Regionalization of East Asia in the 1990s

Regionalization in East Asia in the 1990s has been made possible by information flows through cultural products such as television programmes and films. East Asian television networks have been filled with regionally-based television programmes. Cultural similarity, technology, and capital markets have also affected media flows and spurred regionalization. The economic crisis of several East Asian countries in the late 1990s ironically accelerated the regionalization of the area. The crisis provided opportunities for local broadcasters and filmmakers to make programmes for the regional market with regional characteristics such as similar culture and emotion. However, regionalization of East Asia in the late 1990s also has to be understood at the global economic level, in particular with US media industries, because East Asia was still affected by the US.