Date: 25th September 2019
Venue: Lecture Theatre 20
The National Media Forum 2019 organised by the Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) in collaboration with Taylor’s University was an eye-opening experience. The forum was titled Industry 4.0 - Journalism Across Various Platforms which discusses the latest issues of media and journalism in Malaysia specifically on technological developments such as artificial intelligence and digital media and their impact on the media industry.
In this forum, national reporter Tan Sri Johan Jaaffar mentioned about wanting to reboot the whole media industry as newspapers are vanishing due to new media. He said most of the conventional media opportunities for advertising were taken over by social media and digital platforms like Google and Facebook. Therefore, we can see that the challenge was not just competition within social media platforms and other online media to deliver the news, but the influence of advertising and in that regard media and communication studies in institutions needs to be restructured to ensure that graduates are prepared for the needs of the current media industry. He has also talked about the history of Media Prima and Utusan Melayu back in the days when the evolution of the internet began and how there was more press freedom in the past compared to the present which I certainly agree as we are mainly controlled by the government.
Besides that, Malay Mail’s editor-in-chief, Datuk Wong Sai Wan mentioned that there is no workable economic formula to pay for journalism without having to endure great losses. I agree with the statement “Journalism is an expensive and addictive habit that doesn’t pay.” Media is different as it is attention-grabbing, they are distractions because the younger generations have an attention span of a goldfish. Long-form of reading and viewing is long gone as The Malay Mail has stopped printing on 1st December last year and shifted fully digital.
Next, Astro Awani’s deputy editor-in-chief, Mr Kamarul Bahrin Haron mentioned about the change in the industry in the matter of the technology industry and how it made changes to the lifestyle of the society. No one will think about making our lives better if we only look at what technology needs and the trends that gets more numbers on digital media. However, he mentioned that media companies can still make a change by creating a better, educated society as journalism plays an important role in a democratic nation. He has also highlighted in the new “reset” in the current journalism using the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) and how we are able to beat Google and Facebook.
Overall, there are many things that I have gained from this workshop such as being more aware of the current issues in the journalism industry and how the advancement of technology such as artificial intelligence has affected the industry and everyone's lifestyle. It was a great opportunity to be exposed to many journalism industry players and their different opinions regarding the issues of journalism in Malaysia. Besides that, I have also learnt to prepare myself to be better in my future career in consideration of the emergence of technology has affected the world. I believe that the information that I have gained from this workshop will be useful to me as a mass communication student as well to my career in the near future.
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