Introduction To Journalism (Blog 1)

Hi, I am Rebecca. I am 20 this year. I am studying media and creative studies in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR). I am born in Penang, Malaysia. My hobbies are drawing and producing stories. My ambition is to be a public speaker and a script writer.

I am going to talk on a topic in Journalism that I have learnt last week.

Journalism is a form of writing that tells people about things that really happened but that they might not have known about already. Journalism are written by people called 'journalists'. Journalists worked at media places or offices such as newspapers, magazines, or for television or radio stations.

The three types of journalism are written, audio and visual journalism. Few examples of written journalism are newspapers and magazines. As for audio, an example would be radio. I am sure you know that at certain time when we listened to radio there will be news update. Lastly, television news would be a type of visual journalism. Other than that, there's also video and internet journalism. Video would be like news from Youtube, while internet there's blog, streaming news sites and twitter feeds.

(Week 1) Media Freedom In Malaysia

There're freedom of speech, but how about freedom after speech?

Malaysia is a multi-racial country, religious and racial isssue are extremely senstive in our country. Recently some religious words even prohibited to certain people, we are not suppose to 'mention'. Nowadays people rely on media regardless traditional media or alternative media to get latest news about our society and country. Hence, government is surveillance and put a close eye on media. Media will shape public mind, it will also form public opinion, and congnitive lead to behavior. 

Media freedom is a controversial topic, politcians from Pakatan Rakyat often accuse BN is not giving freedom for them to advertise their manifesto or advertisement. But i think it's not true at all, because i have seen their advertisement on newspaper, some even containing misleading. In Bukit Gelugor by election, DAP advertisement emphasize all the weaknesses of BN such as corruption, race equality and others, but there're one point i am not agree with it, it showing the missing of MH370 is a conspirancy that planned by BN. We can't accuse anything or anything without any evidence and prove. Don't try to fool the readers.

On the other hand, BN has more resources compare to Pakatan Rakyat. They often advertise their' contribution' on newspaper, they have utilize the media splendidly. I watched a video before, a minister warned reporter don't create issue or raise any issue that will harm government. Ha ha, are the reporter suppose to report what does government want us to know? or thing that we suppose to know? Frankly, the minister needs to educate himself. 

There're one issue that i would like to emphasize on, world press freedom index or global press freedom ranking, an indicator to Malaysia government, whether they are giving enough space to media or not, Malaysia government include the federal government and state government. Both side also need to take responsibility and initiative. from my point of view, the ranking is not so important, the important is our country stability. Our country is different from others country, one sensitive issue will put our country in risk. Malaysia is still young, we are still need time to develop our country and also media. Don't always blame media for not reporting the truth? how do define the truth? Readers tend to read things that are linked or match their preference.

References:
http://www.limkitsiang.com/archive/1999/Nov99/sg2078.htm

http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/media-freedom-not-without-limits-says-minister

Change in Circulation of media system (Blog 1)

What I’ve learnt in this week's lecture was the change in circulation of media system in Malaysia. Let me begin by saying, "When a dog bites a man that is not news, but when a man bites a dog that is news". Charles Anderson Dana, American journalist, 1819-1897, meaning to say that when things are normal it is not a news at all but when something turns out to be abnormal,that will be a news. Today, Malaysia press media freedom and ethics are rank 147th out of 180th in 2014, it has dropped dramatically since the year of 2002 which rank 110th. 

According to our home minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi the reason of why Malaysia does not have pressed freedom because he stated that "media and internet freedoms are being abused by those with hidden agendas". Many people think that press has been restricted, because it is for the good of the citizen to avoid publishing or broadcasting News of a sensitive issues about racism. 

In the early day, blogging and newspaper was the medium of information where people are able to exercise free speech. Now a days, generation Y and Z want fast information and they do not bother reading the newspaper anymore. They want a questionable facts and fast news so they rather go online as in social media and get all the information of the current news because they know that this days newspaper are being order to be shielded by the government and non-government organizations. 

I personally acquire information mostly from Facebook, twitter and online news. This really shows how impactful social media can be in this generation, how it can really change the mind set of the youngster in Malaysia. 

According to our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak reaffirm to preserved the Internet as a medium for free debates and open discussion, saying that he’s open to criticism while urging people to avoid uncontroversial statement. Malaysian or any citizen has their right to comment and disagree with the work of the government.

link:

http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/malaysia-worse-than-myanmar-in-world-press-freedom-index

Truthful Lies

(Taken from: http://pakarmedforces.com/2012/12/isi-a-big-failure-or-a-symbol-of-success.html/reality-of-pakistani-media-by-pakarmedforces)

                No doubt that most Malaysians read and listen to information that has been censored and changed by our beloved government. Clearly, there is a close relationship between the media press and the political parties in the ruling league. The party-owned media gets to control the media and this allows them to have the power to decide on the scope and nature of the media content. Journalists are facing problems and it is difficult for them as they are working in the government’s propaganda plans, working almost like slaves and not professionals. This situation also makes it difficult for Malaysians to practice their rights to information. With this, government has imposed many laws and acts that instill fear among the media practitioners and obviously, the journalists. This also prevents most of the journalists from playing their role in voicing out the truth.

