Taiwan, Status of Media in

Mass media in Taiwan have experienced some drastic changes over the past 15 years, and the change is expected to continue. News reporting in the 1970s was similar to what can be found in any authoritarian political system: Through censorship, news reporting was a major tool for injecting political ideologies and promoting government policies. The evening news on television usually started with handshakes of national leaders with foreign or local leaders and continued with some major accomplishments of the government and negative happenings in some selected nations. In the 1990s, however, mass media in Taiwan have evolved from being the mouthpiece of the government to the watchdog of the people. Fighting among politicians representing different political parties in the Legislative Yuan (the main parliament of Taiwan) was usually shown first, followed by the reporting of domestic problems. The changes in mass media were closely connected to a series of changes in Taiwan's political system since the late 1980s. In this article the history of the media, the media environment, the current status of major media, media-related phenomena, and the challenges facing the media in Taiwan will be addressed.