Three Case Studies of Infonnation Flows in Japan, China and Hong Kong
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UNIVERSITY O~ 1-Ih'vV.hllLlBAARY. BALANCING THE FLOW IN A WORLD OF INFORMATION: Three Case Studies of Infonnation Flows in Japan, China and Hong Kong A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN POLITICAL SOENCE MAY 2003 By James D. White Dissertation Committee: James Dator, Chairperson Meheroo Jussawalla Peter Manicas Deane Neubauer Patricia Steinhoff Joan Johnson-Freese © Copyright 2003 James D. White iii Acknowledgements I want to thank my dissertation committee for their guidance and patience. I would also like to thank the 60 plus people, from all walks of life, who agreed to be interviewed for this research and who in a real sense made it possible. I have received advice, support and encouragement from many friends and colleagues, but in particular would mention Joseph Man Chan (Hong Kong), Karen Laidler (Hong Kong), Russ McCulloch (Tokyo), John Provo (Tokyo), Mary Wood (London), Sohail Inayatullah (Queensland), Ellis Krauss (San Diego), Manfred Steger (Illinois) and Brien Hallett (Honolulu). I would also like to acknowledge my coworkers at the Globalization Research Center, who have done much to stimulate my thinking about globalization, in particular the members of the Globalization Atlas and Portal Project team and the production crew of the television series "Living in a Global World." Practical support for some of the field research was received from the following institutions: the Pacific Telecommunications Council, Honolulu, for travel support to Tokyo, Hong Kong and Bangkok in 1994; the Center for Chinese Studies, University of Hawaii, as part of its Peking University Exchange Program, which supported research in Hong Kong, Yunnan, and Beijing in 1997; and the Eu Tong Sen Memorial Exchange Program, University of Hawaii, which supported research in Hong Kong and Tokyo in 1998. The biggest burden of over-ambitious research falls on those who have to deal with the consequences of absences, physical and mental. My wife Jianglan and my children Jonathan and Jerome handled this unfair load for too long. Their love and affection is what made this work possible. IV ABSTRACT The pattern ofspecific examples of the processes of globalization is described. The examples all concern information f lows, which are illustrated through a comparative study of three television case histories in Asia. Also illustrated are the three different approaches to providing television services: public service (NHK in Japan), state (CCTV in China) and commercial (STAR TV, based in Hong Kong). Information flows are seen as global forces, constituted at a distance, and the focus is on the ways in which they are resisted or negotiated. NHK and CCTV are depicted as "front line" organizations which are forced to deal with globalization forces in the first instance, while the state may be slow to comprehend or react to the new realities facing it. The case histories show how television is becoming global. From that perspective, the condition of the television industry, of the production of news, and in particular of the public service broadcaster appear in a symbolic role, metaphors for the reconfiguration of relationships between the global and the local. Conclusions on the nature of globalization are linked directly to the research findings. All three case histories are based on interviews with leading participants in exemplar events: • the attempts to set up GNN, and to 'internationalize' NHK; • CCTV's defense of its dominant position, under pressure from upheavals both in Chinese society and the government bureaucracy, at the same time as it has itself become a major revenue earner and its role has changed as China enters the WTO; and • the establishment, sale and erratic progress of STAR TV. This is contextualized through a broader discussion about the role of public service broadcasters, and of information and commwlication generally. A causal layered analysis is applied, with a concluding argument in favor of public service television. Several models are suggested, and four scenarios offered, to indicate how public service television could develop. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements iv ABSTRACT v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES x INTRODUCTION An immodest proposal 1 Goals of this research 3 What is the pattern? 4 What is at stake? 6 Chapter 1: Globalization Approaching Globalization 10 Six Characteristics of Globalization 10 The Processes of Globalization Waves of Transformation 17 Where is the Nation-State? 19 Yearning to be Sovereignty Free 21 Acknowledging Complexity 25 Self-referential and Interdependent 27 Non-linear 29 Constant, Necessary Flux 30 Technological Take-off Points 33 Culture Counts 36 Chapter 2: Information and Communication How Deep a Change? .41 Information + Communication = Power .45 Mass Media 48 Television 50 Television was National 51 The Model was Public Service TV 53 The World of Television has Changed 58 The Debate was about Content... 