That is, we can highlight what happens at the conference and invite participation from East West Center friends and alumni around the globe.

Take a tour of this blog site and read capsule reports on all the major talks and panel discussions. After each one is a place for you to respond: agree, disagree or push the conversation forward.

For a richer experience, look on the left side of this page and find links to: Audio files (downloadable) of the major speeches, full news stories on some of the key events, Power Point presentations, a slideshow of snapshots from the conference and even a video report on the conversation with Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai.

After all that, it’s time to hear from you.

To hear what speakers had to say, click on the links below. You can listen to the files or download them to your own Mp3 player. Here they are right after this jump:

Shiela Coronel:
Coronel.mp3 — 29.7M.

Jimmy Lai with Ray Burghardt:

Lai.mp3 — 32.1M

Li Datong (Chinese only):

Li.mp3 — 27.6M

Isaac Mao:

Mao.mp3 — 29.2M

Surin Pitsuwan:

Pitsuwan.mp3 — 32.3M

Orville Schell:

Schell.mp3 — 32.3M

But with that boom comes creeping homogenization of content, the “dumbing down” of programming and an emphasis on entertainment over public affairs.

That was one message delivered at the Center’s Bangkok Media Conference by Sheila Coronel, director of the Tony Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University and a pioneering investigative journalist in the Philippines.

“Different platforms means more channels of distribution,” Coronel said. “But with that increasing homogenization of content is occurring. Even public affairs programming has been dumbed down.

“What sells is sex, supernatural stories and small-time corruption.”

In short, the media in Asia today are caught between the “Tiger and the Crocodile,” a metaphor that might be likened to between a rock and a hard place, Coronel said.

The two pressures are the state, which has traditionally exerted strong influence over the media in asia, and the marketplace, with its own dictates and requirements.

Those who hope the best for the news media at this critical juncture, Coronel said, must embrace new technologies, new ways of thinking and changing media regulation regimes. A big change is citizen journalism, blogging, cell phone reports and pictures and other forms of electronic democracy, she said.

“Those (new forms) will not replace, but will take their place alongside the old journalism,” she said. “Journalists as gatekeepers have lost (sole) control of the information flow.”

With the state still trying to control news media in much of Asia, these new community based “viral” forms of communication and information sharing will become more and more important, Coronel said.

So, can the media emerge from the era of state control to become free, independent, useful and relevant? It’s possible, Coronel thinks, but only if those who control the established media freely embrace the technological and social changes that are coming to the information universe.

Is she right?

For a look at an excerpt of the Power Point presentation that accompanied her talk, go HERE

To hear an audio recording of Coronel’s presentation, go HERE

This was the friendly advice given to journalists and others on the closing night of the Bangkok Media Conference. It came from Christopher Moore, a Bangkok-based author of popular thrillers and other novels set in Asia.

To write or report well on a place or a region, it is important that the author — fiction or non-fiction — get to know it more than sthe surface, he said.

“It is only with experience of a place over a protracted period of time than a writer can understand (his story), Moore said.

“Parachute” journalists can do a credible job, if their target is a specific incident or topic, Moore admitted. But sustained, informed reporting takes time and effort.

Unfortunately, he said, too many people — even those who live in Asia — fail to get out and about and truly experience the place.

“Lots of Americans in Bangkok live as if they are under house arrest,” he said.

Beyond getting to know a place and its people, real reporting requires an understanding of how people think and perceive the world, he said. That process, which begins in childhood, often divides Westerners and Asians.

And misunderstanding on this front can lead to poor reporting, he suggested.

For instance, Westerners tend to live with values like free will, freedom and individual liberty. Asians tend to favor harmony, friends and family. When these two value systems collide, misunderstanding (and poor reporting) can happen, he said. That can lead to a clash of misunderstanding.

Take the example of law and justice, Moore said, a particular interest for him because of his novels on crime and criminal procedure. Law in Asia, he said, “isn’t a contest to be won; it’s about fairness.” The Western view is that law is a way to sort out right from wrong, winners and losers.

Thus, for instance, extra-judicial killings by the police or military authorities if society sees the killing as fair, even if not technically legal.

