Role of Media in Society

Role of Media in SocietyMedia is con positionred to be the 4th pillar of the auberge period the sensitive(prenominal) three being legislative, executive and judiciary. It plays an crucial fictitious character in the welfargon of the society, working as an in frameer, an educator, a grad of recreation and an opinion fermentr. In Malaysia, media and politics are co-dependent because through this, democracy is organize. Mustafa (1999) state that in this broad context of democracy, the lowlife media plays an important role by supplying media users with a platform to take tuition, exchange cycloramas and at the equivalent time give feedback to the g everywherenment however this is overshadowed by the states official view that the media should be functioning as an essential tool to promote field development, national harmony and national security.The Mainstream Media and PoliticsThe Malaysian mainstream press loafer be categorised as having g oneness through a major per iod of change since the early 1980s in terms of will power and well as beckoned amendments and policies that serves as a form of gate-keeping and rig over the media. All forms of media introduced, newsprint, radio and television, directly went under the control of the judicature or companies that were aligned with the government.In Malaysia, obtaining reading is often a tedious contest and can be frustrating applied not just for journalists only for the usual because there are no Freedom of Information (FOI) laws. wiz of the events that aided towards a tight control over the mainstream media was during the 1969 resources, Barisan National while retaining a majority, lost m all seats to extremist Chinese and Malay parties Yesudhasan Wong (2010) stated that Malaysia experienced one of the worst incident of ethnic emphasis in its history that came to be known as the whitethorn 13 incident. As part of the governments plan to sustain social order then, the government suspe nded the overtations for all newspapers for two days starting from 16 May 1969, subsequently introduced a outlawship law and banned the circulation of certain immaterial magazines and newspapers that contained reports of the violence in Kuala Lumpur (Mustafa, 1999)Due to the incident, the government declared to have the rights to censor items that were deemed dangerous to national security. The Malaysian government appears to be misusing arguments of religious bleak and cultural issues to manipulate the governmental system by limiting policy-making freedom of the opposition and civil society which makes Malaysia a less democratic state (Azizuddin, 2008) Then, a new established body, the National Operations Council (NOC) was formed to resuscitate parliamentary democracy, rebuild open confidence and engender moral principle harmony and a form contri howevering towards forming ethic harmony an amendment was form whereby it prohibited any act, speech or publication that has a dip to bring feelings of ill-will and enmity in the midst of the various ethnic groups (Zaharom, 1999) Thus the buckram h obsolete over the mainstream media begins.Many government leaders in the ontogenesis world justify their control over the media in terms of jealousy guarding and guiding its members towards the supposedly noble path of national development and to check up on that the media does not fall into the wrong hands or in other words, state control over the mainstream media has clearly been justified in the call off of national development and national security (Mustafa, 2004)During elections, the media plays an important role in publicizing as well as plays a part in advertising politicians as well as their campaign. The mainstream media is fully controlled by Barisan Nationals require to not only publicise only when as Mustafa (2005) stated, flaunt to the solely country BNs achievements, particularly in the area of socioeconomic development. A all-embracing und erwriteage would make on the pro-government and minimal reportage would be done on the opposition. Media ownership popularly plays in role in wherefore Barisan national is constantly being flaunt and portrayed as the political company to vote for.After Malaysia gained independence in 1957, the mainstream print media was own by private sector companies. Then the United Malays National brass instrument (UMNO) made a successful bid for the Utusan Melayu a few age afterwardswards. Over the years, the major English newspaper, The New Straits Times was likewise taken over by UMNO of the ruling National Front, while The virtuoso was bought over by the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and mainstream television carry like TV1, TV2 and TV3 were born, controlled by the government.According to an analysis on the coverage of Malaysias 2004 ordinary elections by four mainstream newspapers (The Star, the New Straits Times (NST), Berita Harian and Utusan Melayu), the total bout of news items that were positive towards BN among all four major newspapers were roughly 40% and above. The other part of the percentage went straight to new items that were negative towards the opposition. precisely a slight number of news (4% and below) were negative new items towards BN. Mustafa (2005) alike highlighted ensample of headlines used by these