Why Authoritarian Governments In Asia Control The Media Politics Essay

Why Authoritarian Governments In Asia halt The Media Politics EssayAuthoritarian ordainments or presidential terms contri b arlye evermore been considered by occidental scholars or politicians as standing on the blow side of body politic. In those severalizes within which media argon directled, the freedom of speech, forgiving chastises and democracy rebriny big tints of those democrats. Asia, the largest continent in the world, boasts its diversified politic forms, be it classless regimes, like Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korean and quasi-democratic ones like Thailand, as vigorous as sniffy ones like Mainland China, North Korean and Burma. The role of media in Asia varies with the policy-making style, from free to restrain. This essay, then, primarily focuses on exploring the reason why springitarian regime expects to recede suss out of media from the policy-making, cultural, technological and economic perspectives.Media in authoritarian rule in AsiaAut horitarian government refers to the government that concentrates power in the hands of a leader or a sm any chemical radical of elites unelected by the wad and is opposed to individualism and democracy. Although authoritarian governments al steerings lead that their existence is to protect the res publica and to bring home the bacon discipline and order to its way of life and that the traditional culture should be aggressively maintained against go on external or contemporary culture (Robert McKenzie, 2006 73-74), the reality is in the paired side that those basic components of a civil society like human rights, free randomness, free speech, social justice, etc. are al around eliminated or constrained in the so called order and traditional culture.As what Myung-Jin Park,James Curran(1999) plosive out, authoritarian regimes stern be divided into three major forms single- political party regime, multitude regime and sacred regime. In Asia, countries move be entitled as a uthoritarian are Brunei (the executive authority lies with the unelected sultan), China ( order under commieic single party rule), Laos (a communist single party state), Burma (military rule), North Korea (one-party rule), Oman (ruled by a patrimonial sultan, and no policy-making parties are legal and no opposition movement), Qatar (ruled by hereditary emirates), Saudi Arabia Syria United Arab Emirates (ruled by hereditary emirates), Vietnam (communist single-party state).Media in these authoritarian regimes house be either backstagely or publicly owned plainly must resort to the control of the state. a great deal(prenominal) control means that the media are never allowed to expose the information that opposes the get out of judgment class or interest groups strictly related to the government. Media seat criticize the government, but not the supreme level which takes the hold of the highest power. They have certain degree of freedom, but it is only restricted to the repor ts and programs unrelated to governmental areas, such as entertainment, sports, travel, etc.In authoritarian rule, Robert McKenzie (2006) points out 2 procedures that are commonly implemented censorship and punishment. In terms of the censorship of the media subject area, it involves deuce steps state censorship and self-censorship. State censorship is utilise when speech and communication are contrary to state objectives, then the depicted object is banned for dissemination. Self-censorship is the bear of intently censoring ones own publications, blogs, films, news scripts, TV programs or early(a) means of expression without direct pressure from the authority, in order not to disseminate the content against the government objectives. So afterward finishing ones work, he or she may remove inappropriate bodily for fear of sanction by the government. With the above two kinds of censorship, media only declare the voice of the government or persuasion class instead of the peo ple.With the see to it to the punishment, the consequence is always conditioned by the seriousness of the illegal content. In the authoritarian rule, the state has the right to penalize individuals and media organizations for seditious libel (Robert McKenzie, 2006). Since the authoritarian societies are under the rule of men instead of law, the punishment can be various types according to the leaders leave, such as confiscating private facilities, incarceration of media professionals, expiration, commodious-term prison, or even death.The content of media in varied countries may vary, but one common feature of the authoritarian states in Asia is that media are controlled or owned by the state. Therefore, the information the audience accredited in the media reflect not the interest of the people but the ruling class, no matter how capable or how hard-working the leaders are, because it is the scheme of a state that decides the role of the media.Reasons for the authoritarian seek ing to control the mediaAccording to Denis Mcquail(2005), in that respect are tetrad types of control over media control of content for political reasons control of content for cultural and/or moral reasons control of infrastructures for practiced reasons and control infrastructures for economic reasons. These reasons can serve as a guidepost for the author to explore further.1. Control for political reasonsThe influence of media in political societies is immense and should never be underestimated. As what Katrin Voltmer and Gary Rawnsley (2010)point out, the function of media in democratic society is to (a) provide a forum where all voices can be heard and engage in a dialogue with each other, and (b) to act as a dwelldog of the government. However, the effect of these above two functions are what the authoritarian ruling elites want to decrease, because they are not only the functions, but inherent nature of media, and if without control, the innate force leave bring the med ia to the peoples side. indeed the pluralistic tones and voices will appear that are unlikely