Paula Chakravartty | NYU Steinhardt (original) (raw)

Papers by Paula Chakravartty

Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Jun 15, 2006

Third-generation mobile phones, broadband connections, wireless applications, cybercommunities, c... more Third-generation mobile phones, broadband connections, wireless applications, cybercommunities, cyberwars, cybersex, e-commerce, e-democracy, e-learning: this is some of the language that has come to describe the era of accelerated tele/communications and transactions. These terms have not escaped from a science fiction movie, although some of them have their origins in science fiction novels, but from the consultative papers of ‘think tanks’ and government policy documents. They have become part of everyday advertising, policy, newspeak and even casual conversation, in global cities across the North-South divide. These are the terms of a particular form of capitalist economic organization of social relations that adheres to two overarching qualities of the new Information Age: speed and universality. CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates’s Business @ the Speed of Thought (1999) not only embodies the ideas and policies that characterize the era of the Information Society and the Knowledge Economy, it also constitutes a manual for the direction of future technological development, policy, economic organization and even social relations. Speed, instant capital transaction across geographic nodes that would have taken hours and days to cross through physical means, almost ‘cancels’ the concept of time as an obstacle or expense for transnational companies.

Center for Policy Initiative, May 1, 2002

Media Policy and Globalization, 2006

global Communication Policy regime: insert ‘public’ — press ‘Enter’ In the previous chapter we ex... more global Communication Policy regime: insert ‘public’ — press ‘Enter’ In the previous chapter we examined the competing logics behind the normative framework of the emerging information society as produced through alliances between private and public social actors representing interests in both the US and the EU. Although we identified two competing visions of IS, we showed how one coherent dominant discourse of the neoliberal IS emerged by the close of the twentieth century. We demonstrated the profound shortcomings of the dominant neoliberal IS policy discourse by highlighting the unevenness of access and narrowness of vision. We showed how civil society organizations have led the charge for equity in this process and have proposed a competing and democratic vision for change embodied in the WSIS Civil Society declaration (Civil Society Statement 2005). In this chapter, we explore the role of civil society as a new social actor in the shifting field of global communication policy, by taking a closer look at the novel institutional context of the WSIS. The space for civil society participation — however limited — allows new social actors outside state and corporate interests to raise claims about redistribution and recognition while negotiating the issue of legitimate representation. This chapter examines both the institutional constraints as well as the discursive parameters of this process.

This brief essay reflects on the legacy of the work of Edward S. Herman in shaping critical theor... more This brief essay reflects on the legacy of the work of Edward S. Herman in shaping critical theories of US media and empire through the long 20th century and into the current era of the forever War. I argue that the work of Herman (and Chomsky) poses a lasting challenge to celebratory liberal theories of media freedom, and instead documents the constitutive role of the commercial US media institutions and technologies in fortifying illiberal forces with implications both “at home” and abroad. In closing, I briefly consider the decolonial significance of Edward Herman’s persistent critique of US media power.

Communication, Culture and Critique, 2020

Antipode, 2022

Contract substitution—in which workers sign one contract but end up working under another—is a co... more Contract substitution—in which workers sign one contract but end up working under another—is a common form of fraud faced by Indian low-wage migrant workers working in the Gulf Cooperation Council states. This paper presents a study of workers’ experiences of contract substitution alongside the eMigrate system, which is a digital registration system introduced by the Indian government in 2015. While a stated aim of eMigrate is to protect workers from contract fraud, these practices persist. We explore the colonial genealogies of eMigrate to show that not only has it adapted reper- toires of worker protection inherited from the British Empire’s indenture system, but that eMigrate risks facilitating conditions of unfreedom under the mantle of worker protec- tion, much as the British imperial state did during indenture. We contend that recognis- ing how legacies of indentured labour regulation persist through eMigrate has implications for contemporary campaigns for migrant justice.