newspapers that gave an idea of slant news report Malaysians prefer Pak Lahs vision of Islam (NST, work 15 2004), Perlis merana jika pilih pembangang (Perlis suffers if opposition is voted) (Utusan Melayu, March 16 2004 ) This shows a high level of bias coverage within the exceedingly influential mainstream newspapers during the 2004 general elections.Alternative Media and PoliticsWith an obvious slant reporting and biasness from the mainstream media, cyber news is slowly taking over, becoming a more(prenominal) focused, break-dance written, more informative and ersatz to the mainstream newspapers and media. Like in the case o f Marina Mahathir with The tugboat that wasnt this piece was spiked by the Star because it touched in issues that were tender but since The Malaysian Multimedia and Communication Acts of 1998 promises that No censorship would be applied on Internet content, Marina published her column online together with harangue on why her column was spiked. What would stop the public now from narration that column online and have the same reaction if it was published in the mainstream newspaper?A study conducted by Zentrum Future Studies Malaysia in 2008 involving 1, 500 respondents between the age of 21 and 40 showed that the selection media holds a big influence on young Malaysians. In the study, 64.5% of those ages from 21 to 30 years old trusted blogs and online media for reli able information. Those between 31 and 40 years old, 61.7% believed that information in blogs and online media are true. (Study Shows Why BN Lost the War, 2008)Yesudhasan Wong (2010) express that the young read ership in Malaysia believes that the mainstream media are under the control of the government, always working continuously to batten that the news are pro-government and has no or limited reports on sensitive issues. Various alternative news portals such as Malaysia Today, Malaysian Insider, Harakah periodical and MalaysiaKini provide media users with the alternative source to obtain political news or for those who have generally lost faith with the mainstream media.The parliamentary elections in 2008 brought the alternative media to a antithetic level when weblogs, text messages and copies of Internet-streamed videos became the closely influential information sources for voters ahead that resulted in a surprise blow to the Barisan National (BN) party, which has control the country for more than 50 years. After BNs worst election showing, in which it lost its two-thirds majority in the parliament, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi acknowledged March 25 that his coalition ce rtainly lost the Internet war, and added that it was a good misjudgement for his party to rely solely on government-controlled newspapers and television in its efforts to pluck voters, (Kaufman, 2008). The alternative media gave media users a chance to hear what opposition parties have to prescribe as it is not controlled by the government.Due to this, the government realize that the new media or alternative media is an important impartation in the political scene. Now, politicians are looking into the internet to gain communicate and display information to the mass society of internet users. Parti Keadilan Rakyat, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is in the blogspere at www.anwaribrahim.com, with regular updates on PKR as well as him opinions on what Malaysian the government should be doing.SMS is besides another form of alternative media, in fact it is a preferably powerful form of communication tool if used wisely. Generally, there has been a passive use of SMS for politicians to pas s on messages as well as information to voters from a national voter database, as well a more interactive use of it for politicians to communicate with party representatives, voters or the media (Kaur and Halimahton, 2004)A research done by Kaur and Halimahton (2004) analysed contents of several election-related SMS for the 2004 general election sent from the nomination date until a few days after the election ended that were being sent among 238 respondents. This number was the final sample for the pilot study. According to research, 51 general election-related messages sent by friends, colleagues, family members, political party members and NGOs were collected between nomination day, 13 March 2004, and polling day, 21 March 2004. Only one message could categorized as informative, provided by communication provider MAXIS, informing voters that they should check their suffrage status and voting location through SMS. Only a few proved to be informative and useful in helping voters wi th information on the general election. 19 out of 50 were shown to be ridiculing or condemning messages towards Barisan National.60.5% of the respondents lay down the election-related messages to be useful and informative. 