Journal articles on the topic 'Internationalisation of Singapore Television'

The research aimed to highlight the impact of the television commercial (TVC) on Indonesians’ perceptions regarding tourism in Singapore and their behavioral intention to visit Singapore. The research had five variables: hospitality and comfort/security, infrastructures and superstructures, cultural and natural attractions, perceived values, and behavioral intention. It utilized a quantitative method. About 267 samples were collected using a random sampling method. Data analysis was drawn from the mean difference for each variable. The findings indicate that the TVC has positive impacts on the studied variables. The result implies that understanding tourists’ perceptions about Singapore as a travel destination will help the stakeholders to formulate appropriate marketing strategies and position it as a destination choice. However, further research needs to highlight how each variable influences tourists’ behavioral intention to revisit Singapore.

For 40 years, the Singapore government has successfully promoted the English language for its citizens to operate in an international Western economy. However, English-language television drama, with no cultural-linguistic roots in Singapore's multi-Asian society, has been heavily criticised for its lack of quality in comparison to its successful Chinese-language counterpart. A case study of the prime-time drama @Moulmein High demonstrates how state involvement in English-language television has an impact on drama's content, popularity and commercial aims. This paper explores whether a television network endowed with the responsibility of maintaining a national value system can produce a TV drama series able to win favour with an increasingly English-educated local audience, and whether the drama can translate to television markets outside Singapore.

AbstractSingapore's television media, notwithstanding the island's economic successes, is widely considered to be tightly controlled and regulated by the government. The role of Singapore's television news in enabling or curtailing democratic processes, however, remains largely unnoticed and under-theorised. This article reports on recent research which secures added empirical purchase on Singapore's TV journalism today and does so by identifying, mapping and pursuing into the production domain the repertoire of communicative frames that differentially characterise contemporary TV news in Singapore. Our findings document that there is considerably more complexity in the ecology and communicative frames of TV news than has so far been acknowledged or explored and these complexities have direct bearing on debates about the mediation of conflict and consent in Singapore's brand of 'democracy'.

Through the ethnographic survey of the ownership, use, and display of television-related devices of forty households in Singapore, this article frames the concept of Skeuomorphic Domestic Television. This term describes the continued centrality of the traditional “living room television” amid digital media’s portability. Results from the stocktaking of the ownership of television-related devices in the surveyed households point to the narrowing of the digital divide arising from the greater affordability of media technologies. However, within the highly densely populated city-state, it was found that social distinctions from television cultures were maintained in the skeuomorphic luxury of the “TV-Sofa space” in living rooms of surveyed households. Such a space that distinguishes individuals watching television in cluttered rooms against the more communal viewing practices in designated spacious living rooms characterizes the “Analog Spatial Divide” of skeuomorphic domestic television cultures.

STRATEGIES FOR BECOMING GLOBAL in orientation are now embedded in the policies and practices of most universities in Australia. Such policies, if implemented effectively, contribute to the university's international profile. With this thrust come the implementation of so-called ‘transnational’ programs—that is, the offering of a university program in another country tailored to meet the cultural needs of a specific group of students yet maintain the integrity and content offered on campus. This paper discusses some of the challenges in assisting early childhood students undertaking a BEd in early childhood education in Singapore. Specifically, the focus of undertaking research is examined, including the topics selected, research paradigms that frame the research and the cultural sensitivity needed in such a context.

Abstract The South African preacher, Ahmed Deedat, has developed a specific discourse on the nature of relations between Muslims and Other religions through polemic and public debates. This paper describes the mechanisms of the circulation of his thought and activities and its political character. Deedat is a relevant actor in ‘Muslim politics’ who has not been thoroughly studied in the field of Muslim proselytism. His political activities were inscribed first in the long history of munazara (debate, dispute) in India and then in the desire to internationalise his religious ideas in public platforms and media. His ideology has also been reappropriated by other television preachers, especially in Mumbai, through the example of Zakir Naïk. The historical and the political approaches of this paper provide a better understanding of the internationalisation and transformations of Islamic polemics.

The dynamics of globalization and digitization are not only shaping a new media order but also making significant impacts on the cultural dimensions of an older societal order in the case of the Tamil Diaspora. The emerging transnational phenomenon of Tamil television challenges constructed boundaries, contests traditionally homogenized spaces such as those of nation and homeland, questions the principle of territoriality and opens up the sphere both from without and within the national space. New media practices and flows are shaping media spaces with a built-in transnational connectivity, creating contemporary cultures pregnant with new meanings and experiences. This article aims to map the developments around transnational Tamil television. It scrutinizes the nature and impact of Tamil media emerging from Singapore and Malaysia on other parts of the diasporic Tamil world, and also alternatively, the nature and effect of Tamil media from India and elsewhere in Singapore and Malaysia. Issues of multiculturalism and the transnational media’s impact and culture will be interrogated to enable the analysis of the global remapping of media spaces and to address key issues related to situated transnational Tamil cultures.

This paper presents the partial findings of our study into the intention of tertiary students in Singapore in becoming entrepreneurs. The research is undertaken as a preliminary step in understanding whether students upon graduation prefer to start a business of their own or prefer to be employees, and the forces which have contributed toward the shaping of their inclination. A survey was conducted on graduating Business students in the School of Accountancy and Business, Nanyang Technological University. The research findings indicate that in the Singapore sample, the percentage of graduating students with entrepreneurial inclination was higher than in other countries. The findings are encouraging for Singapore as they indicate that entrepreneurial aspiration is strong among the sample of Business students. However, this should not be the basis for complacency as experience elsewhere has indicated that, if left on their own, not many of them would actually go into business. To increase the rate of graduates starting their own business, a supportive infrastructure needs to be developed. One approach is to set up a start-up business centre. Such an infrastructure will not only broaden the career options for graduates, but will also, in the long run, contribute to the development of a core of entrepreneurs who have the knowledge and expertise to spearhead complex and technologically oriented enterprises in line with Singapore’s emphasis on regionalisation and internationalisation of business.

AbstractHigher education in East Asia is at an important historical juncture where its flagship universities are locked in a race to internationalise. In this restructuring, international students become a critical element in university and national strategies, as a key resource to strengthen university research and to augment the skilled labour force of a country. This article examines the issue of student migration at three scales. First, an idea of the regional magnitude of student movements is determined by examining inbound and outbound movements of students moving out of their home countries to study abroad within Pacific Asia (East and Southeast Asia). Second, by using Singapore as a case study, the paper examines the role of state policy in the internationalisation of higher education. We see how state and university policies shape the new work of flagship universities. And third, by drilling down further and using a survey sample of National University of Singapore international students, the main body of the paper examines the process of decision making, the elements which attract students to Singapore, their adjustment process, and their plans after graduation. This paper argues that the internationalisation of education brings about a powerful set of influences to the host society particularly when there are policies facilitating foreign students and their insertion into the host economy and society. Far from being a small temporary minority locked away in ivory towers, foreign students become the focus of policy, a talent that is sourced, a pillar supporting the economy, the hope of new marriage formation and the arrest the fertility decline, and an essential ingredient in the resultant multicultural society.

This article examines the impact of multinational subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services in Australia, noting the degree to which a stalled policy response to the challenge of unregulated SVOD services has been shaken up by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We look at the phenomenon from a screen-ecological perspective – where dynamics of consumption, reviewing, production and regulation are interdependently and often contradictorily in play. We examine how these diverse, sometimes conflicted, perspectives can be approached as responding to new forms of internationalisation presented principally by the operations of Netflix in Australia (Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV+ are also mentioned when relevant). This article is part of a larger project (ARC Discovery DP190100978 Internet-Distributed Television: Cultural, Industrial and Policy Dynamics, chief investigators Ramon Lobato, Amanda Lotz, Stuart Cunningham) studying the cultural, industrial and policy dynamics of multinational SVOD globally and in situ locally.