This essay introduces the theme of the special issue. While elections across the globe today are ... more This essay introduces the theme of the special issue. While elections across the globe today are mediated in the sense of being pervaded by the ambient presence and explicit deployments of varied media, the Indian national elections of 2014 showcase a specific logic of mediated populism that has become globally influential of late. To understand this logic, we examine the contexts and lineages of the present moment of mediated populism, i.e. the wider political-economic dynamics and contexts that shape and embed the Modi phenomenon. We focus on the changing relationship between privatized media across platforms, political elites and conceptions/ productions of “the people” that these particular political historical dynamics have effected and enabled.

South Asian History and Culture, 2012

This article examines the changing relationship between the elite English-language press and its ... more This article examines the changing relationship between the elite English-language press and its interface with urban politics in India's best known high-tech centre, Bangalore. Print journalism remains a core feature of India's growing multi-media news field, and this ...

Political Communication, 2013

ABSTRACT A new form of “entertaining news,” accessed by most through television, has become a pri... more ABSTRACT A new form of “entertaining news,” accessed by most through television, has become a privileged domain of politics for the first time in countries “beyond the West” in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. What are the political consequences of this development: What is the relationship between media and politics in these regions? We answer these questions through a case study of India, the world's largest democracy, where two decades of media expansion and liberalization have yielded the largest number of commercial television news outlets in the world. We show why prevailing theories of media privatization and commercialization cannot account for the distinctive architecture of media systems in places like India. In this article, we first provide an overview of the historical and contemporary dynamics of media liberalization in India and the challenges that this poses to existing models and typologies of the media-politics relationship. We then present a new typology of media systems and a theoretical framework for studying the relationship between television news and democratic politics in India, and by extension in the global South. In the concluding section, we reflect on the broader comparative insights of the essay and discuss directions for future research. We believe that our alternative comparative framework captures more meaningfully the diversity and complexity of emerging media systems and their relationships to democratic practice in these regions.

Premised on the fact that there are different globalizations going on today, this comprehensive s... more Premised on the fact that there are different globalizations going on today, this comprehensive study successfully integrates structural and symbolic analyses of communications and media policy in the conflicted spaces of the nation-state, trans-nation, and sub-nation. Chakravartty & Sarikakis’s remarkably systematic approach to media policy, technology, content, and civil society formation, fills in crucial details left behind by grand theory, including progressive postcolonial theory of global communication. In doing so, the book re-energizes the hackneyed field of international media studies and transforms it. John Nguyet Erni, City University of Hong Kong Media Policy and Globalization combines careful scholarship with a clear, accessible style that creatively integrates some of the best elements of critical theory. The book marks an important step in the development of media policy scholarship because it skilfully integrates political economic and cultural studies perspectives. It does an especially good job of placing research on state and gender theory into the centre of policy analysis. Vincent Mosco, Queen’s University, author of The Digital Sublime Media Policy and Globalization serves up an ambitious, readable, and concise synthesis of how the messy world-system of communication policy is described and pondered in the communications and media studies discipline. Global Media and Communication In addition to its well-structured analyses, the book is written in an easy, accessible manner and offers rich empirical material and useful case studies for teaching purposes. Cees J. Hamelink, Amsterdam/Brisbane, Publizistik This book presents many rich clues for us to look further at on-going policy debates. Those clues point us toward inclusion of a variety of national, non-national, international, regional, and civil players as well as their organic connections. For any researcher, graduate student, or upper-division undergraduate student interested in global media debate today, this book provides not only the most up-to-date references, but also a fresh way to look at multiple-level analytical levels of analysis. Atsushi Tajima, SUNY , Global Media Journal The ideas and explanation in this book are a very welcome antidote to the dominant discourse of the virtues of the market, new technologies and competition. The proponents of technological determinism have for the past 10 years asserted that greater audiovisual delivery capacity will automatically deliver diversity and pluralism and have sought to roll back virtually all audiovisual regulation. The authors describe well the valid political, social, economic and particularly cultural questions which demand an answer if the public interest is to be served in communications policy and the regulation which should flow from it. The authors rightly underline that the screen, large or small, is central to our democratic, creative, cultural and social life and that policy makers should give greater space to the views of civil society and parliamentarians interested in advancing the public interest. Rare is the attention paid to the realities of the digital divide as played out across the globe which provides important information for campaigners for greater technological redistribution and cultural diversity worldwide. Carole Tongue, Visiting Professor, University of the Arts, London, Former MEP spokesperson on public service broadcasting

