Zam, read this book.Journalism should be an endeavor and not just a job title. Journalism should be looked at as an activity rather than a profession.
The status quo has changed. The floodgate of news has been opened by bloggers and there is no way of stopping it ... Those who refuse to accept these facts would surely be swept away by the new wave.
The days of the mainstream media as the "voice of God" are over.
Go to Pak Idrus for a review.
Please get him a Malay edition of this book.
ReplyDeleteRockybru,
ReplyDeleteWhoever controls information controls the world. So, now power goes back to the people.
"The way to defeat tyrany is by the power of ideas," said Helen Keller.
Rocky, thanks for the linking. Have a nice day.
ReplyDeleteObviously the precursor to this phenomenon / revolution is when Apple Computers in 1984 promised that for every tabletop there'll be a Macintosh on it (1 table, 1 Mac).
ReplyDeleteIBM laughed at the idea and said it's only a passing fad.
Now we know better don't we?
Same parallel here. Journalism vs Blogging.
Zam can laugh, huff and deny but he will be washed over. There's no way he can stop the tide. i think he's more afraid that he'll be out of a job soon.
Honestly, Zam, do you know how to use a PC? Do you know that the mouse is not the little creature that nibbles at your toes (or whatever) while you sleep at night?
Embrace the technology soon, guy. At least when you're out of a job you can still claim you're in control of information. Your own stupid blog, that is.
Yay, everyone is a journalist!
Bro Rocky
ReplyDeleteFree flow of information. It will never happen in Malaysia. Forgive me I still love Malaysia but if our present generation of politician still debating endlessly about their own races instead championing the right of Malaysian citizen then forget about the need of free flow information. Read "In Good Faith" by Zaid Ibrahim. A rare breed of politician
Bob from Kuching
Tuan Rocky, in the spirit of camaraderie of the blogsphere, I am taking the liberty of sending to you for your kind consideration the transcript of the Al Jazeera interview with Zainuddin bin Maidin from Bro. Kennysia blog, Kennysia.com.
ReplyDeleteTranscript of Malaysia's Information Minister's interview with Al Jazeera News on the Bersih Protest.
Minister: I commend yo-yo-your journalists trying to project... to exaggerate more than what actually happened. That-that-that-that's it. We are not the-the and I-I congratulate your journalists behaving like an actor, that-that's it...
Reporter: As you say that, sir, we're watching scenes of protesters being sprayed by chemical-filled water!
Minister: YA! I am watching! I'm here! You've been trying... trying to do it this - to do this everywhere but in Malaysia people are allowed to, you know? We know our police head our colleague... Police have whatever allowed the procession to go to the Istana Negara, you know? Do police, first police, like, they handle them, they attack them, they... the police don't, don't, don't fire anybody?
Reporter: Our correspondent came back to the office, sir, with chemicals in his eyes!
Minister:You-you-you-you are here with the idea, you are trying to project, what is your mind! You think that we Pakistan, we are Burma, we are Myanmar. Everything you-you are thinking! WE ARE DIFFERENT! We are totally different!
Reporter: Well unfortunately when you refuse to let people protest, it does appear so.
Minister: Ya ya we are not like you! You-you have earlier perception, you come here, you want to project us like undemocratic country. This a democratic country!
Reporter: So why can't people protest then, if it's a democratic country?
Minister: YES, PEOPLE PROTEST! People do-do... of course they protest. We are allowing them protest, and they have demonstrated. But we just trying to disperse them, and then later they-they-they don't wanna disperse, but later our police compromise. They have compromised and allowed them to proceed to Istana Negara! Police, our police have succeeded in handling them gently, right? Why do you report that? You take the opposition, someone from opposition party you ask him to speak. You don't take from the government, right?
Reporter: Why did you not break up these protests...
Minister: Pardon? Pardon? Pardon?
Reporter: Why did you not break up these protests more peacefully?
Minister: I can't hear you! I can't hear you!
Reporter: Why did you not break up these protests more peacefully?
Minister: No we-we are! We... this protest is illegal! We don't want..this... the... NORMALLY...
Reporter: OK, so let me return to my former question. Why is this protest illegal?
