ABSTRACT
This chapter explores part of a larger theoretical concern with one of the most enduring issues in the field of communication: the role of the mass media in societies undergoing rapid and vast transformation. It examines some of the conventional wisdom in the field that favors big media for social change. All analyses of Taiwan's media must hinge on the behavior of a state that encompasses a "triple alliance" of the ruling Kuomintang, the government, and the military. In Taiwan, the state monopolized television channels and most radio stations. The Korean War soon broke out, which unexpectedly saved Taiwan's fortune in the redrawn world power landscape. A cultural vacuum engulfed Taiwan throughout the 1960s. With US President Harry Truman ready to abandon Chiang Kaishek's Nationalist forces in 1949, Taiwan was virtually ostracized from the world community. The Korean War soon broke out, which unexpectedly saved Taiwan's fortune in the redrawn world power landscape.