American Quarterly, 2012

Page 1. | 919 Index ©2012 The American Studies Association Index to American Quarterly Volume 64 ... more Page 1. | 919 Index ©2012 The American Studies Association Index to American Quarterly Volume 64 March 2012 to December 2012 Rachel Adams, Casting Light on Disability (Event Review) 851 Purnima Bose, Faculty Activism and the Corporatization of the University 815 Keith L. Camacho, After 9/11: Militarized Borders and Social Movements in Mariana Islands 685 Jordan T. Camp, Blues Geographies and the Security Turn: Interpreting the Housing Crisis in Los Angeles 653 ...

Television & New Media, 2015

This essay introduces the theme of the special issue. While elections across the globe today are ... more This essay introduces the theme of the special issue. While elections across the globe today are mediated in the sense of being pervaded by the ambient presence and explicit deployments of varied media, the Indian national elections of 2014 showcase a specific logic of mediated populism that has become globally influential of late. To understand this logic, we examine the contexts and lineages of the present moment of mediated populism, i.e. the wider political-economic dynamics and contexts that shape and embed the Modi phenomenon. We focus on the changing relationship between privatized media across platforms, political elites and conceptions/productions of “the people” that these particular political historical dynamics have effected and enabled.

Media Policy and Globalization, 2006

A whole generation of urban young people now in their 20s grew up with only a vague memory of a m... more A whole generation of urban young people now in their 20s grew up with only a vague memory of a media system that consists of two or, at a maximum, three television channels. In Europe, children born in the 1980s have reached young adulthood with MTV and to a significant extent have learned about human relationships — and fashion — through Friends, Frasier, Big Brother and Sex and the City. The idea alone that their media lives could be limited to wildlife and historical documentaries seems absurd. The very thought that they — or more possibly their parents, since they still live at home — have to pay monthly fees to receive channels they do not watch is illogical. The suggestion that, not so long ago, there used to be a state monopoly over television seems archaic at best. Often, in the classroom it is difficult to generate support for Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) among students, who although they may know to appreciate that private television is largely about Hollywood and imitations thereof, do not necessarily have PSB on their agenda of glamorous entertainment. In the United States, where the project of public service television seems to be financially suspended in a vegetative state, because of the firm hand of commercial broadcasting, the whole concept ]of non-commercial broadcasting has been pushed to the margins of public discussion. This is not to say that Americans or young Europeans are oblivious to the politics of commercialization of the media. However, in the eyes of Hollywood-raised audiences, non-commercial media have not managed to escape the dry language of their past, the same way that criticism of the big bully — Capitalism — has not escaped its association with colourless and monotonous left-wing politics that have ceased to inspire and excite young blood. Whether the above described images correspond to reality or stereotypes is possibly relevant to the ways in which the questions about public service broadcasting and publicly owned media in general have been framed. Is Gramsci’s analysis of hegemony in maintaining the domination of capital pointing to a haunting

Changes in the practice of business journalism are a key element in the current financial crisis.... more Changes in the practice of business journalism are a key element in the current financial crisis. The increasing emphasis on features and infotainment at the expense of hard news has distracted public attention from the reality of global economies. In this article, we provide an overview of the dominant business and financial news media, primarily in the United States, but also in the urbanizing nations of China and India. We believe that it is too early to know what, if anything, has changed in terms of the dominance of neoliberal newspeak and we contend that rigorous scrutiny of business media is vital to global economic health.

