Singapore's guided press policy and its practice on the forum page of the Straits Times

The Europa Yearbook 1985: A World Survey, vol. 2 (London: Europa Publications Limited , 1985), p. 2531.

John A. Lent , "Press Freedom in Asia: The Quiet but Completed Revolution," Gazette, 24, 1: 41 (1978).

James Minchin , No Man is an Island: A Study of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew ( Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1986), p. 2.

Europa , op. cit., p. 2531.

The United States and the Debate on the World "Information Order" (Washington, D.C.: U.S. International Communication Agency, 1979), p. 65, cited by Sunwoo Nam , "Press Freedom in the Third World," in L. John Martin and Anju Grover Chaudhary , eds., Comparative Mass Media Systems (New York: Longman Inc., 1983), p. 313.

Also see, "Facing the world's newspapermen in Helsinki: Brig-Gen Lee defines Govt's position on foreign journals," Sunday Times, May 13, 1987, p. 16.

Eddie C. Y. Kuo , "Communication Policy and National Development," Peter S. J. Chen , ed., Singapore Development Policies and Trends (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1983), p. 270.

Lent , op. cit., p. 43. Also see, John A. Lent , "Lee Kuan Yew and the Singapore Media: 'Protecting the People,'" Index on Censorship, Autumn 1975, p. 15.

Cited in Dennis John Gayle , The Small Developing State ( Vermont: Gower Publishing Company, 1986), p. 107.,

Kuo , op. cit, p. 270.

John A. Lent , "A Reluctant Revolution Among Asian Newspapers ," Gazette 18, 1 (1972): 6-8. Also see, Lent , "Press Freedom in Asia," op. cit., p. 45, 51; and Kuo , op. cit., p. 271.

"The Press in Asia," Asia Magazine, June 14, 1987, pp. 10-11. Also see, Lent , "Restructuring of Mass Media in Malaysia and Singapore," op. cit., p. 30.

Kuo , op. cit., p. 278.

Elliot S. Parker , "Singapore," in George Thomas Kurian , ed., World Press Encyclopedia, vol. 2, 1982, p. 791.

Also see, John A. Lent , "Restructuring of Mass Media in Malaysia and Singapore - Pounding in the Coffin Nails," Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 16, 4: 26(1984).

Kuo , op. cit., p. 273.

Singapore Parliamentary Debates, vol. 38, 1979, col. 185, cited by Kuo , op. cit., p. 273.

Kuo , op. cit., pp. 273-274.

Peter Lim , "The Media Get the Message," Asiaweek, April 8, 1983, p. 102, cited in Lent , " Restructuring of Mass Media in Malaysia and Singapore," op. cit., p. 33.

Parker , op. cit., p. 789.

Peter S. J. Chen , "Singapore's Developmental Strategies: A Model for Rapid Growth," in Singapore Development Policies and Trends, op. cit., p. 19.

Kuo , op. cit., p. 279.

Lent , " Restructuring of Mass Media in Malaysia and Singapore," op. cit., p. 28, 30. Also see, Gayle , The Small Developing State, op. cit., p. 107.

"The Press In Asia," op. cit., p. 11. For details of the events that unfolded in recent years with regard to foreign publications in Singapore, also see, Wall Street Journal, December 11, 1985, p. 36; SWJ, May 6, 1986, p. 30; WSJ, August 4, 1986, p. 18; WSJ, October 16, 1986, p. 10; WSJ, February 10, 1987, p. 43; WSJ, March 3, 1987, p. 37; WSJ, June 29, 1987, p. 20; WSJ, August 14, 1987 , p. 11; WSJ , December 28, 1987, p. 10; WSJ, December 29, 1987, p. 14; WSJ, December 30, 1987, p. 14; WSJ, January 4, 1988, p. 10; WSJ, January 14, 1988, p. 16; WSJ, January 28, 1988, p. 20; WSJ, April 5, 1988, p. 42; WSJ, April 12, 1988, p. A14; WSJ, May 17, 1988, p. 34; WSJ, May 24, 1988, p. 38; WSJ, June 28, 1988 , p. 38; WSJ , August 31, 1988 , p. 4; and WSJ, October 27, 1988, p. A14.

