in China by <i>Chi Zhang</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Countermeasures to Extremist Propaganda: A Strategy for Countering Absolutist Religious Beliefs in Northeast Nigeria by <i>Jacob Udo Udo Jacob</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Imagined Minorities: Making Belief and Making Real Images of Ethnic Harmony in Chinese Tourism by <i>Melissa Shani Brown and David O'Brien</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Language of Protest: Slogans and the Construction of Tourism Contestation in Barcelona by <i>Neil Hughes</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Mexican 2018 Presidential Election in the Media Landscape: Newspaper Coverage, TV Spots, and Twitter Interaction by <i>Ruben Arnoldo Gonzalez</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Political Propaganda and Memes in Mexico: The 2018 Presidential Election by <i>Penelope Franco Estrada and Gary D. Rawnsley</i> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Political Parties, Rallies, and Propaganda in India by <i>Andrew Wyatt</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Media and Majoritarianism in India: Eroding Soft Power? by <i>Daya Thussu</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Korean Cultural Diplomacy in Laos: Soft Power, Propaganda, and Exploitation by <i>Mary J. Ainslie</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Fact-Checking False Claims and Propaganda in the Age of Post-Truth Politics: The Brexit Referendum by <i>Jen Birks</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Beyond the Smear Word: Media Literacy Educators Tackle Contemporary Propaganda by <i>Renee Hobbs</i></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><br /></span><p></p>Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-72094507225351475992019-07-25T22:54:00.001-07:002019-07-25T22:54:37.123-07:00Draft Introduction to Chance of a Lifetime (1950)<i>I haven't posted any blogs here since I moved to China in August 2018. I am working on several projects at the moment, and will therefore publish here some thoughts about those projects and drafts of papers/chapters I am working on. </i><br />
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<i>The first is the Introduction to a paper I am writing about the 1950 movie, </i>Chance of a Lifetime<i>. I have been thinking about this subject for quite some time, and I am delighted I can now get around to writing. Comments welcome. </i> <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_athmUqDGDTE7u43Nt6Pk3pnsHukFPicVUi9hVVp8vJJTM5bj2tta2QdGV8qg2stpuosNJF8ReV1KfmFnrIez-UIu1gtrP1An0o9dJdBBhE91gHY4VmlEAaFbCXOhd5FOJTOKFzpmPT9o/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-07-26+at+13.43.24.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="376" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_athmUqDGDTE7u43Nt6Pk3pnsHukFPicVUi9hVVp8vJJTM5bj2tta2QdGV8qg2stpuosNJF8ReV1KfmFnrIez-UIu1gtrP1An0o9dJdBBhE91gHY4VmlEAaFbCXOhd5FOJTOKFzpmPT9o/s320/Screen+Shot+2019-07-26+at+13.43.24.png" width="240" /></a></div>
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Looking back, the
black-and-white postwar images seem appropriate. Life in peacetime Britain was
grey, threadbare, dreary and hopeless. There was a national sense of “Was this
what we fought for?” As one American commentator put it, the British certainly
believed they had won the war, but they behaved as though they had lost it
(McCrum, 2009: 6). <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chance of a Lifetime </i>(1950,
dir. Bernard Miles) represents a cinematic bridge from British movies made in
the Second World War to the realism of the ‘angry young men’ kitchen sink
dramas of the late 1950s and 1960s. Conceived by director/actor Bernard Miles
in 1947 (the year of Britain’s coldest winter of the century), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chance</i> depicts in microcosm
worker-management relations at a time of economic austerity, continued
rationing, strikes, and the British government’s export push for the
manufacturing sector. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBz0Jr5STHhEKcKVLomGJwNFrdPKA0qRTkyBNYd6WKo7pg8tc0-7LjW7tkG0NUcrYOjtLxx4i5T5WvHJgHf8Crd7QGZwkgOCHncIVoidkNo1rYy_nSh6JtxRjPAn5IZA6cyyevI2WX4Z1C/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-07-26+at+13.45.27.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="269" data-original-width="187" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBz0Jr5STHhEKcKVLomGJwNFrdPKA0qRTkyBNYd6WKo7pg8tc0-7LjW7tkG0NUcrYOjtLxx4i5T5WvHJgHf8Crd7QGZwkgOCHncIVoidkNo1rYy_nSh6JtxRjPAn5IZA6cyyevI2WX4Z1C/s320/Screen+Shot+2019-07-26+at+13.45.27.png" width="222" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Writer, director, actor, Bernard Miles</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This paper
centres on the film’s portrayal of class relations and in particular the
recovery of the middle classes, represented in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chance</i> by Adam Watson (played by Kenneth More). When neither owner
nor worker can run the factory successfully or efficiently, the middle class
takes over its management <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in co-operation
with the owner</i>. While offering a narrative around cross-class collaboration
in difficult times – a legacy of the war movies made in the 1940s – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chance</i> positions the middle class and
the owning class as the saviours of the factory. At the end of the film, the
workers are apparently happy to return to their rightful place on the workshop
floor, albeit with greater respect for the responsibilities of management. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My analysis
takes as its starting point Neil Rattigan’s essay, ‘The Last Gasp of the Middle
Class: British War Films of the 1950s’, written for Wheeler W. Dixon’s
collection, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reviewing British Cinema,
1900-1992: Essays and Interviews</i> (1994: 143-53). Rattigan argues British
films made in the 1950s about the Second World War attempted ‘to bring about a
return of the repressed middle class’ and reflect a ‘fear that the middle class
had lost social and cultural centrality within British society during the war
because of the demands of a people’s war’ (ibid.: 145). The election of the
Labour government in 1945 following the largest swing ever recorded in a
British General Election (10.7 percent from the Conservative Party to Labour)
confirmed that returning to the status quo ante bellum was not an option.
Rattigan claims that the war films of the 1940s ‘rewarded’ the working class
for the part they played in the conflict, but portrayed them using stereotypes
and comical motifs. Robert Murphy writes that British films during the war were
concerned with the conflict’s ‘transforming effect … turning timid, ineffectual
civilians into warriors and war workers, as if the war were a blessing which
enabled people to realise their potential’ (Murphy, 2009: 223).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
contrast, the war films of the 1950s ‘represented a reflection of and a
contribution to a last-ditch effort by the dominant culture to “keep the lid
on” the British social revolution, an effort complicated by a middle-class
“backlash” against the way in which images of a people’s war had given emphasis
to the working class and taken the middle class for granted in wartime
propaganda’ (Rattigan, 1994: 149). We might even go so far as to suggest that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chance of a Lifetime </i>confirms Rattigan’s
thesis of nostalgia for a time when ‘the British stood together <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in their various social positions</i>,
united in common goals and communality’ (Rattigan, 1994: 150, original
emphasis).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the end of the film both
workers and management have worked together as they did in the war, but this
time for the benefit of the factory, and they all return to their rightful
positions in the social hierarchy. Only More’s character, Adam Watson, has been
elevated to management. This was the basis of the communist <i>Daily Worker</i>’s
critique of the film:<o:p></o:p></div>
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[T]he film sets up a situation
where the workers are bound to fail, and then gives the impression from the
failure that workers everywhere could never run a business without the boss.
Anyone seeing it would come away with one main impression- that the workers
can’t do without the boss, that they should collaborate with him’ (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Daily Worker</i>, 11 May 1950).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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While this assessment is not without its merits, it fails to
understand the contribution of the middle class in pulling the factory into a
modern era of both production and management. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWHjBKVug34zZOrK2uxyR412JJrNI-0jXszX6dBqT84pvHnGnE40jD6YAHhGRkIMMDtcNAThkb1UbxUCen4qdaAyb5RywKYwe78wqFkmn2dgwhFRyZ8AUC_AjbUUH_mZS5sqvRrWcQDArr/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-07-26+at+13.50.24.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="174" data-original-width="238" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWHjBKVug34zZOrK2uxyR412JJrNI-0jXszX6dBqT84pvHnGnE40jD6YAHhGRkIMMDtcNAThkb1UbxUCen4qdaAyb5RywKYwe78wqFkmn2dgwhFRyZ8AUC_AjbUUH_mZS5sqvRrWcQDArr/s320/Screen+Shot+2019-07-26+at+13.50.24.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Basil Radford as factory owner, Mr Dickinson, Josephine Wilson as Miss Cooper, and Kenneth More as Adam Watson</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I acknowledge the detailed
history of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chance</i> provided by Vincent
Porter (1999: 181-199) in his essay, ‘Feature Film and the Mediation of
Historical Reality: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chance of a Lifetime</i>
– a case study’. Porter offers deep background on the development and
production of the film based on interviews (most notably with Bernard Miles)
and archival research, as well as audience responses to the film gleaned from
Mass Observation surveys. Porter describes how, ‘In a sense, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chance of a Lifetime</i> was the first truly
neo-realist British film. It was not only one of the first non-studio feature
films to be made in Great Britain, but was also the first to be made about a
contemporary subject which used real locations, both out-of-doors and inside genuine
houses, factories and pubs’ (Porter, 1999: 187).</div>
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<span style="text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;"><u>References</u> </span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;">Porter, Vincent (1999), 'Feature Film and the Mediation of Historical Reality: Chance of a Lifetime - a case study, <i>Media History</i>, Vol.5, No.2: 181-199.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;">Murphy, Robert (2009), 'The Heart of Britain: British Cinema at War', in Robert Murphy (ed.), <i>The British Cinema Book</i>, 3rd edn. (London: BFI), pp.223-231.</span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;">Rattigan, Neil (1994), 'The Last Gasp of the Middle Class: British War Films of the 1950s', in Wheeler Winston Dixon (ed.), <i>Re-Viewing British Cinema, 1900-1992</i> (New York: State University of New York Press), pp.143-153.</span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;">McCrum, Robert (2009), 'The Second World War: Six years that changed this country for ever', <i>The Observer</i>, 23 August.</span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 36pt;"> </span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-78966299607673553552018-07-12T03:39:00.001-07:002018-07-12T03:39:21.415-07:00Some thoughts on soft power rankingsGrowing up in the 1970s and 1980s, I was obsessed, like so many other young people at that time, with the music charts. Every Sunday afternoon we would listen to Radio 1 to know which artists were climbing the charts, who were falling and, most importantly, who was Number One that week.<br />
<br />
I am reminded of my preoccupation with the music charts as Portland publishes its latest Soft Power 30 report. This is an attempt to rank countries according to their alleged soft power resources and capacity with much celebration - especially within the British Council - that the UK is Number 1.<br />
<br />
What does this mean? Well, very little. It is a beauty contest approach to soft power that focuses overwhelmingly on cultural and educational outputs, encourages governmental and non-governmental actors and institutions to obsess over the perception of their activities, promotes the false idea that generating soft power can be strategised, and is a distraction from engaging in policy initiatives that will genuinely make a difference at home and abroad, rather than simply alter one's place in the rankings. <br />
<br />
The bottom line is simple: Do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, not because it may generate more soft power or increase the number of tourists or students to our shores. Getting the right policy right is absolutely essential, which means not accepting the question that rankings encourage: 'How can we get them to like us more?' The generation of soft power is a by-product of how governments behave, not an end in itself. It is a resource not an instrument. Governments can only strategise how to govern; they cannot strategise how to generate more soft power, only give the public and cultural diplomacy instruments the authority and resources to do a better job of communicating it. As I have argued before, if you feel you need to have a soft power strategy, it means you don't have any. Reading such surveys is like holding up a mirror and letting countries see in its reflection what they want to see - a positive or less than positive image of one's image: But so what?<br />
<br />
Rankings also encourage users to question the inclusion or exclusion of particular countries. The 2018 Soft Power 30, for example, does not include Taiwan, even though it is a functioning democracy that practices and promotes liberal-democratic values and has enormous cultural capacity (a metric that rankings particularly relish). If we insist on measuring soft power, then Taiwan should be almost at the top - if not at the very top - among countries in Asia. Taiwan does the right thing because it is the right thing to do, especially in terms of aid and humanitarian assistance to its neighbours. It is the first in Asia to legalise same sex marriage. What other measures of soft power do we need to include Taiwan in such rankings? <br />
<br />
The UK government and other institutions engaged in global outreach - especially the British Council who seem to commission these soft power reports and surveys on a regular basis - would do well to avoid such rankings and sidestep any drive towards seeing the UK in a soft power race or competition with any other international actor. It isn't. Rankings do not and cannot measure in a qualitative way what is truly valuable: the actual response of target audiences to the UK's soft power capacity, and how such audiences change their opinions or behaviour in relation to their engagement with the UK (ie. focus more on 'power').<br />
<br />
In his 2009 book subtitled A<i>dventures in British Democracy</i>, Patrick Hannan reported on a decision to 'restore free NHS care to failed asylum seekers in Wales' in 2008. He concluded, 'The message is clear: we are good people'. The image is not constructed; it is a consequence of behaviour and the principles we maintain.<br />
<br />
Soft power derives from the 'power of example' and 'doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do', not because we are in a race to be Number One in the charts. <br />
<br />
<b><u>References</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
Patrick Hannan (2009), <i>A Useful Fiction: Adventures in British Democracy </i>(Bridgend: Seren), p.130.<br />
<br />
<!--EndFragment-->Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-42331852987299056642018-04-15T06:43:00.001-07:002018-04-15T06:43:51.450-07:00A tale of two soft powers: Wales and TaiwanAs readers of my work will already know, I depart from the idea that "culture" is a defining feature of a nation-state's soft power capacity. Rather, I argue that soft power derives from political institutions and processes; their transparency and accountability, the guaranteed freedoms of assembly, speech, and the right to criticise one's own government; and from the way governments behave towards both their own citizens and towards citizens of other nation-states. Sometimes, this means allowing difficult, uncomfortable and unpalatable opinions to surface. <br />
<br />
Two stories appeared in 48 hours to demonstrate the considerable soft power capacity of both Taiwan and Wales. Courtesy of Klaus Bardenhagen, a German reporter who lives and works in Taiwan, I found this photo of pro-China activists in Taiwan. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9D2dwBHgwsyVAry7bIirr82kw4zSYFmSwz13eT_YjmtwpmrwUIVorHZxoI4b79Pmos9z-koH_y-kKfKsBlOFgHSbU-Hbe1jtRNvGr-LLOmwQ8zoyS9aIFEfAPlOWe5diL2b7dX6StPHs4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-04-15+at+13.08.49.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="602" data-original-width="599" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9D2dwBHgwsyVAry7bIirr82kw4zSYFmSwz13eT_YjmtwpmrwUIVorHZxoI4b79Pmos9z-koH_y-kKfKsBlOFgHSbU-Hbe1jtRNvGr-LLOmwQ8zoyS9aIFEfAPlOWe5diL2b7dX6StPHs4/s320/Screen+Shot+2018-04-15+at+13.08.49.png" width="318" /></a></div>
<br />
This will make many people living inside and outside Taiwan uneasy. However, this is soft power in action. Taiwan is sending a positive message to the international community that it tolerates the public expression of opinions and political positions that may be contrary to mainstream ideas. This communicates Taiwan's democratic values, and stands as a powerful contrast to the PRC's political culture: would China's government allow or tolerate any such mobilisation for Taiwan's independence?<br />
<br />
Wales has a different, though equally powerful narrative, one that moves beyond the expression of Welsh culture. On 12th April 2018, BBC Wales news reported how 'A family who fled the war in Syria have thanked a Ceredigion town for helping them rebuild their lives'. Readers learn that 'The Alchikh family came to Wales as part of the Home Office's community sponsorship scheme after local group Croeso Telfi raised thousands of pounds to take part'. You can see the BBC's story here: <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-43738883">Syrian refugees thank people of Cardigan for help</a>. As I have said many times, actions always speak louder than words, and by embracing refugees Wales is projecting a positive message about core values; and it helps not because it wishes to be seen to be helping, but just to help - the most powerful message of all.<br />
<br />
Wales and Taiwan have tremendous soft power capacities - for example, by upholding values of common decency, treating the vulnerable and dissenting opinions well and with respect - but I argue they both need help to identify and communicate this soft power.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-12642781998752026022017-12-27T12:30:00.004-08:002017-12-27T12:39:53.602-08:00On so-called "Sharp Power"<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Economist</i>
(December 16<sup>th</sup>-22<sup>nd</sup> 2017) is mistaken to accept so
readily the National Endowment for Democracy’s term ‘sharp power’. We don't
need this categorisation because we already have an adequate label - ‘soft
power’.</div>
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<span style="text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 36pt;">Soft power is often used to
describe cultural attraction and familiarity with a place in the belief that
‘to know us is to love us’. However, we should not assume, as the current discussion on
China’s ‘sharp power’ assume, that soft power is benign by definition. Soft
power can have hard characteristics, and this is demonstrated most clearly in
the China case. Culture and values are not always attractive or appealing, but
can and often do create resentment and conflict. For a society that sees a
Hollywood movie, a Confucius Institute, or programmes of democracy promotion as
agents of a foreign power’s propaganda or as cultural imperialism, one that is
intent on subverting accepted social norms of the prevailing political order
soft power is far from non-coercive and non-threatening. In fact soft power can
be more insidious than hard power precisely because it can be embedded and
hidden within cultural products and aims to influence thought and behaviour. In
fact, to know us may be to hate us or fear us.</span></div>
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In other