60 Pushed into the Arms of the Market 64 News and Broadcasting 71 vi Governments and News 72 News is the Driver 74 The Social Process of News 76 Nothing but the Facts 79 Stress Lines 80 Television is Very Big Business 92 The Economics of Television News 94 Consequences :., 95 News and Globalization 98 Chapter 3: Case History 1 - Japan and NHK Background 102 The Bi rth of Public Broadcasting in Japan 107 The Beginnings of Commercial Broadcasting 111 Consequences 114 Development of Satellite TV Broadcasts in Japan 117 Hi-Vision In and Out of Focus 121 Out Flow: Presenting Japan to the World 125 A Belligerent Japanese 125 Speaking for Japan 127 "Asia Now" and "Japan Business Today" 128 The foreign model 131 A clash of cultures? 134 A perception gap 137 Why GNN? 138 The future of NHK 140 MICO and TV Japan 142 NHK returns to old certainties 143 NHK World 144 In Flow: The World Comes to Japan The Borderless TV World Arrives in Japan 146 The MPT reverses course 147 Broadcast and Communications Satellites 152 A shaky start for satellite TV 154 Digital broadcasts, communication satellites 157 The Importance of Programming 159 Challenges to the status quo 161 A digital world 163 Content: the TV news business in Japan 165 The Shima Balance Sheet 170 Chapter 4: Case History 2 - China and CCTV vii Background 174 The Internal Right to Know 180 The Broadcast Media in China 182 Radio 182 Television 183 Media in the Post-Reform Era 185 "Invigorate the economy'" 187 "River Elegy" 189 Tiananmen 191 Post Tiananmen 195 The Media in China Now: 1991 - 2002 197 Overview 19 7 Reality Bites 200 Reality Bites 1: Technological Developments 200 1.A. The Arrival of Regional Satellite Television Satellites over Asia '" 200 Suddenly a choice of content 203 The government reacts 204 The gap between policy and enforcement 206 1.B. The Growth of Cable 210 Cable content 216 To converge or not to converge 217 1.C. The Growth of the Internet 221 Attempts to control information on the Internet 222 Censorship case histories 228 Falun Gong 230 Reality Bites 2: The Anomalous Situation of Hong Kong 231 Reality Bites 3: Between a Policy Rock and a Financial Hard Place 235 CCTV 238 Chapter 5: Case History 3 - Hong Kong and STAR TV Establishment 243 Early Days 245 STAR in China 249 STAR in India 251 Enter Murdoch " 252 Political Dimensions 255 The Speech 256 Phoenix TV 260 Murdoch in China 263 Postscript: STAR in India Revisited 268 viii CHAPTER 6: Conclusion and Analysis Meanwhile, Back in the Future Purpose of this Research 271 Causal Layered Analysis :.: 273 Level 1 : The Litany - Globalization as Leviathan 274 Level 2: Social Causes - the Survival of the Public Broadcaster 275 Level 3: Structure - Power and Control 279 Level 4: Myth and Metaphor 282 The Four Histories of GNN 290 APPENDIX: The GNN Planning Documents 296 GLOSSARY '" 301 REFERENCES 308 IX LIST OF TABLES AND RGURES TABLES 1. Growth in Number of Internet Host Computers .42 2. Representing Japan Abroad: major TV shows produced in Japan for international television distribution 130 3. The Trading Houses Invest in Space 153 4. Number Chinese-language Newspapers, and Circulations, 1921-82 176 5. Numbers of Online Computers and Internet Users in China .........223 6. Top 25: World Ranking of media groups 276 RGURES 1. GNN Global Satellite Transmission System 133, 296 2. 24-hour News Channel 297 3. NHK's Asian Joint Coverage Plan 298 4. Organization Structure of Global News Network 299 5. Developmental Process 300 x Introduction An Immodest Proposal The genesis of this research was my interest in an immodest proposal. In the 1980s I was working in Japan, heavily involved with the media, both Japanese and international. Journalists love to gossip, so through conversations at the Foreign Correspondent's Club in central Tokyo I was early aware that the Japanese national public broadcaster, NHK, was developing plans to launch a 24-hour news service. I was very interested in this idea, as a step towards rectifying what seemed to me a heavy imbalance. While there was a demonstrably limited amount of accurate information about Asia circulating through the mass media in the West, I could compare that with the Asian media's extensive coverage of political, economic and social issues in the West. Information was flowing, from West to East and from East to West, but the flows were clearly unbalanced. The NHK plans appeared to develop rapidly. They had the support of the President of NHK, Keiji Shima, who was rumored to be negotiating with ABC of the United States and with the BBC, in an attempt to get them to join as production and distribution partners. The service even had a putative name, GNN (Global News Network), which made it plain that one major purpose was to set up a rival to the rapidly expanding CNN.