image source: google 2008Blog once perceived as a mere alternative or underground media which belongs to certain community. However, time by time it shows its prominence and popularity among the majority of people and politicians, Malaysian politician in particular. The recent result of Malaysian General Election has obviously shown the real advantage of blog as it has educated Malaysian citizen more than ever.
According to Ooi’s observation (2008) there are lots of news and commentaries posted on blogs which could not be found in any mainstream media. Furthermore, he perceived it as the actual breakthrough in bringing the new Malaysia, despite the Government see it as a bitter reality as they have no control over media technology.
Usborne (2003) says today's readers are not a mere reader as they have upgraded their status to be an active audience who practice interactivity and share their knowledge with thousands of other people in reaching out more audience. Whereas Dearnley and Feather (2001, p. 11) state that information society place information as its salient part in their life which is supported by technology in processing and disseminating. Whilst Putnis and Petelin (1996, p. 231) argue that according to the expresssive theories, writing is a mean of self-expression of ones feeling, thought, and idea, which is currently practised by Malaysian. They have modified the function of blog to provide readers with alternative news they searched on internet.
Nonetheless politicians have eventually realized the importance of blog regardless their initial claim of blog as simply an arena for liar writers to post their opinion which embarrass and even humiliate politicians. The blogging phenomenon among politicians can be seen through the growing number of politic blog in malaysia, to mention some are:
- Screen shot by Jeff Ooi
- Anwar Ibrahim by anwar Ibrahim
- Che Det by Mahathir Mohammad
- Ranting by Marina Mahathir
On may 2008, MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress) president, Dato’ Seri Sammy Vellu encouraged more parliamentary members to start and set up their blogs to reach out more people especially youngsters and to keep them abreast of any state’s issue.
To sum up, nowadays blogs have finally gained its prominence and recognition among politician, even though initially perceived as a mere "irresponsible" alternative media which allows the posting of embarrassing , misleading, and harsh article.
References:
Dearnley, J Feather, J 2001, ‘Chapter 1: Theorizing the information socety’ in The Wired World: An introduction to the theory and practice of the information society, Library Association Publishing, London
Ooi, J 2008, Did blogging matter in the general election?, viewed 29 April 2008.http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/blogging/index.html
Putnis, Peter & Petelin, Roslyn 1996, ‘Writing to communicate,’ in Professional communication, Prentice Hall, Sydney.
Usborne, N, 2002, Networds: Creating high-impact online copy, McGraw Hill, New York.
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