Cherian George

Polarisation is deeply entrenched in many societies, with antagonistic us/them divides eroding faith in democracy's power to deal with diversity. But, around the world, there are groups of citizens who refuse to concede that this is the end of the story. Challenging received prejudices and resisting tribal appeals, they practise dialogue and deliberation across difference, gradually widening whom they mean by "us".Cherian George highlights the efforts taking place around the world against polarisation: On an American campus inflamed by war in the Middle East, a small group of pro-Palestinian and Zionist students meet over dinner to try to understand one another. In Indonesia, women join hands against rising religious intolerance in their home towns. In New Zealand, indigenous Maaori and the descendants of settlers serve as joint custodians of the country's longest river. This is a transnational tour of a disparate movement to build more inclusive democracies. Like the change agents it spotlights, this book has no illusions about their odds of success. But lessons from the successes and failures map out what may be democracies' best chance against the powerful forces of division and hate.Fighting Polarisation is enlightening reading for undergraduate and graduate students of media and communication studies, comparative politics, political sociology, human rights, and conflict studies, as well as general readers concerned about the future of democracy.

Polarisation is deeply entrenched in many societies, with antagonistic us/them divides eroding faith in democracy's power to deal with diversity. But, around the world, there are groups of citizens who refuse to concede that this is the end of the story. Challenging received prejudices and resisting tribal appeals, they practise dialogue and deliberation across difference, gradually widening whom they mean by "us".Cherian George highlights the efforts taking place around the world against polarisation: On an American campus inflamed by war in the Middle East, a small group of pro-Palestinian and Zionist students meet over dinner to try to understand one another. In Indonesia, women join hands against rising religious intolerance in their home towns. In New Zealand, indigenous Maaori and the descendants of settlers serve as joint custodians of the country's longest river. This is a transnational tour of a disparate movement to build more inclusive democracies. Like the change agents it spotlights, this book has no illusions about their odds of success. But lessons from the successes and failures map out what may be democracies' best chance against the powerful forces of division and hate.Fighting Polarisation is enlightening reading for undergraduate and graduate students of media and communication studies, comparative politics, political sociology, human rights, and conflict studies, as well as general readers concerned about the future of democracy.

This study of Southeast Asian media and politics explores issues of global relevance pertaining to journalism's relationship with political power. It argues that the development of free, independent, and plural media has been complicated by trends towards commercialisation, digital platforms, and identity-based politics. These forces interact with state power in complex ways, opening up political space and pluralising discourse, but without necessarily producing structural change. The Element has sections on the democratic transitions of Indonesia, Myanmar and Malaysia; authoritarian resilience in Singapore; media ownership patterns in non-communist Southeast Asia; intolerance in Indonesia and Myanmar; and digital disruptions in Vietnam and Malaysia.

How right-wing political entrepreneurs around the world use religious offense-both given and taken-to mobilize supporters and marginalize opponents.In the United States, elements of the religious right fuel fears of an existential Islamic threat, spreading anti-Muslim rhetoric into mainstream politics. In Indonesia, Muslim absolutists urge suppression of churches and minority sects, fostering a climate of rising intolerance. In India, Narendra Modi's radical supporters instigate communal riots and academic censorship in pursuit of their Hindu nationalist vision. Outbreaks of religious intolerance are usually assumed to be visceral and spontaneous. But in Hate Spin, Cherian George shows that they often involve sophisticated campaigns manufactured by political opportunists to mobilize supporters and marginalize opponents. Right-wing networks orchestrate the giving of offense and the taking of offense as instruments of identity politics, exploiting democratic space to promote agendas that undermine democratic values.George calls this strategy "hate spin"-a double-sided technique that combines hate speech (incitement through vilification) with manufactured offense-taking (the performing of righteous indignation). It is deployed in societies as diverse as Buddhist Myanmar and Orthodox Christian Russia. George looks at the world's three largest democracies, where intolerant groups within India's Hindu right, America's Christian right, and Indonesia's Muslim right are all accomplished users of hate spin. He also shows how the Internet and Google have opened up new opportunities for cross-border hate spin.George argues that governments must protect vulnerable communities by prohibiting calls to action that lead directly to discrimination and violence. But laws that try to protect believers' feelings against all provocative expression invariably backfire. They arm hate spin agents' offense-taking campaigns with legal ammunition. Anti-discrimination laws and a commitment to religious equality will protect communities more meaningfully than misguided attempts to insulate them from insult.

For decades, the city-state of Singapore has been an international anomaly, combining an advanced and open economy with reduced civil liberties and press freedom. The book analyses the country's media system, showing how it has been structured - like the rest of the political framework - to provide maximum freedom of manoeuvre for the People's Action Party (PAP) government. Going beyond critique, the author explains how the PAP's ""freedom from the press"" model has achieved its extraordinary resilience and stability. One key factor was the PAP's early recognition that capitalism and the profit motive could be harnessed as a way to tame journalism. Second, the PAP exercised strategic self-restraint in the use of force, progressively turning to subtler means of control that were less prone to backfire on the state. Third, unlike many authoritarian regimes, the PAP remained open to ideas and change and occasional failure, this helped the PAP to consolidate its authoritarian form of electoral democracy. This volume is essential reading for those who are interested in Singapore's media and political system. Singapore's unique place on the world map of press freedom and democracy makes the book an important contribution to the comparative study of journalism and politics.

The Internet has been used to democratize public discourse in Malaysia and Singapore, two countries in the zone between liberal democracies and authoritarian states. Web sites that have emerged on the margins of the political system engage in a contentious style of journalism challenging the consensus that prevails over and through mainstream media.Cherian George, a well-known Singaporean intellectual and journalist before he embarked on an academic career, provides detailed case studies of online alternative media sites in Singapore and Malaysia, and examines arguments that explain their development in terms of technology and of differing norms of journalism and democracy.This nuanced work draws on social movement studies and media studies to challenge current understandings of the relationship between media and the internet. The book's lively style will make it relevant for anyone interested in politics and media in Malaysia and Singapore.