Shaping a modern society

What say you on the issue below?

MALCOM X once said - “The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”

The advent of the new media has placed doubts in the minds of those who once felt the traditional media offered the gospel truth. Once the only source of news, it no longer appeals to the new demographic.

We live in an era of speed and haste where we want the news before it becomes news. Often, there is a struggle between veracity and rumour.

With the the prevalence of cable networks and real time reporting, the credibility of information demands attention.

The Ministry of Information, Commu­nication and Culture (MOICC), as the main proponent of information and communications for the Go­vern­ment, has had to redefine its own views and practices of information management.

The advent of new media has raised the issue of how communications must be handled.

Our struggle is no different from the challenges facing any media organisations globally – moving from the traditional or what we have known to the new yet popular unknown.

The credibility of any responsible media and information organisation hinges on the accuracy of facts in the dissemination of news.

For this to happen, there must not only be depth but also reach - i.e. how far the news is able to go.

There is an urban-rural digital divide in our country’s broadband connectivity (6:1, urban: rural). Even though there are some 29.6 million subscriptions of cellular phones (as at end of Q3 2009), household broadband penetration is at 27%.

For every 10 households, roughly three will have broadband access. But today the question does not lie in access, but in the service delivery and the speed in which a person gets connected.

We are working to increase Internet penetration to all Malaysians with telcos.

This means that people outside the Klang Valley and in the rural areas of Pahang, Sabah and Sarawak will have Internet connectivity.

With more access to the Internet, hopefully there will be more bloggers. At last count, some 17,000 Malaysians operate blogs.

There are varied views of bloggers and their roles. But in the main, blogging with professionalism will help build a thinking and writing society.

The emerging importance of blogging is seen today as a powerful agent of influence as well as a social communication medium.

Bloggers have the ability to persuade strangers to become friends and to believe in a credo with utter conviction.

This is done without spending millions of ringgit. It is akin to the word of mouth equivalent of yesteryear.

Topics in the blogs evolve from the everyday needs of the people. This is then turned into an ethos which resonates, creating an emotive bond that binds and connects with people.

Both bloggers and their followers form very powerful and credible networks of authority. Globally, people seek this new medium for information to make informed decisions.

The advent of Facebook and Twitter have further accentuated the role of new media in information flow and sharing.

But with freedom there must be responsibility.

As citizens, such expressions must be done with a communal and social responsibility to communicate values and uphold tenets of nation building.

Furthermore, with increasing Internet use, there is the concern of security, privacy and safety.

The recently announced Data Protection Act seeks to protect Malaysians from unsavoury and inappropriate content as well as crimes such as identity theft.

The law and our Constitution seek to uphold, protect and provide for the benefit of Malay­sians.

The ministry is working towards the migration of terrestrial-based analog broadcast data to that of digital broadcast data.

This will see the transformation of Malaysian broadcast players as well as quality and quantity.

It will enable Malaysian contents to be shared with the world and Malaysians will have access to many more channels of information and entertainment.

This project, to be completed in four years, is taken up entirely by the Government. Other private broadcast companies are expected to ride on the platform.

Malaysians will be among the firsts in the region to reap the benefits of technology brought about by a Government that puts its people first.

When we use the mass media professionally, it can shape our society - a society that is progressive and will better serve the new world order.