Minister: YA! It's a illegal protest because we have the erection in Malaysia. It's no-no point on having a protest! We are allowing to every erection... every five years never fail! We are not our like, like Myanmar, not like other country. And, and you are helping this. You Al-Jazeera also is helping this, this forces. The, you know, these forces who are not in passion, who don't believe in democracy!
Reporter: Alright, many thanks for joining us.
Minister: I don't, ya, you, Al-Jazeera, this is, is Al-Jazeera attitude. Right?
Bro, I came across a news piece that for the first time a blogger somewhere received an award - can't remember where now but he records and blogs brutality by police, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnyone seen this?
no, not in a police state. the incumbents will protect their priviledge to the end. who would not for the ill-gotten riches.
ReplyDeleteNow we can go forward
ReplyDeleteA mouse and a click we are on our way
Writing our messages first hand news
We are really the journalists on the streets
Now Zam barking at the wrong tree
Maybe it is in the dark he couldn’t see
Once a reporter now he forgets
Pity when he forgets his roots
In school the teachers always drum into us
Don’t forget who you are where you come from
One day you can be somebody
Don’t forget your roots when you reach there
For surely you will fall when you forget
The sea of yellow waves
He saw it so was Abdullah BAD ah we
The government leaders try damage control
It is a hopeless exercise the leaders got fooled
By their own arrogance thinking they are powerful
But without the people they aren’t anyway
The bloggers will march
So the streets are rocking with them
Sending waves of notes in the air
And it will rain far and wide in the nation
Interview of the author
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wired.com/print/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/08/64534
and
We the Media
authored by the interviewer, made available chapter by chapter, here:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/book/index.csp
To be frank about it, Zam, the mercenary, is nsot alone in behaving that way. There are many others.
ReplyDeleteJoceline Tan, the outright mercenary, and Wong Sai Wan are no different. Wong Chun Wai slightly better but lebih kuranglah!
So lets wait until the Sleeping PM, SIL and Kalimullah fleed the country then we will deal with such mercenaries.
malay version of the book would do him good indeed.... pardon???
ReplyDeleteTo be precise, concise and factual.
ReplyDeleteThe bane of any journalist, I'd think.
ZM's not even on the same page. Never mind the book.
haaa..ZAM ZAM ALA KA ZAM
ReplyDeleteI finally saw the footage from YOUTUBE.
It was PAINFUL and SHAMEFUL.
How on earth did this guy got appointed as Minister?
When I read the blog from dol kropok on the transcript, I thought NO WAY JOSE, such interview cant come from our Minister.
Until, I saw and hear the interview myself. I was shocked to my bones. So this is what I think of Zam:
He was VERY NERVOUS.
His English was VERY POOR.
He PRETENDED NOT TO HEAR some of the questions, probably didnt know how to answer it.
He was NOT PREPARED.
He WAS STAMMERING most of the time.
He was NOT IN CONTROL of the interview.
He COULD NOT speak clearly and properly.
So, ZAM ZAM ALA KA ZAM, please allow me to do national service for my beloved country. Allow me to offer you free English lessons, afterall, my children are free this school holidays, they can help you.
In his confusion, the poor guy confused election with erection, maybe he didnt know the difference!! And, I like the last part,he seemed a bit confused who he was talking to.
ZAM ZAM ALA KA ZAM, he must have a magic wand wanting to jampi the interview but through mishandling of the wand,he held the wrong end of the wand and terjampi diri sendiri, turning himself into a toad. I am still waiting for his true transformation, into a "real toad", you know the amphibian type.
BUT ZAM ZAM ALA KA ZAM, we forgive you as we know being our good Minister, you must have gone to the protest and still reeling from teargas in your eyes, that's the reason you gave such a demented interview.
Dol Keropok,
ReplyDeletekah kah kah ye ker si ZAM cakap cam ni...Ya Allah memalukan negara jer...baik ikut cara Jepun cakap bahasa Jepun cari penterjemah..ni nak cakap bahasa omputeh cam mat rap tak jadi jer...astaga...tak ada ker menteri lain nak kena interview..malu siut....
- kita kena ubah metaliti kita berani buat perubahan...kena matangkan fikiran dalam berpolitik....hmm tak lama lagi minyak naik, itu naik, ini naik....
Bro,
ReplyDeleteRujuk kepada anon. 6.16pm. Saya setuju dengan cadangan beliau bahawa buku ini kena diterjemahkan dahulu ke dalam Bahasa Malaysia sebelum diberikan kepada YB Menteri Penerangan.
