A Malaysian Election Case - Essay Example

Sociology 28 May A Comparative Study on the Impact of New Media on its Readers: A Malaysian Election Case Malaysia had been a subject of various social studies in the past two decades particularly on politics and development planning. Among the notable perceptions that scholars have on the country has been based first, on its political survival and second, on improvement in the country’s development planning process (Shamsul 1). To date, the political aspect of the country was once again put to light as the results of the 2013 elections were finalized. The effect of the results was being magnified by the media coverage on the issue. By these, it was just timely to review and analyze the effect of news media and understand its aspects and impacts to its perceived reader/audience. The Malaysian general elections held last May 5, 2013 resulted to the continuation of the 56-year rule of the Barisan National (National Front Coalition). It won 133 seats in the parliament surpassing the 112 seats are required to acquire federal power. The victory was a result of a tight battle between the ruling coalition and the opposition. Several voters and political leaders were consulted on their perceptions on the results of the elections and the answers vary depending on what political group they had supported. The rural voters of the country, as provided for by the evidences in the articles, opted for continuity of the incumbent government leaders while those in the middle class and educated sector chose reforms as presented by the opposition. The ruling coalitions were happy of the results of the election while the opposition was claiming electoral fraud. Some analysts interviewed by the various papers indicated that the results of the election may be economically beneficial to the country, while some generally thought it would be an eye opening event for the ruling coalition to get their act together and focus on the more important issues and challenges the government and the country is facing. The election also boost of its high voter turnout that is 80%, highest among all the elections held in the country with 10 M voters out of 13.3 M registered (Roughneen & Magnier, “Malaysia GE13”, Ford, and “Ruling Coaliton”). Review of the four articles showed the similarities and differences each have. The comparison was based on emphasis, patterns and ways in which issues is being presented in the articles. It also showed how the news articles of today had become historiography of the future. To fully understand and show the differences of the articles, in depth analysis of the articles are needed and not just superficial reading. On the similarities, all the four articles had presented the election outcome statistics with the National Front garnering 133 seats out of the 222 allotted for the lower house in the parliament, the continuity of the 56-year rule of the incumbent government, and the 80% voter turnout accounting for the 10 Million out of 13.3 Million registered voters. It was also evident in all the articles the claim of the opposition on electoral fraud and the dismissal of the incumbent government on these claims despite the fact that the opposition presented several evidences. Also the articles used recent and historical facts to build the credibility of their written materials .In depth analysis of each article is needed in order to determine the inherent and implied differences. The china daily article entitled, “Ruling coalition wins Malaysia's general election”, emphasized the winning of the ruling coalition during the elections. The article was built in such a way that the winning party and their stand in the post electoral issues became the focus of the whole article. The small portion of the opposition’s claims on electoral fraud indicated that they are subtly dismissing the claim but needed to present it in the light of transparency and non- bias. The actions of the writer to put the claims of the opposition in the bottom part of the article and with very limited textual descriptions put the claims of the opposition in the shadows and lead the readers to neglect this part of the article. This incidence may be attributed to the expanding and high level relationship of the leaders of Malaysia and China as expressed by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib in one of his interviews recently (“Najib”). The article written by Roughneen & Magnier for Los Angeles Times tried to eliminate bias by getting enough information and coverage from both parties. The article differed from the rest in a way that it used facts both from recent and previous years as well as evidences from both parties with credible representations. They build their article by presenting recent facts from the election and citing historical facts and interviews with various analysts and local respondents to portray credibility. The facts presented were on the basis of enlightening the readers and allowing the perceived audiences to conclude on their own given the issues identified. The reader may opt to side on the incumbent government through the evidences showed and analysis of the experts on the future events given electoral results or they may choose to side with the opposition as provided for the inconsistences and unsatisfied claims of the persons interviewed. The choice can be personal, sectorial or based on common ideologies and in some way, the article did not intend to persuade the audience to side with any particular party. The Strait Times article on Malaysian elections provided facts and figures mainly on the National Coalition and briefly on the opposition. The article is different in any of the articles provided in such a way that this article is mainly a narrative of the issues and concerns of both parties and the election in general. It showed statistics reflecting the activities of both parties and might be outcomes of the elections. It was built in a way that it promotes the national coalition at a time and brought it down somewhat by citing its negative activities on the other. Though it implicitly portrays its bias on the ruling party, it cannot deny the fact that they are on the ruling side. Its overall positive portrayal of the other party and less prominent portrayal of the issues and causes of the opposition may affect the reader to adhere in some way or the other on the ideologies of the ruling party. This side of the issue may be present due to the proximity of Singapore to Malaysia and it may be affected by the presence of dominant actors of society. Ms. Ford’s Article on The Times UK dealt mainly on the claims and issues of the opposition. The article differs in the rest by portraying the side of the opposition and building its article from there. The emphasis given to the claims of electoral fraud by the opposition may lead the readers to accept it as a fact or doubt the accuracy and truth on the results of the general