This study aims to provide recommendations to the government on regulating licence, content and data privacy and protection for integrated broadcast-broadband (IBB) operations in Indonesia, by referencing Singapore, Japan and Malaysia as case studies, considering the need for umbrella regulations for IBB implementation. Singapore and Japan were chosen as countries that have deployed IBB since they have been using hybrid broadcast broadband television (HbbTV) and Hybridcast standards, respectively. Malaysia was chosen because it is a neighbouring country that has conducted trials of the IBB service, bundled with its digital terrestrial television (DTT) service. The qualitative data are analysed using a comparative method. The results show that Indonesia needs to immediately revise its existing Broadcasting Law to accommodate DTT implementation, which is the basis for IBB and the expansion of the broadcaster’s TV business. Learning from Singapore, Indonesia could include over-the-top (OTT) content in its ‘Broadcast Behaviour Guidelines’ and ‘Broadcast Programme Standards’. Data privacy and protection requirements for each entity involved in the IBB ecosystem are necessary due to the vulnerability of IBB service user data leakage. In light of this, the ratification of the personal data protection law, as a legal umbrella, needs to be accelerated.

In recent years, there has been a phenomenal rise in the popularity of South Korean television dramas, pop music, movies, fashion and celebrities in East and Southeast Asia. Korean television dramas are a significant component of this cultural diffusion known as the ‘Korean Wave’. Through focus group interviews with female viewers in Singapore, this study seeks to explore how Singaporean women make sense of Korean TV dramas (K-dramas) as female subjects living in the gender hierarchy of their society, and how K-dramas become resources for reflexivity for them.

TV broadcast systems are migrating from analogue to digital broadcasting system. Some countries in the world have completed this migration since a few years ago. America decided to stop broadcasting analog television in 2009. In Asia, Singapore launched this technology in 2004 and Malaysia implemented in 2006 (Depkominfo, 2009). With so many countries are migrating to digital broadcasting system, there are many business models that can be referred for organizing digital television broadcasts. In this writing, several business models that are used in the world will be reviewed and analyzed and the results can be a reference to determine the appropriate business model according to the organizers.

In examining Hokkien as a heritage language in Singapore, this discussion hopes to contribute to an enriching of the perception of citizenship in an ever-evolving national narrative towards one people (Mathew, 2017). The Singapore Census of Population statistics indicate that 11% of ethnic local Chinese households speak Hokkien. Singaporean television serials and movies that use Hokkien as the medium of narration achieve encouraging viewership and box office ratings, hinting that Hokkien is understood, or appreciated by a significant number of the local population as a language of prominence. Therefore, since Hokkien holds a key to common Chinese Singaporean cultural memories, this paper contemplates if learning Hokkien could cultivate a collective resilience when balancing professional, and personal challenges. To this end, 冰冰Show, a contemporary Taiwanese variety program available on YouTube, is used to evaluate the potential power of this language in nurturing citizenship.

Background. Nearly all of the research on sex differences in mass media utilization has been based on samples from the United States and a few other Western countries. Aim. The present study examines sex differences in mass media utilization in four Asian countries (Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, and Singapore). Methods. College students self-reported the frequency with which they accessed the following five mass media outlets: television dramas, televised news and documentaries, music, newspapers and magazines, and the Internet. Results. Two significant sex differences were found when participants from the four countries were considered as a whole: Women watched television dramas more than did men; and in Japan, female students listened to music more than did their male counterparts. Limitations. A wider array of mass media outlets could have been explored. Conclusions. Findings were largely consistent with results from studies conducted elsewhere in the world, particularly regarding sex differences in television drama viewing. A neurohormonal evolutionary explanation is offered for the basic findings.

Purpose The purposes of this study are to examine how parents implement discussion-based parental mediation (i.e. active mediation) to influence the way children understand advertising on television, computers and smartphones and to investigate factors associated with parental mediation practices. Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted with parents in Singapore whose children were watching television, using computers with internet access and using smartphones. Findings The degree to which parents engage in active mediation of advertising is similar across different media. Active mediation of advertising is more a function of parents’ attitudes toward advertising directed to children, parents’ concerns about media influence on their children and parental self-efficacy rather than the age of their children. Research limitations/implications The survey was conducted in a single country and did not examine the consequences of parental mediation of advertising. Future research should consider cross-cultural perspectives and investigate the outcomes of parental mediation. Practical implications For advertising practitioners, this study argues that it is important to understand how parents view different forms of advertising. For media educators and policy makers, this study suggests that various parental factors should be considered to develop effective guidelines for parents. Originality/value This study adds novel insights to the literature on consumer socialization by investigating how parents – the primary socialization agents in children’s development of consumption-related behaviors – help children understand advertising across different media.

In recent discussions, the role of the Internet in facilitating democratization has been either exaggerated or underestimated. The general consensus seems to be that that the Internet will eventually go the way of other technologies of communication such as the radio and television that failed to live up to their expected role of agents of democratization. Rather than empower marginal groups and constituencies, the Internet could even contribute to more subtle and omnipotent forms of social control through surveillance. This paper examines these positions by focusing on the Singapore case. The possibilities for the expansion of civil society and the emergence of a robust public sphere as a consequence of the wiring up of the country are examined. The key argument of the paper is that although the Internet does indeed contribute to enhanced surveillance capabilities, its potential for circumventing existing forms of regulation and expanding the limited public sphere in Singapore is also very real.

Over the past few decades the tertiary sector has developed from a predominantly inward focussed industry serving public interest to an internationalised and commercially competitive industry. Resulting from this fundamental change is a drive to better understand the most prominent dimensions that impact on internationalisation, more particularly, the expectations and experiences of students. Although some of these can be argued to be country specific, and thus differentiate between markets, others are universal and impact on the overall industry. One of the latter is a pressure to consider and treat students as clients introducing all the dynamics of service delivery and management. The primary objective of this paper is to identify the most important variables related to marketing and reputation issues when selecting a university in South-Africa and compare the same for Singapore students. This study revealed that the most important consideration for the South African sample, regarding marketing and reputation related variables when choosing an institution of higher education, is the academic reputation of the institution, while the marketing activities were regarded as priority by the Singaporean sample.

The mergers and separations that shaped the decolonizing third world also made media history. Singapore’s separation from Malaysia on August 9, 1965, after two tumultuous years of union was no exception. Radio and television, which broadcasted the seminal moments, embodied the mergers and separations of media forms—this is a fact overlooked in both national histories and regional media scholarship. Reconfigured with the complex, shifting intersections of radio and television, the otherwise familiar account of merger and separation in the “Singapore Story” emerges anew with static noises, pauses, iterations, and interruptions. The technical effects of cuts and jumps in early radio and television editing undergird and thereby challenge the politics of representation in studies of decolonization. At the same time, technological transfer and adaptation in the former British colonies open the provincial confines of media theory to a more global, materialist trajectory. This article connects the televised broadcast of Singapore’s independence in 1965 to early enthusiasm for radio’s disembodied voice during the colonial, interwar period. The discussion then examines how Amir Muhammad’s 2007 independent documentary Village People Radio Show (Apa khabar orang kampung) recovers radio’s forgotten role in the Second Malayan Emergency, also known as the Communist Insurgency War (1967–89).