all to adapt to the political will proposed by the ruling elites.But if we stand at the point of the authoritarian government, the control seems to be necessary, because the media have too much voltage power that could be used to unseat the state or destabilize the country (Robert McKenzie, 2006 73-74). What the authoritarian governments most badnessly need is stability, for in chaos the power of the people will release and it is uneasy to be taken control again. Take China as an example. The government makes every effort to forbid the expressions related to Tiananmen event in 1989, for fear of arousing other wave of opponents that might shake the foundation of the superstructure. Although the information is axis of rotationked in mainland China, related videos, books, magazines and reports from abroad however remain hard evidence, which can be a great threat against the authority o f communist party. Only if those media live on inaccessible to people can the central government avoid losing instigate from the public. Therefore, the authoritarian media can in any case be a watchdog, but to watch people instead of the government.Beside, evanescen that the president or premier or the elite ruling group has the high morality, responsibility, wisdom and really concern the people, it is unlikely for them to make sure that every official they appoint or appointed by their appointers other than through the election from the people ensue the principles of the constitution. Holding great power and backed by the superior, bureaucractism, red-tapism and corruption will generate, which means that only by controlling the media can they cover their bad deeds, without knowing from the above and the public. But if even the supreme rulers or elites group have ulterior or scandal of their own, degree of control will be much stricter and the free of media is far from possible .In addition, since the media belong to the government, they can be used as a powerful agency to propagate, honor and sublimate the value and merits of the ruling concept, thus win more boldness and understanding over disagreement. The news from the state-owned media is always the wise decisions and favorable policies which give the people hope and better future, but seldom is thither whatsoever voice that directly criticizes the state leaders or central government.2. Control for cultural reasonsAlmost all authoritarian countries in Asia have their grotesque as well as dominating traditional or political culture. These cultures not only determine the patterns of thought of the people, but likewise provide a well constructed harbor for the elite ruling groups to prevent their regime from the impact of the outside world. Media, therefore, can serve as a effectual shaft to further tone up the preexisted culture on the one hand, and to deal and spread the domestic culture to th e world on the other. In this sense, to control the media is to about extent to control the mind of the mass people. The following depth psychology will focus on the analysis from several powerful cultures.The most distinguished culture in Asia may be Islamism, a belief that Islam is a political ideology, as well as a faith. For this culture, to control the media is to maintain the purity of the peoples thought and enhance the loyalty to the god.It is a modernist direct that political sovereignty belongs to God, that the Sharia should be used as state law, that Muslims form a political rather than a religious bloc around the world and that it is a religious duty for all Muslims to pull in a political entity that is governed as such.(http//www.quilliamfoundation.org/faqs.html)Based on the above definition, religious belief becomes legitimate tool and peoples behaviors are judged by the Quran. They believe in one God and resist other faiths. thusly the Islamic content is dominan t in media. The westward thought, belief, values as well as culture are severely censored and are considered conflict to Islam. For them, the religion and politic are tied extremely close to each other. So if the religion or culture is affected by outside or different impact, the political rule will also be impaired. just about other powerful culture is communist culture. In this culture, to control the media is to prevent the glide slope and cultural impact from the outside world.In present China, North Korea, Laos, Vietnam, the culture is influence by communist party rather than Confucianism, even though some parts of the behaviors and thoughts still follow the principles proposed by Confucius. Communist culture is relatively young but very influential. At the very beginning of the communist party, those vanguards did roofy up educational and honorable examples that inspire the fellow country men and women to fight against outside invasion. They did win peoples trust that th e communist party will bring them freedom, democracy and equality. But communism is based on the philosophy proposed by Karl Marx that it is possible to create an egalitarian or classless society by means of working as a corporate whole. Besides, there is a huge difference of the definition of democracy. While western world regard democracy as characterized by free speech, two or multiparty and mass election, the communism believe that the democracy is to liberate people and let people become the sovereign master. Ever since the Marxism was applied by the developing countries, the capitalism has become their enemy. The western thought and value as well as ways of running economy are all considered as against the communist belief. Therefore, everything from the western world is banned or delimitate as evil. In extreme case like North Korea, the compute of the party is always the representative of justice, while those western capitalist societies are shown as the lack enlightenment of communist thought. In this environment, the people are deprived of the idea to fight against free speech, liberty and democracy, because as what media show, there are in this process.3. Control for technological reasonsWith the organic evolution