This book explores how sex trafficking has been reported in the media. The book is set in the context of reportage of this human rights abuse in two varying political landscapes – the United States being a developed democracy and Thailand experiencing continued political turmoil including a May 2014 coup d’état and an accompanying crackdown on free expression by the ruling military junta. In doing so, the book shows how there are great similarities between the two countries in the way the ...

Media scholars generally suggest that as people gain access to mass media content, they increasingly support democracy and reject authoritarian rule. Much of the scholarship classifying global media systems has overlooked the world's most developing nations, and among those that have included developing nations, there exists a misguided premise that nations develop in a linear fashion: from non-democracy to democracy, and from a restricted press to a free press. This book shows that much o...

Narratives of Storytelling Across Cultures demonstrates how meaning found within interpersonal communication is not universal across all cultures. Miscommunication can occur when the foundations of cultural meaning within stories, as told socially and within media, vary among different cultures. Positioned within the communication and media field, this book connects issues of societal tension and political battles to media portrayals, social communication events, and power dynamic...