“In Asian society,” he said, “the rule of law works, but only if it doesn’t disrupt the existing and social power structure.”

To hear an audio version of the presentation, go HERE

Forget the old media.

The way the world will communicate and get its news can be found deep in the interconnected and viral blogosphere, according to China’s Isaac Mao, co-founder of Beijing’s Social Brain Foundation and co-founder of cnblog.org, one of China’s earliest experiments in grassroots publishing.

While the entire world will change as blogging connects and informs people in new ways, the impact will particularly vivid in China, Mao told a lunch meeting of the Bangkok Media Conference.

That’s because rather than attempting to reform or change existing media institutions, still largely state-controlled, China’s 145 million! bloggers simply go around the old media and find their audience a different way, he said.

The catchphrase is “collective intelligence on the click of creation,” Mao said. In other words, the impact of a multiplicity of bloggers watching, reading and responding to each other is greater than the sum of its individual parts.

And as blogging is changing China, soon, too, it will change the world as soon as obstacles of language, culture, regional differences and technological barriers can be licked, he said.

Mao cited a number of lively examples where change occurred because “government failed to control the media space.”

One example: Authorities and the established media went wild when a rural farmer came up with what he claimed was a photograph of a rare Chinese tiger, thought to be extinct. Headlines were generated and awards were bestowed.

But then one lonely blogger posted the thought that the photograph might be fake, a computer manipulation. He wasn’t sure, but shortly thousands of other bloggers weighed in, some of them even demonstrating how the fake could be produced.

Finally, a blogger posted that the image of the tiger appeared to have come from a calendar he had tacked to his wall. The ruse was exposed.

“The truth came through millions of bloggers. No one told the whole truth. This is collective intelligence,” Mao said.

For more on this and other examples of how the blogosphere has trumped the traditional media, as well as Isaac’s own reflections on his talk, go HERE.

Is there no place for the “old media” or professional journalism?

Of course not, Mao said. He visits professional sites regularly and appreciates what the established media can do.

“But you know,” he said, “social networking can spread information. And eventually, get professional results.”

For a look at the Power Point presentation that accompanied this talk, go HERE

Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and a frequent writer on such topics as avian flu and bioterrorism, said the media’s failure is that it does not put such topics in context.

While the media have done lots of immediate reporting on Asian bird flu, bioterrorism and other such issues, it has largely failed to understand the terrifying consequences of such matters, he said.

For instance, an avian flu pandemic might claim relatively limited number of lives directly, Osterholm said. But the fallout from a pandemic could well be catastrophic.

“Just because these are small numbers, anyone who shrugs off the seriousness of this is a fool of history,” Osterholm said.

The fallout from a flu pandemic, he said, could include massive energy shortages around the world, a surge in other deadly infectious diseases, uncounted associated deaths due to shortage of medical supplies and treatment and more.

The relatively fragile world health system could collapse, he said.

Why the possibility of these catastrophic side-effects of a flu pandemic?

It is, Osterholm said, in part because the world is vastly more interconnected today than it was years ago during previous pandemics. What happens in one place will inevitably impact another.

It is also because the world economy has developed a “just in time” approach to commodities, from medical supplies and food to energy.

Resources are short and they can’t be easily moved around, because everyone will be in the same (sick) boat,” he said.

“Energy, food, water, transportation, communications, equipment parts, security — all will be in short supply,” he said.

Even corpse management will be at risk. “Cremation is a just-in-time industry,” he said.

These shortages will have an impact on human life and welfare that far outstrips what the flu itself will accomplish, Osterholm said,.

“Planning is poor. People just assume business will run as normal. Which it won’t!” he said.

“And no one, including the media, is paying attention.”

Under a pandemic, with people sick and not at work around the world, container shipping will shut down, power plants will close for want of fuel, hospitals will run out of medical supplies and even staff, he said. The human cost of all that will be enormous.

“People just don’t understand the implications of a just-in-time economy,” he said.

One example: Japan is the biggest importer of coal and natural gas (for energy) in the world. If a pandemic causes an interruption in shipping, which is likely will, “the lights are going out in Japan within a matter of days of a pandemic, and that will have a ripple effect around the world.”

