New Media Political Engagement and Participation in Malaysia by Sara Chinnasamy

Author:Sara Chinnasamy [Chinnasamy, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Asian, Political Science, World, Security (National & International)
ISBN: 9781317242697
Google: 5NUrDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 35739026
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-09-28T11:35:32+00:00

i Technologies of the self

Malaysiakini.com’s news features played a large part in attempting to generate political discussion. The difference between Malaysiakini.com and mainstream media’s news patterns lies in the selection of issues because most Malaysiakini.com news is backed up with video documentary from productions of Malaysiakini’s Kini.TV and citizen journalists. Both versions of the videos are linked to YouTube for public free access. Web statistics taken from the website YouTube Analytics also shows a steep inclination in the first quarter of the year 2013, whereby the Kini.TV’s viewers had increased from approximately 1.5 million viewers in January to 3.3 million viewers in March 2013. Apart from being opened for public views on the main website of Malaysiakini.com, the contents of Kini.TV are also uploaded to the infamous video-sharing website, YouTube for a larger viewer base, and reaches to a higher scale of audience. Apart from that, Malaysiakini.com also houses a minor link to the webpage of Citizen Journalists Malaysia that mostly acts as a platform for writers or video uploaders to share their opinions, thoughts and news on local or international matters and also a place to share, disseminate and spread community information. The website operates on a more chill way to reach out to the viewers and provides light reading and varied news to them. In an interview, a video journalist respondent argued that visuals have immediately increased people’s activity in making political decisions such as voting and taking part in rallies. He added that videos, whether contributed by citizen journalists or INP’s videos team, gave eyewitness accounts of the GE2008 and GE2013 results. He stated that

Malaysiakini.com’s philosophy was to shoot the visuals, no matter how it looks; the important thing is to convey the message to the people like Indians, (who) are better served by visuals than text. They will watch and evaluate the videos (from) very different perspectives.

In Malaysiakini.com’s case, videos played a significant role in making a difference in the political culture. Based on my observation as a mainstream media journalist, Kini.TV and citizen journalist’s videos were influential in covering issues such as the Indian temples’ destruction, immigrant squatter communities and the government’s mishandling of the Hindraf and Bersih rallies by using water cannons and tear gas, which immediately triggered people’s reactions. Apart from videos, Malaysiakini.com’s news is also supported by statistical evidence as explained in Chapter 6. Tuchman (1972) describes this style of reporting as a ‘strategic ritual of objectivity’, which involves a presentation of conflicting possibilities, the use of supporting evidence and quotations. However, two features that have possibly made Malaysiakini.com’s coverage of the Hindraf and Bersih rallies distinct from that of the mainstream media was that the INP uploaded news together with evidence, including the Kini.TV and citizen journalists’ videos. This allowed people to witness events directly.

Malaysiakini.com covered the Hindraf rally in November 2007, where tens of thousands of ethnic Indians protested against the BN government’s alleged mishandled treatment. A portal journalist respondent interviewed as part of this study claimed that the ethnic Indian issue during the GE2008 was ‘owned’ by Malaysiakini.

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