Unspun

It is scary to see the level of confusion about blogs in high office. Below is an extract of a news story from Malaysia’s news agency Bernama in which the Malaysian Information Minister seems to confuse blogs with journalism and citizen journalism.

Perhaps the learned Information Minister should revert to Marshall McLuhan and try to figure out what is meant by “the medium is the message”. As a medium, blogs are about conversations, not necessarily news gathering, news packaging and news distribution. Those are for the mainstream media and salaried journalists.

There is some role for citizen journalists but it may be more of a passing fad than reality. The problem with citizen journalists is that most of the time you don’t know if they are reporting the right things or getting their facts right. Although, with the quality of many of the so-called professional journalists these days, they are not necessarily better off anyway.

Bloggers, in short, are not necessarily setting out to replace journalists. Rather, they are out to start discussions and conversations about the areas that they are passionate about. There will be overlaps but on the whole if they are done done well, blogging  and journalism can complement each other.
So enough already about this nonsense that bloggers being citizen journalists and needing to uphold the tenets of journalism.
If the Minister is really concerned about “the noble profession” of journalism he should perhaps allow the really professional journalist (one hopes that there are a few left in Malaysia after years of Mahatirism and, of late, Pak Lahism) to do their job without fear or favor. Depoliticize the newspapers and media houses and loosen the tight grip of censorship the government has on the media. Then  journalism can take its rightful role and relegate blogs to what they are supposed to do.

It is because professional journalists  cannot do their job well and get  the real information to the people that blogs have such a  powerful sway in Malaysia. They have become the primary source of news and alternative opinion. Compare that with Indonesia, which has a not very good but certainly very free Press, and very few people here depend on blogs as their primary source of news. Blogs here serve mainly as niches for people with different interests.

(Info on Malaysian Info Minister’s statement via Rockybru and Screenshots)

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 4 (Bernama) — Blogging, or better known as citizens’ journalism, must uphold the tenets of journalism which is a noble profession, Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin said Monday.

He said bloggers, as corporate citizens, had a great influence in moulding public opinion and bore the same responsibility as the mainstream media.

“This responsibility cannot be compromised for the sake of short-term popularity and gains,” he said at the Asset Magazine’s 2006 Triple A (Asset Asian Awards) Country Awards presentation here.