MP-IDSA Fellow Seminar on A Study of the Political Economic Framework of ASEAN Media and India’s Media Representation

An MP-IDSA Fellow Seminar presentation by Mr. Om Prakash Das, Research Fellow, titled ‘A Study of the Political Economic Framework of ASEAN Media and India’s Media Representation’ was held on 15 March 2024. It was chaired by Ambassador Sujan R. Chinoy, Director General, Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). The External Discussants were Mr. Shashi Shekhar Vempati, former CEO of Prasar Bharati, and Professor Reena Marwah, Jesus and Mary College, Delhi University, and the Internal Discussants were Dr. Adil Rasheed, Research Fellow and Coordinator, Counter Terrorism Centre, and Ms. Shruti Pandalai, Associate Fellow, Southeast Asia and Oceania Centre, MP-IDSA. 

Executive Summary

The presentation covered the major five countries of the ASEAN bloc and how their media outlets played a significant role in building perceptions across borders within a given political-economic framework. It also evaluated the prevalence of negative news narratives about India sourced from international agencies, potentially influencing decision-making processes and public opinion. The presentation underscored the indispensable role of media in shaping cross-border perceptions and advocated nuanced analysis to comprehend India's representation in Southeast Asia and its ramifications for regional geopolitics and economics. 

Detailed Report

The Chairperson, Amb. Sujan Chinoy, introduced the Speaker and his topic of study regarding the political-economic framework of ASEAN media and India’s media representation. He emphasised that he considered the topic esoteric, but he expressed confidence that the eminent External and Internal Discussants would deconstruct the topic and requested Mr. Om Prakash Das to present his paper.

The Speaker, Mr. O.P. Das, introduced his topic in two parts, which come together as the conceptual framework of the political-economics of media for the five biggest economies of ASEAN nations. The Speaker discussed India and Southeast Asia’s warm historical relations, various issues about rule-based order, China's growing presence as an expansionist power in the ASEAN region, and how India has come up with the ‘Act East Policy’ and ‘Neighbourhood First’ Policy to deal with various issues concerning ASEAN nations.

The Speaker emphasised that the central premise of his research paper lies in understanding the origin and transformation of information into news and the role of information structure in shaping cross-border media representation. The presentation predominantly dealt with the five big economies of the ASEAN bloc, with five publications from five ASEAN countries: Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. Before he delved into the core of the presentation, the Speaker spoke about internal sources, external sources, and other variables like sentiments, whether the news is positive, apprehensive, negative, or neutral. Then the Speaker discussed in brief, the structure and political economy of media in Indonesia and Malaysia, where media ownership is concentrated among a limited number of conglomerates. An important consideration lies in the absence of anti-monopoly laws for regulating media ownership in Malaysia. The Speaker explained how the government has control over the licensing system to ensure pro-government policies, and the political sphere has consistently emphasised the necessity of media to operate within the framework of national development, asserting the need to guide the media in fulfilling its social responsibilities.

This was followed by a discussion on the media in Thailand. In Thailand, print media is essentially run by private players, but broadcast media is essentially dominated by the State. The Speaker emphasised how the constitution played a significant role in the transformation of Thai media from a government-oriented entity to a market-oriented private enterprise over a period of time.  This transition has realised a shift in media ownership patterns and the dynamic interplay between media owners and political structure.

The Speaker further spoke about the political-economic framework of media in Singapore, which operates within a constrained constitutional structure with the political class favouring a guided press that aligns with the government’s view. The Speaker went on to discuss the media in the Philippines, which underwent a political transformation post-1987, coming up with an ecosystem affording considerable leverage to the influential entities for fostering economic growth within the private sector. With time, political and economic ecosystems constructed a media landscape that had a good relationship between media owners and political elites. He also explained how the political structure in the Philippines has transformed into a democratic one.

The Speaker the discussed the most covered topics in Indonesia’s online version of the leading newspaper, which entailed geopolitics in India, India’s external affairs, defense news, and bilateral relations between India and Indonesia. The Speaker emphasised how international news agencies had given more than 74% of the news. He mentioned a sentiment analysis, which was positive for the Jakarta Post and international news agencies.

Mr. Das further discussed Malaysia’s most covered news topics, which entail India’s economy, geopolitics, and global economy. The Speaker emphasised how more than 67% of news is from different news agencies. 40.5% of the news is positive, and most of the positive news is covered by international news agencies.

The Speaker discussed Thailand's most covered news, which entailed geopolitics, India’s economy, and bilateral relations, and also mentioned that more than 73% of news is covered by international news agencies. He also emphasised how negative news is dominating Thailand’s newspaper (Bangkok Post).

The Speaker also discussed Singapore's most covered news, which entails geopolitics, India’s economy, domestic politics, and governance. He mentioned that in terms of sourcing, 74.4% of news is covered by international news agencies in Singapore’s ‘The Straits Times’. He also mentioned how negative sentiments are dominating in Singapore as well. He also brought up that the most positive news is being covered by international news agencies.

This was followed by a focus on the Philippines most-covered news, which entailed bilateral relations and geopolitics. He also emphasised how negative sentiment is dominating and that most of the positive news is covered by internal sources. The Speaker discussed that Malaysia carries most of the news from India; and the Philippines carries the least. Data suggest that these organizations have been disseminating news narratives that are largely sourced from international news agencies, which also means the perspectives and biases inherent in these international narratives have been propagated to the local audience without significant contextualization. The Speaker emphasised how the flow of information poses a significant challenge given its role in the decision-making process, particularly in the realm of global news dissemination. The Speaker emphasised the area to keep an eye on: the influence of news narratives on policymaking. The Speaker concluded the presentation with sentiment analysis, where he also emphasised the risk of overreliance on external news sources for coverage of Indian affairs in Southeast Asian media, highlighting potential consequences for information diversity, audience comprehension, and bilateral relations. The lack of indigenous reporting capabilities results in superficial and biased coverage based on external viewpoints, potentially impacting public discourse and relationships between countries.

