Media Environments in the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan

Abstract

This chapter describes media environments in the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, primarily focusing on the following four dimensions: (1) historical context and political polarization, (2) media markets, (3) intervention in press freedom, and (4) audiences. Americans and Taiwanese actively use social media to obtain and interact with news, while Japanese and Koreans are dependent on traditional media and news aggregators, remaining passive in regard to engaging in online discourse concerning news topics; in regard to Japan, it is strongly suggested that this passiveness is reinforced by a low degree of political interest among the general public. Such a difference between the media environments of the countries examined suggests that the environments of the United States and Taiwan are suitable for online election campaigns, but that the environment in Japan is the opposite, dissuading political candidates from engaging in such Internet election campaigns.