Professor
Prof. George’s professional life has been devoted to journalism practice, education, research and advocacy. A native of Singapore, he worked as a journalist for the Straits Times, including three years as its art and photo editor, before moving to academia. His academic research centres on freedom of expression, and hate propaganda. His civic involvements include founding What’s Up, a monthly current affairs newspaper for Singapore schoolchildren, published since 2003. Prof. George received his Ph.D. in Communication from Stanford University. He has a Masters from Columbia University’s School of Journalism and a B.A. in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University.
Critical and Comparative Studies of News Media Systems (BA)
Censorship: A Global Survey (PhD)
Supervision of PhD students
Prof. George is broadly interested in the relationship between communication and state power. His research examines how media’s democratising potential is restricted in various types of political regime; and the rise of religious intolerance and hate propaganda as a tool of political contention. He also writes on Singapore media and politics.
- George, Cherian & Donald Low (2020) PAP v. PAP: The Party’s Struggle to Adapt to a Changing Singapore. Singapore: Self-Published.
- George, Cherian & Gayathry Venkiteswaran (2019). Media and Power in Southeast Asia. Cambridge University Press.
- Hate Spin: The Manufacture of Religious Offense and its Threat to Democracy (2016)
- Freedom from the Press: Journalism and State Power in Singapore (2012)
- Contentious Journalism and the Internet: Towards Democratic Discourse in Malaysia and Singapore (2006)
- Prof. George is currently collaborating with cartoonist Sonny Liew on a graphic documentary book about the censorship of political cartoons around the world, to be published by the MIT Press in 2020.
- Prof. George’s book, Hate Spin, was placed on Publishers Weekly’s list of 100 Best Books of 2016.
- Prof. George’s 2012 book, Freedom From The Press, won an award for excellence at the Asian Publishing Convention.
- For more information about Prof. George’s work, please visit his website.