27% found the messages to be funny where as about 6% found the messages to be a nuisance. Thought most found the SMS to be useful and informative, only 31.9% were influenced to support a party of individual base on what they received. Data collected showed that the public in the main uses SMS to for jokes or to criticize certain candidates or political parties, no serious discussion was found among the sample of SMS messages to persuade voters to vote in a certain way.Another form of alternative media, Al-Jazera English (AJE) believes in their foreign mission to provide voice to the voiceless. In a survey done by AJE on how AJE is perceived by participants, the respondents of the survey gave a ranking of more positive than negative, showing the respondents had a favourable perception of AJE with regard to how it performed the flexible media functions (Mohammed and Power, 2010) Among the points that participants agreed on was that AJE provided a public place for politically underrepresented groups, AJE provides eightfold view points on a diversity of disputed issues and that AJE represents the interests of the international public in general rather than a specific group of people.During the expostulation that broke out in November 10, 2007 organized by BERSIH with the aim of reforming the electoral process, up to an estimated of 40,000 fendors came with force to draw attention from the government. What began as a passive protest, the Malaysian police tried to vanquish protestors with tear gas and send away hoses. The image of such going ons were shocking and while, the mainstream broadcast and print failed to cover the protests but obtain minimal coverage, AJE covered the whole thing snappy and in detail (Mohammed and Power, 2010) The coverage done by AJE was then lay online, on YouTube, receiving more than 250,000 viewers within the first week of the protest resulting in a largely stated influenced media resulted in the Malaysian mainstream medias largest believability crisis to date (Mohammed and Power, 2010)Media, Politics and the Public SphereThe role of the media is to act as a safety valve to release any pent-up emotions on any issue or combination of issues facing our country with the heavy ownership by government, the credibility and reliability of our mainstream media might die out one day. The media also acts as a public sphere that is critically important for modern societies as it serves as a forum whereby the public can communicate collectively on relevant issues as well as allowing citizens to inform or update themselves on societal developments to observe and control political, economic and other elites (Gerhards and Schafer, 2010)However, due to the hold back and tight gate-keeping from the mainstream media, Mustafa (2005) stated that the public sphere in Malaysian society has been further agonistic so that ordinary citizens and concerned civil have not been able to fully express their views and to directly participate in the countrys democratic process. originally this year, NTV7 producer resigned in protest over his companys decision to stop his converse show from commenting on the upcoming by-election at Hulu Selangor, following pressure said to have emanated directly from the ruling coalition. A TV2 documentary on the controversial Bakun Dam and the forced relocation of Sarawaks natives was forced off the air, just forwards the Sibu parliamentary by-election took place. It is clear that open debate has little room to flourish in Malaysia, (Yeoh, 2010)Malaysiakini, an example of a alternative publication that flourished tremendously after the 2008 general elections. Steele (2009) stated that it is not the Internet that challenges the Barisan Nationals strangleho ld power but it is actually the norms and values of independent journalism that have made MalaysiaKini such a threat to government authorities. This ideology of creating independent journalism with the alternative media not only changes those who work within the public sphere but also creates a democratic space for public discourse, one that the Malaysian society lacks. It not only gives voice to the voiceless but cover prove or forms of information through video, audio and feedback tools. It shows media users sides of stories that they may not see. The seemingly mechanistic tools of fairness and balance, did you get the quote from the other side? become a means of guaranteeing that all voices will be hear (Steele, 2009)ConclusionThe media plays an important role in the welfare of the society, working as an informer, an educator, a form of entertainment and an opinion influencer. With the current media ownership that poses presumable threat and questions the credibility to the rol e of the media media users need to consider, who to trust now? governmental issues are extremely dependent on the media as it is highlights what is important and is highly influential thus it works as a form to influence the political mind-set of media users. With the mainstream constantly bombarding pro-government issues towards society, media users now yearn for a different point of view, shifting to the alternative media to abstract that diverse opinion. In show of how the media and politics are inter-wined, it is important that the opinions and comments of the public take place to form a democracy, in the words of Abraham Lincoln for the people, by the people and of the people. Thus, the public sphere is important in the role to collect or obtain the voices of the public. The alternative media has already taken the role in proving that space for the public to take part in forming the countrys democracy it is now up to the mainstream media to do the same, for a better politica l constitution of the country.