Television journalism serves to display and deliberate consent and conflict in the contemporary world and it does so through a distinctive ‘communicative architecture’ structured in terms of a repertoire of ‘communicative frames’. This proves consequential for the public expression and engagement of views and voices, issues and identities, and exhibits a complexity that has so far remained unexplored and under-theorized. This article outlines our conceptualization of ‘communicative frames’ and demonstrates its relevance in a systematic, comparative international analysis of terrestrial and satellite, public service and commercial television news produced and/or circulated in six different countries: the USA, UK, Australia, India, Singapore and South Africa. Recent developments in social theory, political theory and journalism studies all underpin our approach to how these frames contribute to meaningful public deliberation and understanding and, potentially, to processes of mediatized ‘democratic deepening’. This article builds on these contemporary theoretical trajectories and develops a new approach for the empirical exploration and re-theorization of the fas -developing international ecology of TV journalism.

The history of the Shaw enterprise in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore, is a history of Chinese cinema in a century of business evolution. The Shaw industrial model of “vertical integration”, which combines production, distribution with exhibition, keeps pace with the technological developments and manages to expand its retail outlets from the stage to cinema, television, DVD and the Internet. Although the Shaw organization embraces a western industrial model to expand its business, it retains the very nature of a traditional Chinese family business. The issues surrounding the cultural and institutional evolution of the Shaw enterprise over the past 80 years are profound indications of its time.

ABSTRACTResearch in monolingual populations indicate that vocabulary knowledge is essential to reading achievement, but how vocabulary develops in bilingual children has been understudied. The current study investigated the role of home and school factors in predicting English vocabulary among 284 bilingual kindergartners (168 Chinese, 65 Malay, 51 Indian) in the multilingual context of Singapore. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—Third Edition was administered in English and in translations into Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil. Home factors including caretaker language, television language, and mother tongue vocabulary were found to be significant predictors of English vocabulary, controlling for mother's years of education and family income. The curriculum emphasis of the kindergarten center was also found to be a significant predictor of English vocabulary.

The Peranakan Chinese is a Chinese diasporic community with a unique hybrid culture of Chinese, Malay, and European influences concentrated in the Straits Settlements (Malacca, Penang, and Singapore) of Malaya (before the independence of Singapore). It has inherited the Chinese patrilineal system but Nonyas within the Peranakan Chinese (also known as Baba-Nonya) culture fill an interesting space in Chinese patriarchy. This article explores the world of the Nonyas and identifies three cultural constructions of the Nonya: garang/li hai (feisty/crafty and manipulative), poonsu (resourceful), and toh tiap (victimized), specifically drawn out from the television serial, The Little Nonya; but these constructions have also been widely represented and documented in the arts and cultural expressions, particularly through the existing literature and portrayal of Nonyas in popular culture. We explore the cultural meanings of the Nonya through gendered patterns and identities which come out of a specific historical context of the Straits Settlements at the turn of the 20th century—the Peranakan Golden Age, where colonialism, wealth, and education shaped its matrifocal Peranakan culture. We employ Sylvia Walby’s theoretical framework of private and public patriarchy, specifically through the structures of household production and culture to analyze the situation of the Nonyas, arguing that Nonyas were not so much oppressed by men but by women; and yet, they were also privileged and valued in the Peranakan culture. Their privileged position allowed them to negotiate and challenge Chinese patriarchy.

When the author of this commentary was teaching or consulting —but not ‘foreign correspondensing’—in Malaysia, Singapore and later India, as he was in the early and mid 1990s―he met and spoke with many journalists who were employed as correspondents to report on events in those countries for Australian newspapers and broadcasters. None of them considered their colleagues to be total masters of the art of delivering an accurate and informed report on Asia-Pacific events in which Australia (and also New Zealand) should be interested. It was not a case of defaming the opposition, since every one of them admitted that at times they might fall short and themselves commit one of the sins of which foreign correspondents have so often been accused. The author believes that when they read today’s newspapers or watch today’s television, they find that today’s foreign correspondents still face the same cross-cultural problems they faced in the past and are guilty of the same shortcomings.

In Singapore, top down public education campaigns have long been a mode of governance by which the conduct of citizens is constantly regulated. This article examines how in two fairly recent campaigns, a new approach to campaign communication is used that involves media interdiscursivity, viz., the mixing of discourses and genres in which the media constitute a significant element. The present approach involves the appropriation of a popular local television character, ‘Phua Chu Kang’, in order to address the public through educational rap music videos. Media interdiscursivity is based on an attempt to engage the public via a discourse of the ‘lifeworld’. The present article analyzes the ‘lifeworld’ discourse in terms of a combination of two processes, ‘informalization’ (the use of informal and conversational modes of address) and ‘communitization’ (the semiotic construction of a community of people). The dual processes are examined and discussed in relation to the choice of Phua Chu Kang as an ‘ordinary’ and almost ‘real’ person, including his informal register and speech style; his use of Singlish; and his construction of ‘community.’ The presence of Singlish, in particular, is interesting because (despite the official disdain for the language) it is included as part of PCK’s public performance of the lifeworld. The article concludes by considering this form of media interdiscursivity as the government’s shrewd way of achieving its social governance goals.

Background Dementia is a global epidemic and incurs substantial burden on the affected families and the health care system. A window of opportunity for intervention is the predementia stage known as mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Individuals often present to services late in the course of their disease and more needs to be done for early detection; sensor technology is a potential method for detection. Objective The aim of this cross-sectional study was to establish the feasibility and acceptability of utilizing sensors in the homes of senior citizens to detect changes in behaviors unobtrusively. Methods We recruited 59 community-dwelling seniors (aged >65 years who live alone) with and without MCI and observed them over the course of 2 months. The frequency of forgetfulness was monitored by tagging personal items and tracking missed doses of medication. Activities such as step count, time spent away from home, television use, sleep duration, and quality were tracked with passive infrared motion sensors, smart plugs, bed sensors, and a wearable activity band. Measures of cognition, depression, sleep, and social connectedness were also administered. Results Of the 49 participants who completed the study, 28 had MCI and 21 had healthy cognition (HC). Frequencies of various sensor-derived behavior metrics were computed and compared between MCI and HC groups. MCI participants were less active than their HC counterparts and had more sleep interruptions per night. MCI participants had forgotten their medications more times per month compared with HC participants. The sensor system was acceptable to over 80% (40/49) of study participants, with many requesting for permanent installation of the system. Conclusions We demonstrated that it was both feasible and acceptable to set up these sensors in the community and unobtrusively collect data. Further studies evaluating such digital biomarkers in the homes in the community are needed to improve the ecological validity of sensor technology. We need to refine the system to yield more clinically impactful information.

