New Forms of Media Publishing

Traditional and new forms of media is the hot topic today, but there remains a degree of ambiguity about its definition, meaning and function to our society. The growing of web 2.0 sites is making people question about the role of journalism in mainstream media.

Young people have grown up with their computers, cell phones and through the Internet, users created media and participatory media (Foley,2007). Therefore, a new forms of media like blogs, online newspapers, YouTube and Twitter have brought online communication and information sharing as well as hard news to a new level of getting information.

Twitter

(Source: leeds.ac.uk)

Twitter is a real-time information network controlled by people all around the world which allows them to share and discover what is happening now within seconds. Users can write a few lines about anything on their minds. For instance, the cases of the part time model in Singapore, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno who has been sentenced to six lashes of the cane for drinking beer in a Kuantan Hotel has garnered a lot of International and local media attention.After that news appeared in the local media, every seconds users were spreading the news and their comments. . Therefore, twitters has a significant impact of sharing information by breaking news updates even faster than traditional media channels.

Online Newspapers

(Source: Malaysiakini.com)

Malaysiakini, and The Malaysian Insider are the example of online newspapers as well as alternative media in Malaysia. Believing that political control had corrupted the values of journalism in the mainstream media, Malaysiakini concept was to bring independent news, investigate reporting and in-depth analysis which are longer than mainstream media articles. For instance, the 2008 General Election in Malaysia has made Malaysiakini as a vital contributor to the shift of people to alternative media. Malaysiakini was posting live updates and many of them sent in by recently trained volunteer (Steele, 2009). They provided more commentary and links to give more varried perpspectives about the 2008 General Election.

Facebook

(Source: Facebook Logo)

Facebook a popular social networking sites which had proposed a sweeping 'news feed' program and allow users to post their personal information on profiles. For instance the caning cases of Kartika Sari has made a lots of changes in society. In this sense, there is Facebook tiltled 'HELP Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno' which supporting her. Thus, this page has four hundred and ninety-five fans all over the world. Most of them post provoked by the generalistic arguments of noted about the caning of Kartika's case.

Here, I include an additonal information of Kartika Sari Dewi's case in the Bloomberg live news.

References

Adiwira, 2009, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, Warkah.com, viewed 2 April 2010,
http://warkah.com/kartika-sari-dewi-shukarno/

Facebook: HELP Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, Facebook.com, viewed 2 April 2010,
http://www.facebook.com/pages/HELP-Kartika-Sari-Dewi-Shukarno/116947506453

Foley, FC 2007, Why Must Citizen Journalist Fill the Information Gaps Left by Mainstream Media?, Quinnipiac University, viewed 3 April 2010,
http://www.noisemakersproductions.com/pdf/CJ-v-mainmedia.pdf

Steele, J 2009, 'Professionalism Online, How Malaysiakini Challenges Authoritarianism', International Journal of Press/Politics, vol.14, no.1, pp.91-111

Weblog Malaysiakini, Malaysiakini, viewed 3 April 2010,
http://weblog.malaysiakini.com/?page id=2