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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Digital David slays MSM Goliath? (Part 2)

May 9, 2008 10:42

Part 2 of this post explores my thoughts on how to realistically attempt to reform MSM in Malaysia.

Target influence
Successfully reforming the habits and ways of the MSM is, in my view, about playing the system and understanding what drives the media in this country, rather than trying to rewrite the rules of the playbook. Digital media's role must not be able taking away business or revenue from MSM because, frankly, that's not the currency they trade in. The true power of media has been, and will always be, in its influence--its ability to alter perceptions, manage viewpoints and dictate mindsets. And it does this through a mixture of projecting the values of integrity, trust and credibility. It's often said that the success of Tony Blair's landslide victory over the Conservatives in the 1990s was perceptibly due to the support of the top-selling tabloid, The Sun.
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Digital David slays MSM Goliath? (Part 1)

May 1, 2008 14:21

Long post today again--editor says I must learn to post shorter but it's a hard habit to break, much like the newspaper! To make it easier to read, I've split this post into Part I and Part II.

According to my neighborhood newspaper delivery man, circulation of newspapers (or MSM "Main Stream Media" as they are known in the blogosphere) has gone up, and not down. And according to his anecdotal evidence (having delivered papers in my neighborhood for over 30 years now), more people are switching to The Star rather than to the NST.

This seems to be despite (or should that be in spite of?) the concerted and ongoing effort by the online community to have the public boycott MSM as a means in which to hurt local media companies where it hurts the most.
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Oi, YB, get a BlackBerry

Apr 15, 2008 22:54

Recently, the Star and the Sun both (independently?) ran stories on how much a Member of Parliament in Malaysia earns. I have to say, I was shocked.

Not at how little. But at HOW MUCH. Who says politicians are badly paid?
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Malaysian love U-turns

Apr 11, 2008 20:22

Yes, our roads are replete with U-turns.

But, political U-turns tend to be as rare as a Dodo on a summer's day. So it's especially interesting when this little news snippet turned up. I reproduce it in full from AP via the International Herald Tribute's Web site:

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia:
Candidates contesting some posts in Malaysia's ruling party will be
required to set up blogs, an official said Friday in a surprising
turnaround for governing politicians who until recently derided online
political writing as lies and rumors.

Abdul Rahman Dahlan, Secretary General of the United Malays National
Organization party's youth wing, said all those vying for national
youth posts must have blogs to introduce themselves and their programs
ahead of party elections in December.

"All candidates must have blogs," Abdul Rahman told The Associated Press. "If not, they are not qualified to be leaders."

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Bloggers rule, newspapers drool?

Apr 4, 2008 16:09

From the stance that bloggers are unprintables (variously, of Darwinian origins, being mostly of the XX gene pool and fringe lunatics), suddenly, bloggers have street cred.

From the time the Prime Minister of Malaysia announced to an investment conference that the recent 2008 General Election was "lost" due to the cyberwar, the Government has decided that bloggers are not unprintables after all.
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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.