One of the most frequently encountered representations of West Papuan people internationally today is a photographic or video image of a Korowai or Kombai treehouse (Figure 1). Circulation of these images first exploded in the mid-1990s. In 1994, anArts & Entertainment Channelfilm about Korowai was broadcast in the United States under the titleTreehouse People: Cannibal Justice, and in 1996National Geographicpublished a photo essay titled “Irian Jaya's People of the Trees.” Korowai and Kombai treehouses have since been depicted in dozens of magazine and newspaper articles and twenty television productions, made by media professionals from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Japan, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Vietnam, and recently West Papua itself. Some representations have had mass global distribution through programming partnerships and satellite transmission agreements, and international editions of major magazines. Recently, several reality television programs have been produced about white travelers' stays in treehouses with Korowai or Kombai hosts. These include an episode ofTribebroadcast on BBC and Discovery in 2005, the six episodes ofLiving with the Kombai Tribeshown on Travel Channel and Discovery International in 2007, and an episode ofRendez-Vous En Terre Inconnuetelevised to much acclaim on France 2 in 2009. Treehouses were widely seen by Australian audiences in 2006 in theSixty Minutessegment “The Last Cannibals,” and during a subsequent media firestorm that surrounded a rival show's unsuccessful effort to film their anchor accompanying a supposedly endangered Korowai orphan boy to a safer life in town. In 2009, a BBC film crew filmed Korowai house construction for the forthcoming blockbuster seriesHuman Planet, and in 2010National Geographicbegan researching a possible second story on Korowai treehouses. In late June and early July 2010, photos of Korowai treehouses were published by newspapers in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Paraguay, Spain, Romania, Hungary, Turkey, Finland, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and other countries, to illustrate stories reporting the Indonesian census bureau's announcement that it had counted Korowai thoroughly for the first time (e.g., Andrade 2010; most stories drew their content from Agence France-Presse). In August 2010, production began for a feature-length Indonesian film about physical and romantic travails of Javanese protagonists who sojourn with Korowai in their jungle home; no filming is being carried out in the Korowai area or with Korowai actors, but treehouses figure prominently in the film's early written and visual publicity.

Edward Said’s dogmas of Orientalism are a succinct summary of western perceptions of the East, which reveal an essentially racist discourse that also speaks to the westerner’s self-perception. While there is a tendency in fiction film to polarize attitudes as either friendly or hostile, for reasons of narrative economy and to enhance dramatic conflict, this article argues that it is possible to measure the behaviour of fictional characters on a continuum describing intercultural sensitivity to assess how these characters appear to respond to the idea of cultural differences, broadly ranging from the most ethnocentric views to more ethnorelative ones. Since the intercultural development continuum (IDC) is structured as five developmental stages, it provides a finer psychological template than Orientalist binaries, offering a more nuanced view of character motivations and attitudes. The IDC scale is ideally suited to narrative analysis as it usefully describes successive stages that characters may exhibit throughout the course of a story depicting intercultural exchanges. The IDC allows the analyst to gauge the degree of conformance of any given film to Said’s aforementioned dogmas, particularly those films that either express an ambivalent attitude or appear superficially more enlightened or accommodating of difference. This model will be illustrated with a number of case studies selected from a filmography focusing on western representations of Singapore in film and television, from 1940 to 2015, including titles such as the Bette Davis plantation melodrama The Letter, the science fiction thriller Hitman: Agent 47 and the Australian period TV series Serangoon Road.

-Doris Jedamski, René Witte, De Indische radio-omroep; Overheidsbeleid en ontwikkeling, 1923-1942. Hilversum: Verloren, 1998, 202 pp. -Edwin Jurriëns, Philip Kitley, Television, nation, and culture in Indonesia. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 2000, xviii + 411 pp. [Research in International Studies, Southeast Asia Series 104.] -Gerrit Knaap, Scott Merrillees, Batavia in nineteenth century photographs. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2000, 282 pp. -C.C. MacKnight, David Bulbeck ,Land of iron; The historical archaelogy of Luwu and the Cenrana valley; Results of the Origin of Complex Society in South Sulawesi Project (OXIS). Hull and Canberra: Centre for South-East Asian Studies, University of Hull / School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University, 2000, vi + 141 pp., Ian Caldwell (eds) -Niels Mulder, Toh Goda, Political culture and ethnicity; An anthropological study in Southeast Asia. Quezon City: New Day, 1999, xviii + 182 pp. -Niels Mulder, Norman G. Owen, The Bikol blend; Bikolanos and their history. Quezon City: New Day, 1999, x + 291 pp. -Anton Ploeg, Donald Tuzin, Social complexity in the making; A case study among the Arapesh of New Guinea. London: Routledge, 2001, xii + 159 pp. -Henk Schulte-Nordholt, Maarten Kuitenbrouwer, Tussen oriëntalisme en wetenschap; Het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde in historisch verband 1851-2001. Leiden: KITLV Uitgeverij, 2001, ix + 362 pp. -Sri Margana, Peter Carey ,The archive of Yogyakarta, Volume II, Documents relating to economic and agrarian affairs. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, 566 pp., Mason C. Hoadley (eds) -Eric Venbrux, Wilfried van Damme, Bijdragen over kunst en cultuur in Oceanië/Studies in Oceanic Art and Culture. Gent: Academia Press, 2000, 122 pp. -Edwin Wieringa, Raharjo Suwandi, A quest for justice; The millenary aspirations of a contemporary Javanese wali. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2000, x + 229 pp. [Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 182.] -Willem G. Wolters, Benito J. Legarda Jr., After the galleons; Foreign trade, economic change and entrepreneurship in the nineteenth-century Philippines. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1999, xiv + 401 pp. -Brenda Yeoh, Jürgen Rüland, The dynamics of metropolitan management in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1996, 230 pp. -David Henley, Albert Schrauwers, Colonial 'reformation' in the highlands of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, 1892-1995. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000, xiv + 279 pp. -David Henley, Lorraine V. Aragon, Fields of the Lord; Animism, Christian minorities, and state development in Indonesia. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2000, xii + 383 pp. -Jennifer W. Nourse, Jennifer W. Nourse, Conceiving spirits; Birth rituals and contested identities among Laujé of Indonesia. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1999, xii + 308 pp.

Morris Beja in his book Film and Literature: An Introduction , said that since the Academy Awards was introduced in 1927 – 1928, about three quarters of the award for best film was won by film adaptations. This is proof that film adaptation is a form of art that has gained the attention of the world community and was a well- known form of narrative in the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe. This paper takes the initiative to trace the history of film adaptations in general by focusing on such films in Malaysia. Findings of the study reveal that the history of film adaptation in Malaysia started in 1933 during the filming enterprise of Cathay Film and Malay Film in Singapore up to the setting up of Merdeka Studio in Kuala Lumpur in the 1970s and beyond. The film industry in Malaysia faced many problems including the influx of imported films from Indonesia and the commercialization factor that did not guarantee profits. However, around 2006, concerted efforts were reinforced to adapt literary works into films, through workshops and competitions organized by Malaysian government bodies such as Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), National Film Development Corporation (FINAS) and Radio and Television Malaysia (RTM). Keywords: film adaptation, history, Cathay Keris, Malay Film, Merdeka Studio Abstrak Morris Beja dalam bukunya Film and Literature: An Introduction , mengatakan bahawa sejak Anugerah Akademi diperkenalkan pada tahun 1927 – 1928, lebih kurang tiga per empat anugerah untuk filem terbaik telah dimenangi oleh filem adaptasi. Keadaan ini merupakan bukti bahawa filem adaptasi adalah satu bentuk seni yang telah lama mendapat perhatian masyarakat dunia dan menjadi corak naratif yang terkenal pada abad ke-19 dan ke-20 di Eropah. Makalah ini mengambil inisiatif untuk menelusuri sejarah filem adaptasi secara umum dengan memberi tumpuan kepada filem adaptasi di Malaysia. Dapatan kajian mendapati sejarah filem adaptasi di Malaysia melalui liku-liku perjalanan yang panjang bermula pada tahun 1933 sewaktu zaman perusahaan Cathay Film dan Malay Film di Singapura hingga ke Merdeka Studio di Kuala Lumpur sekitar tahun 1970- an dan seterusnya. Industri filem di Malaysia berdepan dengan pelbagai masalah termasuk lambakan filem import dari Indonesia dan faktor komersialisme yang tidak menjamin keuntungan. Walau bagaimanapun sekitar tahun 2006 usaha mengadaptasi karya sastera ke filem terus diperkasakan melalui bengkel dan pertandingan anjuran badan kerajaan di Malaysia seperti Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), Perbadanan Kemajuan Filem Nasional Malaysia (FINAS) dan Radio dan Televisyen Malaysia (RTM). Kata kunci: filem adaptasi, sejarah, Cathay Keris, Malay Film, Merdeka Studio