Osterholm acknowledged that telling such stories is difficult. It takes time, money and space to tell the story in context. That’s tough in today’s media climate, he admitted.

No one in the current U.S. presidential campaign is talking about these issues, Osterholm said, and “guys like me are too easy to write off.”

But he urged journalists at the conference to find ways to make the story happen. One approach might be to note that for all the gloom and doom, there are positive things that can be done and can be reported.

–Use resources now devoted to war to improve health and sanitation conditions in rural villages, Osterholm said. This will improve lives today and have a direct impact on overpopulation as better health conditions translates directly into lower birth rates.

–Focus on better business preparedness, so that critical supplies are produced and readily available.

–Stress conservation as the best response to climate change.

Will the media be up to the task and will the world wake up? Osterholm is not so sure.

“The last time there was a commitment of sufficient time and energy was in World War II,” he said. “We don’t have that kind of commitment any more.”

Jimmy Lai, founder of Next Media Ltd., which publishes the popular newspaper Apple along with a number of other publications, argued that Taiwan’s democratic institutions and rule of law are where China will eventually have to go if it hopes to survive.

“Taiwan will become the international hub of China because because in Taiwan, you have the protection of rule of law and freedom of information, which will make Taiwan a gem,” he said.

In short, he said, Taiwan has the “institutional conditions for greatness,
while the mainland lacks these conditions.

“China is expanding its economy, but not its institutions,” Lai said.

He gave an example of what this might mean:

If there is a global economic slump (which given recent news is a real possibility), then China is in danger.

“If the government and the markets collapse, what is there to hold the society together? he asked. “There is no intermediate institution there.”

You will see people “fighting brutally” for their share of a smaller pie, he said. “That’s what people forget when everything is expanding.”

By contrast, if Taiwan faces a similar crisis, he argued, “you have the churches, the NGO’s, the unions, the temples, all these institutions that can stretch out to help each other.”

Ironically, Lai said, the dire political and administrative troubles of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-Bian may actually help the cause of democracy in greater China.

“Chen has done a really bad job, yet democracy still stands and is working very well,” he said. That lesson will not be lost on those watching from the other side of the Straits, Lai said,.

Among the issues sweeping across the high islands and atolls of the Pacific: Competition between Mainland China and Taiwan and, of course, global warming.

Panelists on a Pacific Islands program included East West Center President Charles Morrison and Kalafi Moala, publisher of the Times of Tonga.

Because each independent nation in the Pacific represents a vote in the United Nations, both China and Taiwan are equally courting the islands. Often, particularly with Taiwan, it takes the form of “checkbook diplomacy” where goodwill is sought through financial help for roads, schools and other critical needs.

While Taiwan has been relatively active and successful, both Morrison and Moala agreed that inevitably, China will win the recognition battle.

But Moala pointed out that this, and other international issues, give the islands influence greater than their size.

For instance, the sovereign nations of the Pacific make up 12 United Nations votes – a sizeable bloc.One area where that bloc vote will be brought to bear is on efforts to deal with global warming.

Low-lying islands in the Pacific are already experiencing direct and potentially disastrous effects of sea rise.

Some nations may one day simply disappear.

“Environment is not an ideology for us,” said Moala. “It is life.”

Jimmy Lai, the blunt and engaging founder of Hong Kong’s Next Media Ltd. and publisher of the popular Apple Daily newspaper, told the group that it is change-or-die time for journalism.

This means, he said, changing the technology of how we deliver news as well as being willing to rethink the very notion of what news is. A newsapaper is a “sentimental and emotional product,” he said.

“It is the emotion behind the story, not the news itself. The newspaper is a right brain product and people want the sentimental side of it.

“Lai admits his products, both in Hong Kong and Taiwan, are often sensational.

But his response was, effectively, so what?”

People want news that they can relate to their life,” he said. “Nobody wants to go to school every day. A story without people isn ‘t a story.”

And a lot of the people in the media today have missed this.”But shouldn’t the media give folks a dose of what they need to know, as well as what they want to know? he was asked.

That idea, Lai said, assumes that the media should treat readers “like children.”

