Governmentality and Journalism in Singapore

Governmentality and Journalism in Singapore: Disciplining Narratives challenges conventional narratives of regulatory coercion and control by examining the discourses that sustain media governance in Singapore. By framing media governance through a Foucauldian lens of governmentality, the book offers a more nuanced understanding of how the state secures compliance through legitimisation, rather than coercion alone. Using genealogical reflection, the book traces the brief history of media regulatory practices, focusing on events and public narratives that shape social norms and public expectations about journalism. Detailed discourse analysis of two regulatory case studies – the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act and the restructuring of a major newspaper conglomerate – explores how regulatory tools act as powerful mechanisms of legitimisation. While laws and policies exert control, they are rarely enforced without an extensive effort to justify their necessity, often through the very media organisations they regulate. The government actively engages in public debates, countering criticism and reinforcing its vision of a ‘socially responsible media’. Through an analysis of media narratives, the book reveals how power is negotiated, legitimised, and internalised within the journalistic field. This approach not only demystifies media regulation in Singapore but also highlights the significance of discourse as a tool of governance. Methodologically, the book deploys NVivo, a qualitative analysis software, to enable a genealogical study and critical discourse analyses of media texts and political rhetoric. Theoretically, it reinterprets Foucault’s concepts of docile bodies and governmentality in the context of media regulation, presenting a model for understanding the intimate but seldom explicated relationship between state power, discipline, and governance in mediated societies. Academically, Disciplining Narratives contributes to postgraduate media and communication studies, extending existing analyses of media governance in Singapore beyond frameworks of authoritarian control and industry manipulation. The book is an essential resource for scholars of media policy, societal governance and political communication, offering an extrapolation to other illiberal democracies.