Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftliche Fakultät - Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften

Histories and Cultures of Central Asia (HCCA)

Lecture Series #1

Manlai Nyamdorj (PhD student, Trier University)

Abstract

In October 2024, the Government of Mongolia, spearheaded by former Minister of Justice, O. Altangerel, introduced a new draft bill of the Law of Freedom of the Press. The ongoing bill was to reform and update the 2004 law with the same name. In a short period of time, the bill has generated significant discussions and debates surrounding the state of the media landscape in Mongolia. Using this event as an entry point to look at the Mongolian Media System in its totality, this contribution seeks to address many aspects of Mongolian media in the post-1990s context - its institutions and stakeholders in the existing media landscape as a generalizable case of the national media system in an increasingly transnational media environment. Situating the Mongolian Media System against normative notions of public sphere and especially Fourth Estate, often reiterated concepts in the Mongolian context, this talk will present many of the issues of media in Mongolia, including (hyper)commercialization, government-incorporated media, concentration of ownership, decline in international rankings like Press Freedom Index by RSF, types of manipulation with different names from propaganda to PR and media as highly a contentious space of mediatized wars between different interest groups.

Bio

Manlai Nyamdorj is a doctoral researcher in Sinology at Trier University. His project Global China in Communication looks at China's communication across national media systems. Previously, he wrote his MA thesis on China’s soft power at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Manlai’s research extends beyond China and he is working on a variety of political, social, and economic issues in contemporary Mongolia. His writings on Mongolia have appeared in Jacobin Magazine and on LeftEast.

Zoom

https://hu-berlin.zoom-x.de/j/62076121098?pwd=Kw4rzOTN9kYITnz0EYoAaX5BB71adQ.1

Meeting ID: 620 7612 1098

Password: 709089