Schedium

I joined Substack only recently, around the time when the platform launched its Twitter-style feature called Notes . Just as I was starting to warm up to it, I saw on my timeline the following Note from Substack promoting a podcast by the company's co-founder Hamish McKenzie: "In this week’s episode of The Active Voice podcast, @Hamish McKenzie talks to @Richard Hanania about the origins of wokeness, the long reach of civil rights law, and the future of the culture wars." Who is Richard Hanania, you might ask? That's how The Active Voice introduces him : "[A]s the pandemic intensified online tribalism, [Richard Hanania] emerged with a provocative analysis that carried the headline “Why Is Everything Liberal?” The piece, which explores why almost every major institution in the U.S. leans left, did the rounds on Twitter, announcing Richard’s arrival as a distinctive new voice in American politics discourse. "Soon enough, he followed it up with a series of othe...

Shortly after the First World War, a British media tycoon launched a campaign to pressure the UK government to end what he described as an "orgy of spending" and "appalling taxation." He urged drastic cuts in public spending, the privatisation of state-owned shipyards and factories, the abolition of regulations, and lower taxes. The press magnate was Lord Rothermere. He and his brother, Lord Northcliffe, owned some of the most popular British newspapers of the time, such as the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Pictorial, the Sunday Mail, The Times and the Daily Mail (Curran et al. 1991, pp. 50-51; Olmsted 2022, p. 21). They used their media empires to shape public opinion in order to reinforce conservative values, oppose the rise of the Labour Party, and lambaste the Liberal-Conservative government's brief post-war support for investments in housing, education and welfare. But they also tapped into an emerging middle class resentment towards progressive policies and rap...

On February 19 Xi Jinping made a high-profile visit to China's three major news outlets, Xinhua News Agency, China Network Television and People's Daily. During his tour, Xi laid out his vision for the future of the Chinese media industry. And this vision is: journalists must do what the Party says.  Xi ordered state- and Party-owned media to strictly follow the Party's leadership and focus on " positive reporting ". They must work "to speak for the Party's will and its propositions and protect the Party's authority and unity". They must act as their "publicity fronts".  They must align "their ideology, political thinking and deeds to those of the ... Central Committee [of the Chinese Communist Party] and help fashion the Party's theories and policies into conscious action by the general public while providing spiritual enrichment to the people". 

Xi Jinping does not miss a chance to show who is in charge. From the army to the internet , from the arts to the economy , the Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party is eager impose on every sector of society his vision of the new China. And this vision is based on a simple principle: the "people" must follow the leadership of the Party, and the Party must follow his leadership. On February 19 Xi Jinping paid a high-profile visit to CNTV , China 's state television channel. He visited the control room and the broadcasting studio, took photos with journalists and was connected with the headquarters of CNTV in Washington DC. According to state-owned newspaper People's Daily , "90% of the staff [of CNTV] were present during the visit, Xi Jinping sent his greetings to the entire crew and wished them all the best". The obsequious faces of the TV staff show clearly why more and more young Chinese journalists are giving up on their profession...

To Singapore with Love , a documentary film by Singaporean director Tan Pin Pin, has been banned in Singapore due to national security concerns. The film revolves around the lives of activists, student leaders and members of the communist party who fled the country between the 1960's and the 1980's in the midst of crackdowns carried out by the British colonial government and then the government of the new Republic.  The Media Development Authority (MDA) , a government agency that supervises Singapore's media, decided that the film is "not allowed for all ratings", which means that it cannot be distributed or publicly screened in Singapore.  

How free are media in Hong Kong? This is a question I couldn't help asking myself these days. In a previous post I wrote about Alpais Lam Wai-Sze , a primary school teacher who swore at police officers because they allegedly did not prevent a Communist association from harassing members of Falun Gong, a religious group that is illegal in mainland China. The media response to this event in Hong Kong was very critical. Not critical of the police, but of the teacher and of Falun Gong. I would go as far as to say that the teacher has been the victim of a slander campaign. How deep Hong Kong media's self-censorship is, has become clear to me by reading the South China Morning Post (SCMP). The SCMP, which was once considered one of the best English language newspapers in Asia, constantly features pro-establishment, pro-Beijing, and anti-democracy articles. One example of this I could see yesterday, on Monday 19.   On page A2 appeared the usual column by Alex Lo. I have ...