words, China’s behaviour described in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Economist</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> soft power. It aims
to influence, persuade, change opinion and behaviour – and to do so without
resorting to the instruments of ‘hard’ power. We do not need yet more terms
(not so long ago the fashionable moniker was ‘smart power’), but we do need to
recognise – as China clearly does - the hard potential of soft power.<o:p></o:p></div>
Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-2391786448586712772017-07-01T22:35:00.001-07:002017-07-01T22:37:45.340-07:00Soft Power and the British Council: As Others See Us (2014)<div style="font-family: 'times new roman'; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">I’ve been undertaking some work on British soft power, and in discussing soft power as a resource first and an instrument second, I found the British Council’s 2014 report, <i>As Others See Us </i>(available here - <a href="https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/as-others-see-us-report.pdf"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">As Others See Us</span></a>)<i>.</i><b> </b>This report - and others like it - lead me to the conclusion that the British Council, while a remarkable instrument of cultural diplomacy, does not understand what soft power is or how it works for the benefit of the UK. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>As Others See Us</i> is a useful guide to what is attractive about the UK, and reveals levels of international familiarity with British culture, politics, education, and society. It is less valuable to understanding soft power, and the notion that culture, historic attractions, cities, the countryside etc. should be ‘at the centre of thinking about the UK’s efforts to engage internationally’ is a serious error of judgement. The simple reason is that these are ways of making the UK more familiar. Soft power is what happens elsewhere. The report is wholly quantitative and provides no qualitative evidence whatsoever for its claims.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1. The report does not reveal any data about the background of the respondents, other than gender and age. As serious scholars of communications are aware, it is necessary to understand fully the cultural, political, and social contexts in which audiences overseas live, how their attitudes and values are formed, and from where they receive their information about the UK. Are these ‘opinions’ of the UK formed and transmitted via the networks in which they function? Are they taught in schools or by families? Are they shaped by local media reports or by listening to the BBC World Service, reading Twitter etc.? The opinions measured in this report are only meaningful if contextualised by their source. Hence, Chart 17 (“What people think the UK should be proud of”) reveals that the NHS receives quite a low score (16%). Do respondents understand what the NHS is and how it works? What is their level of engagement? We don't know, because the research does not tell us. We need to separate their familiarity with the NHS as an institution/concept, and their understanding of how the NHS reflects British values of equality. This may be a theme that the instruments of British public diplomacy need to engage with more systematically. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">2. The report measures familiarity, not soft power. Of course respondents overseas are familiar with the Monarchy and Shakespeare. They are highly visible, more accessible stories, non-threatening, and certainly more “sexy” than difficult and complex political ideas, values, institution, and processes. However, this is very different from understanding, accepting, or rejecting the values these cultural icons represent or are seen to represent. A staunch Republican will most likely visit Buckingham Palace because it is a tourist attraction; she may enjoy reading about the Monarchy’s history, and appreciate the Palace as a fine old building. Yet, this does not mean that seeing Buckingham Palace will change her basic values about the concept of Monarchy. These values have been formed because of her interaction with many different social influences and the effect of cognitive processes that shape opinions. Perhaps this implies the British public diplomacy machinery needs to focus less on communicating the superficial aspects of the Monarchy - the pomp and ceremony, the Castles and Palaces – and emphasise more the political role that the Monarchy plays, its alleged contribution to democratic stability etc. It is the difference between the Monarchy as something that is valuable to the British political culture and soft power, and the Monarchy as a valuable tourist attraction. Similarly the House of Lords, which stood accused by Prime Minister Theresa May of being ‘unelected’ and as opposing the government’s Brexit plans when she called the 2017 General Election. However we think of the Second Chamber, it exists and it has an important role to play in the political life of the UK. To many in the international audience the House of Lords may seem little more than an example of British eccentricity, a quaint and charming throwback to earlier times. Do we make sure overseas audiences are familiar with the positive arguments for retaining an unelected House, and why even the Church, via the presence of Bishops, have a representation there? Do our public diplomacy instruments explain why a democracy has an undemocratic institution at its core? </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;">3. In one area the data presented does chime with my overall approach to soft power. In Chart 10 (‘</span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Comparison of the factors that influence UK attractiveness and the attractiveness of countries in general’) the survey demonstrates that the ‘current and past actions of government’ make the UK less attractive. This conforms to the proposition that how a government behaves affects how it is seen abroad. This may also explain the low score for the attractiveness of the UK’s system of democracy (Chart 17). Again this may be due to perceptions of political behaviour and problems; it does not provide a breakdown of the processes by which democracy is practiced in the UK (for example, transparency and accountability), nor does it convey the reality that political democracy also occurs outside Westminster - and indeed London – and often via civil society at very local levels. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">4. I agree with the report’s recommendation 6 (p.13) that more needs to be done to encourage an ‘international outlook’ among young British people. However, this is easier said than done, especially after the Referendum to leave the UK and in areas of the UK where immigration and the ‘international’ is seen defined as a problem for local communities. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">5. This British Council report concludes thus:</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">‘Much of the soft power literature and many studies to date have placed significant importance on business brands and the actions of governments as determinants of a country’s <b>soft power</b>. There is no doubt that these are important factors. However, this research has found that for young educated people in countries of strategic importance to the UK, these factors appear to be less important than culture, countryside and landscape, cities, and people in determining a country’s <b>attractiveness</b>. Given the importance attributed to them by young people across the world, there is a strong case that they should feature more prominently in future models conceptualising soft power and attempts to enhance the UK’s international engagement and standing’ (emphasis added, p.26).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">However, these are problematic claims because the report confuses attraction and soft power, using them interchangeably. The actions of governments <b>are </b>determinants of soft power; culture and countryside are important for attracting publics to the UK. Understanding the former helps us to understand why values are accepted or rejected, and therefore how and why British public diplomacy may be influential overseas; understanding the latter helps us design campaigns to attract tourists, students, and investment. Familiarity and soft power are <i>not</i> synonymous. Surveys like those undertaken for <i>As Others See Us</i> may reveal high levels of acquaintance with British institutions among publics overseas, and this may translate into attraction; but such surveys say nothing about soft <i>power</i>. This confusion is common and limits the capacity for international influence, and it needs redressing if the UK wishes to move forwards in challenging times. </span></div>
Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-84329569674931229662017-06-02T07:43:00.000-07:002017-06-02T18:44:23.381-07:00Chinese soft power 'Trumps' US soft power: America's withdrawal from the Paris Climate AgreementThe Trump administration is flushing American soft power down the drain.<br />
<br />
In my publications I have repeated a very clear statement: China has public diplomacy, but no soft power. This conclusion was based on the Chinese government's apparent commitment to expanding its platforms of communication - to know us is to love us - without paying sufficient attention to the way it behaves abroad and towards its own citizens. The continuing absence of democracy, the abuse of human rights, and China's policies in Tibet, Xinjiang and towards Taiwan have constantly undermined the more positive stories about the country's transformation since the early 1980s. Some of my publications addressing the absence of Chinese soft power are available here - <a href="https://aber.academia.edu/GaryRawnsley">Rawnsley Academia.edu</a>.<br />
<br />
As I noted in my last post, the election of Donald Trump as the US President has presented substantial challenges for American soft power (<a href="http://wwwpdic.blogspot.tw/2017/03/on-chinese-cultural-diplomacy-post.html">Post-Trump Chinese cultural diplomacy</a>). The Trump administration's attitude to soft power is captured in the aggressiveness of the President's philosophy: America First. This is at odds with America's contribution to the international system since Harry Truman who said, 'no matter how great our strength ... we must deny ourselves the license to do as we always please.' We might call Trump's turn the Milwall approach to soft power (fans of Milwall Football club were notorious in the 1990s for violence), namely: 'You don't like us, we don't care', an attitude originally ascribed to President Putin. The reorientation to hard power under Trump demonstrates that the US still has a preference for 'something that could be dropped on your foot or on your cities, rather than something that might change your mind about wanting to drop something in the first place' (1).<br />
<br />
On 1 June 2017, the death knell of American soft power under Trump rang loud and clear as the President decided the US would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. This is an explicit abrogation of America's share of the burden of tackling climate change and was a signal that 'America first' really means 'the rest of the world last'. The problem is that climate change is everyone's problem. Future generations of Americans will be victims of President Trump's short-sightedness.<br />
<br />
In the wake of Tump's decision, China's soft power capacity is increasing, and this is demonstrated by the agreement between Chinese and EU leaders to issue a joint statement calling the Paris agreement 'an imperative more important than ever'. The promise of plans by China and the EU to lower carbon emissions by 2020 is a significant step forwards. Since 1949, China has rarely worked with other countries outside the communist orbit, but by doing so now on such a pressing issue, Beijing is showing maturity and an astute understanding of how modern international politics are configured. Mutual interest and shared responsibility must challenge America first. As the US retreats from the world stage and President Trump demonstrates his lack of understanding of how diplomacy works, China is gaining the power to help reorder the international system. <br />
<br />
Soft power is about moral authority. It is about leadership and leading by example. It is about accepting responsibility and stepping up when necessary. Soft power is not under any circumstances a panacea for
problems in the hard power domain, and no amount of presentation or spin will
change opinion about misjudged, unethical, or poorly designed policies crafted
and executed by governments in the national or international arena. Getting the
right policy right is absolutely essential and must be the core function of
government. Credibility – the currency of modern political communication –
depends on the consistency between actions and rhetoric. The questions for
governments is not, ‘How can we make them like us more?’, but rather, ‘How do
we wish others to see us?’ and ‘How can we govern better?’.<br />
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In asserting a commitment to the Paris agreement and the need to work with other countries to manage, if not find solutions, to the problems created by climate change, China is demonstrating its moral authority and leadership. Although problems remain - China remains heavily dependent on coal - the government is investing in renewable energy, while seeking multilateral ways to deal with environmental problems.<br />
<br />
Since the mid-1990s, we have discussed the rise of China in economic and military terms. Now finally we can add speak about China's soft power in a more meaningful way than Confucius Institutes and CCTV. On climate change at least, China is showing its potential global leadership that may fill the space left by America's soft power collapse. Speaking during a visit to Germany, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that China 'will continue to implement the promises made in the Paris accord. But of course we also hope to do this with the co-operation of others.' He added that China, as a major industrial power and the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gasses, has an 'international responsibility' to prevent climate change. Following Trump's decision Hua Chunying, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said 'The Paris Agreement contains the international community's coherent opinion on climate change. It was a hard-won result'. It was a hard won result easily lost.<br />
<br />
This new commitment to soft power complements the Chinese government's investment in the One Belt, One Road Initiative which sees Chinese-funded investment on a scale that surpasses the Marshall Plan. Are we finally witnessing the dawn of the Chinese century?<br />
<br />
Admiral Mike Mullen of the US Navy summarised the problems with American soft power and we can make the connection between his observations and the Trump administration, especially its decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement: <br />
<br />
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To put it simply, we need to worry a lot less about how to communicate our acts and much more about what our actions communicate. Each time we fail to live up to our values or don't follow up on a promise, we look more like the arrogant Americans the enemy claims we are. (2)</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
(1) <span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12pt;">J.S. Nye, (2011), </span><i style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt;">The Future of Power</i><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12pt;"> (New York: PublicAffairs), p.82.</span><br />
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<!--StartFragment--><!--EndFragment-->Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-39482073437654440672017-03-16T08:00:00.003-07:002017-03-16T08:00:53.072-07:00On Chinese Cultural Diplomacy post-Brexit/Trump <br />
<i>In February 2017 I was invited to deliver the opening address to a two-days conference on Chinese cultural diplomacy in Prague. This is the text.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
We are told that the Chinese have a saying: May you live in interesting times. And I understand this is intended as a curse rather than a blessing.<br />
<br />
Every generation claims its own interesting times. Every generation embraces what it assumes is the uniqueness of its experience.<br />
<br />
I can say without a doubt that I am now living through some of my own most interesting times. It is difficult to recall such an unpredictable, volatile, and often frightening moment since the we lived under the shadow of imminent nuclear war in the early 1980s - a time of unchecked populism, sweeping racism and bigotry, a time when being an "expert" is suspect, a times when "alternative facts" bleed into everyday narratives. The normalisation of abnormal politics is perhaps the most disturbing and distressing development of all.<br />
<br />
At such times, we must turn to and depend on the Arts to make sense of our world and our place in it. Culture is not only a sanctuary from chaos - who doesn't want to see La La Land to escape the dismal Trump Land - but Culture also provides another voice to challenge the powerful and give succour to the powerless.<br />
<br />
Of course this is not new. At every troubled turn in history, pain, confusion and terror have been the catalyst for artistic achievements. In the 20th Century alone think of Picasso's Guernica, the novels of Erich Remarque, Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn, Primo Levi and John Steinbeck; Arthur Miller's The Crucible, the music of Shostakovich; and the whole wave of artistic expression that reflects and comes to terms with the trauma of the Vietnam war. Here in Prague, Franz Kafka is a justly celebrated figure, and much of today's political turbulence might well be labelled Kafkaesque. Meanwhile, Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a seminal account of life during the Prague Spring. Since President Trump's inauguration the 20th January, no book has been referenced more than Orwell's 1984, with 'alternative facts' resembling Big Brother's Newspeak. In the UK, 1984 has experienced an increase in sales of over 90% since January,<br />
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Sometimes the dry treatises of philosophy and political science speak to us with less urgency and less relevance than Culture.<br />
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In opening a conference examining Chinese cultural diplomacy I make no apologies for these reflections - for what may seem digressions from the subject we have all gathered to discuss.<br />
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For since the unfortunate turn of events on 23 June 2016 when a majority of my fellow countrymen decided we should leave the most successful and peaceful trading alliance in recorded history, I've been returning again and again to soft power and I have reason to question my longstanding agnosticism. What is soft power? How is it accumulated? How is it exercised? And, perhaps most importantly, how do we maintain and nourish it? And in unpacking the concept into its component parts it seems we must pay far more attention to cultural diplomacy and cultural relations than we have in the past.<br />
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Certainly in the first few weeks of what will be an interminably long Trump Presidency - four years might as well be forty - US soft power has been challenged and undermined at every turn. For soft power is about moral authority, the legitimacy and credibility of a government's actions that is rooted in how a government treats its own citizens and how it behaves abroad. I don't need to labour the relevance of Trump, nor of Theresa May and Boris Johnson for that matter. How can the US and UK with any degree of credibility continue to lecture countries like China on the need to advance universal rights and values? When the Foreign Secretary likens the French President to a Nazi POW officer, how can we take seriously his - and British - moral authority?<br />
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In a speech to the UN in Geneva in January 2017, the Chinese President Xi Jinping called on the world to "build a community of shared futures of mankind and achieve shared and win-win development." While Xi advanced a compelling commitment to China's economic growth, exports, and overseas investment, he also said: "We always put people's rights and interests above everything else and have worked hard to advance and uphold human rights".<br />
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In the past, such claims would have met with ridicule, having little credibility among those who know the full extent of the Chinese government's commitment to human rights.<br />
