Gripevine

At about 5pm on Wednesday October 17, as I was running through a list of stories submitted by reporters that day, one particular headline caught my eye - Abused 4-year-old-girl flees from home. There are many cases where very young children are abused, but rarely does a child that young actually leave! I read the raw copy submitted by the reporter and found that there was an accompanying photo to go with the story too, as police were hunting for the girl's parents. The story would definitely make an interesting read, and a quick search revealed that other news websites had not published the story yet, plus 5pm to 7pm is the peak period when the website experiences heavy traffic. In short this was a story that would definitely garner a lot of reads. However I decided not to put up the story just yet. In journalism sensitivity is key Anybody who works in journalism, and even those who don't, must surely know that when reporting on cases of violence and abuse agains...

The buzz in the global media industry this week is that Newsweek has been sold again. This time to International Business Times (IBT Media), a company that describes itself as a 100% digital media group. Print to digital While its closest competitor Time Magazine has successfully managed both its print and online presence, Newsweek has not fared as well. It's last print edition was published in December 2012. As one who avidly follows industry news on the migration of established print titles to the digital domain, this is interesting news indeed. How will IBT Media re-brand Newsweek to cater to a digital audience amidst stiff competition online? How will it jostle with other established names that have already carved a comfortable niche for themselves online? IBT Media and its latest acquisition will be the focal point of attention for industry watchers in the weeks and months to come. Meanwhile here's the story that got the ball rolling. Newsweek, Sold in 20...

This is something that I have mulled about for years as a member of the profession, and I've finally decided to give words to those fragmented thoughts that have cropped up on and off in the course of work. There's this common enough perception, that in the quest to garner readership and sell newspapers, we in journalism would resort to sensationalising issues and digging up the dirt on others. First of all there is no way we can sensationalise anything, if there is nothing to sensationalise in the first place, and if there is no dirt to dig up, we certainly would not be putting our spades to the task! So to all those who keep grumbling about sensationalism, and the media giving them a hard time - usually all those so-called 'Important People', how about keeping your backyard clean first and not saying silly things - which of course will be reported! When you're that high up, we assume you're smart, it goes with the territory, so when you let slip t...

The face of journalism as we know it is changing. News organisations and governments no longer get to decide what we know and what we don't. Who or what brought about this emancipation? Technology in the form of smart gadgets and social media with its unprecedented reach. In fact we now live in an era where the power of independent journalism is giving established news organisations a run for their money. For one who was a reporter with such a media group, I say this is good news! I don't know how it is done in other countries. But here in Malaysia, if we are dealing with - The private scandal of a politician from the ruling party, something that makes an opposition politician look good, racially tinged issues and epidemics to quote a few, there is usually a certain amount of filtering that is done before the news reaches the public. It has been a few years since I left journalism, so I don't know to what extent things have changed. It must have, at least a little...