Asia's Media Innovators - Media Programme Asia
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With the increased growth of India and China and the resurgence of Japan, Asia is booming. Asia contains 60 per cent of the world’s people, and a vast range of wealth and levels of development. The region boasts the world’s fastest-growing economies, as well as the fastest rate of military spending.
About two millennia ago India and China produced three fifths of the world economy. As recently as about two centuries ago the Asian region produced a similar proportion of global gross domestic product. Europe’s gradual ascendance and America’s huge growth in the nineteenth century shifted the balance away from Asia. By the end of World War II Asia’s contribution to global GDP had dropped to a fifth. In recent years it has risen to about two fifths. This time Asia is not rising at the expense of the US or Europe, but along with.
Asia’s media will continue to play an important role in the region’s development, in terms of reporting the impact of globalisation and highlighting the high level of innovation. The region lacks a pan-Asian print medium. But digital content is easy to distribute: Television, online and the mobile phone represent the most likely Pan-Asian media. The pre-Socratic Greek philosophers said every blessing had a curse, and every curse a blessing. Digital technology brings with it blessings and difficulties for governments and journalists. We live in an exciting time.