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But these are interesting times ... And the US's credibility in upholding moral values or exercising moral authority is weakening by the day. Why should we judge Xi Jinping's claims to be any less legitimate than Donald Trump's?<br />
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Soft power RIP ... almost ... but not quite.<br />
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First, the eruption of protests around the world in response to some of the more disturbing policies of the Trump administration demonstrate the formation of new ways of understanding soft power - one that arises spontaneously in civil society and challenges the defilement of cherished values. The democratic spirit embodied in these protests is a powerful narrative that has resonated around the world; they have created new relationships, new senses of community and empathy - the very embodiment of of cultural diplomacy and cultural relations.<br />
And secondly, as I noted, culture often thrives best in troubled times. Art feeds off tormented souls.<br />
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And speaking of souls ...<br />
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The US State Department once said that 'Cultural diplomacy reveals the soul of a nation'.<br />
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It is the act of telling stories about ourselves to others, defining who we are and from where we have journeyed. This is why thousands around the world have chosen to highlight the inconsistencies in American values forged in history (and values which have contributed to both soft and cultural power) and American actions.<br />
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While there is no settled definition of cultural diplomacy, words that crop up in all discussions include 'mutual understanding', 'tolerance', 'respect', 'challenging prejudices', 'shared interests'. Cultural diplomacy is therefore a normative project.<br />
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Former Chinese President Hu Jintao alluded to a more sinister understanding of cultural diplomacy and talked about culture and tradition as areas of international conflict. In 2012, he wrote in the magazine Qiushi that "we must clearly see that international hostile forces are intensifying the strategic plot of Westernizing and dividing China, and ideological and cultural fields", he said, "are the focal areas of their long-term infiltration ... We should deeply understand the seriousness and complexity of the ideological struggle, always sound the alarm and remain vigilant and take forceful measures to be on guard and respond".<br />
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This view echoed Lu Shulei from the Central Party School who warned China about "some powerful nations" who "wish to use culture as a weapon against other nations" and urged China to "work hard to raise our country's soft power".<br />
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Even Xi Jinping and the present leadership declines to discuss "mutual understanding" as a goal of its cultural outreach, preferring instead to continue to lament our allegedly distorted view of modern China. His talk of a "cultural renaissance" to rejuvenate Chinese values, strength, and moral superiority over western values is designed to renew what he calls "cultural self-confidence".<br />
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Thus taking Hu Jintao's assessment of the risk of western cultural imperialism one step further, Xi Jinping has linked this cultural renaissance to a nationalist agenda through the China Dream. Artists have been instructed to make the Chinese nation central to their work to spread Chinese values and promote the Chinese spirit.<br />
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For example, China's Film Industry Law which came into effect on 1 March calls on movies to "serve the people and socialism". It will not allow co-operation with foreign organisations engaging in what are considered to be "activities damaging China's national dignity, honour, and interests, or harming social stability or hurting national feelings," and subjects that "defame the people's excellent cultural traditions" are banned.<br />
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As one of my MA students noted when we discussed this in class, this is a method of regulating both content and access by foreign organisations to the Chinese market unless they meet politically-accepted and ideologically-driven criteria. What those criteria are remains anyone's guess, as the vagueness of the regulations is what gives them power. National dignity, defamation, the national feelings can be whatever the Chinese state wants them to be and under whatever circumstances.<br />
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And this politicisation of culture appears to be working. The Pew Opinion Poll organisation found in 2016 that around three-quarters of Chinese who responded to the poll (c.77%) believe there is a real need to protect China from foreign influence. Contrast this with a mere 37% who see the widening gap between rich and poor as a major problem.<br />
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It is unfortunate that China has chosen not just to politicise its culture in this way, but also to situate Chinese culture within a perceived global competition for cultural hegemony. Perhaps I am naive in rejecting such claims and dismissing the twin threats of Americanisation and cultural imperialism.<br />
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I prefer a more complex picture of the world where culture flows in multiple directions, and where the original source is often forgotten or is irrelevant. It is rare I disagree with my literary hero, George Orwell, but I cannot accept his conclusion that all art is propaganda; and therefore I cannot accept the Chinese view of cultural conflict.<br />
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At the same time, it would be naive to pretend that power and culture are not bound together. Questions that arise from any discussion of cultural diplomacy must include, Whose culture is represented? Who gets to decide?<br />
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As a Brit I am all too aware that the image of my country abroad is dominated by the Queen, Castles, Shakespeare, poor food, warm beer, Harry Potter, Sherlock, and cricket. But this is a tiny snapshot of a complex cultural landscape that covers four different countries, not to mention socio-economic experiences within them. Why would Shakespeare represent the working class community in which I grew up? His concerns are universal and timeless - love, death, cruelty, power, superstition. But might the films of Ken Loach or the television scripts of Paul Abbott have greater resonance and narrate those themes in more appealing ways?<br />
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For a country the size of China with huge demographic and ethnic differences, the question of Whose culture? is perhaps more relevant. Who has the authority - and the legitimacy - to decide whose cultural experience is communicated and for what purpose? This is a question I would ask any nation-state promoting a cultural agenda. For China, the answer is clear and straightforward: the CCP and Xi Jinping gets to decide.<br />
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The current Chinese commitment to resisting western culture is a form of Occidentalism, a way of understanding the intersection of identities and cultures that complements the Orientalism associated with Edward Said. In historical terms, there is little difference between the way Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping have viewed western culture and, for example, the Japanese scholars who gathered together in Kyoto in 1942 to discuss "how to overcome the modern". And the modern meant to the Japanese, as it does to the Chinese today, the west. We are told in accounts of this meeting that the participants compared Westernization to "a disease that had infected the Japanese spirit". One film critic advocated a war against "the poisonous materialist civilization". Writing on Occidentalism, Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit observe the following: "All at the conference agreed that culture - that is, traditional Japanese culture - was spiritual and profound, whereas modern western civilization was shallow, rootless and destructive of creative power ..." Such sentiments certainly echo Hu Jintao, Xi Jinping and all the others in modern China who rail against western culture as poisonous, who describe Chinese culture as superior, and call for the protection of Chinese culture from western influence.<br />
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When such Occidentalism determines cultural policy in China, the situation is bad; when such Occidentalism justifies terrorist atrocities committed by Al Qaeda and Islamic State, it becomes reprehensible.<br />
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In 2010, outspoken journalist and blogger Chen Jibing discussed the limitation of China's international outreach:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[I]f we truly want China's voice to gain a foothold on the stage of world public opinion, I am afraid it is far from sufficient to put our energies into communication channels and the technical side alone. ... But the difficulty lies in making the world accept China's viewpoints. <i>In the final analysis, the origin of the influence of the media or any cultural product lies in the true and credible nature of the facts of the news and in moral values with appeal.</i></blockquote>
The moral and credible nature of the facts ... Suspicion of experts and the media ... alternative facts ... fake news ...<br />
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In short, as I have said on many occasions when speaking about this subject, there is no obvious correlation between enjoying and liking China and Chinese culture, and liking the Chinese political system and its behaviour at home and abroad.<br />
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And so we arrive back at our starting point: That soft power is about moral authority. We do well to remember that while the moral authority of governments is weakening, the renewed importance of art and Culture, relocates soft power away from the political centre and in civil society and the cultural industries. <br />
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May you live in interesting times indeed ...Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-61222421724343475222017-01-16T02:09:00.000-08:002017-01-16T02:09:35.883-08:00BBC adopts language of Chinese propagandaNow that's a title I never expected to use!<br />
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On 16 January, the BBC's online news service posted a report about media reaction in China to PEOTUS Donald Trump's suggestion that the One China policy is negotiable (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-38633257">China media:Trump 'playing with fire' on Taiwan</a>). The BBC decided to call President Tsai Ing-wen 'Taiwanese leader' and 'Taiwan's leader', thus appropriating the labels attached to her by the government in Beijing.<br />
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Perhaps the BBC should realise that President Tsai was democratically elected by 56.12 percent of the vote on a 66.27 % turnout. The BBC publishes this report in the week that President Elect Trump is inaugurated even though he received 2.9 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. Can we argue, therefore, that President Tsai's election is far more legitimate than Trump's? Is democracy more robust in Taiwan than the US?<br />
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I do not recall any BBC reports referring to any US President as the 'Leader of the US', and I doubt they will use this term to describe Mr Trump. Is it too much to ask the BBC to extend such courtesy to other democratically Presidents, including British-educated Tsai Ing-wen, and stop engaging in propaganda on behalf of the Chinese state?<br />
Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-40661269916230809292016-12-12T10:25:00.000-08:002016-12-12T10:29:01.365-08:00Twitter Diplomacy: Preliminary thoughts on the Trump-Tsai phone callFirst, a confession. I have no intention to engage here with the Tsai-Trump telephone conversation because I genuinely do not know what to make of it ... yet. I have avoided writing something since the news broke because I wanted to avoid joining the cacophony of experts, non-experts, and self-styled experts, all of whom had "something to say". I am struggling to identify the call's impact beyond its success in polarising global opinion and propelling Taiwan to the front pages. I have been advising Taiwan for 20 years how to raise its profile; Trump does it for them literally overnight, though it is a shame that this new and prominent discussion about Taiwan in the media is still framed in terms of cross-Strait relations. I believe there will only be reason to rejoice once Taiwan is reported in the news as a successful democracy and without mention of China. It is possible to argue that at least this attention raises awareness of Taiwan and forces a debate that would otherwise not occur. But how much of the media coverage actually contextualises the 'One China policy' or other intricacies of Taipei's relationship with Washington DC and Beijing? <b>Is uninformed debate better than no debate at all?</b><br />
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Which brings me to Twitter ... <br />
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As soon as the phone conversation between PEOTUS Donald Trump and President Tsai Ing-wen was announced, making the front pages of news media that otherwise ignore Taiwan as a matter of routine, the Twitterverse exploded with "experts" on Taiwan and China crawling out from the woodwork. The great thing about social media is that they give everyone a voice and every opinion counts. The problem with social media is that they give everyone a voice and every opinion counts. Reconciling this is a challenge we have yet to address in a meaningful way. Twitter especially encourages knee-jerk immediate reactions and uninformed debate, and Taiwan's political elite were wise to avoid responding prematurely to the outpouring of public opinion at home and abroad. For many Taiwanese - and some Taiwan watchers - Trump is suddenly a hero, while a more cautious and long-term perspective of the consequences for Taiwan of a Trump presidency is warranted. Taiwan's political elites need to reduce popular expectations at home, for Taiwan is heading at best towards disappointment or, at worst, something far more frightening to contemplate. <br />
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Of course the telephone has long been used as an instrument of high-level diplomacy following the creation of the famous 'hotline' between the White House and Kremlin in the aftermath of the Cuban missile crisis. Moreover, the media have also been a method of open diplomatic communication, as demonstrated by my research on international radio broadcasting in the Cold War (<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Radio-Diplomacy-Propaganda-International-Relations/dp/1349245011/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481561921&sr=8-1&keywords=Radio+Diplomacy+and+Propaganda">Radio Diplomacy and Propaganda</a>). The role played by the Voice of America and Radio Moscow in helping resolve the Cuban missile crisis is perhaps the most well-known. What has changed, of course, is the development of the Internet, social media, and both the speed at which information flows, and the expansion of voices heard in every conversation.<br />
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There are other concerns.<br />
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It is clear that Donald Trump has yet to make the transition from private citizen to President Elect of the US and potentially the most powerful political actor in the world. He needs to learn, and to learn very quickly, that whatever he now says or does will have repercussions - intended or otherwise. A President Elect cannot and should not make and announce policy via Twitter; and when your discussion with another leader will be judged provocative, there are diplomatic protocols to follow. President Nixon was accused of making foreign policy in the Oval Office, bypassing the State Department. Will Trump be a Twitter President? Such behaviour undermines American public diplomacy activity and challenges US soft power at a time when their protection is more urgent than ever given the global uncertainty of what a Trump presidency actually means. Public diplomats should not have to spend their time explaining to audiences what the President Elect actually meant or intended in a Tweet. <br />
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<br />Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-40348345986470112952016-09-05T04:33:00.002-07:002016-09-05T04:33:49.360-07:00Understanding China's political signallingJust in case anyone doubted the Chinese government's understanding of power posturing and diplomatic signalling ...<br />
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Since Tsai Ing-wen was elected President by Taiwan's electorate in January, the PRC has been nervous about the possibility of a turn in policy towards independence. Spokesmen in Beijing have reiterated many times that the government of the PRC remains opposed to any moves towards independence. For Taiwan watchers, this is business as usual, especially with a DPP President in Taipei. We are used to hearing these pronouncements, especially when China's internal political situation is experiencing difficulties. Taiwan is a convenient issue to distract the Chinese from problems at home and mobilise their support for a nationalist agenda.<br />
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However, what is most striking is that the new DPP administration in Taipei has not given any reasons to suggest that Taiwan is moving towards independence. Unlike Chen Shui-bian, Tsai has not been particularly vocal on cross-Strait issues, and has focused instead on problems in the South China Sea and challenges at home. Indeed, the government's silence on cross-Strait relations has been deafening (and welcome).<br />
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It is clear, therefore, that China's anti-independence rhetoric is aimed not so much at Taiwan as at Hong Kong, On Saturday 3 September, before polls opened in Hong Kong for its Legco elections in which pro-independence candidates were competing, China's Xinhua reported that Xi Jinping had told Barack Obama: "China will resolutely safeguard sovereignty and territorial integrity, and curb 'Taiwan independence' activities in all forms."<br />
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For Taiwan, read Hong Kong. It is a classic technique of Chinese propaganda and political communication to refer to one individual/country/issue when targeting another. This allowed Xi Jinping to send a clear message to Hong Kong without being seen as interfering in Hong Kong's internal affairs.<br />
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On Sunday 4th September, the Twittersphere became animated by the apparent 'snub' of President Barack Obama when he arrived in China for the G20 summit. While other world leaders received the red carpet treatment, Obama was not provided with a staircase to leave his plane, disembarking from Air Force One via a little-used exit in the plane's underbelly. Was this a deliberate insult? The Chinese are adamant that it was not, but the symbolic consequences have not gone unnoticed. Jorge Guajardo, Mexico's former Ambassador to China was in no doubt of the meaning: "These things do not happen by mistake," he said.<br />
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It's a snub. It's a way of saying: 'You're not that special to us.' ... It's part of stirring up nationalism. It's part of saying: 'China stands up to the superpower.' It works very well with the local audience. </blockquote>
We may not know what really happened and why; and to his credit, Obama played down the story, choosing to focus instead on the agreement reached with China on climate change. Yet this episode does remind us of two important facts: First, diplomacy is as much about symbolism, signalling, and protocol as it is about negotiation. How governments and their emissaries behave is just as important as what they say, and choosing to reject the routines of diplomatic protocol can send a powerful message, This is particularly the case in the era of social media when stories are picked up, distributed worldwide, and consumed in the blink of an eye. Diplomats cannot afford protocol to be a casualty of this new information age, otherwise we focus more on the possible meaning and weight of what may be innocent oversights. International relations turns on such small issues. <br />