Obesity is now pandemic, affecting millions of people in worldwide [1]. Obesity is defined as the excessive fat accumulation which may damage the health. Two groups of beneficial bacteria are dominant in the human gut, the Bacteroidetes and the Firmicutes. The relative proportion of Bacteroidetes is decreased in obese people by comparison with lean people and this proportion increases with weight loss on two types of low-calorie diet. Obesity has a microbial component which might have potential therapeutic implications [2]. Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) provides the detailed population based overweight and obesity prevalence data [3]. Body mass index (BMI) is defined as a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of his height in meters (kg/m2). BMI provides the useful to measure of obesity and it is same for both sexes and for all ages. BMI value from 25 to 30 kg/m2 (overweight), 30 to 35 kg/m2 (obesity) points used by the World Health Organization (WHO) [4] and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) [5]. The basic cause of obesity is an energy imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended. Stevens et al. [6] viewing the burden of obesity showed that moderate obesity generally results in a 1 to 3-year reduction in life expectancy, depending on age. Obesity is a major cause of mortality [7] in the United States. Obesity substantially increases morbidity and impairs quality of life [8]. Metabolic clearance of Vitamin D may increase in obesity, possibly with enhanced uptake by adipose tissue [9]. Foetal macrosomia is more common in the obese non-diabetic mother compared to the lean mother with gestational diabetes [10]. Amino acids are insulin secretagogues and an increased flux on amino acids could stimulate foetal hyperinsulinemia. Triglycerides are energy rich and placental lipases can cleave triglyceride and transfer free fatty acids to the foetus [11]. Raised BMI is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, osteoarthritis and some cancers. Lower income people can afford more fat (from edible oils) and this upward shift in fat consumption is important for explaining part of the nutrition transition in China [12]. The increases in prevalence of overweight and obesity in Canada between 1985 and 2003 are cause for concern for increased risk of premature death and musculoskeletal complications arising from morbid obesity [13]. A large hip or thigh circumference or both, which could be due to a greater lean mass in the abdominal regions is negatively associated with all-cause mortality [14]. The US Preventive Services Task Force recently recommended screening all adult patients for obesity due in part to the strong association between obesity and chronic diseases [15]. The direct medical costs attributable to adult obesity in Canada are estimated to have been $1.8 billion in 1997 [16]. Obese individuals are frequently stigmatized in online news photographs; this phenomenon has important implications for public perceptions of obese persons and may reinforce pervasive prejudice and discrimination [17]. Understanding the trends in childhood obesity is important because obesity in childhood has many adverse effects on health in both childhood and adulthood [18]. NHANES I and NHANES III were cross-sectional representative samples of the US civilian non institutionalized population. Both surveys used to standardize the protocols for all interviews and examinations. Data on weight and height were collected for each individual in a fully equipped mobile examination center through direct physical examinations [19]. Letters ISSN: 2469-4142 J Nutri Bio, 3(1): 174-176 (2018) 175 It is important to note that shifts toward reduced adult obesity in Brazil do not appear to have reached older children and adolescents [20]. Systematic education of administrators and teachers, better physical education and nutritional improvement in the beverages and food products are available in Singapore schools [21]. United Nations reveal the comparative information on trends in childhood and adolescent underweight and overweight status approximately one-third of the global population [22]. China National Nutrition Survey data showed an increase in the prevalence of overweight and a remarkable decrease in under nutrition in children [23]. BMI cutoffs are linked to adult cutoffs for overweight and obesity, which are good indicators of risks for adverse health outcomes [24]. Television watching is a major cause of children’s inactivity and has been linked to childhood obesity [25]. The weight trends in Russia are very different from other countries, the sex difference initiate in the changing prevalence of underweight may suggest that Russian males and females have been prejudiced differently by the socioeconomic difficulties in the society [26]. Studies have demonstrated that changes in lifestyle are effective in preventing both diabetes and obesity in high-risk adults with impaired glucose tolerance [27]. Less than 20% of US adults who were trying to lose or maintain weight were following recommendations to eat fewer calories and increase physical activity to at least 150 minutes per week [28]. Strategies aimed at improving dopamine function may be beneficial in the treatment of obese individuals [29]. Obesity’s impact is diverse and extreme that it is one of the greatest neglected public health problems [30]. Holmes [31] explained that obesity is a societal problem and it’s an illness can be framed as a risk to the individual, a threat to populations. Schneider and Ingram [32] described that social constructions of populations influence the choices of policymakers and children as dependents: a powerless, positively viewed group who are not expected to be responsible for their own well being. Creating a toxic environment of food industry which promotes high density and low nutrient food, physical activity is low because of a reliance on cars as a result of poor urban planning and neighborhoods perceived to be unsafe [33]. Margaret Chan, Director General of the WHO, was reported in the media calling for the multinational corporations who driven by commercial interests, aggressively advertise cheap food and drinks laden with fat and sugar to share the responsibility for the obesity epidemic [34]. Obesity is generally agreed to be primarily linked to increased energy intake and decreased energy expenditure facilitated by environmental influences that favor energy dense diets and sedentary lifestyles [35]. Numerous studies have shown that the public, identify the media as their primary source of science and medical information [36]. Healthier lifestyle will decrease the obesity problems.

