In The News

Hollywood’s New Axis of Evil

Edward Jay Epstein December 8, 2005
With the making of Hollywood’s most recent political thrillers, the politics of Hollywood itself are on display. In films such as Syriana, and Paramount’s 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate, traditional villains have been replaced by corporate bad guys. Where Hollywood once easily placed heroes in opposition to such popularly accepted evil-doers as Nazis, Communists, the KGB, and Mafiosi,...

A Party Girl Leads China’s Online Revolution

Howard W. French November 25, 2005
In early July, a Shanghai blogger introduced herself to China as an aspiring “Web cam dance girl”. Today, the 25-year old Communist Party member is regarded as the most popular blogger in China – thousands of avid fans tune in for her provocative dances and ironic political commentary – and one of the pioneers in a trend that is challenging government censorship. Chinese Web logs have exploded...

Many Wary of Faith-Based TV

Reem Nafie November 18, 2005
Agaphy TV is funded by donations from Copts living around the world, with most of the money coming from the US. Station supervisor, Bishop Boutros hopes it will provide a link to the church for Copts living abroad or far from places of worship. Yet Agaphy TV must tread carefully; Christian satellite channels based outside the country have offended Egyptian Muslims by broadcasting programs...

Other Nations Hope to Loosen U.S. Grip on Internet

Victoria Shannon November 15, 2005
In countless contexts and from every corner of the world, the internet is hailed as a revolutionary force, breaking down traditional barriers of class and nation with an inexorable flow of information. As its accessibility increases, the internet becomes more and more a tool of democracy and international cooperation. But this leveling playing field cannot smooth over an underlying reality: the...

Protecting Ideas is Crucial for U.S. Business

Alan Murray November 10, 2005
Regulating copycat products and services internationally may become the capitalist struggle of the 21th century. Brands, patents, and copyrights fuel a large portion of the international economy. Intellectual property in the United States has become a $5 trillion industry. As access to information and products becomes simpler and ever more rapid, idea theft has become a costly proposition. The...

South Korea Locked in Movie Quota War

Barbara Demick November 2, 2005
The South Korean film industry is taking on Hollywood in a heated conflict over the number of foreign films that can be shown every year in South Korea. Filmmakers in South Korea are up in arms in response to what they consider inappropriate pressure to open the South Korean market to Hollywood productions. The issue centers on a government quota that requires South Korean films to be shown in...

Romancing the Globe

Ibsen Martinez November 1, 2005
Approximately 2 billion people around the world tune in on a regular basis to watch Latin American soap operas known as “telenovelas.” While Hollywood and the US television industry are often seen as the defining forces of cultural globalization, the success of telenovelas is a global phenomenon that is being celebrated as “reverse cultural imperialism.” The plotlines of telenovelas usually...