Malaysia Explorer

By Edwin Yapp

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Malaysia's new media gains credibility post-election

Posted in Malaysia Explorer by Oon Yeoh on Sunday, March 16 2008 10:12 PM

It's not just the Barisan Nasional government that got a shock with its worst performance in history at the recent General Elections. The local mainstream media has taken a beating too, with its credibility going down the drain because of blatant biased coverage in favor of the government.

What helped to discredit biased print media coverage were the many blogs and online media which published photos and reports of what was actually going on in political rallies across the country.

If the newspapers failed to report that 30,000 people showed up at an opposition rally, the bloggers would publish photos on their sites to proved that it happened.

There has been quite a change already though with many local newspaper offering more balanced coverage now.

The winds of change have swept through not only the political landscape but also the media environment, says The Star's Editor-in-Chief Wong Chun Wai. It's time for media practitioners to do some serious soul-searching to stay relevant and accurately feel the pulse of the nation.

Let's wait and see if this is a permanent change for the better.

Disclaimer:
Views and opinions expressed in this blog are the author's, and do not necessarily represent those of ZDNet Asia.

Talkback 1 comments

Malaysia's new media gains credibility post-election
The media in Malaysia supports the government only and its articles are based on what the government would accept to be published, to the extent that now the public can't trust a single "cent" of Malaysia's media. The media is not gaining creditability but losing its image and the public is more inteligent now.
Posted by anonymous on Sunday, April 13 2008 04:24 PM

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About the blogger

Edwin Yapp

An engineer by training, Edwin first cut his teeth as a cellular radio frequency optimization engineer in one of Malaysia's largest telcos. After more than five years, he hung up his radio engineering boots to try his hand at technology reporting at The Star, Malaysia's leading English daily, where he won several awards for Best Online Technology reporting. He left to start his own editorial consultancy and is now a freelance journalist for several publications, including ZDNet Asia. A self-confessed gadget geek, Edwin hopes his blog contributions will stir up deeper discussions within the Malaysian technology scene.