Perfect vision for the path ahead? As I write this editorial it seems that once again, we stand on the threshold of yet another significant date. The fortieth anniversary of ISCPES and also that of this journal, that has been the voice of the society’s contribution over that period, has been and gone. This time it is 2020 that looms on the near horizon. It is a date that has long been synonymous with perfect vision. Many may perhaps see this as somewhat ironic, given the themes surrounding change and the directions it has taken, that have been addressed previously in these pages. Perfect vision and the clarity it can bring seem a far cry away from the turbulent world to which we seem to be becoming accustomed. So many of the divisions that we are facing today seem to be internal in nature and far different from the largely: nation against nation; system against system strife, we can remember from the cold war era. The US, for example, seems to be a nation perpetually at war with itself. Democrats v Republicans, deplorables v elites - however you want to label the warring sides - we can construct a number of divisions which seem to put 50% of Americans implacably opposed to the other 50%. In the UK, it has been the divide around the referendum to leave the European Union – the so-called Brexit debate. Nationally the division was 52% to 48% in favour of leaving. Yet the data can be reanalysed in, it seems, countless ways to show the splits within a supposedly ‘United’ Kingdom. Scotland v England, London and the South East v the English regions, young v old are just some of the examples. Similar splits seem to be increasing within many societies. Hong Kong has recently been the focus of world interest We have watched this erstwhile model of an apparently successful and dynamic compromise between two ‘diverse’ systems, appear to tear itself apart on our television screens. Iran, Brazil, Venezuela are just three further examples of longstanding national communities where internal divisions have bubbled to the surface in recent times. These internal divisions frequently have no simple and single fault line. In bygone times, social class, poverty, religion and ethnicity were simple universal indicators of division. Today ways of dividing people have become far more complex and often multi-dimensional. Social media has become a means to amplify and repeat messages that have originated from those who have a ‘gripe’ based in identity politics or who wish to signal to all and sundry how extremely ‘virtuous’ and progressive they are. The new technologies have proved effective for the distribution of information but remarkably unsuccessful in the promotion of communication. This has been exemplified by the emergence and exploitation of Greta Thunberg a sixteen-year-old from Sweden as a spokesperson for the ‘Extinction Rebellion’ climate change lobby. It is a movement that has consciously eschewed debate and discussion in favour of action. Consequently, by excluding learning from its operation, it is cutting itself off from the possibility of finding out what beneficial change will look like and therefore finding a way by which to achieve it. Put simply, it has predetermined its desired goal and defined the problem in inflexible terms. It has ignored a basic tenet of effective problem solving, namely that the key lies in the way you actually frame the problem. Unfortunately, the movement has adopted the polarised labelling strategies that place all humans into the category of either ‘believers’ or ‘deniers’. This fails to acknowledge and deal with the depth and complexity of the problem and the range of our possible responses to it. We are all the losers when problems, particularly given their potential significance, become addressed in such a way. How and where can human behaviour learn to rise above the limits of the processes we see being followed all around us? If leadership is to come, it must surely come from and through a process of education. All of us must assume some responsibility here – and certainly not abdicate it to elite and powerful groups. In other words, we all have a moral duty to educate ourselves to the best of our ability. An important part of the process we follow should be to remain sceptical of the limits of human knowledge. In addition, we need to be committed to applying tests of truth and integrity to the information we access and manage. This is why we form and support learned societies such as ISCPES. Their duty is to test, debate and promote ideas and concepts so that truth and understanding might emerge from sharing and exploring information, while at the same time applying the criteria developed by the wisdom and experience of those who have gone before. And so, we come to the processes of change and disruption as we are currently experiencing them at International Sports Studies. Throughout our history we have followed the traditional model of a scholarly journal. That is, our reason for existence is to provide a scholarly forum for colleagues who wish to contribute to and develop understanding within the professional and academic field of Comparative Physical Education and Sport. As the means of doing this, we encourage academics and professionals in our field to submit articles which are blind reviewed by experts. They then advise the editor on their quality and suitability for publication. As part of our responsibility we particularly encourage qualified authors from non-English speaking backgrounds to publish with us, as a means of providing a truly international forum for ideas and development. Where possible the editorial team works with contributors to assist them with this process. We have now taken a step further by publishing the abstracts in Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese on the website, in order to spread the work of our contributors more widely. Consistent with international changes in labelling and focus over the years, the title of the society’s journal was changed from the Journal of Comparative Physical Education and Sport to International Sports Studies in 1989. However, our aim has remained to advance understanding and communication between members of the global community who share a professional, personal or scholarly interest in the state and development of physical education and sport around the world. In line with the traditional model, the services of our editorial and reviewing teams are provided ex gratia and the costs of publication are met by reader and library subscriptions. We have always offered a traditional printed version but have, in recent years, developed an online version - also as a subscription. Over the last few years we have moved to online editorial support. From 2020 will be adopting the practice of making articles available online immediately following their acceptance. This will reduce the wait time experienced by authors in their work becoming generally available to the academic community. Readers will no doubt be aware of the current and recent turbulence within academic publishing generally. There has been a massive increase in the university sector globally. As a result, there has been an increasing number of academics who both want to and need to publish, for the sake of advancement in their careers. A number of organisations have seen this as providing a business opportunity. Consequently, many academics now receive daily emails soliciting their contributions to various journals and books. University libraries are finding their budgets stretched and while they have been, up until now, the major funders of scholarly journals through their subscriptions, they have been forced to limit their lists and become much more selective in their choices. For these reasons, open access has provided a different and attractive funding model. In this model, the costs of publication are effectively transferred to the authors rather than the readers. This works well for those authors who may have the financial support to pursue this option, as well as for readers. However, it does raise a question as to the processes of quality control. The question arises because when the writer becomes the paying customer in the transaction, then the interests of the merchant (the publisher) can become more aligned to ensuring the author gets published rather than guaranteeing the reader some degree of quality control over the product they are receiving. A further confounding factor in the scenario we face, is the issue of how quality is judged. Universities have today become businesses and are being run with philosophies similar to those of any business in the commercial world. Thus, they have ‘bought into’ a series of key performance indicators which are used to compare institutions one with another. These are then added up together to produce summative scores by which universities can be compared and ranked. There are those of us that believe that such a process belittles and diminishes the institutions and the role they play in our societies. Nonetheless it has become a game with which the majority appear to have fallen in line, seeing it as a necessary part of the need to market themselves. As a result, very many institutions now pay their chief executives (formerly Vice-Chancellors) very highly, in order to for them to optimise the chosen metrics. It is a similar process of course with academic journals. So it is, that various measures are used to categorise and rank journals and provide some simplistic measure of ‘quality’. Certain fields and methodologies are inherently privileged in these processes, for example the medical and natural sciences. As far as we are concerned, we address a very significant element in our society – physical education and sport - and we address it from a critical but eclectic perspective. We believe that this provides a significant service to our global community. However, we need to be realistic in acknowledging the limited and restricted nature of that community. Sport Science has become dominated by physiology, data analytics, injury and rehabilitation. Courses and staff studying the phenomenon of sport and physical education through the humanities and social sciences, seem to be rarer and rarer. This is to the great detriment of the wellbeing and development of the phenomenon itself. We would like to believe that we can make an important difference in this space. So how do we address the question of quality? Primarily through following our advertised processes and the integrity and competence of those involved. We believe in these and will stick with them. However, we appreciate that burying our heads in the sand and remaining ‘king of the dinosaurs’ does not provide a viable way forward. Therefore, in our search for continuing strategy and clear vision in 2020, we will be exploring ways of signalling our quality better, while at the same time remaining true to our principles and beliefs. In conclusion we are advising you, as our readers, that changes may be expected as we, of necessity, adapt to our changing environment while seeking sustainability. Exactly what they will be, we are not certain at the time of going to press. We believe that there is a place, even a demand for our contribution and we are committed to both maintaining its standard and improving its accessibility. Comments and advice from within and outside of our community are welcome and we remain appreciative, as always, of the immense contribution of our international review board members and our supportive and innovative publisher. So, to the contributors to our current volume. Once again, we would point with some pride to the range of articles and topics provided. Together, they provide an interesting and relevant overview of some pertinent current issues in sport and physical education, addressed from the perspectives of different areas across the globe. Firstly, Pill and Agnew provide an update to current pedagogical practices in physical education and sport, through their scoping review of findings related to the use of small-sided games in teaching and coaching. They provide an overview of the empirical research, available between 2006 and 2016, and conclude that the strategy provides a useful means of achieving a number of specific objectives. From Belgium, Van Gestel explores the recent development of elite Thai boxing in that country. He draws on Elias’ (1986) notion of ‘sportization’ which describes the processes by which various play like activities have become transformed into modern sport. Thai boxing provides an interesting example as one of a number of high-risk combat sports, which inhabit an ambiguous area between the international sports community and more marginalised combat activities which can be brutal in nature. Van Gestel expertly draws out some of the complexities involved in concluding that the sport has experienced some of the processes of sportization, but in this particular case they have been ‘slight’ in impact rather than full-blown. Abdolmaleki, Heidari, Zakizadeh XXABSTRACT De Bosscher look at a topic of considerable contemporary interest – the management of a high-performance sport system. In this case their example is the Iranian national system and their focus is on the management of some of the resources involved. Given that the key to success in high performance sport systems would appear to lie in the ability to access and implement some of the latest and most effective technological information intellectual capital would seem to be a critical component of the total value of a competitive high performance sport system Using a model developed by a Swedish capital services company Skandia to model intangible assets in a service based organisation, Abdolmaleki and his associates have argued for the contribution of human, relational and structural capital to provide an understanding of the current place of intellectual capital in the operations of the Iranian Ministry of Sport and Youth. An understanding of the factors contributing to the development of these assets, contributes to the successful operation of any organisation in such a highly competitive and fast changing environment. Finally, from Singapore, Chung, Sufri and Wang report on some of the exciting developments in school based physical education that have occurred over the last decade. In particular they identify the increase in the placement of qualified physical education teachers as indicative of the progress that has been made. They draw on Foucault’s strategy of ‘archaeological analysis’ for an explanation of how these developments came to be successfully put in place. Their arguments strongly reinforce the importance of understanding the social and political context in order to achieve successful innovation and development. May I commend the work of our colleagues to you and wish you all the best in the attempt to achieve greater clarity of vision for 2020!

