Mediating Asia| Between State and Capital: Asia’s Media Revolution in the Age of Neo-Liberal Globalization

Abstract

The media revolution that has swept across Asia since the 1990s is often characterized as a technologically driven phenomenon. At a deeper level, it has been animated by a multifaceted neoliberal political project and economic globalization, which has in turn fueled the rise of satellite, broadband, and mobile media. As technologies and cultural options proliferated, policy makers in many countries of East Asia and the Middle East have shifted their priorities from the regulation of distribution and personal consumption to the promotion of favored commercial partners and hybrid state media institutions. Focusing on Arab and Chinese screen media, this article examines the profound tensions between transnational commercial media capital and nationally based official media capital, delineating some of the complex dynamics that are remediating Asia in ways that were previously unimaginable.