Asad in search of legitimacy

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Ki-Sung Kwak

Since South Korea achieved partial democracy in 1987, the country has moved away from authoritarian political control. However, after two decades of democratic transition, South Korea still does not have a strong liberal, individualist culture - something that has brought about a wide range of scholarly discussion on the nature of democracy practised in this dynamic country. While the political changes in South Korea have received rigorous attention from Western scholars, less attention has been given to the changing nature and role of media in this and other such transitions. This book focuses on the changing role of media in the more democratised political landscape of South Korea. It thereby contributes to debates about the emerging role of the media in democratic transition, especially in relation to approaches that go beyond traditional Western constructs of media freedom and the relationship between the state and the media. In addition, it discusses the complex interacting forces that affect the role of the media and their implications for state control and democratisation.

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Patrick Day

"Who owned the first newspapers in New Zealand and how did they get started? What were the logistics of such an enterprise? What sort of readership did they attract? What exactly was the role of the newspaper in colonial society? Patrick Day gives a comprehensive account of the evolving forms and functions of newspapers in this crucial period. He describes those changes which saw newspapers shift from being political discussion forums for higher status politicians to profit oriented businesses concerned with advertising and newsgiving. Offering a revealing picture of how power was organised through a nascent press, this book is a significant contribution to our understanding of the forces that shaped journalism." -- Back cover.

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Angela Romano and Michael Bromley

The contributors address key issues of freedom, democracy, citizenship, openness and journalism in contemporary Asia, looking especially at China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and India.

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Mark J. Rozell

Over the past decade, the public's opinion of Congress has declined - election after election - to record lows. Mark J. Rozell examines the reasons for the electorate's ongoing disgust with its legislature. Putting recent Congresses in historical perspectives, he notes that our modern representatives are actually less corrupt than those of the past, due in large measure to increased public scrutiny and ongoing tightening of ethics and conflict of interest rules. Still, the public remains skeptical, indeed hostile, toward this most representative national institution. Rozell finds that much of the blame goes to highly negative press coverage of the Congress, and government in general, and that while Congress has always been a favorite target of critics and comedians, healthy skepticism has now largely been replaced by a debilitating cynicism that undermines the foundations of representative government. This is a major study which will be of interest to scholars and students of American politics, government, and media.