In The News

Using Tariffs to Discourage Movie Production Outside US

Bernard Simon March 29, 2003
Following the lead of American manufacturers, American moviemakers are moving their operations abroad in search of cheaper labor. Canada, especially, has become a hotspot for filming, offering attractive tax incentives and a cheap dollar. United States film crews – and the governor of California – are increasingly alarmed at the growing trend, however. Fed up, members of the American film...

Western Media Toeing Official Line

K.K. Katyal March 28, 2003
Media in the US and the UK are too eager to report the "official" news from the war in Iraq, says this opinion piece in India's The Hindu. Western reporters "embedded" with their militaries have lost their objectivity, the author argues, despite having long lectured journalists in the developing world about ethics and responsibility. However, with competition from Al-...

A day at ‘Hyde Park’

Amira Howeidy March 28, 2003
Public demonstrations have been banned in Egypt since the establishment of the "emergency law" in 1967, but that hasn’t stopped hundreds of thousands of citizens from protesting the US-led war on Iraq. Angry students, journalists, lawyers, and religious leaders filled Tahrir Square last week in what has been called the biggest demonstration since the student campaign for democracy in...

The Asia Factor in Global Hollywood

Christina Klein March 25, 2003
Often criticized for overwhelming global audiences with 'American culture', evidence from the past twenty years shows that Hollywood is expanding its embrace to include actors from Hong Kong, scripts from South Korea, and production facilities in New Zealand and China. With 50% of its revenue now coming from abroad - and that's expected to increase - the American film industry...

Al-Jazeera Site Experiences Hack Attack

Peter Svensson March 25, 2003
The newly launched English language version of Al-Jazeera’s Web site was hit by a "bombardment of data packets." Known as a "denial-of-service attack," the bombardment has rendered the site intermittently unavailable. American hackers are suspected because only the site's American server is affected. The attack may be a response to Al-Jazeera's broadcast of U.S....

War Is Test of High-Speed Web

David D. Kirkpatrick March 24, 2003
Throughout history, war has often provided an ideal setting for testing and showcasing the capabilities of new communication technologies. The current conflict in Iraq is the first test of the internet’s role in news coverage, and thus far, the results have been remarkable. Visits to the major news sites have doubled and tripled in the last week, as users search for the comprehensive, on-demand...

Iraq War “Sideshow” in North Korea

March 23, 2003
Globalization is often associated with the flow of ideas, goods, people, and information, but in North Korea information doesn't flow so readily. Updates about the current war unfolding in Iraq have been deflected from the country’s media, only appearing as brief diatribes about US aggression. Instead, in the days since the war began, North Korean news bulletins have reported on...