Once were peripheral: creating media capacity in East Asia

Abstract

This article considers new approaches to media industry development and the field of Asian media studies. It argues that new patterns of integration have emerged within the global media economy. The rise of East Asian ‘newcomers’ such as South Korea, Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China has come about from a combination of institutional realignment and strategic (often state-assisted) responses to regional industrial growth. The article proposes a five-part framework of international exchange that encapsulates challenges confronting mid-level markets that are aspiring to target international content markets. The framework is also a critique of the US-centric approaches that argue that global integration effects are normatively disadvantageous to ‘peripheral’ industries and societies.