Dear readers,
Blogging isn’t just for geeks anymore. Trends that spark online are just as in-style as those on the runway: take the new crazes regarding video blogs (or ‘vlogs’: lonelygirl15, anyone?) or alternative news sources.
Let’s talk about alternative online newspapers, readers.
According to Meza (2006), “many mainstream television programs today claim to offer the viewer an impartial approach on any given issue, this just isn’t true”. From a local standpoint, this remains pertinent. However, Malaysian mainstream media is getting much less readership due to the rising preference for more balance. Nowadays, to get the “real news”, Malaysians turn to MalaysiaKini or MalaysiaToday: both of which have substantial readership (Foo, 2008). We turn to alternative media because the articles in them “hit the spot because they’re tapping into concerns out in the public arena” (Big Ideas, 2005). We want the truth, and we want it now. Web 2.0 has spoiled an information-hungry populace with instant gratification, and this case is no exception.
Blogging isn’t just for geeks anymore. Trends that spark online are just as in-style as those on the runway: take the new crazes regarding video blogs (or ‘vlogs’: lonelygirl15, anyone?) or alternative news sources.
Let’s talk about alternative online newspapers, readers.
According to Meza (2006), “many mainstream television programs today claim to offer the viewer an impartial approach on any given issue, this just isn’t true”. From a local standpoint, this remains pertinent. However, Malaysian mainstream media is getting much less readership due to the rising preference for more balance. Nowadays, to get the “real news”, Malaysians turn to MalaysiaKini or MalaysiaToday: both of which have substantial readership (Foo, 2008). We turn to alternative media because the articles in them “hit the spot because they’re tapping into concerns out in the public arena” (Big Ideas, 2005). We want the truth, and we want it now. Web 2.0 has spoiled an information-hungry populace with instant gratification, and this case is no exception.
(Socialcritic.org, Wuerker, n.d.)
Not only this, but there are aesthetic reasons. Online newspapers are easier to read due to their succinctness and multimodality (Kress & van Leeuwen). Archives and other records are more easily found with online news. Online newspapers can also hyperlink to pertinent sites, creating intertextuality (Schirato & Yell, 1996) – we make sense of texts in reference to relations with other texts.References
- Big Ideas. (2005). New Media Publishing. Viewed 13 November 2008 from http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bigidea/stories/s1485827.htm
- Foo, Y. H. (2008). The Alternative News. Viewed 13 November 2008 from http://yeo-innocreative.blogspot.com/2008/06/alternatives-news-malaysiakinimalaysia.html
- Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication. Hodder Headline Group: Great Britain.
- Meza, M. (2006). Goodbye Mainstream Media, Hello Alternative. Viewed 13 November 2008 from http://enterthealternativemedia.blogspot.com/
- Schirato, T. & Yell, S. (1996). Communication and Cultural Literacy: An Introduction. Ch. 5, Framing Contexts, pp90-117. Allen & Unwin: St. Leonard’s, New South Wales.
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