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This Friday is the 4th annual CAS symposium. In this day-long conference, we will continue to examine our year-long theme, "Mediating Asia." A great deal of our current knowledge about Asia comes to us via traditional media channels (such as print & broadcast journalism, feature films, and documentaries) and, increasingly, via less formal online channels such as blogs and social media networking sites. While Asian scholars based outside of Asia have, for some time, been engaged in critical readings of these ‘mediated’ representations of Asia, the rapid rise of Asian media industries within Asia has resulted in more diffuse representations of Asia than ever before. With ‘Mediating Asia’, the Center for Asian Studies seeks to explore the implications of these increasingly diffuse, multi-mediated representations of Asia. We take a broad definition of media to include not only print, broadcast, film, and internet formats, but also arts and literature, insofar as they might also be viewed as representations of Asia. How does Asia represent itself through Asian media? How is the idea of ‘Asia’ as a coherent identity reimagined and represented through Asian media? What sorts of tensions, dialogues, contradictions, and collaborations exist between Asian and non-Asian media? In what ways do Asian media ‘respond’ to non-Asian representations of Asia? How are different Asian peoples, places, or histories imagined, marketed, consumed through new Asian media channels? On Friday, April 17, we will examine this concept of "Mediating Asia" in detail through two keynote addresses and four panel presentations. At 10:15, Endy Bayuni of The Jakarta Post will begin the symposium with his talk entitled, "Mediating Indonesia: The Slow Emergence of a Young Nation." Bayuni is a senior editor and former chief editor of The Jakarta Post, where he has worked since 1991. Bayuni regularly writes columns commenting on Indonesian domestic politics, including Islam and foreign policy conduct. Melissa Chan will follow at 11:00 with her keynote address, "Reporting from China: Media, Human Rights, and the Authoritarian State." Chan is a San Francisco-based correspondent for Al Jazeera America. She was the correspondent in China for five years, from 2007 until 2012, where she covered the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, and the 2009 riots in Urumqi. In addition to our keynote addresses, this year's conference will also feature three panels on "Media and Environmental Politics in Asia," "Authoritarian States, Nationalism, and the Unruly Media," and Identity, Culture, and Branding." Isabel Hilton and Tom Yulsman will present on the "Media and Environmental Politics in Asia" panel, beginning after lunch at 1:00. Isabel Hilton is the CEO and Editor of chinadialogue.net, an independent, non-profit organization based in London and Beijing. As a journalist working for multiple news agencies, Hilton has reported from China, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Joining Hilton will be Tom Yulsman, Associate Professor in the College of Media, Communication and Information, where he co-directs the Center for Environmental Journalism. Then at 1:45, Michael Curtin, Timothy Weston, and Rianne Subijanto will present the panel on "Authoritarian States, Nationalism, and the Unruly Media." Michael Curtin is a Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara. His research interests include globalization, cultural geography, media history, new media, and documentary. The second presenter, Timothy Weston, is an Associate Professor of History and the Associate Director of the Center for Asian Studies at the Â鶹ÊÓƵ. His current research focuses on journalists and journalism in modern China. Joining Curtin and Weston will be Rianne Subijanto, Ph.D. student in Communication in the College of Media, Communication and Information at the Â鶹ÊÓƵ. Her research examines the birth and growth of the communist movement in the late colonial period of the Dutch East Indies from the perspective of communication studies. Beginning at 3:00, the third panel, "Identity, Culture, and Branding," will be presented by Mark Bender, Hiromu Nagahara, and Hun Shik Kim. Mark Bender is an Associate Professor of East Asian Studies and a Core Faculty member of the Center for Folklore Studies at Ohio State University. He specializes in traditional performance and performance-connected literature of China, including local Han and ethnic minority culture. Hiromu Nagahara is an Assistant Professor of History and the Cecil and Ida Green Career Development Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He studies the history of modern Japan, and his research interests include the history of media and popular culture in the twentieth century. An Associate Professor of Journalism in the College of Media, Communication and Information at the Â鶹ÊÓƵ, Hun Shik Kim will be the third presenter on this panel. His research interests include broadcast journalism, telecommunication systems and policies, international communication, and war and conflict reporting. The symposium will be concluded with final panel at 4:00 that will offer concluding observations about "Mediating Asia" as presented through the course of the keynote and panel presentations. Presenting on the panel will be Tim Oakes, Stewart Hoover, and Nabil Echchaibi. Tim Oakes is a Professor of Geography and the Director of the Center for Asian Studies at the Â鶹ÊÓƵ. His research interests include regional cultural development, culture industries, tourism, heritage, and regional and place-based identities. Stewart Hoover is a Professor of Media Studies in the College of Media, Communication and Information, and the Director of the Center for Media, Religion, and Culture at the Â鶹ÊÓƵ. His research centers on media audience and reception studies rooted in cultural studies, anthropology, and qualitative sociology. Nabil Echchaibi is an Associate Professor in the College of Media, Communication and Information, and the Chair of Media Studies and the Associate Director of the Center for Media, Religion, and Culture at the Â鶹ÊÓƵ. His research examines how identity, religion, and media shape and reflect modern religious subjectivities among Muslims in the Middle East and in diaspora. The "Mediating Asia" Symposium will be held in the British and Irish Studies Room on the Fifth Floor of Norlin LIbrary, and welcoming remarks will begin at 10:00 a.m. Sponsored by the Center for Asian Studies; the Graduate Committee on the Arts and Humanities; the College of Media, Communication and Information; the Center for Environmental Journalism; and the Center for Media, Religion, and Culture.