J-students, Malaysia-style

Journalism professors and students from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) gathered Tuesday morning for a video conference with UPI staff for an introduction to online journalism and to UPIU.com.

Despite the ambition of many of the j-students in attendance to study journalism as part of their social responsibility to report on critical issues, limited press freedom and censorship are major obstacles for Malaysian media organizations.

One faculty member in attendance explained that while politics is a major concern among Malaysians, the campus newspaper, which reports mostly on campus events, shows otherwise. “We practice a lot of self-restraint with political reporting. I don’t encourage my students to do very much political reporting.”

The campus newspaper, which costs about 1.30 Malaysian Ringgits (38 cents USD) to produce, is subsidized and sold at the low price of 50 MYR (15 cents USD). The paper is published by the journalism classes, and the editorial tasks are assigned on a rotational basis.

While the campus newspaper is protected to an extent, a common obstacle that students face is that sources refuse to talk.

According to USM Associate Professor Mustafa K. Anuar, online news sites are able to push the envelope on critical issues, and are seen as more credible than the traditional press.

One professor shared that due to the censorship constraints that traditional Malaysian media organizations face, western media is seen as credible. Still, post-Iraq War, Malaysians, of whom 60 percent of the population is Muslim,   give more credence to Al Jazeera than to CNN.

“CNN after the Iraq War gives the impression of image of being biased against Islam and the third world,” said Anuar.

Still, there are some things that don’t change, regardless of location or political situation: as one journalism professor shares, “students have short attention spans and don’t read long articles and it is reflected in their level of understanding of news. It’s a challenge for us to encourage them to read more and it’s a challenge to get them to take more initiative.”