Virtual Thailand: The Media and Cultural Politics in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore

by Lewis; Glen

• ISBN13: 9780415364997
• ISBN10: 041536499X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-02-16
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Incorporating political economy and media theory, Lewis provides a unique insight into globalization in Southeast Asia, analyzing the role of communications and media in regional cultural politics.

Author Biography

Glen Lewis is Adjunct Associate Professor in Communication at the University of Canberra.

Table of Contents

List of plates and tables	vii
Preface	viii
Acknowledgements	xi
List of acronyms and abbreviations	xii
Introduction: Thailand as the virtual centre of Southeast Asia	1	(6)
1 Singapore, KL and Bangkok as rival communications centres	7	(26)
Communications regionalism and techno-nationalism	8	(3)
Singapore: the price of being an 'intelligent island'	11	(6)
Kuala Lumpur: the Malaysian Multimedia Super Corridor	17	(5)
Bangkok: a capital of consumer desire	22	(8)
The limits to techno-nationalism	30	(3)
2 Development and democratization: the 1997 Asian crisis	33	(27)
Singapore, Malaysia and the crisis	34	(6)
The Thai crisis: why did it happen, who was to blame, what is to be done?	40	(5)
Regional resource controversies in Thailand's poorer neighbours	45	(8)
The media and environmental politics	53	(5)
'Thaksinomics' and Thai regional ambitions	58	(2)
3 The military, the media and moral panics	60	(29)
Media control and moral panics in Singapore and Malaysia	62	(9)
Thailand 2001: 'social order' and the 'war on terror'	71	(8)
2002: muzzling the media – the AMLO affair	79	(3)
2003: the 'war on drugs' and the Chuwit sideshow	82	(5)
Moral media panics as a moveable feast	87	(2)
4 Media reform and civil society in 'Amazing Thailand'	89	(28)
Civil society and Thai print journalism	90	(3)
The main media players	93	(5)
Media business and the National Broadcasting Commission	98	(6)
Community radio: people's empowerment or political pawn?	104	(5)
Remodelling the media by preferential privatization	109	(5)
The limits of Thai media reform	114	(3)
5 Tourism and terrorism in mainland Southeast Asia	117	(29)
Regional tourism and rivalries	118	(5)
Thai tourism, take 1: 'a land of diversity and refinement'	123	(7)
Thai tourism, take 2: sun, sand and SARS	130	(6)
Terrorism and disorder in Southeast Asia	136	(8)
Tourism, terrorism and collective memory	144	(2)
6 The Thai movie renaissance	146	(27)
Screening the nation: alternative histories	148	(5)
Alternative routes to transnationalization	153	(3)
Gender, the body and the family	156	(8)
Ghost movies: phii versus phra	164	(3)
Defining the self	167	(5)
Cultural tensions in Thai movies	172	(1)
Afterword: the media and cultural politics in mainland Southeast Asia	173	(8)
Appendix: a sample of Thai movies, pre-2000 to 2004	181	(3)
Notes	184	(21)
References	205	(17)
Index	222