William A. Hachten , The World News Prism ( Ames, IA: The Iowa State University Press, 1981), p. 72-75.

Fred S. Siebert , Theodore Peterson, and Wilbur Schramm, Four Theories of the Press (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1956).

Hachten , op. cit., p. 72.

Narinder Aggarwala , "Press Freedom: A Third World View," The Interdependent 4: 1, 7 (1977).

Leonard R. Sussman , "Western Media and the Third World's Challenge ," in Jim Richstad and H. Anderson , eds., Crisis in International News (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 44-355.

Lent , " Press Freedom in Asia," op. cit. For a review and implications of the different conceptual and operational definitions of development journalism, see Jo Ellen Fair , "A Meta-Research Case Study of Development Journalism," Journalism Quarterly, 65: 165-170, 177 (Spring 1988). Also see, Hemant Shah , "Development News on All India Radio: Assessment of Quantity and Quality ," Journalism Quarterly, 65: 425-430 (Summer 1988); and Christine Ogan , "Coverage of Development News in Developed and Developing Countries," Journalism Quarterly , 64: 80-87 (Spring 1987).

Wilbur Schramm and Erwin Atwood , Circulation of News in the Third World: A Study of Asia (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1981).

S.A. Ekwelie , "Nigerian Journalism & Colour TV: Problems and prospects," Message, Lagos, December 1976 , cited in Onuma O. Oreh , "Developmental Journalism and Press Freedom: An African View Point," Gazette, 24, 1: 36-40 (1978).

K.R. Rampal , "Adversary vs. Developmental Journalism: Indian Mass Media at the Crossroads ," Gazette, 34, 1: 3-20 (1984).

Hachten , op. cit., p. 73.

Warren Breed , "Social Control in the Newsroom: A Functional Analysis," Social Forces, 33: 326-335 (1955).

For a discussion of the gatekeeping function with regard to letters to the editor, see David L. Grey and Trevor R. Brown , "Letters to the Editor: Hazy Reflections of Public Opinion," Journalism Quarterly , 47: 450-456, 471 (Autumn 1970).

Jerry Salancik , "Selective Responding in Survey Situations: An Analysis of Factors Contributing to a Self-Selecting Bias," M.S. thesis, Northwestern University, 1966, cited in Grey and Brown, op. cit.

David L. Grey and Trevor R. Brown , op. cit., pp. 451-452.

John C. Merrill and Harold A. Fisher , The World's Great Dailies: Profiles of Fifty Newspapers (New York: Hastings House, Publishers, 1980).

John Luter and Jim Richstad , "Asia and the Pacific," in John C. Merrill , ed., Global Journalism: A Survey of the World's Mass Media New York: Longman, 1983), p. 128.

The Europa Yearbook 1987: A World Survey, Vol 2 (London: Europa Publications Limited, 1987), p. 2307.

Parker , op. cit., p. 786.

Luter and Richstad , op. cit., p. 128.

"The Press in Asia," op. cit., p. 10

"The Press in Asia," op. cit., p. 10.

"The Bounds of Press Freedom," Straits Times , March 28, 1987.

Alex Josey , Singapore: Its Past, Present and Future (London : Andre Deutsch Limited, 1980), p. 111.

Josey , op. cit., p. 112; and "The Bounds of Press Freedom," op. cit.

Ole R. Holsti , Content Analysis for the Social Sciences and Humanities (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1969). Only one coder was used; he was from Singapore. For the inter-coder reliability test, another person from Singapore was used. The use of coders from Singapore seemed appropriate because it is the people of Singapore who are the main audience for the Straits Times.

For one of the sample days, the Straits Times did not have a Forum page, and for one day, data were missing.

For the analyses dealing with data for all four years, letters to private organizations and others were removed because of their small frequencies.

Individual to private organization= 12; vice versa=4, private organization to government=4 ; government to government=1; individual to other=1; private organization to public=2; other to government=1; and other to public=1.

Education, transportation, housing, health, economics/business and national development were collapsed into "national development" topics; all others were collapsed into "other" topics.

Hal Davis and Galen Rarick , "Functions of Editorials and Letters to the Editor," Journalism Quarterly, 41: 109 (Winter 1964).

Hachten , op. cit., p. 72.