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Second, China's propaganda and public diplomacy activity is designed for domestic as much as for international audiences (1). Anne-Marie Brady famously described the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a campaign of mass distraction (2). When China engages in international posturing, we should see what is going on inside the country for a possible explanation.<br />
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(1) See Kingley Edney's <i>The Globalization of Chinese Propaganda: International Power and Domestic Cohesion</i> (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).<br />
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(2) Anne-Marie Brady, 'The Beijing Olympics as a Campaign of Mass Distraction', <i>The China Quarterly</i>, Vol.197 (March 2009).<br />
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Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-65823008898182829832016-06-30T15:03:00.000-07:002016-06-30T15:03:16.933-07:00Preliminary Thoughts on Post-Brexit Public DiplomacyThe gaze of the international community is now fixed firmly on the UK. The ramifications of the referendum on EU membership have gripped the world's media, with international broadcasters from China's CCTV to Al-Jazeera and RT providing thorough coverage of events. For the first time in decades the UK is the centre of global media discourses, with people across the world interested in British politics.<div>
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However, with uncertainty there is danger, and this is because much of the world's media have reported the alarming increase in racist abuse that accompanied the Leave campaign's victory on 24 June. If Britain does have any so-called 'soft power', then it is undermined by this image of a racist and divided society. In the days since the result was announced I have been contacted by many people from across the world who tell me they, their families and friends are now extremely worried about coming to the UK, for either study or tourism. At best, they fear they are unwelcome; and at worst, they are scared of being victims of racial abuse. Britain's international profile is taking a hammering, while the consequences for tourism and education are potentially very serious. </div>
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What can be done to to overcome these problems in the short-term? While the government and police need to get to grips with the increase in hate-crime - after all, communication is not a solution to the real problems now facing British society - we also need a clear public diplomacy strategy with a positive narrative for global audiences. </div>
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First, the architecture: Public diplomacy must be included in all discussions of post-Brexit strategies. This means that, in any committees established throughout the government to formulate a plan for the UK's exit from the EU, experts and practitioners of public diplomacy - including the BBC World Service and British Council - must be invited to participate as full members. They will be able to advise on how any political strategy will be seen across the world, and also help plan a clear communication policy. They will recommend which themes will resonate with particular audiences, as well as who should do the communicating and through which platforms. </div>
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Two further structural suggestions: First, all the UK's embassies need to begin their own public diplomacy campaign, a charm offensive, with Ambassadors and Press Officers taking every opportunity to address a range of audiences in person and on the media to explain the referendum. The full mobilisation of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and NGOs who work with the FCO is essential to help recover the UK's declining 'soft power'. </div>
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Second, the Prime Minister needs to issue a strong positive statement about the referendum and the UK to the world via the BBC World Service. Only he has the perceived credibility and name recognition to do this. This statement should be crafted especially for international audiences and follow my suggestions below. This needs to be done sooner rather than later. The Prime Minister also needs to reassure the world that foreign visitors are still very welcome in the UK, and that the government and the majority of people will not tolerate racial abuse or attacks. Safety is in everyone's interest and remains a priority for both the government and the police. </div>
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In terms of the narratives that should be communicated, public diplomacy needs to focus less on the details and focus on the bigger picture. The public diplomacy needs to be as simple as possible to capture and retain the attention of audiences, and this means paring down very complex, controversial, and divisive issues into the fundamental issues. </div>
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Thus there is little point in recounting the technical details of the vote and the implications of the result. The economics need to be set to one side. Rather, the narrative that embassies and the government at home should privilege is the democratic value of the referendum. This, after all, is where soft power lies - in the core values and principles that guide the British political culture. Hence audiences should be told that the government has listened to the people's voice, and although many people do not like the result, the government respects the opinions it sought. What the referendum reflects is democracy in action: encouraging popular participation in debating and deciding the future of the country. The public diplomacy needs to remind audiences that the UK promotes this political culture around the world - often facing severe criticism and rebuke for doing so - but is prepared to lead by example. </div>
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Second, audiences around the world are now familiar with the political fallout from the referendum - the Prime Minister's resignation, the impending leadership election in the Conservative Party, the disintegration of the Labour Party, renewed discussions about the Union with Scotland. The public diplomacy theme is: Democracy is sometimes messy; it can be chaotic; and this reflects the diversity of voices and opinions energised by, and tolerated in, the political culture in the UK. Not everyone is happy with the result, but the UK encourages critical debate and discussion. </div>
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Above all, the international reaction to Brexit, the fear and worry it has generated, and the decline of British soft power requires the government to renew its commitment to public and cultural diplomacy, and the financial investment they require. It is no good claiming that Brexit allows us to begin a fresh relationship with the world outside Europe while subjecting the BBC World Service and other instruments of British public and cultural diplomacy to financial constraints, cuts, and generating a climate of suspicion that such important strategic assets are not valued. </div>
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Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-65143162329065763032016-05-03T03:33:00.000-07:002016-05-03T03:33:30.993-07:00UK, Ricu, and counter-propaganda against extremism<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">'We are in an information war and we are losing that war' (</span><span style="font-size: large;">US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 2011).</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">A few initial thoughts on stories published today about the UK's covert counter-propaganda strategy. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This is a story that is sure to continue grabbing headlines. I am sure this will not be my only post on this subject. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">A</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">re we meant to be surprised by revelations published today that the UK government is
involved in propaganda as part of its counter-radicalisation programme (see <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/02/uk-government-covert-propaganda-stop-muslims-joining-isis">UK covert propaganda against lure of IS</a>)? </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Given
that violent extremism is promoted in the media environment, and that we face
an urgent need to combat – at home and abroad - such groups as Islamic State in
the information sphere, it would be more shocking if such a propaganda unit as the Research, Information and Communications Unit (Ricu) did not exist. Counter-narratives to both the repellent forms of extremist
propaganda and the more utopian themes projected by IS about life in the
so-called Caliphate must be co-ordinated, consistent and use every platform
available. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Three issues present themselves: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">First, the distinction between propaganda and strategic communication is
blurred and almost non-existent. We should acknowledge openly that we are in a
propaganda war with IS and that counter-propaganda is necessary. In such a
situation, labels are less important than the message and the objective. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Second, Ricu’s case is not helped by flippant comments such as ‘All we’re
trying to do is stop people becoming suicide bombers’. This alienates further
the audience for such propaganda by conflating Islam and terrorism, and is
therefore a potential own goal. If the objective of propaganda is to build
communities to expose and manage extremism among themselves, such comments will
not help. There is far more to counter-radicalisation than stopping people
become suicide bombers, such as engaging with Muslim communities and making
sure that they do not feel threatened, estranged or disaffected. The best
propaganda works when audiences can see a government is committed to helping
them overcome very real social and economic problems. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This leads to the third
issue, one that is highlighted in the Guardian’s reports on Ricu. The
propagandist must weigh very carefully the advantages and disadvantages of
acting covertly, especially the consequences for trusting the source if the
audience feels deceived in any way. More openness and honesty about the
necessity of propaganda would be welcome and would strengthen, rather than
undermine, the information war against extremism.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<br />Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-73750465200146826562015-11-18T12:55:00.001-08:002015-11-18T12:55:04.073-08:00What's in a name? Or why the BBC should stop referring to the 'so-called' Islamic State<div style="line-height: 16px;">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">In my last blog, <a href="http://wwwpdic.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/the-medium-is-not-message-digital.html">The medium is not the message</a>, I took issue with an argument in Jared Cohen's piece for <i>Foreign Affairs</i>
(November/December 2015):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 16pt;">'... governments should
consider working with the news media to aggressively publicize arrests that
result from covert infiltration of the Islamic State's online network'.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 16pt;">The medium is <i>not</i> the message. In counterinsurgency the message - its design, its credibility and its reception - depends on the language used and the way the language conveys the themes decided by the source. It is possible to argue that before we begin to understand how to defeat modern terrorism, we need to appreciate the importance of discourses, narratives and language in determining how modern terrorism works, how terrorist groups define themselves and are defined by others; and therefore attention to discourses and language </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> must be central in any strategy designed to confront terrorism. This is particularly crucial when religion and ideology are invoked as justifications for terrorist activity. </span><span style="font-size: 21px;">Success or failure can often depend on the use of a particular word or phrase. </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 16pt;">My response to Cohen was far
from ambiguous: 'The day that governments in liberal-democracies work with the
news media', I argued, 'is the day the terrorists have won, for it is a clear
violation of the objective and independent journalism that should govern how
news media work. It is the media's job to scrutinise governments, to hold them
to account for their actions, not to "work with them", aggressively
or otherwise'.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 16pt;">BBC journalists are
routinely violating the very principles they, in other circumstances, justifiably
cherish and have defended certainly since the General Strike of 1926, if not
since the very foundation of the organisation in 1922. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 16pt;">A disturbing trend has
crept into BBC journalism over the past several months, and that is a
predilection for calling the terrorist group the 'so-called Islamic State'. The
use of the qualifier 'so-called' is mistaken, counter-productive, and
politically very questionable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 16pt;">Like it or loathe it, the
Islamic State calls itself Islamic State; that's its name. It is proper to
question whether this terrorist organisation represents Islam, and we should
confer upon Muslim communities across the world the power to decide whether or
not IS’s claim to represent their religion is right and justified. Similarly,
it is correct to judge whether IS really is a 'state' at all. It certainly does
not demonstrate any of the attributes that we normally associate with states,
and IS is not recognised by any sovereign state or the United Nations, so its
claim to the term is indeed questionable. But these are discussions that should
and must occur without journalists announcing in news bulletins their own verdicts.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 16pt;">The most crucial reason why
BBC journalists should refrain from employing the pronoun 'so-called' in their
stories about IS is that its use entails a value judgement; and BBC journalists
are not in the business of value judgements. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 16pt;">In June 2015, a cross-Party
group of MPs, backed by the Prime Minister, accused the BBC of legitimising IS
by using its name in its reporting. The BBC resisted any change: The
Director-General, Tony Hall, said that the broadcaster must remain 'impartial'.
But the BBC decided that a qualifier was legitimate, and a spokesman said 'We
... use additional descriptions to help make it clear we are referring to the
group as they refer to themselves, such as "so-called" Islamic
State.' <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 16pt;">According to Webster’s
dictionary, the first definition of 'so called' is 'popularly known or called
by this term'. But its second meaning is more relevant in this case, namely
'inaccurately or questionably designated as such' which may give the impression
that the speaker has formed a judgement about the veracity of the words that
follow. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 16pt;">By using the pronoun
'so-called', the BBC tacitly accepts the government's agenda and can be accused
of engaging in anti-IS propaganda on the government’s behalf. The term undermines
the credibility of a world-class news organisation, when maintaining the
credibility of the BBC is absolutely essential to counter the narratives of
terrorist organisations, as well as authoritarian states. It challenges the very
operational values of the BBC and thereby the principles of journalism in a
democratic society. ‘So-called’ may suggest to its critics that they are right
to question the BBC’s independence, while damaging efforts by journalists
throughout the authoritarian world to expand the distance between the news
media and government. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 16pt;">Yes,
the organisation's claim to be an, or even the, Islamic State should be contested
and defied at every opportunity. This challenge should form part of the
counter-narrative that will form a credible assault against IS's commanding
propaganda strength. But BBC news bulletins are not the appropriate location
from which to launch this assault. If a pronoun must be used, the BBC may try
using 'the group known as the Islamic State,' or 'self-proclaimed/self-styled
Islamic State'. These are more reasonable qualifiers that draw attention to doubts
about the organisation's claim, highlight very clearly from where the name
comes from (the organisation itself), and still challenge its legitimacy to
that name without undermining the BBC’s journalistic integrity. </span><!--EndFragment-->Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-72764084995808790132015-11-17T13:13:00.000-08:002015-11-17T13:13:04.773-08:00The medium is not the message: Digital Counterinsurgency The November-December 2015 issue of <i>Foreign Affairs</i> includes an article by Jared Cohen titled 'Digital Counterinsurgency: How to Marginalize the Islamic State Online'.<br />
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Too many essays that claim to provide a blueprint on how to confront IS online do so through a detailed examination of the technology and a renewed emphasis on policing the internet. Cohen's essay is no different. From 'suspending the specific accounts responsible for setting strategy and giving orders to the rest of its online army' to 'banning users who break the rules and distribute terrorist content', we are asked to consider a range of techniques that might lead to IS being marginalised in cyberspace and force the group to the so-called Dark Web.<br />
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The article is flawed in two important respects:<br />
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First, it claims that there is a direct correlation between the number of 'foreign recruits' (c.20,000, 'nearly 4,000 of whom hail from Western countries') and IS propaganda: 'Many of these recruits made initial contact with the Islamic State and its ideology via the Internet. Other followers, meanwhile, are inspired by the group's online propaganda to carry our terrorist attacks without traveling to the Middle East'. Cohen continues: 'Every day the group's message reaches millions of people, some of whom become proponents of the Islamic State or even fighters for its cause'. If this was a student essay, I would ask the author: Where is your evidence for such claims? Can you substantiate the idea that 'many' (a far too vague and meaningless word) IS fighters from abroad are seduced by propaganda? How many are the 'some' to which you refer out of the 'millions' the propaganda reaches?<br />
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Understanding how propaganda works and, perhaps most importantly in this case, its limitations is the key to analysing its impact; and any serious analyst of of propaganda would answer that it cannot change minds or alter behaviour, but rather latches on to, and exaggerates, existing or latent emotions, beliefs and ideas. There is more to understanding the IS terrorist than the seductive power of propaganda, and most helpful will be understanding the <i>context</i> in which the propaganda is both produced and received. <br />
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Second, the article raises, but fails to address in sufficient detail the ethical and legal consequences of its recommendations. Who decides what is a terrorist, and even an IS social media account? Who decides, and by what criteria, which messages are considered 'extremist', inflammatory or dangerous? Cohen treads on even more dangerous ground when he suggests 'governments should consider working with the news media to aggressively publicize arrests that result from covert infiltration of the Islamic State's online network'. The day that governments in liberal-democracies work with the news media is the day the terrorists have won, for it is a clear violation of the objective and independent professionalism that should govern how news media work. It is the media's job to scrutinise governments, to hold them to account for their actions, not to 'work with them', aggressively or otherwise.<br />
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Finally, the article fails to discuss in any meaningful detail not only the message that may help to marginalise IS - on and offline - but also the political action that may help to isolate the terrorists and understand why young Muslims choose to join such terrorist organisations in the first place. Some of the issues we need to consider include:<br />