elections. The use of words properly describing the claims of both parties generally affects the perception of the voting public to the results of the elections reclining on the side of the opposition. Those with the same ideology as the opposition may readily accept it and be persuaded by the article and those that on the other side with less stronghold to its ideologies may think twice, other audiences that was not Malaysian may be persuaded that there is indeed a fraud that happened during the election based on the facts and evidences provided. The authors of the selected articles chose the issue they will emphasize and build on. Most of the authors emphasized the continuity of the ruling coalition to govern Malaysia indicating along the way the claims of electoral fraud by the opposition. Some articles did not explicitly portray that they sided the ruling party but it was implied in their written materials. The evidences of less textual descriptions or less prominent portrayals of the issues and concerns of the opposition somewhat tweak and lead the readers to accept the election results and that the issue of election fraud claimed by the opposition may be considered as part of the political propaganda. To influence the understanding of a news event, the writers manipulated the portrayal of information’s by showing the information’s in more or less depending on their chosen issue to build on. The use of catchy headlines, statistics, and credible sources may highlight or deemphasize the causes or consequences of the event that may persuade and suggest truth to the readers. Similarly, it can be noted the repeated news reporting or the frequency that a certain issue is being brought up in the news media may positively affect or influence the attitude and ideologies of its readers. It can be observed from the various articles that they were built on the previous news reports. The building of the article based on historical facts in relation to the present event is a good way to portray the effects or consequences of the actions taken. Citing in all the articles the 56-year rule of the National front and the past performances of the two parties in governing the country provided background information’s and working knowledge in some way to the readers, especially to those that did not have access to that information and is new to the issue presented. The lack or presence of previous knowledge of the reader on the social and political aspect of Malaysian elections may lead them to support either the ruling party or the opposition in terms of their ideologies and based on the power and influence of news media making the news reports of today become a study of methodology and development of tomorrow. The portrayal of issues leaning on the side of the ruling coalition somewhat presented opportunity to claim that there is an influential body or entity behind it. The perspective of the political elites may have contributed to the conceptualization of these articles since they represent those credible and authoritative sources. The national interest to promote the rule of the National Front and advocate their capability to run and make changes as well as elevate the government to its present situation is essential to be included in the news media. The good governance aspect that is being promoted to increase competitiveness of a country may be of importance to the national government, thus the need to have good publicity without discounting the fact that some inconsistencies may arise in the process. These inconsistencies as provided for by the articles can be discussed but may not be highlighted but subtly dismissed to somewhat portray a sense of transparency. Given the above analyses of the various articles and its implications, I can say that I learned to look deeper into what the article really tell me and base my conclusions from there. Also, it made me realize that the media is a powerful tool to persuade a reader to incline his/her ideologies to the ones presented by the author. It also came to me that there are external influences that can affect the article to be written by an author, it may be personal, political or social and may be based on his ideology or dictated by the elite groups and even by national interests. It may be implied but the freedom of information may not be freedom at all due to the various influencing factors to what the media feed their audiences/readers. The need for more background information on the subject matter is beneficial if the reader is to make a stand on the issue to be able to have an evidenced –based decision making on whether to accept or to disprove the issue as presented and not only base the decision on their long term ideology or on persuasive nature of the written material. The production of news, based on the articles and the analyses it had come up with, is a complicated process that takes into consideration the different aspects of the social, political, economic and cultural structures of society. Media power is maybe considered as symbolic in the sense that it has the capability to control to some extent the opinions of the readers/audience but not directly their actions and is generally indirect for they don’t have a hold on the outcomes. The controlling power of media lies on the extent to which they can control the dialogues and influence actors of the society. Generally, a news media can only be considered effective if it is consistent with the general interest of the audience. The impact of news media on the readers in the case of Malaysian elections can be summed up as dependent on the frequency of the issue coming up in the media, the external factors affecting the conceptualization of any article to be written, the credibility of the author and the media it represents and the sources it got. The influence of the written article on the reader can only be effectively conveyed if the reader and the author have common interest on the subject matter and the power of the media is considered only as symbolic since they can only control the opinion of the readers to some extent but not their actions. Works Cited Ford, Emily. “Malaysia’s Opposition Refuses to Accept Poll Defeat Amid Fraud Claims”. The Times Asia. London. Web. 27 May 2013. “Malaysia GE13: Ruling Coalition leads Early Poll Results”. New Strait Times. Singapore. Web. 27 May 2013. “Najib: Malaysia-China Bond will Continue to Grow under China's New Leadership”. New Strait Times. Singapore. Web. 27 May 2013. Roughneen, Simon , and Magnier , Mark. “ Malaysias Ruling Coalition Maintains Parliamentary Majority” . The Los Angeles Times. India. Web. 27 May 2013. “Ruling Coalition Wins Malaysia’s General Election”. The China Daily. Web. 27 May 2013. Shamsul, Amri B. “From British to Bumiputera Rule: Local Politics and Rural Development in Peninsula Malaysia”. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. 2nd Reprint (2004):1-4. Web. 27 May. 2009. Read More