“I don’t understand why we think people need what they don’t want,” he said.

If the future of journlism is in high-touch, sensational, personal and emotional approaches, it is also about rethinking completely our approach to the way people absorb information.

This is particularly true of young people, who are leaving old media in droves.

“What we have today is not a true electronic newspaper,” he said.”It is a print newspaper on line.

“The younger generation doesn’t rely on text-driven sources of information, he said. Instead, it “assimilates images.

“There’s a generation gap. They have a very greater field of view for assimilating images than we do. We have the imagination to read text . They don’t as much.”

So, if there is going to be a true electronic newspaper in the future, and there should, he said, the very configuration of the media will have to change so the electronic generation can assimilate it.

What will that future look like? Lai said he isn’t sure, but he has some ideas.

“The bigger part of the media will have to become image, what kind I don’t know,” he said. “But it will be a moving image, you need action to show emotion.

“The future of the newspaper is image and action and sentimentality and human drama.”

Several American journalists at their own panel later in the day took some issue with Lai, saying it is the responsibility of the media to inform and give people a dose of “vegetables,” as it were.

That’s no doubt true. But it doesn’t escape anyone that while the U.S. media is struggling , Lai and his brand of journalism is making a ton of money.

Lai also had some very interesting and provocative things to say about Taiwan (he is very bullish) but that’s for another blog, a little bit later.

To hear an audio recording of Lai’s conversation with the Center’s Ray Burghardt, go HERE

That was one message from a panel on covering the Olympics this week at the Center’s Bangkok Media Conference.

Despite promises of new press freedoms, both for international reporters and the local media, the games will be a journalistic challenge, panelists said.

China is anxious to put on its best face for the Olympics, and that will mean anything but the sunniest of reporting will take extra effort, the panel said.Participating were Francesco Liello, correspondent for La Gazetta dello Sport of Italy, Gary Swanson, a consultant to NBC news and a journalist-in-residence at the University of Northern Colorado and Xie Songgxin, a top editor from China Daily who will edit a special daily Olympic newspaper during the games.

The moderator was Jocelyn Ford, a Beijing-based journalist and member of the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of China.

Liello said he has already run into trouble and controversy in his efforts to report the run-up to the games, and he expects more. In fact, he was arrested briefly when he attempted to interview young athletes about possible doping, a situation that had already been reported in the Chinese media.

Another time, he said, he created a stir when he reported that journalists were told no materials with political or religious views could be brought into the Olympic arena.Liello reported that as far as Chinese authorities could tell him, this included the Bible, which obviously would create a problem for the chaplain with the Italian team as well as many others.

After a flareup that went from China to Italy, the United States and back to China, officials backed off and said the entire matter had been a misunderstanding, Liello said.

“There is always criticism at any Olympics,” Liello said. “But China is not accepting any criticism. It is behaving like the old system when Mao was there.”

Ford said conditions for the international media are improving, but journalism within China still remains a challenging business. A survey by the Foreign Correspondents Club, she said, found some 180 respondents out of some 400 journalists reporting problems such as harassment and denial of access. (See details here).

Swanson said the biggest challenge will be when the American media looks beyond the sports themselves for other stories about China. Some of those stories, he said, will inevitably be critical and China won’t like that.

The news departments, not necessarily sports reporters, will be looking at stories about, among other things, terrorism, doping, pollution, corruption, prostitution, population, human rights and more, Swanson said.

There is no doubt the Olympics will be visually and athletically “amazing,” Swanson said. But that could be overshadowed if authorites in Beijing and elsewhere overreact.

“China has the ability to make the Olynmpics the best they can be,” he said,

“But if freedom of the press is offered and then taken away it will be one of the biggest topics in the world.”

Xie said the Chinese government is more than aware that the world’s eyes will be on it and is doing everything it can to ensure the games will be a logistical, cultural, athletic and physical success. This is important for China’s reputation in the rest of the world, but also for domestic morale, Xie said.

“The Chinese people treasure the Olynpic games, ” he said. “It is a matter of national pride – a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see it on our own doorstep.

“The government is making use of the Olymnpic games not only to improve its image in the intenational community but also for burnishing national pride,” he said.