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(a) White middle class men explaining what Islam is and is not; what the Koran says and does not say; and what the Koran means. The condemnation of Islamic terrorism must begin in Islamic communities themselves. This means avoiding mass messaging in favour of community-based dialogue and discussion, and giving Muslim communities the tools to combat radicalisation themselves.<br />
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(b) Not listening to the Muslim voice. Governments must do more to engage with Muslim communities, and actually hear what they are saying. What inspires young Muslims to travel to Syria and join ISIS? Is it simply for the thrill? The promise of glory and status? A sense of brotherhood? To punish the west for their crimes against Islam? To escape deprivation at home? Or because they truly believe in an Islamic Caliphate? Only when we truly understand why IS is able to recruit in such numbers - and there will be many explanations - can western governments begin to tackle the problem. We know some young Muslims are being radicalised: the important question is not how, but <i>Why</i>? This may mean governments having to rethink policy, at home and abroad, because states are judged by the credibility and legitimacy of their actions, not their words.<br />
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Focusing on policing social media and dreaming up ever more innovative methods of controlling the internet is one solution, but it is not necessarily the only nor perhaps the best solution. In combating the evil of IS terrorism, governments need to pay far more attention to their own propaganda message, how it is delivered, by whom and to whom; and actively engage in a more intimate way Muslim communities who may hold in their hand both an explanation for, and an answer to, the crisis we face. <br />
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<br />Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-26891285306752349622015-09-27T07:32:00.001-07:002015-09-27T07:32:41.720-07:00Shortwave broadcasting and QSL cards.Few people are fortunate to be able to turn a hobby into a career. When I started listening to shortwave radio in the early 1980s, I never knew that I would one day be writing books and articles about international broadcasting. I progressed from listening on my father's wonderful 1950s Bakelite with glowing green valves and a wonderful bass hum that grew louder as the set warmed up (this radio now has pride of place in my office) to a Russian Vega Selena 215.<br />
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By the end of the 1980s I upgraded again. This time, I wanted a digital set so I could key in the frequencies of stations that were printed in the wonderful World Radio and TV Handbook. My parents bought me a Saisho SW5000.</div>
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As I started to travel on fieldwork for my PhD, I bought a small portable shortwave receiver. I continued to listen when I went to Caversham Park where I used the wonderful BBC Written Archives Centre; to Kew when I spent time at the Public Records Office; to Taiwan; and then to Washington DC. I always enjoyed listening overseas in anticipation of all the new stations I would access.</div>
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During the Gulf War of 1991 I hooked up my Saisho to a tape recorder and recorded hours of broadcasts (from the Voice of America, Kol Israel, and the BBC World Service) for Phil Taylor who was writing his book, <i>War and the Media. </i>I had seen my name in print before: I had articles published in <i>Shortwave Magazine</i> and in various newspapers, but nothing matched the thrill of seeing my name in Phil's book, thanking me for undertaking this work for him. </div>
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I recently corresponded with David Jackson, former Director of the Voice of America. I told him of my excitement when, during PhD fieldwork in Washington DC in 1993, I took the VoA tour. Like the classic class nerd I threw my hand up at every opportunity to ask and answer questions. David made reference the VoA QSL cards, and this reminded me of the hours I spent listening through the crackle of faint transmissions at all hours of the night and writing reception reports for the stations. I sent these in the post, and weeks, sometimes months later, the station would acknowledge my report with a QSL card and other souvenirs (stickers, magazines, books). I found my collection for the late 1980s and though I would share my QSLs in this blog. </div>
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QSL is international radio language for "Please verify". </div>
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This part of my collection represents the closing of an era. With the rise of the internet and the ability to listen to radio stations from all over the world on a computer or tablet, the age of shortwave has largely passed. Yet there is still something romantic about turning a dial at 3am and listening eagerly through the crackle to hear which station one is listening to (oh no, not Radio Moscow again!). Those were the days ... The collection also a reminder of another era in international politics, with the Soviet Union represented by Radio Moscow World Service, sending me pictures and stamps of Lenin; with Radio Prague Czechoslovakia responding to an essay I wrote them about Marxism by sending me books about Czech foreign policy. While still at school in the mid-1980s I wrote an article for <i>Shortwave Magazine</i> called 'What is the role of the shortwave radio in international politics?' In 1994 I completed my PhD, supervised by Phil Taylor, entitled 'Nation Unto Nation: The BBC and VoA in International Politics, 1956-64'. This was subsequently published as <i>Radio Diplomacy and Propaganda</i> (Macmillan, 1996). </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFTucCwUNubxPaVap9P4xRZo4dPRA5AoNVGHJaFUUA3ERtwJBG61T1nOqrqZIzaPTS37Z1LMemlRayaA-nbniZdGnvOw0f_2QtEQwx4vGw5pRmitA1aq0X0YKekqky2DmT7wqr8BzXPcBA/s1600/2015-09-27+14.00.03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFTucCwUNubxPaVap9P4xRZo4dPRA5AoNVGHJaFUUA3ERtwJBG61T1nOqrqZIzaPTS37Z1LMemlRayaA-nbniZdGnvOw0f_2QtEQwx4vGw5pRmitA1aq0X0YKekqky2DmT7wqr8BzXPcBA/s320/2015-09-27+14.00.03.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Radio Austria International, June and July 1988 </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Radio HCJB The Voice of the Andes, Ecuador, June and July 1988: "Thank you for your letter to Salados Amigos"</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Top: Radio Prague, Czechoslovakia, July 1987.<br />Bottom: Radio RSA, The Voice of South Africa: 'The Bokmakierie. Here the bokmakierie is feeding its young. A species easily identified by its familiar call and beautiful plumage'</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhzNtdOH-eToyjAEcf9-BnPiiP4cyexVZuQXHvIKtMyjsrctH4QXZek9jVp1zFP2_FeXQlp4TLzEfU3K2N5hnc6afN8IA30zqsGn1nYVNFMRHZt7lUYb-U-BtZuiX8CnSJaVetOOgOAOJp/s1600/2015-09-27+14.00.51.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhzNtdOH-eToyjAEcf9-BnPiiP4cyexVZuQXHvIKtMyjsrctH4QXZek9jVp1zFP2_FeXQlp4TLzEfU3K2N5hnc6afN8IA30zqsGn1nYVNFMRHZt7lUYb-U-BtZuiX8CnSJaVetOOgOAOJp/s320/2015-09-27+14.00.51.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Top: Radio RSA, The Voice of South Africa, July 1988 'Johannesburg - a dynamic city founded on gold, soars into the future'<br />Bottom: Radio Kuwait, July and August 1987 'Agriculture in Kuwait'</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Radio Australia, August 1987. 'The Koala, a familiar symbol of Australia,is found in the south-east and north of the country.' </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Top: All India Radio External Services, October 1987. 'Gate Keeper to India, Sabha Ellora'<br />Bottom: The Voice of Vietnam (Socialist Republic of Vietnam), July 1988</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Voice of America, February 1987: Top: 'The White House on a wintry evening in Washington DC. US Presidents and their families have lived here since 1800.'<br />Bottom: 'The VOA newsroom in Washington DC where news from all over the world is compiled and prepared'</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Top: Voice of America, March 1987: 'One of the new VoA studios in Washington DC where broadcasts in 42 languages originate'<br />Bottom: Radio Polonia, Poland, March 1989. 'The station you listened to is Warsaw' </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Voice of Vietnam, Xmas 1988; Season's Greetings</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Radio Prague, Xmas 1988: 'With best wishes for a happy, prosperous and peaceful new year'</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Radio Moscow World Service,June 1989: 'Dear Mr Rawnsley. Thank you for writing to us and taking part in the listeners' forum dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the International Service of Radio Moscow. Please accept our small souvenir - a set of post cards and Soviet stamps. We hope you will like them. We are glad to hear more from our listeners, so if you have any suggestions, questions and requests, you are welcome.'</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). Unfortunately, only the envelope is in the collection. I wonder what was included?</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Kol Israel, Israel Radio International: 'You have a friend at Kol Israel'.</span></td></tr>
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Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-34706986517589141992015-08-14T17:30:00.001-07:002015-08-14T17:30:34.483-07:00International Communications in the Cuban Missile Crisis (2)Both the Soviet Union and the US used radio to communicate directly with each other, complementing the more traditional diplomatic channels. To seek a resolution to the crisis, the Soviet leader, Nikolai Khrushchev, used Radio Moscow knowing that his words would be monitored and reported long before the official communiques reached the Oval Office, and in the circumstances time was certainly of the essence. Khrushchev's first letter to President Kennedy on 26 October 1962 had been subject to a long delay in its transmission to Washington from the US embassy in Moscow. This was a gamble the Soviet leaders were no longer prepared to take, hence radio was considered the fastest method of communicating with the American President. On 27 October the US issued a statement welcoming Khrushchev's communication to remove the missiles in Cuba in response for a promise that there would be no US invasion of the island. This statement ignored a second message, broadcast twice on Radio Moscow, demanding the US remove its missiles from Turkey in return for a climbdown in Cuba.<br />
<br />
At 1405 GMT (0900 Washington time) on 28 October 1962, Radio Moscow announced that it would transmit an important government statement, the broadcast beginning even before its textual editing had been completed. No clearer warning could be issued to the BBC's monitors at Caversham Park that they should prepare to receive, transcribe and report what followed.<br />
<br />
As in previous broadcasts, Khrushchev addressed Kennedy personally as 'esteemed Mr President', informing him that 'the Soviet government, in addition to orders previously issued for the cessation of further work on the [Cuban] building sites for the weapons,' had 'issued a new order; for the weapons which you describe as "offensive" to be dismantled, packed up and returned to the Soviet Union.'<br />
<br />
The significance of this broadcast, and the importance attached to it by the Soviet leadership's insistence that it be monitored and reported, can be adduced by the fact that it was repeated four times in the home service and no less than thirteen times in the North American service, in addition to several repeats in Spanish for listeners in Cuba.<br />
<br />
Kennedy decided to accept the terms of the message in the same way that he had received it - over the radio. James A. Nathan has described this as a 'considerable departure from diplomacy'. [1] But there was nothing diplomatic about this particular communication. It was not an act of negotiation or the basis for further discussion, but was rather a public announcement of intention which, by its very nature, lacked flexibility and the capacity for compromise.<br />
<br />
Kennedy's welcome of Khrushchev's decision was duly reported by TASS and in Moscow Radio's home service on 28 October, though it was not published in Russian newspapers until 30 October, a delay designed to strengthen Khrushchev's image as a hero who had taken a firm stand to avert war. Radio Moscow told its listeners in North America that the Soviet government's decision to end the crisis should not be regarded as a sign of weakness. On the contrary, the country had 'displayed forbearance ... in an effort to keep world peace. It did a service to all of humanity with a courageous restraint and refusal to be provoked, for it saved the world from thermonuclear disaster. ... Only a country confident of its strength could take the stand the USSR has taken'. [2]<br />
<br />
Kennedy said he felt 'like a new man. Do you realise,' he asked his friend, Dave Powers, 'that we had an airstrike [against Cuba] all arranged for Tuesday [just two days later]? Thank God it's all over'. [3]<br />
<br />
<u>References</u><br />
<u><br /></u>
[1] Nathan, James A. (1988), 'Cold War Model' in Robert A. Divine (ed.) <i>The Cuban Missile Crisis</i> (New York: Markus Wiener) p.342<br />
<br />
[2] BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, Part I, 31 October 1962.<br />
<br />
[3] Quoted in Beschloss, Michael R. (1991), <i>Kennedy v. Khrushchev: The Crisis Years, 1960-1963 </i>(London: Faber & Faber), pp.541-2<br />
<br />
Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-39618946601096233372015-08-14T12:45:00.002-07:002015-08-14T12:45:58.456-07:00How Special is Special? The Anglo-American Alliance During the Cuban Missile CrisisAs I worked my way through the files at the Public Records Office that were most relevant to my PhD, the so-called Thirty Years Rule meant that the British government records for 1962 were opened in 1993 as I was completing my research. I decided to take a little time away from my topic to examine the files for the period of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was interested in seeing the role, if any, that the UK played in the crisis, and how Anglo-American relations - what is too often referred to as The Special Relationship - played out. This was a landmark for me: Not only was the resulting article, 'How Special is Special? The Anglo-American Alliance During the Cuban Missile Crisis', my first published academic paper, but I was also the first author to publish on this subject using the declassified documents. The paper was published in <i>Contemporary Record</i>, 9 (3), 1995: 668-601. I recall receiving the referee's report while I was undertaking archival research in Washington DC in the summer of 1993 and living at the wonderful International Student House at the Dupont Circle. I discovered I needed a copy of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's memoirs and so bought a copy at one of the many second hand bookshops that surround the Dupont Circle. It is a huge book, one of three volumes, and having already bought far too many books I knew I could not carry it back with me to the UK. I sold it back to the same bookshop within a few days of my buying it.<br />
<br />
I thought of this paper again today in light of the restoration of US-Cuban ties.<br />
<br />
'How Special is Special?' is still available via <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13619469508581355#.Vc5DzmC4nos">Taylor & Francis Online</a>, but it is expensive or requires an institutional log-in. This is the abstract. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Cuban missile crisis of 1962 affords an excellent opportunity to scrutinise alliance relationships during the most critical phase of international history. The recently declassified documents at the Public Records Office suggest that although Britain's role in the crisis was limited to consultation with the United States and did not actively participate in the resolution of the crisis, the government was not prepared to passively support those American decisions with which it did not agree. In addition this case study allows scholars to derive a greater sense of the importance of a detached and specialised Foreign Office in a political system which places greater power in the hands of an elected and transient government with narrow interests.</blockquote>
Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-54668850225877655782015-08-14T12:16:00.002-07:002015-08-14T12:16:36.512-07:00International Communications in the Cuban Missile Crisis.Today, 14 August 2015, John Kerry became the first US Secretary of State to visit Cuba in 70 years. He reopened the American embassy, and watched the US flag rise in the presence of the same marines who lowered it in 1961.<br />
<br />
Cuba played an important part in my life over twenty years ago. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was a case-study in my PhD thesis on international radio broadcasting in the Cold War, and you can read the chapter in my first book, <i>Radio Diplomacy and Propaganda</i> (Macmillan, 1996). The chapter studied how international radio broadcasting, specifically Radio Moscow and the Voice of America, played an important role in not only projecting propaganda, but also in resolving the crisis. At the core of what I called 'media diplomacy' was the ever wonderful BBC Monitoring Service, located at Caversham Park near Reading in the UK, which has helped to gather open intelligence from the world's broadcast media since before World War Two. Below are my abridged conclusions. I cringe a little now when I read them, but please remember I wrote this at some point between the age of 21 and 23.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In the context of the Cold War, the defusing of the Cuban missile crisis represented a step of progress in the conduct of international relations: it had been the first real crisis of nuclear proportions; it provided the pretext for further negotiations between the Superpowers that paved the way to an eventual, but short-lived, detente; and it facilitated their relationship in that the need for a direct line of communication between the White House and the Kremlin - the so-called 'Hot Line' - was recognised and accepted. More importantly for the purposes of this study, while Kennedy and Khrushchev conversed with each other through traditional channels, radio had been explicitly used as an integral part of the diplomatic procedure, marking watershed in global broadcasting on a series of levels. The Soviet Union was forced by circumstances to recognise that the value of radio was no longer rooted merely in propaganda, the importance of the monitoring service was acknowledged, and public opinion was accorded a position as a contributory factor in the formulation of political foreign policy. At the start of the crisis, the British Ambassador in Havana, Sir Herbert Marchant, had advocated the launch of a 'really serious propaganda exercise' by the US. 'I mean, really serious and probably expensive, but still cheaper than a war.' (1) Such an observation implies recognition that propaganda can often be a substitute for military conflict, as the missile crisis vividly illustrated.<br /> Together the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban missile crisis had confirmed the importance of harmonising government action with propaganda and broadcasting policy. It had not been easy; the gravity of the crisis had forced the USIA into supervising VoA broadcasts to a degree that had so far been avoided. The crisis also opened up deep wounds between the VoA and its parent agency, USIA. The Director of the VoA, Henry Loomis, told Ed Murrow [Director of USIA] that the station 'failed to sound convincing because of our monolithic tone. ... During the ... crisis,' he said, 'we were required to distort and concentrate our programme at the expense of credibility and relevance to our audience.' Loomis believed that by broadcasting Presidential and State Department announcements, the Voice suffered from a markedly dull output and at the same time revealed itself to be a propaganda station. [2] However, given the scope and nature of the crisis, this comment is unjustified. At a time when the political risks were incredibly high, when the future of the whole world was at stake, audiences for foreign broadcasts (which inevitably increase at times of major crises) were more interested in government pronouncements of intentions rather than often wild speculation. As America's role in the Vietnam war continued to escalate, this dichotomy posed by VoA's dual purpose was exacerbated, and the relationship which the government enjoyed with its propaganda agencies was to prove crucial.</blockquote>