Introduction Part I: The State and Communication Politics in Multiple Modernities Chapter 1: Neol... more Introduction Part I: The State and Communication Politics in Multiple Modernities Chapter 1: Neoliberal Strategies, Socialist Legacies: Communication and State Transformation in China Chapter 2: Media, State, and Responses to Globalization: The Case of Post-Communist Russia Chapter 3: Regional Crisis, Personal Solutions: The Media's Role in Securing Neoliberal Hegemony in Singapore Chapter 4: Governance and Legitimacy: The Case of the European Union Chapter 5: Media, Democracy, and the State in Venezuela's "Bolivarian Revolution" Part II: Embedded Markets and Cultural Transformations Chapter 6: Cultures of Empire: Transnational Media Flows and Cultural (Dis)Connections in East Asia Chapter 7: Local and Global Sites of Power in the Circulation of Ghanaian Adinkra Chapter 8: A Transcultural Political Economy of the Arab Television Industry Chapter 9: Rethinking the Spanish-language Media Market in the U.S. Part III: Civil Society and Multiple Publics Chapter 10: Gend...

This essay offers an explanation for the rise of contemporary “mediatized populisms.” Disaggregat... more This essay offers an explanation for the rise of contemporary “mediatized populisms.” Disaggregating the idea of a singular media logic of populist politics, we examine the institutional and political-economic dynamics of mediatization and the variegated structures of mediated political fields in which contemporary populist political formations are embedded. Moving away from broad “global populism” approaches as well as case studies from Europe and the Americas that have thus far dominated discussions of populism, we make the case for empirically grounded comparative studies of populism from the particular standpoint of regional contexts across Asia that offer theoretical insights often missed in prevailing “technology-first” and election-focused approaches. We then outline three distinctive features of media-politics relations (and their transformations) that have enabled the contemporary rise of mediatized populism across the Inter-Asian region.

Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Jun 15, 2006

Third-generation mobile phones, broadband connections, wireless applications, cybercommunities, c... more Third-generation mobile phones, broadband connections, wireless applications, cybercommunities, cyberwars, cybersex, e-commerce, e-democracy, e-learning: this is some of the language that has come to describe the era of accelerated tele/communications and transactions. These terms have not escaped from a science fiction movie, although some of them have their origins in science fiction novels, but from the consultative papers of ‘think tanks’ and government policy documents. They have become part of everyday advertising, policy, newspeak and even casual conversation, in global cities across the North-South divide. These are the terms of a particular form of capitalist economic organization of social relations that adheres to two overarching qualities of the new Information Age: speed and universality. CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates’s Business @ the Speed of Thought (1999) not only embodies the ideas and policies that characterize the era of the Information Society and the Knowledge Economy, it also constitutes a manual for the direction of future technological development, policy, economic organization and even social relations. Speed, instant capital transaction across geographic nodes that would have taken hours and days to cross through physical means, almost ‘cancels’ the concept of time as an obstacle or expense for transnational companies.

Center for Policy Initiative, May 1, 2002

Media Policy and Globalization, 2006

global Communication Policy regime: insert ‘public’ — press ‘Enter’ In the previous chapter we ex... more global Communication Policy regime: insert ‘public’ — press ‘Enter’ In the previous chapter we examined the competing logics behind the normative framework of the emerging information society as produced through alliances between private and public social actors representing interests in both the US and the EU. Although we identified two competing visions of IS, we showed how one coherent dominant discourse of the neoliberal IS emerged by the close of the twentieth century. We demonstrated the profound shortcomings of the dominant neoliberal IS policy discourse by highlighting the unevenness of access and narrowness of vision. We showed how civil society organizations have led the charge for equity in this process and have proposed a competing and democratic vision for change embodied in the WSIS Civil Society declaration (Civil Society Statement 2005). In this chapter, we explore the role of civil society as a new social actor in the shifting field of global communication policy, by taking a closer look at the novel institutional context of the WSIS. The space for civil society participation — however limited — allows new social actors outside state and corporate interests to raise claims about redistribution and recognition while negotiating the issue of legitimate representation. This chapter examines both the institutional constraints as well as the discursive parameters of this process.

