Tete-A-Tech
A walk down the Yellow Brick Road of Malaysia's Corridor of the future
by Bernice Low, Malaysia
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The Star and Malaysiakini--PUNKED!
Jul 1, 2009 12:19Yesterday, a friend forwarded me an SMS from Malaysiakini's SMS service announcing that Rick Astley (he of Never gonna give you up and Together forever) had died in a Berlin hotel room. It was also sent out on The Star's SMS news service (which means it was probably also forwarded to dozens of people by the recipients, who pay RM5 per month to receive such "updates").
Of course, it turned out that Mr Astley (the King of Cheesey Pop?) had not gone the way of the King of Pop, and it was all a hoax from a CNN iReport. And The Star and Malaysiakini had something in common for a change: Egg on their faces. They'd both been PUNKED!
My 0.02 cents--does this say something for the journalism standards of both publications?
Maybe The Star doesn't actually assign a human being to write those SMS updates. The human journalist arguably would check--that's what I did the minute I got the SMS. Maybe the SMS updates are simply pulled from the Web using some sophisticated RSS program that automatically plugs grabbed headlines into the SMS system and hits SEND. If this is the case, then the users paying for this news should question the value of the SMS News Alerts service they are paying for, because they could easily end up forking out for false, incorrect or inaccurate news (which is clearly what HAS occured in this case).
Today, it's a celebrity hoax. Tomorrow, it could be something more important or significant politically or economically. If someone figures out a way to trick (or Google Bomb) the news source that the system is using...
Now, let's assume that there IS a human being writing the updates. There is definitely then cause to question the journalism standards at The Star since it appears that NO ONE actually verified the story or even bothered to try and get confirmation. A quick Google search I did upon receiving the SMS update revealed virtually no other news outlet running the story.
Perhaps the BBC/New York Times/The Sun were busy checking their facts, while The Star and Malaysiakini were being royally punked.
- Talkback
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Large Media Corperations like CNN can get around places compared to two these papers. I wouldn't say CNN,BBC or NYT are any better when it comes international news in different regions.
As for professional journalism is concerned it doesn't exist anymore. It's like the american justice system who can sell a better story.
Jul 01, 2009 17:19
@bernice: irresponsible reporting. If they meant it as a joke, its a BAD joke.
Jul 01, 2009 18:25
Perhaps the Star and Malaysiakini placed too much confidence on foreign news sources? It just goes to show that some of us Asians are so naive that we believe every CNN and BBC news headline like God's word, without ever questioning their accuracy and objectivity. CNN, BBC, etc. are after all profit-making entities and as such are subject to sensationalism and what have you.
Jul 02, 2009 08:30
About Bernice Low
Bernice Low is a screenwriter and pen-for-hire. At age 11 (in the era of BB--Before Blog) Bernice started her own newspaper, the Daily Jelly. It lasted two days before she was stopped from using school newsprint supplies for frivolous activities. She loves Cartoon Network's Bill and Mandy, has a thing for TV doctors House and MacDreamy, and is the proud owner of a 32-inch flat-screen TV. She believes diamonds and iPods are a girl's best friend. Her blog is her latest guilty pleasure.
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