{"id":6778,"date":"2010-09-03T00:06:02","date_gmt":"2010-09-02T16:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/?p=6778"},"modified":"2010-09-03T00:06:50","modified_gmt":"2010-09-02T16:06:50","slug":"how-to-trust-the-mainstream-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/borninmalaysia\/2010\/09\/03\/how-to-trust-the-mainstream-media\/","title":{"rendered":"How to trust the mainstream media?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today PM Najib said something, which sadly, can be\u00a0interpreted\u00a0as humor\/satire\/joke. \u00a0Just compare the two articles below. The Star’s is about half the length of the other article. I think the alternative media had more “facts” in terms of quoting the PM compared to Star (OK, its just one example). I don’t agree that mainstream media presents fact and such are more trustworthy. Sometimes, one \u00a0can choose which facts to present, or present “facts” in certain ways so as to craft the perception of the reader. \u00a0I firmly believe we need mainstream media, alternative media, independent writers, the casual bloggers, forums etc to present a more holistic view. Putting trust in mainstream media is surely a grave mistake.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, alternative media also carries Bernama news. And, government can choose to publish their advertorials, scholarship info, job vacancy info, tender info, statistics etc in alternative media, which will increase the “fact” quotient.<\/p>\n

Not to forget, regardless of whichever media, we find cases of issuing apology for “misunderstanding” or “miscommunication” or for wrongful reporting. So, both groups can and do make mistakes.<\/p>\n

BTW, for me mainstream media does not include the sorry excuse for a newspaper, \u00a0Utusan.<\/p>\n

This is what mainstream media Star published<\/a><\/strong> (taken at 11.50pm):<\/p>\n

\n

The public should trust the mainstream media as it is fact-based, compared to the opinion-based alternative media, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister said some of the articles published on the alternative media, such as websites and blogs, were “half truths and inaccurate”.<\/p>\n

“The mainstream media has one strength which cannot be found in the alternative media, and that is the mainstream media can be considered fact-based.<\/p>\n

“If we read the mainstream media, we intuitively regard it as an authoritative report, where its facts cannot be questioned,” he said at a breaking of fast ceremony at the\u00a0New Straits Times Press <\/em>headquarters here Thursday.<\/p>\n

“There must be a discerning public who can see the strength of the mainstream media,” he added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is what alternative media Malaysian Insider published<\/a><\/strong> (taken at 11.50pm):<\/p>\n

\n

Datuk Seri Najib Razak told the public tonight to trust the mainstream media and not the alternative media which are based on half truths.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister said that mainstream media should be considered as an authoritative news source that can be trusted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the development of the media today, the market is different from the market in previous years. Now we are faced with the alternative media which has been a direct competition to mainstream media like NST.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the mainstream media has one strength which cannot be found in the alternative media and that is the mainstream media can be considered as fact based,\u201d Najib (picture<\/strong>) said when attending breaking of fast with the media at The New Straits Times Press headquarters here.<\/p>\n

He said that the mainstream media is different from alternative media because the former is fact based while the later is opinionated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we read the mainstream media, intuitively we regard it as an authoritative report where its facts cannot be questioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts principles are based on facts and this is different from blogs and websites which can be developed for personal use and can literally become a one-man show,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that alternative media published reports based on opinions which are \u201chalf truths and not accurate\u201d.<\/p>\n

Recently a poll by the Merdeka Center showed that six out of 10 Malaysians don\u2019t trust the mainstream media.<\/p>\n

The June 27 to July 25 survey commissioned by a research organisation showed that 57 per cent of Malays polled said they did not trust reports in the mainstream media, while 33 per cent trusted the media and 10 per cent said they did not know.<\/p>\n

As for the Chinese community, 58 per cent said they did not trust the mainstream media, 30 per cent trusted and 12 per cent did not know.<\/p>\n

A total 590 Chinese and 413 Malays as well as five focus group discussions with Chinese voters in Peninsula Malaysia were involved in the survey.<\/p>\n

The findings will provide sober reading for many mainstream media organisations. Recent circulation figures show that English and Malay-language newspapers like New Straits Times, The Star, Berita Harian and Utusan Malaysia have all suffered significant drop in circulation this year compared to 2009, with some as severe as 20 per cent.<\/p>\n

Privately, newspaper executives note that partisan political coverage has hurt sales.<\/p>\n

Comments from the focus group discussions also showed that many felt that there is limited media freedom in the country because of the practice of censorship.<\/p>\n

Some participants in the focus groups also pointed out that Malay-language newspapers were the most biased.<\/p>\n

Najib stressed that the public must be able to differentiate between mainstream and alternative media reporting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public must be discerning and can differentiate between the strength of the mainstream media, which has a place in the era of ICT and access to website and blogs which are opinion based.<\/p>\n

\u201cI urge the mainstream media to continue to hold its principle as a paper based on factual based reporting with opinion which are constructive and educated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today PM Najib said something, which sadly, can be\u00a0interpreted\u00a0as humor\/satire\/joke. \u00a0Just compare the two articles below. The Star’s is about half the length of the other article. I think the alternative media had more “facts” in terms of quoting the PM compared to Star (OK, its just one example). I don’t agree that mainstream media […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[158,122],"class_list":["post-6778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-borninmalaysia","tag-media","tag-najib-tun-razak"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}