Digital Asia Rising Ying Chan Journalism and Media Studies Center The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, China

Digital Asia Rising World’s largest telecom and ICT market World’s fastest growing telecom market ICT industries major players in global markets – 3G, mobile applications Recognized models of independent media Proliferation of individual and alternative forms of media production Emerging civil society in cyberspace

Internet Penetration in Asia ( Dec 2005 ) Source: Internetworldstats.com

Top 20 Countries in Broadband Penetration Source: Telecompaper

Asia/Pacific Semiannual Fixed-Line Telecom Services MARCH 2003

International Corporations Retreating from Journalism Asiaweek (2001, Time Warner) Far Eastern Economic Review (2004, DJ) STAR TV (2005, News Corp) Business Week International Edition (2005) Asian Wall Street Journal (2005, DJ) Time magazine (2005, Time Warner)

Alternative Media Forms Challenging traditional Media Ohmynews Malaysiakini Philippines Center for Investigative Journalism EastSouthWestNorth Blogs, portals

The Paradigm Change ` Mainstream media vs. alternative media MSM vs new media Or Corporate media vs independent media Party/state media vs independent media

Challenges Ahead Bridging the digital divide inside Asia and within countries; lowering costs, increasing access Combating censorship and state control Capacity building, creating sustainability for independent media Fostering the independent/citizen media model – SPREAD THE GOSPEL!

Digital News Environments Embryonic – East Timor, Afghanistan Emerging – Nepal, Bangladesh Negotiating - China Intermediate – India, Philippines Mature – Australia, New Zealand Advanced – Japan, South Korea (Madanmohan Rao)

Digital Access Index Infrastructure: fixed tel lines; mobile/100 households Affordability: cost of Internet access Knowledge: literacy, school enrollment Quality: bits per capita Usage: Internet users/100 people

Creating the Fifth Estate “The answer (to corporate media) is simple. We have to create a new estate, a Fifth Estate, that will let us put a civic force against this new coalition of (media) rulers.” John Pilger, British Journalist and author of Tell Me No Lies, Investigative Journalism that Changed the World.

Forward to the Fifth Estate “ Creating international association of journalists, academics, newspaper readers, radio listeners and television viewers that operates as a ‘counterweight’ to the great corporations monitoring, analyzing and denouncing them.” John Pilger

THANK YOU Ying Chan The University of Hong Kong Shantou University, PRC