The fast-changing Malaysian landscape

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On May 29, 2013

Zhen M, Business Circle

With the rise of digital media and its increasing popularity, it may seem that traditional media is being replaced by the nebulous ideal of “new media” driven by audience interaction and “crowd sourced” content.

Generation Y, aged 18-32, are very attached to their gadgets. Generation Z, the first generation truly born into the digital era, are even more so. With a growing population made up of young digital savvy citizens, and the older generation also embracing the new technology and media, is traditional media losing relevance?

With the increasing usage of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, consumers are now able to instantly connect to the internet and be constantly updated on the latest news and gossip. Information is in real-time, unlike having to wait for the next day for the physical newspaper. Indeed, so many tales, good or bad, have gone viral online over a short period of time – sometimes way ahead of proper news channels, which would probably not report the bulk of these juicy “shares” anyway.

The newspapers in the country have done admirably expanding online and are among the most accessed Malaysian sites. Chinese daily Sin Chew even went a step further to have an English portal, too.

But the perception is that traditional media is losing ground to alternative new portals as the latter are deemed less pro-government. The situation became more serious following the recently concluded General Elections (GE13), with various quarters calling for boycott of one media or another for alleged unfair reporting. If Facebook “tales” were to be trusted, some publications have already suffered losses in subscriptions and readership post-GE13.

Such allegations are unfortunately inevitable, considering that RTM is government-owned and all the other large media entities are linked to the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) and its component parties. The Utusan Group is Umno-owned and is now widely regarded as more of a propaganda tool than a news provider. Malaysia’s largest media group Media Prima is controlled by Umno proxies. Leading English daily the Star and group is owned by MCA. MIC politicians or their families own the three national Tamil newspapers. The nation’s Chinese publication industry is monopolised by Chinese Media International Ltd, controlled by BN-friendly Tan Sri Tiong Hiew King.

“The reputation of our politically-linked media has been battered, collectively and individually. More than ever before, they will have to put in extra effort to win back the trust of the people,” one observer said.