This brief essay reflects on the legacy of the work of Edward S. Herman in shaping critical theor... more This brief essay reflects on the legacy of the work of Edward S. Herman in shaping critical theories of US media and empire through the long 20th century and into the current era of the forever War. I argue that the work of Herman (and Chomsky) poses a lasting challenge to celebratory liberal theories of media freedom, and instead documents the constitutive role of the commercial US media institutions and technologies in fortifying illiberal forces with implications both “at home” and abroad. In closing, I briefly consider the decolonial significance of Edward Herman’s persistent critique of US media power.

Communication, Culture and Critique, 2020

Antipode, 2022

Contract substitution—in which workers sign one contract but end up working under another—is a co... more Contract substitution—in which workers sign one contract but end up working under another—is a common form of fraud faced by Indian low-wage migrant workers working in the Gulf Cooperation Council states. This paper presents a study of workers’ experiences of contract substitution alongside the eMigrate system, which is a digital registration system introduced by the Indian government in 2015. While a stated aim of eMigrate is to protect workers from contract fraud, these practices persist. We explore the colonial genealogies of eMigrate to show that not only has it adapted reper- toires of worker protection inherited from the British Empire’s indenture system, but that eMigrate risks facilitating conditions of unfreedom under the mantle of worker protec- tion, much as the British imperial state did during indenture. We contend that recognis- ing how legacies of indentured labour regulation persist through eMigrate has implications for contemporary campaigns for migrant justice.

This essay introduces the theme of the special issue. While elections across the globe today are ... more This essay introduces the theme of the special issue. While elections across the globe today are mediated in the sense of being pervaded by the ambient presence and explicit deployments of varied media, the Indian national elections of 2014 showcase a specific logic of mediated populism that has become globally influential of late. To understand this logic, we examine the contexts and lineages of the present moment of mediated populism, i.e. the wider political-economic dynamics and contexts that shape and embed the Modi phenomenon. We focus on the changing relationship between privatized media across platforms, political elites and conceptions/ productions of “the people” that these particular political historical dynamics have effected and enabled.

South Asian History and Culture, 2012

This article examines the changing relationship between the elite English-language press and its ... more This article examines the changing relationship between the elite English-language press and its interface with urban politics in India's best known high-tech centre, Bangalore. Print journalism remains a core feature of India's growing multi-media news field, and this ...

Political Communication, 2013

ABSTRACT A new form of “entertaining news,” accessed by most through television, has become a pri... more ABSTRACT A new form of “entertaining news,” accessed by most through television, has become a privileged domain of politics for the first time in countries “beyond the West” in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. What are the political consequences of this development: What is the relationship between media and politics in these regions? We answer these questions through a case study of India, the world's largest democracy, where two decades of media expansion and liberalization have yielded the largest number of commercial television news outlets in the world. We show why prevailing theories of media privatization and commercialization cannot account for the distinctive architecture of media systems in places like India. In this article, we first provide an overview of the historical and contemporary dynamics of media liberalization in India and the challenges that this poses to existing models and typologies of the media-politics relationship. We then present a new typology of media systems and a theoretical framework for studying the relationship between television news and democratic politics in India, and by extension in the global South. In the concluding section, we reflect on the broader comparative insights of the essay and discuss directions for future research. We believe that our alternative comparative framework captures more meaningfully the diversity and complexity of emerging media systems and their relationships to democratic practice in these regions.