of high engineering science, particularly the booming of the internet, the battle between media control and anti-control has been largely upgraded. Modern communication theory technologies mean that authoritarian governments find it ever more difficult to hermetically seal their borders and prevent their people from receiving often uncomfortable news, information and tactual sensation from overseas sources (Katrin Voltmer and Gary Rawnsley, 2010). On the other hand, the ruling elites clearly know that to control the core technology is to hold the initiative advantage, so the high technology is not only widely applied by people, but also by the government as a fairly useful tool to exercise censorship, underground investigation as w ell as supervisory.In other word, the authoritarian government plays the role of defense, while the dissidents and civil right fighters act as the role of offense, and the rest becomes the audience, looking on the development of the game. This means that even though people can create some software to get access to the blocked information, government then can renew the fire-wall and all kinds of software to block the sensitive expressions, detect the opinion initiators, or even control them. After all, the power of individuals is relatively small. They do not have enough economic income to keep them fighting longer. They are intelligent and are able to find the flaw of the censorship system, but seldom is there anyone daring to cross the bottom line of the ruling class. However, the government has sufficient financial stomach. It can establish well-equipped companies and hire a group of highly professional hackers or internet veterans to help the information control and monitoring. New technology or the new media does provide the citizens with a platform to voice out their opinions and unfair experience with the government and the loose officials will do meet their deserved consequence. Nevertheless, no government wants its system to be corrupted and then lose its efficiency. In this sense, new technology also helps the government to find a new method to govern the stuff and officials.4. Control for economic reasonsWhen studying the media issues, economic respect should be considered, for mass media is not only a social institution, but also an industry. With the regard to the present essay, the reasons of media control from the economic perspective are mainly focused on the issue of ownership.Altschull(1984) in his second law of journalism says the contents of media always reflect the interests of those who finance them. That is to say, the economic structure of the state decides the structure of the media industry, thus determines the role of media. Specif ically, in authoritarian regime, the state owns the media, and the main sources of income are advertising, consumer revenue as well as the state financial support. What should be noticed is that the most powerful enterprises in authoritarian states are commonly the state-owned or royal relates-owned industries, which contribute a lion administer of the advertising investments. Those state-owned companies not only have continuously financial support from the central government, but also take control of the choices of the consumers, in other word, the market. The vulnerable private media companies, though exist, can seldom have the opportunities to set foot in the most influential market like transmit industry and are faced with severe competition from various aspects. Then the domination of powerful state-owned companies in communication industries remains as an untraversable barrier for private sectors. Consequently, since the government controls the market, that media are contro lled becomes a nature process. terminusThe study of the relationship between government and the media involves a various simulacrum of research and analysis. The present essay at first introduces the situation of media in authoritarian regimes in Asia. When media are unable to perform as an performer of democratic transition and consolidation, they become the important means of enforcing the authoritarian or totalitarian rule. Serving as the lapdog and gatekeeper of the government and accompanied by the relevant law and policy, the position of media is fixed and can hardly be changed. Consequently, the people have to be careful with the serious censorship and take the risk of being punished if they seek to rebel the government will.The decision for government to control the media can be analyzed in four aspects. The first one is the political aspect that government takes the media as a useful tool to maintain the stability of ideology, reinforce the governance and to kill truth and dirt deeds of the rulers themselves. In terms of the cultural reasons, the author tries to find result from studying to distinctive cases of Islam culture and communist culture. A common feature of the both cultures is that the government seeks to manipulate media through keeping the purity of the culture, thus erecting a shield to resist the western democratic thought and culture. With the regard to the technological sphere, the government does realize the potential threat from the booming internet communication, so they intently act as a powerful defender to defend the attack from the domestic and abroad on the one hand, and makes most use of the high technology to strengthen itself on the other. The last reason is from the economic sphere that since the authoritarian government has the huge influence on the market, it influences the media industry as well. Owned and financed by state-run enterprises, the media industry is unchallengeablely controlled by the government.All i n all, the media independence is a long process, and the freedom of media and information follows the political reform, cultural transformation and globalization, technological packaging as well as economic development. Although media are controlled, they are still able to play a significant role in get-up-and-go forward the social progress of these authoritarian countries in Asia,