Dalam masa yang sama, saya rasa YAB Perdana Menteri perlu menilai kembali kriteria sebelum perlantikan ke jawatan tertinggi di dalam satu-satu Kementerian. Bukan sahaja pengalaman dan kelayakkan akademik itu penting, keupayaan individu untuk berinteraksi khususnya di dalam bahasa Inggeris juga tidak kurang pentingnya. Lebih-lebih lagi sekiranya individu itu memegang jawatan yang memerlukan interaksi dengan pihak media setiap hari.
Jangan memalukan negara.
Here's a nice quote I would like to share with the mainstream media people who might read this.
ReplyDelete"He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery" - Harold Wilson.
The decision-making people in the editorial floors of our media belongs to several groups;
1) The old school of people (i mean pre-Ops Lalang) who are dedicated newshounds whose hands are tied by the Printing Presses and Publications Act.
2) Those who don't wanna rock the boat after having arrived at the editor's seat. Some of them feel that at their age, they cannot risk it, lest they find themselves out in the cold without a job and with mouths to feed and kids in college.
3) Those for whom an editorship is a platform towards greater things, like power, patronage and of course money.
We know who they are and so, I believe, do you. Journalism was not considered a profession at all in the early days. It was a trade.
Yet it was an endeavour that demanded honour, honesty and righteousness. Some people think it is too much to ask from a job that doesn't pay much. I knew a people who were in the trade out of idealism and genuine love for journalism.
(Many of them have fallen into the first or the second categories i mentioned or left the industry altogether.)
But then, those traits whould be automatic if you are raised right by your parents.
Bloggers, in my opinion have become the maverick journos. Now bloggers risk persecution in order to tell the public things that certain people don't wanna hear.
In the process, bloggers are getting the generally non-reading population of Malaysia to read. The many site traffic trackers' and blog aggregators' statistics bear testament to this fact.
The mainstream media is indeed in a difficult position right now because of the changing environment; growing niche markets as well as an increasingly sophisticated and critical readership.
Niche advertising is on the rise and eventually the advertisers would not see print ads or tv commercials the best way to reach out to their desired audience. It's already happening in stages.
What happens next? Statistics say that as many as 40% of the Malaysian population use the Internet. That figure is not to be pooh poohed. These are the kinda statistics that the hawk-eyed media buyers and advertisers would salivate at.
On the part of bloggers as providers of information and increasingly, as opinion-shapers, I don't deny that responsible blogging is imperative.
It is one thing when you blog about how many times your sick cat puked today. It takes a whole different dimension when millions of Malaysians had to come to blogs to find out what happened on 10-Eleven.
So, for us bloggeratis, the prescription is responsibility, and for the mainstream media, change. The sought-after end result is the same....as a credible purveyor of news and views.
We owe it to the people.
Wow! G, that's awesome.
ReplyDeleteSock it to em, sis.
I agree that blogging is here to stay and citizen journalism is the way of the future but like anything else it takes time for bloggers to gain the same level of influence as the more organised media organisations
ReplyDeleteJust as it is difficult for Bernama to match the power of CNN and BBC, it is difficult for bloggers to match the power of the mainstream media, for now. that does not mean that we should stop but bloggers must gain credibility by maintaining level headedness and not start to take sides so blatantly
while bloggers accuse the mainstream media of taking sides with the Government, bloggers are clearly on the side against the Government and that means that your reporting is also biased.
the truth is there is bias everywhere whether pro or against the establishment...
those who take sides cannot then insist on others to be totally unbiased...its a glasshouse thing
As with any process there is push and pull factor, give and take...those in control will not want to relinquish that control, those with wealth will not want to be poor...
Blogging is about 10 years old and will need time to find its own balance...
Th truth is this, fair reporting is not sensationalistic and tends to be a shade boring.
Not everything is black and white, in most situation there is a large expanse of grey that must be safely navigated before we can arrive at a well considered conclusion but most people cannot be bothered about the grey.....
dol keropok, thank you so much... enjoyed that
ReplyDeletebtw isn't dol keropok the character in berita harian or utusan melayu some 50 years ago?
'read this book'yeah! don;t stay in a cage waiting to be serve and bring along for a walk!woof! woof!
ReplyDelete