KOTA KINABALU: Veteran newsman A Kadir Jasin today attributed Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) victory in the May 9 polls to the online media and the success of the coalition’s social media campaign.
Kadir, who is special adviser to the prime minister on media and communications, said PH, as the opposition at the time, had experienced challenges in getting press coverage in the mainstream media.
“But we overcame that. We were successful and able to use social media to our advantage,” he told reporters after launching a dialogue titled “Issues and Challenges in Strategic Communications in the New Malaysia Era”, hosted by Universiti Malaysia Sabah here today.
He also said the people themselves had not trusted the mainstream media due to its perceived partisan politics.
But despite the present popularity of the online media platform, he said, there was still a place for print media or the mainstream press in the country.
He said such outfits would have a chance if they distanced themselves from their old ways, adding that such papers were already struggling to stay afloat.
“They were not doing well or selling well. Now that the previous government has been defeated, if they don’t change their policies, nobody who supports the new government will read them.
“If they don’t change, I think they will not be able to reverse their decline. And I think we are giving them the opportunity to do that,” he said.
On the online media platform in particular, he said it was growing in stature but that print newspapers were still “very important”.
“I think we have to have some control in our lives. We should not allow ourselves to be controlled entirely by technology.
“We can read e-books, online newspapers or news from portals, but I feel that reading print material, whether books or newspapers, is still essential as they give you a source of archiving.”
He added that those who read only online news, particularly on social media or in WhatsApp chat groups, might not obtain the full picture of any given situation.
He also urged journalists to be bold and to question anything that appears to be wrong.
“The duties of a journalist, especially now that freedom is wider, is to go in-depth on news reports, to do research and analysis. (You) can’t just be reporters,” he said.
He added that the government would use every media outlet possible to reach the people, noting however the difference between information and propaganda.
“Of course the government will use all available media to pass on its message.
“But propaganda is a different thing altogether. It is no longer about publicising news or information (as) you are doing something more than that to mislead the people.
“I don’t think we’re going to do that.” - FMT
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