Challenges in media research

Abstract

In this issue, there are six refereed articles addressing various challenges of media research in Asia. Abdul Wahab Siddiqi, Haroon Hakimi, and Faisal Karimi (In conflict between leaving and staying: identifying the challenges of women journalists and the effects on the intention to leave the journalism profession) conclude that emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, family job conflict, society job conflict, and intention to leave the job have a positive and significant relationship. Neelam Sharma (Populism and social media use: comparing the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strategic use of Twitter during the 2014 and the 2019 election campaigns) stresses that the research subject initially used Twitter to discredit the opposition and then later changed tactics to focus on self-promotion and establishing a direct connection with voters. Zizheng Yu and Nairui Xu (The emergence of “consumer sphere”: the logics behind short video activism tactics of Chinese consumers) observe that discussion and sharing of short videos help unite consumers as they bring the individual issue to the public spotlight. Tra My Nguyen and Anh Duc Do (“Second-class citizens”: framing domestic migrant workers in Vietnamese news media during the fourth wave of COVID-19) find out that migrant workers were reported in the media as pitiful, vulnerable, and helpless victims of the pandemic while they were blamed for new outbreaks. Prashanth Bhat and Kalyani Chadha (Expanding public debate? Examining the impact of India’s top English language political talk shows) stress that television talk shows in India were fixated on promoting religious majoritarianism, defending government policies, and advocating hyper-nationalism. Sadia Jamil (COVID-19 pandemic and science reporting in Pakistan) explores the influences on Pakistani journalists’ science reporting at the individual, routine, organizational, social-institutional, and social system levels. Aside from the six refereed articles, two non-refereed commentaries by David Robie and Tracy Mae Ildefonso discuss media-related challenges in New Zealand and the Philippines. Four non-refereed reviews by Argha Basu, Goutam Karmakar, Manoj Kumar, Payel Pal, Amit Sharma, and Priyanka Tripathi explain how the media are depicted in selected Indian films.