<br />
References:<br />
<br />
1. FO371/162347/AK1051/11, 22 October 1962 (Public Record Office, Kew Gardens)<br />
2. Sorenson, Thomas (1968), The Word War: The Story of American Propaganda (New York: Harper & Row), p. 238<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-74563238829596583202015-05-26T13:18:00.000-07:002015-05-26T13:18:11.495-07:00The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Media: Contents and Abstracts<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><u>The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Media</u></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><br /></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Edited by<br />Professor Gary D. Rawnsley and<br />Dr Ming-yeh Rawnsley</strong></div>
<br />CONTENTS<br />
<br />List of tables<br />
<br />List of figures<br />
<br />List of contributors<br />
<br />Members of the Editorial Board<br />
<br />Editorial Note<br />
<br />Acknowledgements<br />
<br /><br />
<em>Introduction</em><br />Gary D. Rawnsley & Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley<br />
<br /><br />
<strong>Part I: The Development of the Study and the Structure of Chinese Media</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong><br />
1. <em>(Re)-Focusing on the Target: Reflections on a Trajectory of Studying the Chinese Media</em><br />Yuezhi Zhao<br />
<br /><br />
2. <em>China, Soft Power and Imperialism</em><br />Colin Sparks<br />
<br /><br />
3. <em>Evaluating Chinese Media Policy: Objectives and Contradictions</em><br />Rogier Creemers<br />
<br /><br />
<strong>Part II: Journalism, Press Freedom and Social Mobilisation</strong><br />
<br /><br />
4. <em>Western Missionaries and Origins of the Modern Chinese Press</em><br />Yuntao Zhang<br />
<br /><br />
5. <em>Setting the Press Boundaries: The Case of the Southern (Nanfang) Media Group</em><br />Chujie Chen<br />
<br /><br />
6. <em>Chinese Investigative Journalism in the Twenty-First Century</em><br />Hugo de Burgh<br />
<br /><br />
7. <em>From Control to Competition: A Comparative Study of the Party Press and Popular Press</em><br />Hsiao-wen Lee<br />
<br /><br />
8. <em>Press Freedom in Hong Kong: Interactions between State, Media and Society</em><br />Francis L. F. Lee<br />
<br /><br />
9.<em> Media and Social Mobilisation in Hong Kong</em><br />Joseph M. Chan and Francis L. F. Lee<br />
<br /><br />
10.<em> Citizen Journalists as an Empowering Community for Change: A Case Study of a Taiwanese Online Platform ‘PeoPo’</em><br />Chen-ling Hung<br />
<br /><br />
<strong>Part III: The Internet, Public Sphere and Media Culture</strong><br />
<br /><br />
11.<em> Politics and Social Media in China</em> <br />Lars Willnat, Lu Wei and Jason A. Martin<br />
<br /><br />
12. <em>Online Chinese Nationalism and Its Nationalist Discourses</em><br />Yiben Ma<br />
<br /><br />
13. <em>A Cyberconflict Analysis of Chinese Dissidents Focusing on Civil Society, Mass Incidents and Labour Resistance</em><br />Athina Karatzogianni and Andrew Robinson<br />
<br /><br />
14. <em>Workers and Peasants as Historical Subjects: The Formation of Working Class Media Cultures in China</em> <br />Wanning Sun<br />
<br /><br />
15. <em>An Emerging Middle Class Public Sphere in China? Analysis of News Media Representation of ‘Self Tax Declaration’</em><br />Qian (Sarah) Gong<br />
<br /><br />
16. <em>Expressing Myself, Connecting with You: Young Taiwanese Females’ Photographic Self-Portraiture on Wretch Album</em><br />Yin-han Wang<br />
<br /><br />
17. <em>Against the Grain: The Battle for Public Service Broadcasting in Taiwan</em><br />Chun-wei Daniel Lin<br />
<br /><br />
18. <em>Public Service Television in China</em><br />Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley and Chien-san Feng<br />
<br /><br />
<br /><br />
<strong>Part IV: Market, Production and the Media Industries</strong><br /><br />19. <em>The Changing Role of Copyright in China’s Emergent Media Economy</em><br />Lucy Montgomery and Xiang Ren <br />
<br /><br />
20.<em> Gamers, State and Online Games</em><br />Anthony Y. H. Fung<br />
<br /><br />
21. <em>The Geographical Clustering of Chinese Media Production</em><br />Michael Keane<br />
<br /><br />
22. <em>The Politics and Poetics of Television Documentary in China</em><br />Qing Cao<br />
<br /><br />
23.<em> Contemporary Chinese Historical TV Drama as a Cultural Genre: Production, Consumption and the State Power</em><br />George Dawei Guo<br />
<br /><br />
24.<em> Live Television Production of Media Events in China: The Case of the Beijing Olympic Games</em><br />Limin Liang<br />
<br /><br />
25. Negotiated Discursive Struggles in Hyper-Marketised and Oligopolistic Media System: The Case of Hong Kong<br /><em>Charles Chi-wai Cheung</em><br />
<br /><br />
<br /><br />
<strong>Part V. Chinese Media and the World</strong><br />
<br /><br />
26. <em>Internationalisation of China’s Television: History, Development and New Trends</em><br />Junhao Hong and Youling Liu<br />
<br /><br />
27. <em>Decoding the Chinese Media in Flux: American Correspondents as an Interpretive Community</em><br />Yunya Song<br />
<br /><br />
28. <em>Chinese International Broadcasting, Public Diplomacy and Soft Power</em><br />Gary Rawnsley<br />
<br /><br />
Chinese Glossary: Selected Chinese Names and Terms<br />
<br />Chinese Dynasties at a Glance<br />
<br />Index<br />
<br /><br />
<br />CHAPTER ABSTRACTS <br />
<br /><br />
1. <em>(Re)-Focusing on the Target: Reflections on a Trajectory of Studying the Chinese Media</em><br />Yuezhi Zhao<br />
<br /><br />
In the context of China’s rapid transformation in a turbulent global system since the late 1970s, to study the Chinese media is to shoot at a target that appears easy to focus on at first sight, but is in actuality rather elusive. On the surface, the target appears static as there has not been any radical transformation in the basic structure of the Chinese media system after more than thirty years of reform. Upon closer examination, however, the target has both undergone dramatic mutations in its shape and shed much of its original colour. Moreover, in the context of a highly unstable and rapidly evolving global order, the target has not only repeatedly defied conventional expectations in terms of the direction of its movement, but also is realigning its geopolitical relations with other objects and streams of flow in the global media universe. Which direction to look at? What does the target look like at a particular moment? What lenses to use and how to aim? What kind of shooting guns do we have in hand and are they adequate for the purpose? No less important, isn’t it the case that the shape and colour of the target, our ways of approaching it, even the very language we use to define and describe it, very much depends on who we are and where we stand as scholars? Finally, beyond the imperative of surviving the academic curse of publishing or perishing, what is this analysis for? This chapter re-examines the author’s own academic endeavour in the field. It is an exercise of intellectual self-reflectivity and it discusses both the substantive and methodological issues involved in studying the Chinese media.<br />
<br /><br />
2.<em> China, Soft Power and Imperialism</em><br />Colin Sparks<br />
<br /><br />
This chapter is primarily concerned with developing an approach that facilitates the understanding of the international cultural impact consequent upon China’s rise. The author compares two major approaches — soft power vs. cultural imperialism — from the point of view of their utility in helping us understand current developments. It begins with a brief statement of the two positions and makes some comparisons between their claims. It then considers them from the point of view of their ability to illuminate a number of key problems raised by the role of culture in international relations. These approaches, both developed with the US experience very much in mind, are shown to be lacking in some important dimensions necessary to explain current developments. Neither on its own is sufficiently developed as to provide an adequate theoretical framework to study the contemporary situation. In response to these shortcomings, an attempt is made to use these insights to develop a theoretical framework that is adequate to solving the problems presented by the distinctive features of the Chinese case.<br />
<br /><br />
3. <em>Evaluating Chinese Media Policy: Objectives and Contradictions</em><br />Rogier Creemers<br />
<br /><br />
In recent years, there have been great changes in the Chinese media environment which have been mainly driven by technological and commercial developments. Social media have flourished, the film sector has expanded and commercial television stations have grown ever more successful. However, in China’s particular political-legal environment, these developments pose challenges to government and policy making, as the media administration aims to reconcile political objectives, such as maintaining legitimacy, social objectives, such as youth protection, and economic objectives. Furthermore, the party’s supremacy in political and legal matters has created a situation where overarching constitutional notions, which can underpin the structure of governance, are absent. At the same time, it is clear that there is a strong institutional structure to govern the sphere of public communication which has its own underpinnings and dynamics. How then can we make sense of the content and structure of this Chinese media governance apparat? This chapter answers a double question. First, it will analyse the central philosophical underpinnings of the current Chinese communication order as well as their historical origins. Second, it will illustrate how the current governance structure — both in terms of institutional structuring and content of media rules — is set up in order to implement these objectives. Finally, it will briefly analyse the severe problems the government faces implementing media regulation in the rapidly shifting Chinese environment.<br />
<br /><br />
4. <em>Western Missionaries and Origins of the Modern Chinese Press</em><br />Yuntao Zhang<br />
<br /><br />
China can lay claim to being the oldest print civilization in the world. However a modern culture of journalism and publishing was in fact a relatively late arrival, coinciding with the import of modern printing technology from the west. For over a thousand years, Chinese journalism was dominated by the official gazette called DiBao (Peking Gazette). This organ of the imperial state comprised edicts, news of government appointments and court affairs, and served a small privileged readership. It was not until 1815 that what could be considered the first modern periodical (though not strictly speaking a Chinese publication) was to appear in China. This was the work of two British missionaries, Robert Morrison and William Milne, and it marked the beginnings of a process, spanning the nineteenth century, in which a group of predominantly British and American Protestant missionaries pursued a strategy of evangelism centred on the development of journalism, publishing and printing enterprises in China. This chapter provides a short outline of this process and some reflections on its wider cultural consequences.<br />
<br /><br />
5. <em>Setting the Press Boundaries: The Case of the Southern (Nanfang) Media Group</em><br />Chujie Chen<br />
<br /><br />
This research is concerned with the dialectic relationship between political-economic constraints and journalistic agency that contribute to the transformation of journalism. We should ask what kind of factors gave rise to the outspokenness of the Nanfang subsidiary papers and how their journalists pushed the limits of the permissible in China. Though much attention has been paid to the Nanfang newspapers, relatively few consider Nanfang as a whole and the intra-organisational relations within the group. This chapter synthesises existing studies on journalistic practices at Nanfang and its maverick subsidiary papers in particular. Overall, this chapter attempts to examine (1) the political-economic settings where Nanfang is located; (2) the relationship between the parent newspaper Nanfang Daily and its maverick subsidiaries in terms of organisational culture, division of labour, and the flow of human resources; (3) the strategic rituals used by the press to cope with or even bypass the severe restrictions imposed by power holders; and (4) the implications of strategic rituals for media autonomy.<br />
<br /><br />
6. <em>Chinese Investigative Journalism in the Twenty-First Century</em><br />Hugo de Burgh<br />
<br /><br />
Rather than trying to define investigative journalism by its motivations and heroics, this chapter defines investigative journalism in China according to its method of approach and by the techniques associated with it, techniques that are not necessarily peculiar to investigative journalism, but which are characteristic of them. Some investigative journalists reject the very category, claiming that all journalism is or ought to be investigative, in the sense that checking and digging are intrinsic to good journalism. In general, however, Chinese investigative journalists are expected to display specific characteristics. They should be revelatory (provide new information, i.e. qishi xing, and expose hidden things, that is, jiefa xing); accusatory of bad people/organisations (qianze xing), and moralistic (implying that journalists apply higher moral standards, i.e. shuojiao xing); and finally, willing to take risks (fengxian xing). This chapter explains these characteristics in detail and discusses the particular skills and techniques employed by journalists to achieve their aims.<br />
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7. <em>From Control to Competition: A Comparative Study of the Party Press and Popular Press</em><br />Hsiao-wen Lee<br />
<br /><br />
This chapter looks at how the newspaper industry in China has changed from being a party and government-led propaganda tool to become a more commercially market-oriented product. This will be achieved by first looking at four key influencing factors: (1) circulation, (2) advertising revenue, (3) distribution and (4) organisation of press groups. Second, the chapter explores how different variables impact on the news media: political control, market competition and professional performance. Then finally through the analysis of four news events during the period between 2005 and 2007, the discussions identify the various ways news coverage has been influenced. This chapter will argue that the popular market-oriented newspapers not only try to touch the party line when doing their reports, but also surrender themselves to wider commercial considerations.<br />
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8. <em>Press Freedom in Hong Kong: Interactions between State, Media and Society</em><br />Francis L. F. Lee<br />
<br /><br />
This chapter reviews the politics of press freedom in Hong Kong by focusing on the interaction between the state, the local media and civil society. Without dismissing the importance of structural constraints, the interactional perspective emphasises the capability of actors to influence outcomes — the quality and quantity of press freedom in the present case — through negotiating, contesting, and/or collaborating with each other. Each player in the state-media-society triad has its own basic concerns and goals. Given their respective aims and perspectives, the players develop strategies to interact with each other. At the same time, the players also need to respond to changing social and political contexts. In particular, major political events may lead to changing perceptions of reality, and the players may alter their strategies as a result. Consistent with recent research on political developments in Hong Kong, this chapter treats the 1 July protest in 2003, in which 500,000 people protested against the Special Administrative Region (SAR) government, as a critical event that had significant repercussions on the China-Hong Kong relationship. Before 2003, China was largely willing to grant an ‘exceptional’ degree of press freedom to the city’s media. It relied on an informal system of politics marked by self-censorship and inducement to contain the Hong Kong press. While these elements persisted after 2003, the state developed new strategies to control and co-opt the Hong Kong press as the government began to intervene more openly in Hong Kong society. Yet civil society has also become more active in monitoring press performance, so that by 2013, Hong Kong’s press is more polarised and more proactive in voicing its concerns.<br />
<br /><br />
9. <em>Media and Social Mobilisation in Hong Kong</em><br />Joseph M. Chan and Francis L. F. Lee<br />
<br /><br />
This chapter provides a conceptual overview of the roles played by the mass media and new media platforms in the formation of social movements and specific instances of collective actions in Hong Kong. It first discusses the characteristics and development of contentious collective actions in contemporary Hong Kong in order to provide the broader background against which the roles of media communications can be understood. It then examines important issues in the relationship between media and social mobilisation, such as how the professional news media cover social protests.<br />
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10. <em>Citizen Journalists as an Empowering Community for Change: A Case Study of a Taiwanese Online Platform ‘PeoPo’</em><br />Chen-ling Hung<br />
<br /><br />
In 2007, Taiwan’s Public Television Service (PTS) established the PeoPo Citizen Journalism Platform to encourage public participation in news production. As a friendly web2.0 platform, PeoPo was designed for citizens to report and share news stories online. In addition, training curricula and courses are provided to empower Taiwanese citizens and organisations so that they are capable of reporting on important environmental, socio-economic and cultural issues. PeoPo’s efforts attracted attention from the mainstream media and international news organisations. Philipe Harding of BBC World News has commented that PeoPo could be a model for citizen journalism and ‘one of the best strategies for extending public media service in the digital era’. Why can PeoPo be influential? How is the platform designed and operated? What are the impacts on participants from the viewpoint of empowerment? What implications does it have on our understanding of the media, online journalism and citizen participation? To answer these questions, this chapter applies the concepts of participatory communication and citizen journalism to examine the development and influences of PeoPo. The discussion includes a brief analysis of this platform and interviews with the platform manager and its citizen reporters. This study thus aims to analyse the practice and influences of PeoPo and how this model would advance our understanding of citizen journalism.<br />
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11. <em>Politics and Social Media in China</em> <br />Lars Willnat, Lu Wei and Jason A. Martin<br />
<br /><br />
This chapter takes stock of the current state of the internet in China by analysing what digital media are available, how they are used within China’s unique political and social environment, and what effects they might have on political engagement among ordinary Chinese. In doing so, the authors rely on as much empirical evidence as possible, even though they realise that this is a fairly new and unexplored topic among China’s scholars. The chapter begins with a description of internet access in China, followed by a more detailed look at the availability and use of social media and blogging. It then discusses the growing significance of online video in China’s public sphere and how this medium has become an important tool for undermining the government’s efforts at controlling social media. Finally, the chapter reviews the current literature on the potential link between social media and political engagement in China.<br />
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12. <em>Online Chinese Nationalism and Its Nationalist Discourses</em><br />Yiben Ma<br />
<br /><br />
No matter how online Chinese nationalism is studied, whether seeing its outgrowth as a signal of an emerging civil society or as a form of public opinion shaping Chinese foreign policies, the phenomenon can hardly be understood without taking two perspectives into account. Firstly, while investigating the potentials of the internet to bring changes to various aspects of Chinese nationalism, equal attention should be paid to the historical, social and institutional context out of which online Chinese nationalism comes into shape. Secondly, any study related to nationalism concerns two indispensable parts, namely the state, with which the masses identify their loyalty; and the masses who translate their nationalist consciousness ‘into deeds of organised action’. Taking both facts into consideration, this chapter aims to first of all embed the concept of Chinese nationalism into a historical, social and institutional context and explain how the concept has evolved and transformed over time in both official and popular discourses. Then it sheds light on the ‘Chinese internet’ per se - the immediate soil where online Chinese nationalism grows. It inspects the peculiarities of the internet that configure the production, dissemination and discussion of online Chinese nationalism. Finally, it endeavours to set up interrelations between Chinese nationalism and the internet by examining the extent to which the internet brings changes to the expression and discussion of Chinese nationalism, and challenges the relations between official and popular players over nationalism issues.<br />