                In class, it made me realise something deeper that the government is not the only people we are most likely to blame at. Nevertheless, the problem with the media in Malaysia is within, that is the journalists themselves. Lack of self-esteem can be a problem. Journalist plays an important role in the media industry. They consider their vocation just a job to earn a living and they are prepared to sell themselves for a pittance. They would give up on their rights because of the overloaded restrictions and laws that are imposed in the country. When they began writing they were committed and set out to change the world but gradually, most journalists’ belly takes over their brain and mind. Then they stop thinking and produce mediocre articles and reports that are acceptable to their political bosses. They begin to measure success by the figures in their pay cheque.

                If you are a journalist, ask yourself, will there be output without input? The quality of the output also depends on the quality of the input. For instance, if our input is mainly the mediocre speeches of our ministers, then our output must be trash marketable only with the mainstream newspapers.

References:

http://books.google.com.my/books?id=XKyP-8XwuIoC&pg=PA249&dq=ownership,+control+and+malaysian+media&hl=en&sa=X&ei=QyuHU4maM4-48gXMmoHYBg&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=ownership%2C%20control%20and%20malaysian%20media&f=false

http://mpi.my/ceramah-penerangan-freedom

(B1)Role of Journalism in Malaysia

Hi there, today I want to discuss about Role of Journalism in Malaysia.

Basically, journalist is the one who used to inform public and officials about new information and interpret the information for society.  Unfortunately, today in Malaysia, Journalist use their power to set the mind of citizen in Malaysia. In can be seen in the figure 1 below, most of the media is control by government or those who related to government.

This make our media in Malaysia become propaganda of government or help the government to hide some information and news behind us. For normally, a journalist should become a “watchdog” to supply the citizens with information they must have to know and to warn citizens about those that are harm for them. However, Malaysia journalists have become the “watchdog” of government to help them filter out news that adverse to government.

Besides that, Malaysia journalists also take the chance to ignore some information by changing the citizen attention to the other news by so call “agenda setting”. They also become “gatekeeper” to filter the information that wants audience ignores or to be know by people out of the country. For example, the 505 Blackout Rallies is a rallies that organize by citizen of Malaysia to show their disagree with the result of election of 5th May of 2013. However, Media block most the information of the news and also decrease the number of people that attend when report in news.

This is also make the result of Malaysian mostly youngster don't not believe on print media and broadcast media. Most of them get news and information from online media and also from social network like facebook. However, the accuracy and the source of information are unknown.

(Figure 1: Media ownership of Malaysia)

Readings for last week

Some readings on media in Malaysia

 

1) Ahmad, F., Kee, C. P., Mustaffa, N., Ibrahim, F., Mabmud, W., & Amizah, W. (2012). Information Propagation and the Forces of Social Media in Malaysia. Asian Social Science, 8(5).

 

2) Anuar, M. K. (2007). Politics and the Media in Malaysia. Kasarinlan: Philippine Journal of Third World Studies, 20(1), 25-47.

 

3) http://www.publicmediaagency.org/uploads/1/3/7/1/13711287/pathways-compile-1.pdf#page=143

(See chapter 3)

 

(B1) About Media in Malaysia

Hi everyone once again, previous week Dr Sharon has discussed in the class about Media in Malaysia and it strikes me back to the past where all the chaotic and imbalance politics happened in Malaysia and I’ve learned that politics in Malaysia are mostly ruled over by the government and their increasingly concentrated ruling party, Barisan National. And of course, it is one-sided kind of thing.

Malaysia's press system until today is an inheritance of the British colonial era. It became an influential medium for the populace to voice their opinions of the colonial government in pre-independant Malaya. 

Today, most of the media is owned by the country's ruling party, Barisan National. As you can see, the picture below is an interesting table of Media Ownership.

Basically what the picture is trying to say that each media group owns certain type of media in the country. 

Barisan National owns Media Prima and indirectly, news portals and broadcasters will take advantage to censor what is bad and spread propaganda about their good to the citizens whereas the opposition are low on advantages because of the majority ownership by the government. 

Further on, there are some censorship which is main controlled by the government to prevent people outside of the country from knowing the truth. For example, Bersih. Bersih in another word is called  Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections is a protest event where people come together to seek clean election due to the 'dirty tricks' used by the government to win the election. Hence, rakyat (citizen) are not happy with the result of what they get and wants to demand what is right, such as preventing corruption, dirty politics, cleaner election and so forth. 

There are more information about the reformation in this source from the net : 

http://www.bersih.org/?page_id=352

As you can see the censorship in Malaysia is quiet strong and here is a video showing two different news being broadcast in BBC, UK and ASTRO, Malaysia 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTGogMq9NZ0

This is just one of the example where the government censored some of the scenes to prevent its citizens from the real truth. They may claim that it is to prevent feud but it is however a subjective matter.