Premised on the fact that there are different globalizations going on today, this comprehensive s... more Premised on the fact that there are different globalizations going on today, this comprehensive study successfully integrates structural and symbolic analyses of communications and media policy in the conflicted spaces of the nation-state, trans-nation, and sub-nation. Chakravartty & Sarikakis’s remarkably systematic approach to media policy, technology, content, and civil society formation, fills in crucial details left behind by grand theory, including progressive postcolonial theory of global communication. In doing so, the book re-energizes the hackneyed field of international media studies and transforms it. John Nguyet Erni, City University of Hong Kong Media Policy and Globalization combines careful scholarship with a clear, accessible style that creatively integrates some of the best elements of critical theory. The book marks an important step in the development of media policy scholarship because it skilfully integrates political economic and cultural studies perspectives. It does an especially good job of placing research on state and gender theory into the centre of policy analysis. Vincent Mosco, Queen’s University, author of The Digital Sublime Media Policy and Globalization serves up an ambitious, readable, and concise synthesis of how the messy world-system of communication policy is described and pondered in the communications and media studies discipline. Global Media and Communication In addition to its well-structured analyses, the book is written in an easy, accessible manner and offers rich empirical material and useful case studies for teaching purposes. Cees J. Hamelink, Amsterdam/Brisbane, Publizistik This book presents many rich clues for us to look further at on-going policy debates. Those clues point us toward inclusion of a variety of national, non-national, international, regional, and civil players as well as their organic connections. For any researcher, graduate student, or upper-division undergraduate student interested in global media debate today, this book provides not only the most up-to-date references, but also a fresh way to look at multiple-level analytical levels of analysis. Atsushi Tajima, SUNY , Global Media Journal The ideas and explanation in this book are a very welcome antidote to the dominant discourse of the virtues of the market, new technologies and competition. The proponents of technological determinism have for the past 10 years asserted that greater audiovisual delivery capacity will automatically deliver diversity and pluralism and have sought to roll back virtually all audiovisual regulation. The authors describe well the valid political, social, economic and particularly cultural questions which demand an answer if the public interest is to be served in communications policy and the regulation which should flow from it. The authors rightly underline that the screen, large or small, is central to our democratic, creative, cultural and social life and that policy makers should give greater space to the views of civil society and parliamentarians interested in advancing the public interest. Rare is the attention paid to the realities of the digital divide as played out across the globe which provides important information for campaigners for greater technological redistribution and cultural diversity worldwide. Carole Tongue, Visiting Professor, University of the Arts, London, Former MEP spokesperson on public service broadcasting

American Quarterly, 2012

Page 1. | 919 Index ©2012 The American Studies Association Index to American Quarterly Volume 64 ... more Page 1. | 919 Index ©2012 The American Studies Association Index to American Quarterly Volume 64 March 2012 to December 2012 Rachel Adams, Casting Light on Disability (Event Review) 851 Purnima Bose, Faculty Activism and the Corporatization of the University 815 Keith L. Camacho, After 9/11: Militarized Borders and Social Movements in Mariana Islands 685 Jordan T. Camp, Blues Geographies and the Security Turn: Interpreting the Housing Crisis in Los Angeles 653 ...

Television & New Media, 2015

This essay introduces the theme of the special issue. While elections across the globe today are ... more This essay introduces the theme of the special issue. While elections across the globe today are mediated in the sense of being pervaded by the ambient presence and explicit deployments of varied media, the Indian national elections of 2014 showcase a specific logic of mediated populism that has become globally influential of late. To understand this logic, we examine the contexts and lineages of the present moment of mediated populism, i.e. the wider political-economic dynamics and contexts that shape and embed the Modi phenomenon. We focus on the changing relationship between privatized media across platforms, political elites and conceptions/productions of “the people” that these particular political historical dynamics have effected and enabled.

