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| Current
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| List of Current Research
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| Current
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Internet
in Singapore: Usage and Impact
A Singapore Internet Project involving longitudinal study
of people's use of the Internet (such as applications
used and time spent) and its impact on social contacts,
family relations and media use. It also examines issues
such as digital divide, cyberporn and Internet regulations.
Principal investigator: Assoc
Prof Alfred Choi |
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Online
Communication and Networks
Research on: (1) Online interpersonal communication, such
as impression management and self-disclosure, (2) Network
analysis of cyber-communities, and (3) Online popular
culture.
Principal investigator: Assoc
Prof Alfred Choi |
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SARS
Crisis and the Role of the Media
The study incorporates quantitative and qualitative analysis
on media coverage of the SARS epidemic in Singapore and
China. It examines the relationship between political
agenda and media frames. Unlike traditional agenda-setting
studies, this study examines the public agenda when the
media fails to give adequate coverage in its media agenda.
Another new twist to the study is that it examines public
discourse on the Internet instead of relying on surveys
of public agenda.
Principal investigator: Assoc
Prof Alfred Choi |
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The
Influence of Structure and Content on Perceptions and
Participation in CMC
Computer-mediated communication (CMC) has become common
in many facets of social life, and is used for many purposes:
the exchange of information, developing social bonds,
persuasion, and entertainment. This program of research
investigates how the structural attributes of CMC and
the content of on-line forums and "chat" affect
people's perceptions of others, the discussions they have,
and their willingness to participate in the dialogue.
In particular, it examines how CMC can be used to enhance
relationships and build social cohesion, and how CMC is
used in political contexts.
Principal investigator: Assoc
Prof Benjamin H. Detenber |
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The
Political Economy of Journalism in Asia
Economic growth in Asia has appeared to benefit media
industries, providing them with new markets and new resources.
However, with dramatic growth have come contradictions,
tensions, and blind-spots requiring reflection and reform.
The AMIC project will bring together scholars and practitioners
to analyse several critical dimensions of the political
economy of Asian news media, including: whether, after
decades of state domination, the market is any better
a master; whether enough resources are being directed
into serious investigative journalism; the news media's
watchdog role over the private-sector corporations that
are growing in influence; the status of small-scale community
media even as corporate media grow in strength; whether
the news media are neglecting basic development issues
in their desire to court the growing middle classes; and
why Asia's growing economic clout not been accompanied
by an ability to shape the world's news agenda or to challenge
the prevailing information order.
Principal investigators: Assoc
Prof Indrajit Banerjee, Asst
Prof Cherian George |
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Singapore
Television in the 1960s: An Oral History
Through oral history interviews, this study seeks to document
television practitioners' understanding of Singapore broadcasting
industry in the 1960s. Particular attention is focusing
on the connections between nation building and the formation
of industry practices and media conventions.
Principal investigator: Asst
Prof Foo Tee Tuan |
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ICT
and Social Development
This project involves a series of studies examining the
impact of new information and communication technologies
(ICTs) on social development. Both qualitative and quantitative
methods will be used to examine the social impact of ICTs
at both the macro and micro levels.
Principal investigator: Assoc
Prof Hao Xiaoming |
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Advertising
Management
This is an ongoing research involving the analysis and
understanding of different agency-client working relationships.
It covers MNCs and SMEs that manage full advertising account
servicing in Singapore and the region.
Principal investigator: Assoc
Prof Lee Chun Wah |
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Conflict
Management in Chinese Organisations
This project examines multi-faceted data from organisations
in Hong Kong and Mainland China to give an in-depth look
at relationships, competition, and conflict in Chinese
organisations. Semi-structured interviews are used to
inform current attitudes about work relationships as well
as gather conflict and competition cases. Questionnaire
data provide information about self and other evaluation
of hypothetical conflict and competition cases. Initial
data from Hong Kong and Guangdong province are currently
being analysed. Additional data collection from other
locations in China is planned.
Principal investigator: Asst
Prof Pamela Tremain Koch |
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Communication
Networks, Relationships and Conflict in Hong Kong Organisations
This study looks at communication networks in three Hong
Kong organisations and the relationship between network
ties, interpersonal relationships and conflict in those
organisations. Further analysis between the network data
and additional data gathered via interviews and questionnaires
is planned.
Principal investigator: Asst
Prof Pamela Tremain Koch |
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Chinese
Communication Research Critique
Most current theorising and research on Asian conflict
management and competition processes focus on assumed
harmony and cooperation within the organisation. This
project provides a critique of the current literature,
focusing instead on the conflict and competition that
is readily apparent in many organisational interactions.
An initial critique argues that too much research 1) incorporates
an over-reliance on cultural values explanations while
structural explanations are ignored, 2) focuses on Chinese
traditional values and Confucian philosophy that, while
clearly influencing members' behavioral explanations,
are an inadequate explanation for everyday actions and
3) is also plagued by methodological problems that render
interpretation of the results problematic. This project
seeks to offer alternative explanations that account better
for actual behaviors within the organisation and to propose
solutions to the identified methodological problems.
Principal investigator: Asst
Prof Pamela Tremain Koch |
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Sexual
Content Controls
Projects in this area include comparative studies of sexual
content law; analysis of how prosecutorial discretion
is exercised in obscenity cases; and studies of perceived
harms and benefits of sexual content among users, including
sexual minorities.