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13. <em>A Cyberconflict Analysis of Chinese Dissidents Focusing on Civil Society, Mass Incidents and Labour Resistance</em><br />Athina Karatzogianni and Andrew Robinson<br />
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This chapter employs the cyberconflict perspective to offer an in-depth analysis of Chinese dissidents in the People’s Republic of China focusing particularly on the 2000s. A distinction is drawn between socio-political (or active) social movement uses of the internet — which focus on organisation, mobilisation and the networked form of the medium itself — and ethno-religious (or reactive) social movement uses, which subordinate the medium to vertical logics. These are often expressed in terms of ad hoc mobilisations and tit-for-tat defacements and cyberattacks adhering to closed and fixed identities, such as nationality, religion and ethnicity.<br />
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14. <em>Workers and Peasants as Historical Subjects: The Formation of Working Class Media Cultures in China</em> <br />Wanning Sun<br />
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Economic reforms, industrialisation, urbanisation and migration since the 1980s have given rise to what is now often described as the ‘new working class’ in China. But is there such a thing as a working class media culture, and if so, what shape and form does a working class media culture take? What are the political, social and economic contexts in which a working class media culture comes to exist? And finally, if there is such a thing as the working class media culture, then what is the relationship between class analysis and media studies in China, and indeed how should future research agendas be shaped by these concerns? This chapter addresses these questions.<br />
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15. <em>An Emerging Middle Class Public Sphere in China? Analysis of News Media Representation of ‘Self Tax Declaration’</em><br />Qian (Sarah) Gong<br />
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This chapter draws on the concept of the public sphere to analyse the democratic potential of the news media in China. It emphasises that in addition to media autonomy, public deliberation based on plural social interests is another major dimension of media democracy. It analyses three news media that represent diverse social interests as well as the ‘journalism domain’ and ‘civic forum’ sectors of the public sphere. Through analysing their representation of a recent tax policy which aims to reduce income inequality, this chapter examines their autonomous civic deliberative function as well as their representative function of plural social interests, drawn from the revisited public sphere concept. It then critically discusses the potential of an emerging middle-class media public sphere in China, which falls short in its inclusion of a wider range of diverse and pluralistic social interests.<br />
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16. <em>Expressing Myself, Connecting with You: Young Taiwanese Females’ Photographic Self-Portraiture on Wretch Album</em><br />Yin-han Wang<br />
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This chapter is part of a broader research project that examines Taiwanese girls’ identity through internet self-portraiture. The empirical data presented in this chapter is based on interviews with forty-two girls aged 13–20 who post self-portraits on Wretch, the most popular social networking site in Taiwan when this project commenced. Interviews were conducted between February and November 2010, mostly through online instant messaging but also a few conducted face-to-face in southern Taiwan. While self-portraiture can be explored from many perspectives, and is sometimes hastily dismissed as pure narcissism, this chapter takes an approach that seeks to understand online self-portraiture as a form of mediated interpersonal communication. The author brings together perspectives on personal photography, mobile communication, and personal relationships in offline and online contexts, and examines the role of self-portraiture — as a kind of visual self-disclosure — in girls’ online and offline interpersonal communication.<br />
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17. <em>Against the Grain: The Battle for Public Service Broadcasting in Taiwan</em><br />Chun-wei Daniel Lin<br />
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This chapter engages with the debate around the expansion of Taiwanese Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) in three main areas of inquiry and conceptualisation: (1) the role of PSB from the perspective of critical political economy, (2) the media in transitional societies with specific reference to Taiwan, and (3) the politics of media representation in the Taiwanese context. One strand in the classic arguments in favour of PSB is particularly addressed in this chapter, that is, the question of what role (if any) PSB can and should play in a televisual environment where consumer choice has been extended by the proliferation of cable and satellite channels. This chapter examines if channel plurality addresses market failures and what distinctive role PSB can play in a multi-channel age. While political and market forces threaten ‘the cultural citizenship’ which stands for citizens’ rights of ‘access to the information and social participation’, one important focus of this study is on the alliances and networks formed by civil society groups or by business interests, and the ways these formations attempt to intervene in the policy marking process by building public and media support and influencing legislators. The competing claims of various groups about the expansion of PSB are the central focus of this chapter.<br />
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18. <em>Public Service Television in China</em><br />Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley and Chien-san Feng<br />
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This chapter traces the development of public service television in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). It unravels the endeavours by Chinese elites to reconcile competing concerns from different sections of the society in implementing Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) within the Chinese context. The authors use the term public service television to include both Chinese public television channels and public interest television. A study on the development of public service television in the PRC reveals to a certain extent how China actually functions, that is, not necessarily as a single-minded and highly efficient unit but as a fragmented entity within which lie multiple, and often self-conflicting, interests and directions. Moreover, while an examination of China’s internal debate on public service television may reaffirm a universal value of PSB in modern public life, it also raises fundamental questions: does PSB only exist in democracies? Can a non-democratic country such as the PRC creates its own version of public service television and if so, how will the Chinese audiences benefit from it?<br />
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19. <em>The Changing Role of Copyright in China’s Emergent Media Economy</em><br />Lucy Montgomery and Xiang Ren <br />
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This chapter introduces the changing role of copyright in China from a historical perspective. It begins by briefly tracing the history of copyright, from a censorship related system associated with the emergence of the printing press in imperial China, through modernisation during the Republican period, abolition under communism, and finally to the introduction of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) first copyright law in 1990 and the nation’s entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001.<br />
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20. <em>Gamers, State and Online Games</em>Anthony Y. H. Fung<br />
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Freedom of the press and plurality of ideas have been enduring issues in the study of the media. Recently, attention has turned to the cultural industries, sometimes also known as creative industries. Broadcasting industries, music industries, film industries, animation, online game industries and other internet-platform run industries are examples of cultural industries. All these cultural industries in total have started to accumulate huge profits and achieved considerable growth. In view of the economic potential and market, and hence strong cultural influence, the state realises that its influence and control should be extended to these industries. This chapter explains how the Chinese authorities attempted to extend their manipulative logic over the emerging creative or cultural industries. Specifically, this chapter focuses on the government’s effort to (re)gain control over the online game industry, a rapidly growing and highly profitable new media platform in which the state has had no experience in terms of both content production and control.<br />
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21. <em>The Geographical Clustering of Chinese Media Production</em><br />Michael Keane<br />
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This chapter examines the geography of audio-visual media production against the backdrop of China’s attempt to modernise and professionalise its media institutions. The author begins with a brief summary of key changes that have transpired before asking what these changes mean for researchers of China’s media. In contrast to many accounts of China’s media that begin with the political imperative, the chapter argues that commercial reforms of the media system are the key driver of change. The chapter then looks at examples of the realignment of regional media production in television, film and animation before focusing on how Beijing and Shanghai have competed to be media industry centres. <br />
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22. <em>The Politics and Poetics of Television Documentary in China</em><br />Qing Cao<br />
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The roots of documentary film run deep in China’s political history. However, the commercialisation drive of the media industry in the 1990s dislodged documentary film from state monopoly. Since then it has expanded substantially in function, subject matter, style and voice. The partial de-politicisation of the media industry has released the pent-up creative energy of media professionals. The current popularity of TV documentary, in contrast to the tired dogmatic propagandist films, signifies a structural change in political communication, in state-society relations and in the dynamics of socio-political transformation. Nonetheless, documentary films like all other forms of media are centrally controlled, and subject to the direct administrative supervision of the State Administration of Press, Publications, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT). In early 2013, in an attempt to tighten its control of proliferating documentaries, the SAPPRFT issued a new regulation centralising the management of topics by publishing an officially proved list every six months. These developments over time reveal both the dynamics of change in the Chinese media and the evolving relationships between political control, market forces and socio-economic transformations. This chapter documents and discusses this development through a chronological and thematic account of the history, structure and key issues of documentaries. Emphasis is given to intrinsic linkages between TV documentaries, their roles and functions and the political, historical and socio-economic context. <br />
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23. <em>Contemporary Chinese Historical TV Drama as a Cultural Genre: Production, Consumption and the State Power</em><br />George Dawei Guo<br />
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This chapter examines the genre of the historical television drama from both the production and the consumption perspectives. The first section focuses on the Chinese television drama industry. The aim of this section is to look at how the Chinese television drama industry has been categorising and evaluating historical drama since the 1980s. The author divides the evolution of Chinese historical drama into three stages: 1984–1992, 1992–2004, and 2004–present. At each stage, the meaning of ‘the historical’ has been conditioned by certain literary, production, scheduling and regulatory circumstances. The discussion on the audience response is based on empirical audience research that the author conducted between 2007 and 2008. The author argues that to a large extent the three audience types — conservatives, culturalists and realists — reveal the respondents’ awareness and perception of state power in their cultural practices of watching the historical drama.<br />
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24. <em>Live Television Production of Media Events in China: The Case of the Beijing Olympic Games</em><br />Limin Liang<br />
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The countdown to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, widely seen as China’s ‘coming out party’, started almost as soon as the city won the Olympic bid in 2001. An important component of this countdown was the media planning within China Central Television (CCTV), which is the state broadcaster and the Olympic TV rights holder in mainland China. The coverage would eventually amount to approximately 3,000 hours of programming across nine TV channels. Drawing from literature on media events and cultural production, this chapter engages with an understudied topic in media events scholarship: the relationship between plans and improvisation at different stages of live broadcasting of a mega event. Related to this, the chapter looks at the perception of ‘uncertainty’ in live television production as well as the strategies developed by media agents to cope with it. Regarding the component of ‘improvisation,’ in particular, the chapter revisits the concept of ‘what-a-story’ in news reporting and uses as a case study, sprinter Liu Xiang’s unexpected withdrawal from the race, as an example to illustrate the dialectic relationship between plan and improvisation.<br />
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25.<em> Negotiated Discursive Struggles in Hyper-Marketised and Oligopolistic Media System: The Case of Hong Kong</em><br />Charles Chi-wai Cheung<br />
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This chapter investigates how the extreme marketisation and oligopolisation of the Hong Kong media constrain and enable representational struggles over youth across different media sectors and theorise the counter-hegemonic potentials, influences and limitations of the counter discursive forces involved. The case study has wider relevance to understanding media pluralism in capitalism. First, discursive struggles over Hong Kong youth are rather unequal. This context of an unequal power struggle is not peculiar to youth, but to different degrees is shared by other powerless groups in Hong Kong and by other capitalist societies. Many scholars have expressed serious concerns about how extreme media marketisation and oligopolisation would disadvantage powerless groups. The case of Hong Kong youth can shed light on ‘what would be’ for powerless groups in such a media environment. Second, the Hong Kong case suggests that representational struggles may be neither intense nor insignificant, but are situated between these two extremes at a location termed by the author ‘negotiated representational struggles’. Negotiated representational struggles should not be dismissed as trivial resistance, as they periodically and sporadically pose challenges to the mainstream with strong and lasting counter-hegemonic effects.<br />
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26. <em>Internationalisation of China’s Television: History, Development and New Trends</em><br />Junhao Hong and Youling Liu<br />
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China’s television represents a highly complicated media system. Not only is it one of the largest television systems in the world and one of the world’s most powerful political and ideological machines, but more importantly it is also a very unique social manifestation. This chapter examines Chinese TV’s internationalisation and the various approaches used by the Chinese government for the internationalisation of television over time. The authors divide the internationalisation of China’s television into four intertwined paths: (1) importing media and cultural products from other countries; (2) co-producing television products with foreign media; (3) exporting television dramas to other countries; and (4) the new trend of internationalisation of China’s television, which is an aggressive strategy of expanding China’s media outlets and their informational and cultural products abroad.<br />
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27. <em>Decoding the Chinese Media in Flux: American Correspondents as an Interpretive Community</em><br />Yunya Song<br />
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American journalists constantly experience tight constraints in China. However, very few academic studies have focused on how American journalists seek the information from the Chinese media, and how they interpret the messages encoded by their Chinese counterparts. The interpretive response of American journalists is not a matter of individual perception alone. While foreign correspondents are typically viewed as loners who set their own agenda, nowhere had the US press corps consorted as much as they did in post-Mao China. This chapter aims to identify what information sources are preferred by the US press corps in their use of Chinese media, and paints a longitudinal portrait of the Chinese media landscape ‘recoded’ by these American journalists. With the view that information seeking does not exist only in the incipient location of information, but also its ensuing ‘relocation’, the concern of this study has been not only with the initial retrieval of facts, but also with shared decoding strategies, to wit, the ways in which American journalists as an interpretive community evaluate and decode local media messages throughout the wider constructive task. Their choice of decoding strategies is not the result of individual self-serving, idiosyncratic renderings of texts but a collective appropriation of texts by virtue of dominant cultural assumptions to suit group interests.<br />
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28. <em>Chinese International Broadcasting, Public Diplomacy and Soft Power</em><br />Gary Rawnsley<br />
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This chapter evaluates the relationship between China’s soft power strategy, its public diplomacy and its international broadcasting capacity. Understanding the connection between these three activities is important for public diplomacy, with international broadcasting as one of its instruments, represents the mobilisation and instrumentalisation of soft power resources: It helps us to understand how soft power resources are converted into behavioural outcomes. The principal themes of this chapter are: (1) the discrepancy between the messages disseminated by China’s international broadcasting stations and the perceptions of China by their audience; (2) the reactive strategy that has determined China’s international broadcasting must be a corrective to both western media reporting about China and the dominance of western media organisations in global news flows; and perhaps most importantly, (3) the question of trust and credibility that surfaces because China’s international broadcasting remains fully embedded within the state system. Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8036905172161176795.post-45834348362211804392015-05-09T10:34:00.003-07:002015-05-09T10:36:19.881-07:00The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Media I am delighted to announce the publication of <em>The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Media</em>, edited with Ming-Yeh Rawnsley. You can find links to the book here <a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415520775/">Routledge</a> and at <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Routledge-Handbook-Chinese-Media-Rawnsley/dp/0415520770/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1431192810&sr=8-1&keywords=Routledge+Handbook+of+Chinese+Media">Amazon</a>.<br />
