Media of various forms, and the infrastructures and communities that are
associated with them, have often been strongly determined by national
boundaries. This is particularly the case in the Asia-Pacific region, where
media organizations have traditionally been owned by government entities and/or
large national conglomerates. At the same time, the movement of people, goods,
capital, information and ideas are undergoing shifts and intensifications,
owing to broader geopolitical changes, state-led infrastructure projects and
the aspirations of individuals and communities shaped by such regional
transformations.
Against this context, media flows are being created, worked and
reworked, facilitated by new infrastructures, imaginaries and understandings.
These flows frequently cross, circumvent or come up against borders, both
domestic and international. Online shopping, logistics, blockchain and fin-tech
are fostering new cross-border flows of goods and money. Media content is
increasingly consumed internationally, posing new opportunities and challenges
for media companies, regulators and governments. Users and consumers of the
media are also witnessing the reworking of their media environments because of
these changes, adopting inventive responses to and adaptations of the media in
return.