IntroductionWithin Australia, the approach taken to the ways in which disabled people access television is heavily influenced by legislation and activism from abroad. This is increasingly the case as television moves to online modes of distribution where physical and legislative boundaries are more fluid. While early investigations of the intersections between television and the concept of abroad focused on the impacts of representation and national reputation (Boddy), the introduction of new media technologies saw a shifting focus towards the impact and introduction of new media technologies. Drawing on Chan’s definition of media internationalisation as “the process by which the ownership, structure, production, distribution, or content of a country’s media is influenced by foreign media interests, culture and markets” (Chan 71), this article considers the impacts of legislative and advocacy efforts abroad on Australian television audiences with disabilities accessing subscription Video on Demand (VOD).Subscription (VOD) services have caused a major shift in the way television is used and consumed in Australia. Prior to 2015, there was a small subscription VOD industry operating out of this country. Providers such as Quickflix had limited content and the bulk of VOD services used by Australians related to catch-up television, user-generated videos on YouTube or Vimeo, or accessing Netflix US illegally through virtual private networks (VPNs) and proxy services (Ryall; Lombato and Meese). VOD is distinct in that it is generally streamed over Internet-based online services and is not linear, giving viewers the opportunity to watch the video at any time once the programme is available. Unlike broadcast television, there is no particular government or corporate entity controlling the creation of VOD. These services take advantage of the time-shifted convenience of the medium. In addition, VOD is typically not terrestrial, traversing national boundaries and challenging audience expectations and legislative boundaries. This research is concerned with the subscriber model of VOD in Australia where subscribers pay a fee to gain access to large collections of content.This internationalising of television has also offered the opportunity for people with disabilities that previously excluded them from the practice of television consumption, to participate in this national pastime. On an international level, audio description is becoming more available on VOD than it is on broadcast television, thus allowing disabled people access to television. This article situates the Australian approach to VOD accessibility within a broader international framework to question whether the internationalisation of television has affected the ways in which of content is viewed, both at legislative and public levels. While providers are still governed by national regulations, these regulations are influenced by international legislation. Further, the presence and success of advocacy groups to agitate for change has exacerbated the way accessibility is viewed and defined in Australia. The role of the Accessible Netflix Project, in conjunction with changes in the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) in the USA, has not only reframed accessibility discourse in the US, but also, as companies such as Netflix move abroad, has potentially stimulated a shift in media accessibility standards in Australia.We focus in particular on the impact of three new services – Netflix Australia, Stan, and Presto Entertainment—which entered the Australian market in 2015. At the time, Australia was described as having entered the “streaming wars” and consumers were predicted to be the beneficiaries (Tucker). Despite international moves to improve the accessibility of VOD for disabled consumers, via legislation and advocacy, none of these providers launched with an accessibility policy in place. Even closed captions, whose provision on Australian broadcast television had been mandated via the broadcasting services act since the early 1990s, were conspicuously absent. The absence of audio description was less surprising. With the exception of a 12-week trial on the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) in 2012 and a follow up trial on iView in 2015, audio description has never been available to Australian people who are vision impaired.The findings and methodology of this article are based on research into disability and streaming television in Australia, conducted in 2015 and 2016. Funded by the Australian Communications and Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), the 12-month project reviewed national and international policy; surveyed 145 people with disability; and conducted interviews with media professionals, policy advisors, accessibility advocates, and disabled Australian VOD consumers.Accessibility Abroad Impacting on Local Accessibility: The Netflix ModelDespite the lack of a clear accessibility policy, Netflix is in front in terms of accessibility, with captions available for most content. Audio description for some content became available in April 2015 shortly after its Australian launch. The introduction of this accessibility feature has been directly attributed to the advocacy efforts of the Accessible Netflix Project, an international online movement operating out of the US and advocating for improved accessibility of VOD in the US and abroad (Ellis & Kent). Similarly, Chris Mikul, author of Access on Demand, was interviewed as part of this research. He told us that Netflix’s provision of captions was due to the impacts of legislation in the USA, namely the CVAA. The CVAA, which we discuss later in the paper, while having no jurisdiction in Australia, has improved the availability of captions by mandating accessibility abroad. As a result, accessible content is imported into the Australian market. When Netflix introduced audio description on its original programming, the VOD provider described the access feature as an option customers could choose, “just like choosing the soundtrack in a different language” (Wright). However, despite successful trials, other VOD providers have not introduced audio description as a way to compete with Netflix, and there is no legislation in place regarding the provision of audio description in Australia. People with disability, including people with vision impairments, do use VOD and continue to have particular unmet access needs. As the Netflix example illustrates, both legislation and recognition of people with a disability as a key audience demographic will result in a more accessible television environment.Impact of International LegislationThe accessibility of VOD in Australia has been impacted upon by international legislation in three key ways: through comparative bench-marks, or industry expectations; via user-led expectations and awareness of differing policies and products; and also through the introduction of international providers onto the Australian VOD market, and the presence of parallel-import VOD services. While international VOD providers such as Netflix and iTunes have officially launched in Australia, Australian consumers, both prior to and after the official availability, often access the parallel USA versions of such services. Lombato and Meese theorise that the delays in content launches between the US and Australia, and the limitations caused by licensing agreements (reducing the content availability) have prompted the continued use of Netflix US and a “kind of transnational shop-front hopping” (126). This is significant for VOD content accessibility as it emphasises the effect of, and disparities in national legislation, whereby the same company provides accessible content only in locations in which it is subject to legal requirements. Our analysis of international policy regarding the accessibility of VOD has found a varied approach—from a complete absence of accessibility regulations (New Zealand), to a layering of policy through disability discrimination acts alongside new media laws (USA). Additionally, this need to address convergence and new media in media accessibility regulation is currently a subject being discussed at government levels in some countries, primarily in the UK (ATVOD). However, outside of the USA, there remains either a lack of accessibility policies for media, new or old—as is the case in Singapore—or a lack of policies that facilitate accessibility for the VOD market—such as in Australia where a level of accessibility is required for broadcasters and subscription television but not VOD.While these changes and advancements in accessibility are taking place abroad, the space that online businesses occupy is fluid. The accessibility requirements of physical spaces cross national boundaries, and operate across multiple media and technologies, and thus, multiple media laws. For example, Australian television broadcasters are subject to some captioning requirements, yet VOD is not. Furthermore, catch-up VOD services provided by mainstream Australian television broadcasters are not subject to these laws. While legislation that accommodates convergence and the new digital media landscape is logical (ACMA) there remain few examples globally that have made changes to reflect accessibility requirements in this context. The CVAA in the US is perhaps the most effective to date, specifically addressing the issue of access to modern communications for people with disability.The CVAA and CaptioningThe CVAA seeks to ensure that “accessibility laws enacted in the 1980s and 1990s are brought up to date with 21st century technologies, including new digital, broadband, and mobile innovations” (FCC). The CVAA is designed to be forward-thinking and evolve with changing technologies (Varley). As such, the Act has been distinctive