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To whet your appetite and maybe persuade you to purchase a copy I post here my introduction this collection of essays in which I map out the structure of the volume and explain its approach. <br />
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Shooting ‘at a target that appears easy to focus on at first sight,<br />
but is actually rather elusive’<br />
— Yuezhi Zhao (Chapter 1 this volume) describing her experience of studying the Chinese media.<br />
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In the final stages of preparing this manuscript, the publishing team at Routledge asked us to choose the image we would like to use as a cover for the book. We considered a dozen possibilities, most of which depicted satellite dishes, flickering television screens, the new CCTV building in Beijing or the giant screens in Hong Kong’s Time Square — all rather pedestrian and uninspiring choices, we thought. However, we did find one photograph that spoke to both the vision and shape of the book you are now holding in your hand, and both editors immediately concurred that this should be the front cover. Take a look at it. <br />
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We see two young people — they could be Chinese — sitting in what appears to be an underground train … where? Hong Kong? Singapore? Shanghai? Taipei? London, perhaps? The girl is absorbed in her mobile telephone, the boy sitting beside her is focused on his tablet. They may be reading the news, updating their Facebook status, downloading music, finding a restaurant for dinner, chatting on weibo or playing games. For the editors, this image captured instantly the transforming landscape of Chinese media and communications: A 24/7 information environment defined by the convergence of platforms, multiple methods of vertical and horizontal communication, and the overwhelming sense that one can never be out of contact with friends or out of touch with the world. Technology has shattered the boundaries between personal and mass communications, private and public space, news and entertainment, culture and information, producer and consumer. It has destroyed the temporal and spatial constraints that in the past defined the structure and meaning of our day. Our lives — our friends, our diaries, our memories in photographs, our means of amusement and distraction — are now available in one handy package and accompany us everywhere. Where once we could only ‘download,’ we are all now encouraged to ‘upload’; just as soon as we got used to talking about ‘blogs’, along come ‘tweets’; Youtube users are now able to integrate their films with their Facebook accounts; we are coming to terms with the fact that clouds are no longer just those white fluffy things that float above us in the sky; and we are learning a brand new jargon of 4G, ‘apps’ and ‘android technology’.<br />
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Having surrendered to this new landscape, the editors — one obsessive Tweeter and one hardened player of Candy Crush — realised that the traditional approach to collecting and organising essays on the media had been rendered redundant. We could not include separate sections for print, television and film, for the convergence of platforms has made such distinctions obsolete. We refused to concede to fashion and label one section ‘New Media’: When do new media stop being new? For the generation who grew to adolescence after the 1990s, there is nothing new about the internet and social media. ‘New media’ is a tired classification used among the generations, including the editors, who can recall the dark times before the internet and email. Moreover, studies of journalism, culture, information and entertainment can no longer treat the ‘new media’ as separate categories, a sideshow, when journalists now blog, tweet and broadcast through the internet (how can media studies departments still justify delivering separate journalism and new media degrees?); and when new networks are choosing to upload major drama series made exclusively for the internet, turning their backs on more conventional methods of broadcasting (of course we’re thinking here of Netflix and the massive global hit drama series, House of Cards).<br />
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Neither could we group the chapters according to geographical focus, for space and time have far less meaning now than they did a generation ago. The rapid development of new communications technologies and their almost immediate adoption by users (as recently as 2013 a Chinese student said to one of the editors, ‘You still use Whatsapp? That is so old!’) shapes and is shaped by equally transformative processes in politics, economics and culture. Globalisation and communication can no longer be analysed as distinct creatures; and this dense interconnected and relational environment generates its own logic and new challenges — for users, producers and governments — that were unthinkable only a decade before this book appeared.<br />
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Globalisation and the new communications landscape also help us to understand the necessity of analysing multiple definitions of ‘China’ and ‘Chinese’. In this book we recognise China as a distinct nation-state that is officially called the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Our use of the term ‘Chinese’ in the title of the book refers to a culture and civilisation that is not tied to any particular territorial or political unit. It broadens the focus, allows for a more inclusive approach and permits our fellow contributors to discuss not only the PRC, but also Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as the regional and global flows of communications and cultures. Thus we are concerned with three societies which adopt very different perspectives on what the media can and should do, and how they can and should operate. Rogier Creemers in Chapter 3 notes that this debate is particularly pronounced in the PRC where the policy environment and the governance of the media are designed to help the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) maintain its own position, namely ‘monopolising the public debate within the Chinese territory. This extends to the production of documentaries and historical dramas (Cao and Guo in this volume) in which continued government supervision has provoked the cultural industries into adopting a cautious approach to creating programmes. Hong Kong’s media are facing a set of unique challenges that reflect the politically-guarded nature of news journalism (encouraging a growing culture of self-censorship among reporters) framed by the territory’s peculiar position within the PRC’s orbit. Yet Taiwan too, often labelled the ‘first Chinese democracy’ (Chao and Myers 1998), is confronting its own difficulties as the media there continue to negotiate and re-negotiate their roles and responsibilities in a highly polarised democratic society. All three Chinese societies are coming to terms with the demands of market forces and an under-researched claim that audiences thirst for ever more sensationalist news, gossip and scandal. The similarities and differences experienced by the media and their consumers in the PRC, Hong Kong and Taiwan — and their interactions with each other and the rest of the region and the world — validate Daya Thussu’s observation: The ‘global media landscape’, he noted, is now ‘multicultural, multilingual, and multinational. Digital communication technologies in broadcasting and broadband have given viewers in many countries the ability to access simultaneously a vast array of local, national, regional and international’ media products (Thussu 2014: 8).<br />
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Emerging from this terrain of cross-national flows of communication, entertainment and news that breaches the personal and the public and is oblivious to considerations of time and space, is a complex, non-linear evolution of media processes, industries and agencies that erode further the increasingly fragile partitions between society, culture, economics and politics. These are issues discussed in Part I of this volume in which Yuezhi Zhao, Colin Sparks and Rogier Creemers reflect on the ‘state of the field’ from national and international perspectives. They identify the principal themes, questions and concerns that drive the subsequent chapters and engage with Chinese media on multiple disciplinary and geographical levels. The discussions in Part I embed the volume in a discourse of transformation — of the location and exercise of global power, in the nature of capitalism, and in Chinese and global media spaces. At the forefront in Part I, and in Part II which is concerned with varying understandings of, and practices in journalism, are questions about media economy and shifting ideological priorities; the relationship between state, media and society; accountability, social mobilisation and empowerment; and the laws and regulatory frameworks and processes that govern media architectures and practices. In a novel approach to communications Anthony Y.H. Fung’s chapter on online gaming reveals the challenges facing the Chinese government in constructing appropriate frameworks to regulate a completely new landscape. The levels of popular participation and interactivity involved in gaming have provoked government authorities, finding themselves with little jurisdiction in the game environment, to reconsider their relationship with the cultural industries; while at the same time opening new opportunities for online participants to take control and shape their own virtual worlds. This represents a unique and unprecedented form of negotiation between government and civil society in China.<br />
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Meanwhile, Joseph M. Chan and Francis L.F. Lee remind us of the way the media — and especially new media technologies — have played an essential role in the rise of social movements in Hong Kong. This is of course not limited to Hong Kong: in It’s Still Kicking Off Everywhere (2013), Paul Mason reflected on the global wave of protest and revolution. The book includes the so-called ‘Arab Spring’, the ‘Occupy movement’, and riots in Athens and London, and documents how social media have both encouraged and facilitated popular mobilisation throughout the world. Mason quotes one activist who explained her use of the social media during meetings and captured succinctly their democratic benefits: ‘We use Twitter to expand the room’ (Mason 2013: 45).<br />
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Since the landmark protests of 1 July 2003 when the conversation about Hong Kong’s future expanded to the 500,000 participants who marched to force the government to postpone a controversial national security bill, we have observed frequent protest activity there, including the annual vigil in memory of the victims of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. We have witnessed a similar trend in Taiwan where, following the occupation (assisted by the mobilisation power of social media) of the legislature by the so-called Sunflower Movement in the Spring of 2014, the number of demonstrations involving people from all walks of life and political persuasions, concerned about an expanding range of issues, have proliferated (e.g. Cole 2014).<br />
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The themes of mobilisation and empowerment are explored further by the contributors in Part III who explore the formation and expression of particular political, social and economic identities. The internet, social media and the adoption of public service broadcasting (PSB) models have modified both the structure of, and popular participation in, the public sphere. But there are limits: In Taiwan, as Chun-wei Daniel Lin notes in this volume, the (re)constitution of the public sphere has revolved around PSB. Although taking reference from the experience of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), debates about PSB in Taiwan have revealed less a commitment to its ideals than a contest between competing elites, with the public largely excluded from debates. This connects to Rawnsley and Feng’s chapter on the development of PSB in China and Cheung’s discussion on the lack of PSB in Hong Kong. While Cheung points out that ‘without a strong public media tradition, the Hong Kong media are hyper-marketised’, Rawnsley and Feng concur with Raymond Williams (1976: 130): ‘In one way the basic choice is between control and freedom, but in actual terms it is more often a choice between a measure of control and a measure of freedom, and the substantial argument is about how these can be combined’. <br />
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In Part III our contributors evaluate how the boundaries between the personal and private have adjusted to new communications technologies, and one example is the curious development of the ‘selfie’ among young Taiwanese females (Wang’s chapter). It is good to remind ourselves that prior to the word ‘selfie’ entering the Oxford English Dictionary, and long before no celebrity, prime minister or president could consider themselves either authentic or popular (populist?) until they had tweeted a photograph of themselves taken on their own mobile phone, young people throughout Greater China were documenting their everyday lives through digital self-portraiture. Is this another example of the global flow of culture from east to west, confounding the advocates of the old-fashioned ‘cultural imperialism’ thesis? And how does this global flow connect with frameworks that approach the impact of online nationalism and the way Chinese views themselves and are viewed by global audiences (Ma in this volume), and China’s growing commitment to exercising ‘soft power’ among its neighbours and the world (Sparks and Gary Rawnsley in this volume)? Selfies, as in the other examples identified by the essays in Part III, confirm that it is no longer possible to mark a clear distinction between producer and consumer, an issue that is again addressed in Parts II and III when the phenomenon of citizen journalism is considered as a supplement to (rather than replacement of) mainstream professional news reporting. This expansion of citizen journalism, as well as the growth in popular participation and intervention in news processes, is of course a product of evolving communications technologies, but is also partly explained by an apparent decline across the Chinese world in the quality of mainstream journalism via the pressures of marketisation and commercialism. This is certainly the case in Taiwan where, as Chen-ling Hung notes in this volume, ‘citizen journalism has emerged at a time of widespread distrust of the sensational and commercial media’. The development of the ‘PeoPo’ platform in Taiwan has occurred alongside the evolution of PSB, and it is not a coincidence that PeoPo was created by Taiwan’s Public Television Service (PTS). This symbiosis has encouraged a new form of democratic participation in Taiwan’s media, but given the small audience enjoyed by PTS, is it making any real difference? Or are the converted merely preaching to the choir?<br />
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The theme of marketisation runs through Part IV in which our contributors use a range of examples — including China’s evolving copyright culture, online gaming (a very recent and welcome addition to media studies), the ‘clustering’ of Chinese media production, and specific case-studies of genres and events — to consider the interactions of Chinese cultural and media industries, free markets and issues of global governance. In the essay by Charles Chi-wai Cheung we learn how market forces help define the powerful and the powerless in Hong Kong. Using representations of youth as the focal point for his discussion, Cheung not only helps us to understand media representations of young people and their issues in Hong Kong, but also how youth groups and groups acting on their behalf engage in a form of resistance to disrupt mainstream representations. So the chapter also brings to our attention questions of visibility and the way media representation can decide who is deemed important, legitimate, and authoritative. This connects with the discussions by Athina Karatzogianni and Andrew Robinson (on dissidents in China), Wanning Sun (on the working classes) and Sarah Qian Gong (on the salaried and lower middle classes). <br />
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We move beyond the region in Part V to analyse the global dimension of Chinese media. Our contributors discuss the way that China, broadly defined, is seen through foreign eyes and how the media help to project the particularly favourable image identified by the government in Beijing as a way of changing the global conversation about China. So Yunya Song evaluates how American journalists have ‘decoded’ China and Chinese media reports to narrate the incredible changes that have taken place in the country since the end of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1970s. This then feeds into Gary Rawnsley’s chapter on China’s public diplomacy and ‘soft power’ in which he argues that China’s strategy of global engagement through its growing international presence has been determined less by clear foreign policy or diplomatic objectives, and more to correct what Beijing considers a distorted and inaccurate picture of China in foreign media. The interconnected nature of the global media space, highlighted by Junhao Hong and Youling Liu who discuss the interactions of the Chinese media industries with their foreign counterparts, has given rise to a most curious situation: the world is watching China watching the world watching China. Such is the complexity of the modern technologically-driven international space, but it also demonstrates the capacity of the media to hold a mirror to themselves and reflect back to their own domestic audiences a view that may be a little more unpalatable than desired. In 2008, of course, the world was watching China live when Beijing hosted the Olympic Games. This exercise in soft power, discussed by Limin Liang in Chapter 24 as a ‘media event’, has been described as both China’s ‘coming out party’ (Leibold 2010) and a ‘campaign of mass distraction’ (Brady 2009), demonstrating that in discussing ‘soft power’ we have to remember that power lies not with the source of the message, but with the audience; for, as Song reminds us in Chapter 27, the audience can decide whether and how to receive, interpret and act upon particular messages. This is also addressed on a local level by George Dawei Guo who calls for the returns of ‘audience’ to studies of Chinese television drama. How viewers receive the official representation of Chinese history — in fiction or in documentaries (Cao in this volume) will determine whether or not the government’s objective to create a new nationalist discourse (discussed by Yiben Ma in Chapter 12) will be successful. History has long proved a successful theme in the national propaganda of any country. China has a particularly long and complex historical narrative from which to draw its communications capacity (Rawnsley & Rawnsley 2010); and both Hong Kong and Taiwan are now constructing their own historical narratives that may define the way they see themselves and how they are seen by the world.<br />
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We hope this book confirms what the authors have long known: that studying the Chinese media — in the PRC, Taiwan and Hong Kong — is a complex, exciting and challenging endeavour, but one which pays dividends in understanding how the media landscape is both an agent and an object of transformations taking place there. All three societies are engaged in intricate and sometimes difficult processes of change that affect their politics, culture, society and relationships with the world beyond their borders. Our contributors have adopted unique approaches and case-studies that we hope will challenge the conventional methods of analysing not only the Chinese media, but the media in a more global and comparative perspective. We expect that the discussions here will raise more questions and issues; and we know full well that, because of the speed at which these societies are changing and communications technologies are developing the specific data presented will soon be out of date, though the frameworks, perspectives and insights offered here will remain relevant. At that point, we hope that a second volume may address the new Chinese media landscape now evolving before our eyes. Gary Rawnsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13357725443625620182noreply@blogger.com0