Do something for Malaysia’s journalism
This is probably the second or third open – letter to be carried by some news portals as a clarion call that the Madani unity government should intervene now in the local media industry which is spiralling towards an employable crisis with no solution in sight for its embattled media practitioners.
As this piece, is being uploaded – the facts are there – workers in some news portals were neither paid their wages nor had their compulsory statutory declarations deducted by their employers on the pretext that there are no longer funds and the inability to generate revenue.
Some are enduring three to five months of empty wallets / purses and at one portal, I was informed that the apparent owner continues to break promises on when wages would be paid – insisting that payments would come only for the staffers to be let down constantly by alleged falsehoods.
History is repeating itself, as there remains workers from a major Malay publication, which have yet to receive the full quantum of their separation scheme – a promise made over 10 – years ago.
The biting signs were there even before the onset of Covid – 19; the pandemic just worsened it but enough of shifting or pinning blame on individuals or parties or the stealth virus.
It is time for the Madani government, which stands by her self – proclaiming noble values to do exactly that – intervene effectively and to restore a level of stability in the local industry.
Is it a sunset industry?
It’s a term heard all over, as the industry workers become overwhelmed with a reasoning that Malaysians no longer read, the young only see video clips and social media is the dominant factor.
So, is there a need to be informed? To have genuine content or to be given half – truths, or to live a life full of perceptions fueled by social media rather than in digesting the truth and nothing but the truth.
It is a technological trend but this does not make it right nor ethical, as the rise in media tech has also ushered in an era of fake news, scams and falsified facts – worst, it polarises society even more because the algorithms only produces content which one likes to read.
That was three years ago, today there is the ChatGPT and other Artificial Intelligence (AI) apparatus, who gather big data (some may be fake) and curates information based on popular data streams, an app is telling you what data to read – essentially
Because of curated content, the audience essentially does not know what is realistically going on globally – they are, as the saying goes, living in their own world, unable to comprehend that living cost struggles for example is a global phenomenon.
Social media or apps are unable to explain complex issues – it entertains rather than educates.
It entertains as it needs to drive numbers – which is how the online media more or less functions – the higher the numbers, the better the chance of attaining revenue, so the netizens compete by grabbing unverified content and multiplying it in numbers.
Anything is possible even in peddling fake news.
Just blame it on AI, as what happened to a marketing company who portrayed the Petronas Twin Towers with an additional tower besides it in a poster.
And to be fair, the sunsetting of the media (yes, people are right) is of a global proportion – there are more people laid off in the industry than those rehired worldwide but in Malaysia, it slightly varies.
Because in our land, especially since the 1980s, the government of the day had intervened in the media for the right and wrong reasons.
Long before social media came, Malaysians were already fed a confetti of news which circulates from the truth to half – authentic and outright fake by parties attuned to the government of the day.
It was rampant until the discerning segment of the public, who read as a habit, is driven towards seeking content from foreign sources, such as CNN and foreign wire services.
All of the top leading local media brands, are controlled and owned by political parties or have links.
The exceptional few are getting by, and when nothing is prospering on the news front, do not expect insightful content; our localise news is driven by almost propagandic accounts of what both the government and the opposition, are doing in their respective jobs.
The media focuses more on well endowed politicians rather than on what the working class needs.
Worst, every single YB (politician) has a social media account, telling netizens what they are doing when they should be doing what an unbiased (independent media) are imploring them to do because when one reports the truth, there is no hidden agenda to it.
What is the outcome?
When society is no longer informed for the right reasons, it wanes, becomes ill informed and even extreme, driven by fake content because they had earlier lost trust in their own local media brands.
This is the result of governmental intervention, especially in Malaysia – it is the same in other nations but here, the effect is more telling because the top media brands are politically – linked.
So intervention from the authorities, has to my mind, heavily impacted the media industry and now it needs to intervene but for the right reasons; to correct the mistakes of the past.
To salvage the remaining survivors of the much pulverised media industry, these are my sincere recommendations; coming from a veteran with some 30 – years of gritty reporting of the truth.
Embark on a full scale campaign to encourage fellow Malaysians to read, see and listen in supporting the local media movement and where possible contribute some revenue to them.
The media movement needs to be ratified and registered – every member must be screened, especially media investors if they want to entertain and educate, so those contributing money can be reassured that they are supporting a good cause to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.
This applies to all forms of journalists, bloggers, key opinion leaders and influencers too.
As the media market has shrunk with major internet firms and social media giants grabbing a majority share, implore on the owners to embark on a consolidation exercise by merging.
The print, visual, voice and online segments of various media brands should merge with other local competitors to produce strong national or regional media houses to compete against global giants.
Instead of having some 20 local media brands now, downsized it to perhaps five but strong enough to compete with the giants by showcasing honourable Madani – driven content.
By telling the truth and coming up with innovative content, strong revenue can be derived on the back of both the public and private sectors, who are fed up of the web of lies, and want veracity.
The government media apparatus can also be part of the merger, as while they may have the best outreach infrastructure, majority of their audience see them more as a propaganda tool.
Regulate the industry better by screening investors and owners to ensure only the serious technocrats can be part of the market unlike now where practitioners have to become “mercenary” writers to supplement their income since they are not paid on time.
Try to refrain from content intervention, as it is difficult to control it when nowadays not just everyone can fly; every carrier of a smartphone can write, snap videos and even peddle in fake news.
And they can be doing it from the comfort of a hotel rooms in some foreign country, and persecuting them would just cause the national debt of RM1.2 trillion to widen.
Instead fight fake news by unleashing a web of ethical – driven media practitioners, who policed the online sphere to counter the fake narratives with a dose of the truth sellers and fake checkers.
Lastly as the truth hurts, repositioned the industry to prepare its practitioners for a scaled down market, which can no longer generate profits like two decades ago – focus on relocating the cadre of journalism students to technical, vocational, education training (TVET) areas.
Also, above it all, have the political will to execute the truth serum for the industry – this includes penalising errant owners.
Happy Merdeka which stands for freedom and I hope “kebebasan” to report honestly.
B40 journalist reads Harapan Daily