Herng Su - Resume and Abstract

Name	Herng Su
Title	Professor and Department Chair at the Department of Journalism National Chengchi University, Taiwan
Brief Introduction	2007- -- Professor & Chair, Department of Journalism, NCCU 2005 to 2007 --Director of Research and Development Center of College of Communication at NCCU --Director of Executive MA Program of the same college. 2004 August to 2005 January --Visiting Scholar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA 1993-2002 Associate Professor National Chengchi University Professor Herng Su established communication ethics center at NCCU in 2005. The center is developed to by combining research of communication ethnics and case study and implemented as a resource data base collecting materials, worldwide regulations, theses and journals related to communication ethics.
Recent Publications	Su, H. (2005). Mass Communication Regulations. In C. F. Peng, H. Su, P.F. Cheng & F. C. Kin (Eds.), Journalism (I): New Journalism (pp 159-207). Taipei: National Open University. Su, H. (2005). Enlightenment of communication: Reread of Mass Communication Theory- C.S. Hsu. In C. S. Feng (Eds.), 70 Years of Department of Journalism (pp129-133). Taipei: Department of Journalism at National Cheng Chi University. Su, H. (2006). The Overview of Newspaper Market-Year 94. 2006 Almanac of Publication (pp 11-16). Taipei: Government Information Office. Su, H. (2006).The Role of Newspapers in the Transition of New Power Establishment in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Paper presented at Conference “Modernity, Modernization, and the Media in China”, China Media Conference 2006, China Media Centre, University of Westminster, June 17, 2006, London, United Kingdom. Su, H. (2007). The Effects of Product Placement in Television News: A content analysis of product types, placement strategies and discourses. Paper presented at The Fifth Conference of Media & Communication in Chinese Civilization, July 16, 2007. Su, H. (2008). Publish or Perish? A Dialogue with Journal Editors in Chinese Communication. Paper presented at the International Communication Association (ICA) for its 57th annual conference, San Francisco, USA, May 26. Su, H. & Chang, B. F. (2008). Web campaign? Public forum? Use of the blog on the presidential candidate web sites. Paper presented at communication and technology conference at Cuiao Tung University, Hsin Chu, Taiwan. Yi-yi Chiu & H. Su (2009). How newspapers frame political celebrity? The case of Ma Ying-jeou, Mass Communication Research, in press.

Conceptual challenges to the paradigm of media research in national and local contexts

Herng Su, professor,
Department of Journalism, National Chengchi University

Abstract

What kind of science would logically evolve in different social environment? Can communication researchers in Taiwan uncover the latent meaning of local activity and reformulate their own communication research focus? Is it difficult to forge a body of knowledge independent of Euro-America-centered research paradigms in communication theory?
A central criticism of many of Taiwanese communication studies is that they subscribe indiscriminately and significantly to theoretical models mostly imported from the US and Europe. Researchers of communication problem in Taiwan have not behaved independently and they have so far failed to build concepts rooted in the particular experience of life from their own perspective.
The author wants to briefly review the paradigm "wars" of communication research carried out so far in Taiwan and shows some commonalities between Taiwanese and Western research. Then, the article will discuss the most serious theoretical and methodological problem in communication research results from the assumption that communication plays an independent role in affecting social changes and behavior. The author provides a few examples to explain why one should concern with overall social, economic, cultural, and political factors in different reality in the region to adjust the premise, object, and method in research activities. While much communication research in Taiwan may be rich in concept and method from U.S., it was also blamed to forget the obsession with local properties can lead to an undue emphasis on the form of conduct with a neglect of its substance.
The author uses basic premises, theoretical framework, and methodology in relation to the nature of communication study in the West. The author suggests the possibility of building in this region/community a dogma-free science of communication as well as creating constructs and procedures genuinely appropriate to a non-western society.