General Election and the Enigma of Free Press in Malaysia

Ahmad, Mohd Khairie; Othman, Mohd Baharudin

doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.10.337

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The journalists' practice was only limited to obeying orders from the government rather than providing fair and authentic news reports to the citizens. This was apparent when BN received massive positive converge from the mainstream media whereas the opposition barely received neutral coverage and the space for its publicity during the election period (Anuar, 2000;Ahmad & Othman, 2014).…”

Section: Development Journalism and Journalistic Practice In Malaysiamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Framing of Anti-Fake News Law in Malaysian Newspapers

Chen¹,

Waheed²,

Zawawi³

et al. 2023

IJARBSS

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The government of Malaysia enacted an Anti-Fake News law right before the 14 th general election. In more ways than one, this law relates to Malaysia's practice of development journalism, which is a tool for the government to foster economic growth and nation-building. The main aim of this study is to explore the differences between Malaysian serious newspapers and tabloids in terms of frames employed in the Anti-Fake News Law reports. This study applied the generic frames of the framing theory in quantitative content analysis. The serious newspapers chosen in this study were Bernama and The New Straits Times, while the selected tabloids were The Sun and The Malay Mail. Results from the analysis of the 212 news reports retrieved showed that serious newspapers favored the use of the attribution of responsibility frame, while tabloids favored the use of the human interest frame. Additionally, the findings showed that the attribution of responsibility frame was more susceptible to a positive tone and the conflict frame was more susceptible to a negative tone in reports. In conclusion, this study gained insights into journalistic role performance under the practice of development journalism in Malaysia, particularly pertaining to the Anti-Fake News Law.

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Section: Development Journalism and Journalistic Practice In Malaysiamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Framing of Anti-Fake News Law in Malaysian Newspapers

Chen¹,

Waheed²,

Zawawi³

et al. 2023

IJARBSS

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show abstract

“…However, scholars have long argued that this function is non-existent in the Malaysian media landscape. The control of the mainstreams media by the ruling party via ownerships and legislation has continuously been criticized by scholars, who opined that it freedom of opinion (Ahmad & Othman, 2014;Anuar, 2014;Sani & Azizuddin, 2014). Anuar (2003) argued that the biased reports not only distort the information to the citizens but also affected the process of nation-building due to the lack of genuine and constructive criticisms towards the government and its developmental policies and projects.…”

Section: Mainstream Media and Relationship With New Governmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Framing Analysis of the 1malaysia Development Berhad Issue in Malaysian Mainstream Newspapers Post Ge-14

Ahmad¹,

Ghazali²,

Zawawi³

et al. 2021

IJARBSS

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External factors such as political actors along with journalistic practice influence the news frames, selection of news sources and tone embedded in news. Following the landmark 14 th Malaysia General Election, political changes leading to the election also opened opportunities for reform in the Malaysian media landscape. Since the election, there have been calls for local scholars to revisit the new Malaysian media environment and re-evaluate the functions and roles of the media. To answer the question from the perspective of a framing theory framework, this paper will examine the contest for news frames in the coverage of Malaysian mainstream newspapers on the 1MDB scandal, the primary political issue covered in the run-up to GE14. Previous research posits that a winning party will have an edge over and will dominate frames in the media. The main factor for the presence of frames is the power of a political organisation that promotes frames. The idea that the new government will become the major frame setter is also reinforced by the indexing hypothesis. When the news explicitly slants, the politicians supported by the slant gain more influence and are empowered to do whatever they want without fear of being punished by voters. Those who are defeated in the framing competition become weaker, with less freedom to do and say as they please. The focus of this study then will be to understand how, in the aftermath of General Election 14, has Malaysian mainstream media changed in its framing of the 1MDB issue after the loss of the ruling coalition. Specifically, it attempts to understand the relationship that political actors have on news frames, tone and use of sources on the 1MDB issue between the period before and after the 14th General Election, to discover if Malaysian mainstream media has started to evolve beyond the development model.

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“…The media play an important role in politics by showing the public about the political information of their country (Ahmad and Othman, 2014;Balaraman et al, 2015. ) The media highlight the issues frequently to the readers and public, and to let them know, think, and feel about the issues (Chang et al, 2017;Lang and Lang, 1996).…”

Section: Media Agenda In Politics: How Malaysian Rtm Radio Stations C...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Malaysia, the political parties are in control of the mainstream media they are used as the communication tool to transmit their very own political agenda to the readers (Anuar, 2005;Balaraman et al, 2015;Tamam and Abdullah, 2015). As such, the Malaysian mainstream media often portray positive news to their closely related political parties (Ahmad and Othman, 2014;Anuar 2000;Anuar 2005), write up bias reports to the political party coalitions, or also known as pro-government. Balaraman et al (2015) opined that only those media that are not owned by the political parties have shown a more 'balanced' style of news reporting.…”

Section: Media Agenda In Politics: How Malaysian Rtm Radio Stations C...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Media Agenda in Politics: How Malaysian RTM Radio Stations Cover 14th General Election

Tham,

Ong,

Lim

2020

IJOHS

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The media and communication technologies have changed media consumption for good, and traditional media publishers are struggling to integrate their businesses using communication technologies. However, when fake news is increasingly prevalent on social media, where everyone can be the prosumer-produce and consume news, the people seek to verify the facts through different media, and traditional media have therefore made a comeback. This research paper attempts to answer “What are the issues reported by the media”. This study provides findings made during the 14th General Election campaigning period on the political issues reported by traditional media, in this case, radio. This study used a purposive sampling method, with the sample drawn from nomination day to the voting day (April 28 – May 9, 2018); a total of 12 days. The radio stations chosen for this study are operated by a national broadcasterRadio Television Malaysia (RTM), which were Nasional FM (95.3 MHz), Ai FM (89.3 MHz) and Traxx FM (100.1 MHz). The findings showed that the news reporting patterns among the three radio stations were consistent throughout the examination period. Most of the news reported by the three radio channels were neutral but 10 RTM reports were still pro-Barisan Nasional (BN), which was the leading slant of the reports ahead of anti-PKR ones. Media-related issues (false news, imbalance news, inaccurate information) were received the second higher-ranked of issues reported by the radio channels.

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General Election and the Enigma of Free Press in Malaysia

Cited by 4 publications

References 8 publications

The Framing of Anti-Fake News Law in Malaysian Newspapers

The Framing of Anti-Fake News Law in Malaysian Newspapers

Comparative Framing Analysis of the 1malaysia Development Berhad Issue in Malaysian Mainstream Newspapers Post Ge-14

Media Agenda in Politics: How Malaysian RTM Radio Stations Cover 14th General Election

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