in its approach to accessibility for Internet protocol delivered video programming, including VOD. While full accessibility requirements, such as the inclusion of audio description are not addressed, the Act is considered to be the most accessible globally in its requirements for captioning of all content—specifically, English and Spanish—across cable, broadcast, satellite, and VOD content. VOD apps, plug-ins and devices are also required to implement the complete captioning capabilities, with specific requirements for personalised presentation, colour, size, and fonts. This requirement is applied to video programming distributors and to video programming owners. Indeed, programmers are expected to provide captioning compliance certificates, and distributors are required to report a failure to do so. Quality standards have also been established, with an emphasis not simply on the presence of captioning, but also on accuracy, synchronicity, completeness, and appropriate placement of captions. Despite an absence of similar legislation locally, the impacts of these foreign interests will penetrate the Australian market.In Australia, the example set by the CVAA has warranted recommendations by the ACMA and Media Access Australia. In a recent interview, Chris Mikul reinforced the position that, in order for the accessibility of VOD to improve in Australia, a similar Act is needed to the one established in the US. According to Mikul, “The CVAA in the US bridges the gap to some extent with captioning, although it doesn’t venture into online audio description. […] We need something like the CVAA here” (Mikul).Beyond the impact of the CVAA on US VOD programming, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (1990) has been significant in the developing captioning requirements of the CVAA. In 2010, disability advocates seeking more accessible VOD services attempted to prosecute Netflix under the ADA. The National Association for the Deaf (NAD) argued that Netflix discriminated against those with a hearing impairment by not providing closed captions for all content. At this time, the CVAA did not include captioning requirements for VOD providers. Instead, it was argued that online businesses should be considered as a “place” of publication accommodation, and thus subject to the same standards and anti-discrimination laws. Netflix settled out of court in 2012, agreeing to caption 100% of its content by 2014 (Mullin; Wolford). However, a Federal Appeals Court later ruled that Netflix was not a place of public accommodation and therefore did not have to comply with the ruling (Hattem). Notably, during the case Netflix also argued that it should not be required to provide captions, as it was abiding by CVAA requirements at that time.Accessibility Activism and AdvocacyAdvocates for accessibility, such as the NAD, have impacted not only on the legislative framework for VOD in the USA, but also on the international public perception and expectation of accessibility. It is important to note that many of the help forums generated by international VOD providers mix customers from multiple countries, establishing a global space in which requirements, expectations and perceptions are shared. These spaces generate a transnational accessibility, providing an awareness of what provisions are being made in other countries, and where they are not. Orrego-Carmona conducted a study on subtitling for the purpose of language translation and found the globalisation of audio-visual content and international media flows have impacted on the public view of subtitling. Indeed, this finding can be extended to subtitling for people with disability. In the help forums for VOD providers, users identified an awareness of other more accessible media environments (such as whether companies provided closed captions in other countries), the impact of legislation in other countries on accessibility, and how or if international media companies were replicating accessibility standards transnationally. Social media campaigns, instigated in both the UK and the US are significant examples of consumer and public-led activism for accessibility. “LOVEFiLM hates deaf people”, #subtitleit, launched by the Action on Hearing Loss group in the UK, and #withcaptions, were all effective online campaigns launched by individuals and disability activist groups. In early 2014, comedian Mark Thomas, as part of his show 100 Acts of Minor Dissent, placed two large posters at the entrance to the offices of Amazon UK stating "LOVEFiLM hates deaf people." A subsequent petition through change.com attracted 15154 signatures, asking for rental DVDs that were subtitled to be listed, and all streamed content to be subtitled (https://www.change.org/p/lovefilm-amazon-prime-video-amazon-uk-please-list-your-subtitled-rental-dvds-and-subtitle-your-streamed-content). A year later, Amazon increased the subtitling of its content to 40 percent. As of June 2015 the company was working towards 100% subtitling. The petition turned its attention to Sky On Demand, initiated by Jamie Danjoux, a 17-year-old boy with hearing loss (https://www.change.org/p/sky-enable-subtitles-for-ondemand), has attracted 6556 signatures. The social media campaigns #subtitleit and #withcaptions similarly aimed to target both VOD providers and the government, with the aim for both consistent and compulsory captioning across all VOD content. While UK legislation is yet to specifically address VOD captioning, the subject of accessibility and VOD is currently being debated at policy level. It was also successful in gaining commitments from Sky and BT TV to improve subtitles for their VOD and catch-up VOD programming.In the USA, The Accessible Netflix Project and founder Robert Kingett have been significant advocates for the inclusion of audio description on Netflix and other US VOD providers. Further, while the Accessible Netflix Project has a focus on the United States, its prominence and effectiveness has facilitated awareness of the accessibility of VOD transnationally, and the group internally monitors and comments on international examples. This group was integral in persuading Netflix to provide audio descriptions, a move that has impacted on the level of accessibility worldwide.These advocacy efforts abroad have not only included Australian audiences via their invitations to participate in transnational online spaces, but their success also has direct impact on the availability of captions and audio description imported to Australian video on demand consumers. ConclusionThe national borders of television have always been permeable—with content from abroad influencing programming and culture. However, within Australia, borders have been erected around the television culture with long wait times between shows airing abroad and locally. In addition, licencing deals between overseas distributors and pay television have delayed the introduction of VOD until 2015. That year saw the introduction of three VOD providers to the Australian television landscape: Stan, Presto Entertainment, and Netflix Australia. With the introduction of VOD, it is not only international content that has altered television consumption. Overseas providers have established a firm place in the Australia television marketplace. Even before the formal launch of overseas VOD providers, disabled users were accessing content from providers such as Netflix USA via VPNs and tunnelling services, illustrating both the clear demand for VOD content, and demonstrating the multiple ways in which international legislation and provider approaches to accessibility have permeated the Australian television industry.The rapid increase of ways in which we watch television has increased its accessibility. The nature of video on demand—streamed online and nonlinear—means that the content accessed is no longer as restricted by space, time and television. Audiences are able to personalise and modify access, and can use multiple devices, with multiple assistive technologies and aids. This increasingly accessible environment is the result of legislative and advocacy efforts originating in other countries. Efforts to improve captions and introduce audio description, while not originating in Australia, have seen improvements to the availability of accessibility features for disabled Australian television audiences. To return to Chan’s definition of media internationalisation with which we began this article, a concern with television accessibility while not originating in Australia, has taken place due to the influence of “foreign media interests, culture and markets” (Chan 71).However, despite the increased potential for full accessibility, there remains deficits. Captions and audio description, the two main features that support the playback of online video content in an accessible way, are not consistently provided. There are no clear, applicable legislative requirements for VOD accessibility in Australia. This must change. Based on our research, change at government, industry and advocacy levels are required in order for VOD in Australia to become fully accessible. Legislation needs to be introduced that requires a minimum level of accessibility, including audio description accessibility, on broadcast television and VOD. Further, governments should work to ensure that PWD are aware of the accessibility features that are provided across all media. For VOD providers, it should be recognised that a significant portion of the consumer base could be PWD, or their families and friends may wish to share in the activity of VOD. Establishing an understanding of the different accessibility requirements may come from hiring specialised accessibility consultants to make platforms accessible and useable for PWD. 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