The Chairperson, Amb. Chinoy started the discussion with a query and then opened the floor to External Discussants by introducing them to the audience. He mentioned Mr. Vempati’s immense experience in technology, media, and as CEO of Prasar Bharti, and Professor Marwah’s expertise in this area.

Mr. Shashi Shekhar Vempati

Mr. Vempati appreciated the Speaker for his presentation, made comments regarding the sample size being small, and appreciated the choice of subject. Mr. Vempati had a query regarding the analysis part and whether the news headlines are from editorials or other sections that are not that relevant. He also mentioned how English newspapers have a significant bias while reporting the news. He mentioned further the linkage of India’s representation with influencing policymaking, which is unclear.

Amb. Chinoy appreciated Mr. Vempati’s feedback and comments on the presentation and invited Professor Reena Marwah to make her comments.

Professor Reena Marwah

Prof. Marwah congratulated the Speaker for undertaking a detailed study that provides the reader with immense depth of understanding considering India’s engagement with Southeast Asia. She emphasised reconsidering the focus area and how the problem statement is well defined, but in the meantime, there is an ambiguity concerning how media content originating from India reaches the populace of these countries and how media narratives portray India’s relations with the region. She discussed how ASEAN as an entity is not distinguished from Southeast Asian countries in terms of the linguistic and cultural diversity of these countries. She also emphasised how the diaspora in the ASEAN bloc was not taken into consideration as part of the study. She explained that more attention needs to be paid to the context in which the study was undertaken and to the geopolitical happenings in the last six months. She had a query regarding the source of the news: whether colonized nations had a lineage towards news sources from their colonizers. She emphasised how a greater comparative perspective is needed and that much more focus on sentimental analysis is needed as sentimental analysis is subjective. She discussed how more focus on positive news is needed.

Amb. Chinoy thanked Prof. Marwah for her valuable inputs and emphasised how a similar kind of study is needed for other regions as well. Then he opened the floor for the Internal Discussants to make their comments.

Dr. Adil Rasheed

Dr. Adil Rashid began the discussion by appreciating the Speaker for selecting a very relevant study for his research. He said the paper is well structured and contains all the elements of research in terms of statement, data collection, and statistical data. Dr. Rashid also emphasised how ASEAN doesn’t feature much in the paper. He also had a query regarding how much public opinion and the press create public perception, which influences government policy, and why the focus has not been on socialist and one-party states, which have a significant Indian footprint. He discussed the understanding of the Myanmar press and their perception of India, which is missing in this piece. He also had a query regarding why one newspaper was picked and not more for countries like Indonesia and Singapore. He also made comments regarding qualitative aspects being missing in the analysis. Dr. Rashid had a query regarding the scale for measuring whether a story is negative or neutral.

Amb. Chinoy thanked Dr. Adil Rashid for his perceptive remarks and invited Ms. Pandalai to speak.

Ms. Shruti Pandalai

Ms. Pandalai appreciated the Speaker for taking up such an interesting subject. She said the paper would benefit from a little bit of restructuring wherein the concept can be explained briefly and more weightage could be given to the penetration of Indian news in Southeast Asia. She explained how one can conclude by having a few variables in hand. She emphasised how one had to understand the hardware and software aspects of it. The hardware would be why you picked up the examples and papers for the discussion, and the software is regarding ownership control, advertising and sponsorship, audience perception and reception, political and diplomatic impact, regulatory environment, and cultural and linguistic factors. She emphasised how the discussion on the paper needs to be more qualitative. More focus on how a story is chosen, framed, and received is needed. She discussed how there is a need to analyse the news to understand cognitive bias.

Following Ms. Shruti Pandalai’s comments, Amb. Chinoy gave his comments on how the paper needs to include not ASEAN but select Southeast Asian countries and the reason for the exclusion of Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar in the paper. He also discussed how ‘The Straits Times’ and other publications in Singapore come out with microfilmed versions to archive the previous editions.

Amb. Chinoy opened the floor for questions and comments from MP-IDSA scholars.

Questions and Comments

Dr. P.K. Singh appreciated the Speaker for coming up with an interesting topic and made suggestions like limiting the study of media sentiments and defining how many papers from each country in terms of coverage had been taken up for the study. Dr. Anand Kumar suggested that more focus should be on the boundaries and limits of the survey. Mr. Niranjan Oak had a query regarding the criteria for choosing these countries and publications. He suggested that the study of the op-eds and editorials of these publications would be more beneficial to get a clear picture in terms of sentiments. He also had a query regarding the FDI rules for conglomerates in these countries and whether Indian conglomerates have the opportunity to buy stakes in those media houses to influence opinion in those countries. The Deputy Director, Gp. Capt. (Dr.) Dr. Ajey Lele appreciated the Speaker for an interesting paper and raised a query regarding the owners of those newspapers mentioned in the study and whether there have been any political visits from India or from the countries mentioned in the study in those six months, as these things can have a significant impact.

Amb. Chinoy had a query regarding the parameters of the determination of any news items as apprehensive. Gp. Capt. R.K. Narang raised a query regarding All India Radio’s [AIR] penetration in the Southeast Asia region.

All the queries were answered well by the Speaker, who also agreed to the suggestions given by External and Internal discussants.

Report was prepared by Ms. Julia Jose Thachil, Intern, Counter Terrorism Centre, MP-IDSA.