The four theories of the press have long dominated in journalism education and research and arguably do a good job of describing media systems in the West. However, it is hard to fit Asian media systems into the existing theories. This paper re-examines the four press theories and identifies the difficulties in using the theories as a guide to understand media systems in Asia. The purpose of this paper is to raise issues with the applicability of the theories in an Asian media context and explore a new paradigm, which would bring in cultural values from both the East and the West.
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