Principal investigator: Asst
Prof Mark Cenite |
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Internet
and Theory of Planned Behavior: Online Information Retrieval
amongst Muslim Community in Singapore
Despite the relatively high Internet adoption rate amongst
the Muslim community in Singapore, literature on the motivations
behind their Internet use and their specific online activities
have been very limited. With the cooperation of the Islamic
Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) and using Azjen's
theory of planned behavior as a theoretical framework,
this paper examines how three groups of antecedents, namely
subjective norms (religious group conformity) attitudes
(Internet anxiety and Internet perception) and perceived
behavioral control (Internet self-efficacy), as well as
religiosity, will affect the online Islamic information
retrieval amongst Muslim community in Singapore. Identifying
and understanding the factors that influence their going
online to find information on Islam will bring new insights
that can increase the online activity and presence of
Muslim community.
Principal investigators: Ms Shirley Ho Soo Yee, Asst Prof
Lee Wai Peng, Ms Shahiraa Binti Sahul Hameed |
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Software-Platform
Compatibility, Competition, and Vertical Integration and
Foreclosure
Application software products (as a supplement good),
to be of use, have to operate by compatible hardware platforms
(as a base good). In the context of such product complementarity,
a firm producing a system of both goods would gain from
making its software incompatible with the competing platform
to reduce competition or execute exclusion. This incompatibility
incentive exists even despite its immediate downside-
foregoing software sale to users of the rival platform.
This study investigates such firms' decisions on complementary
integration and inter-system compatibility. A three-stage
game is constructed to model the decisions of price-competing
software and platform firms. Incompatibility arises as
equilibrium in relation to the factors: substitutability
of software products, switching costs of platforms, and
platform market shares. We derive conditions for equilibrium
incompatibility and foreclosure to occur and discuss its
welfare consequences.
Principal investigator: Asst
Prof Wayne Fu |
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Determining
the Advertising Value of Television Audiences: A New Conceptualisation
and Empirical Test
This empirical study investigates the fundamental determination
of the advertising value of television programs audiences.
Building upon the economic logic of advertising the advertising
value of programs commercial time arises from chances
of sale promotion responses for products, the hypothesis
is postulated that an audiences spending power over a
broad spectrum of products constitutes the demand for
advertiser access to the audience and determines the price
in the advertising market, inter alia. A dataset of 1997
prime-time programs' of the national networks is used
to test this hypothesis. The consumption profiles of the
US viewers of these programs are gathered from the 1997
Simmons Consumer Survey.
Principal investigator: Asst
Prof Wayne Fu |
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Vertical
Integration, Movie Foreclosure, and Exhibitors' Screening
Behavior in the Singapore Cinema Market
This project examines the impact of distributor-exhibitor
integration on the screening pattern of films in theaters
in Singapore. Based on the anticompetition model of vertical
integration, the hypothesis is tested that integrated
movie players discriminate against independent competitors
both in the distribution and exhibition markets such that
the extent to which a film is screened at theaters depends
on the film-theater relationship. Using data on films
exhibited during 2002-2003, econometric models demonstrate
the influence of vertical operation. Tobit and survival
analyses show that both the screening and the life of
a film in a theater shift with the vertical relationship.
Principal investigator: Asst
Prof Wayne Fu |
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Designing
and Delivering Online News: A Comparative Study of Leading
News Media in Asia
By identifying ways of designing and delivering online
news in leading news media in Asia, this study is to locate
strengths, weaknesses, challenges, opportunities, and
to make policy recommendations for the online news industry.
Principal investigator: Asst
Prof Xu Xiaoge |
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Studies
of Online Interpersonal Communication: Assessing Major
Currents and Trends
Although young in comparison with studies of traditional
communication, a decent amount of scholarship has been
generated over the past years. What are the findings of
the previous studies? What has not been examined? What
the future holds for online interpersonal communication
research? This project is designed to address these questions
and to map out dimensions and directions for further studies.
Principal investigator: Asst
Prof Xu Xiaoge |
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Comparing
Media Systems in Asia: In Search of Models of Media and
Politics
Since the publication of Four Theories of the Press (1956),
which attempted to address the question: ¡°why
is the press as it is? Why does it apparently serve different
purposes and appear in widely different forms in different
countries? The questions remains, inviting further studies,
especially in Asia, where different Western principles
and practices have been introduced, in conflict or reconciliation
with local ones. This project is to look into the interrelationships
between media and politics (not necessarily government
alone) and attempt to come up with different models to
describe, explain and predict such connections and interactions.
Principal investigator: Asst
Prof Xu Xiaoge |
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Women,
Globalisation and Mass Media: The Chinese Experience
As part of a proposed book (to be edited by Dr. Kiran
Prasad) ¡°Women, Globalisation and Mass Media,¡±
this project focuses on the status of women, major cultural,
socio-economic indicators and quality of life, exposure
to mass media, women's representation/portrayal in the
media; the impact of globalisation in terms of benefits,
challenges and also drawbacks; effect of global media
on women's status, empowerment and quality of life; effect
of globalisation and global media on women's participation
in development and empowerment; future trends/ implications
for globalisation and media on women in China.
Principal investigator: Asst
Prof Xu Xiaoge |
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