Media Policy and Globalization, 2006

A whole generation of urban young people now in their 20s grew up with only a vague memory of a m... more A whole generation of urban young people now in their 20s grew up with only a vague memory of a media system that consists of two or, at a maximum, three television channels. In Europe, children born in the 1980s have reached young adulthood with MTV and to a significant extent have learned about human relationships — and fashion — through Friends, Frasier, Big Brother and Sex and the City. The idea alone that their media lives could be limited to wildlife and historical documentaries seems absurd. The very thought that they — or more possibly their parents, since they still live at home — have to pay monthly fees to receive channels they do not watch is illogical. The suggestion that, not so long ago, there used to be a state monopoly over television seems archaic at best. Often, in the classroom it is difficult to generate support for Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) among students, who although they may know to appreciate that private television is largely about Hollywood and imitations thereof, do not necessarily have PSB on their agenda of glamorous entertainment. In the United States, where the project of public service television seems to be financially suspended in a vegetative state, because of the firm hand of commercial broadcasting, the whole concept ]of non-commercial broadcasting has been pushed to the margins of public discussion. This is not to say that Americans or young Europeans are oblivious to the politics of commercialization of the media. However, in the eyes of Hollywood-raised audiences, non-commercial media have not managed to escape the dry language of their past, the same way that criticism of the big bully — Capitalism — has not escaped its association with colourless and monotonous left-wing politics that have ceased to inspire and excite young blood. Whether the above described images correspond to reality or stereotypes is possibly relevant to the ways in which the questions about public service broadcasting and publicly owned media in general have been framed. Is Gramsci’s analysis of hegemony in maintaining the domination of capital pointing to a haunting

Changes in the practice of business journalism are a key element in the current financial crisis.... more Changes in the practice of business journalism are a key element in the current financial crisis. The increasing emphasis on features and infotainment at the expense of hard news has distracted public attention from the reality of global economies. In this article, we provide an overview of the dominant business and financial news media, primarily in the United States, but also in the urbanizing nations of China and India. We believe that it is too early to know what, if anything, has changed in terms of the dominance of neoliberal newspeak and we contend that rigorous scrutiny of business media is vital to global economic health.

Introduction Part I: The State and Communication Politics in Multiple Modernities Chapter 1: Neol... more Introduction Part I: The State and Communication Politics in Multiple Modernities Chapter 1: Neoliberal Strategies, Socialist Legacies: Communication and State Transformation in China Chapter 2: Media, State, and Responses to Globalization: The Case of Post-Communist Russia Chapter 3: Regional Crisis, Personal Solutions: The Media's Role in Securing Neoliberal Hegemony in Singapore Chapter 4: Governance and Legitimacy: The Case of the European Union Chapter 5: Media, Democracy, and the State in Venezuela's "Bolivarian Revolution" Part II: Embedded Markets and Cultural Transformations Chapter 6: Cultures of Empire: Transnational Media Flows and Cultural (Dis)Connections in East Asia Chapter 7: Local and Global Sites of Power in the Circulation of Ghanaian Adinkra Chapter 8: A Transcultural Political Economy of the Arab Television Industry Chapter 9: Rethinking the Spanish-language Media Market in the U.S. Part III: Civil Society and Multiple Publics Chapter 10: Gend...

This essay offers an explanation for the rise of contemporary “mediatized populisms.” Disaggregat... more This essay offers an explanation for the rise of contemporary “mediatized populisms.” Disaggregating the idea of a singular media logic of populist politics, we examine the institutional and political-economic dynamics of mediatization and the variegated structures of mediated political fields in which contemporary populist political formations are embedded. Moving away from broad “global populism” approaches as well as case studies from Europe and the Americas that have thus far dominated discussions of populism, we make the case for empirically grounded comparative studies of populism from the particular standpoint of regional contexts across Asia that offer theoretical insights often missed in prevailing “technology-first” and election-focused approaches. We then outline three distinctive features of media-politics relations (and their transformations) that have enabled the contemporary rise of mediatized populism across the Inter-Asian region.