Writing

Md Asiuzzaman

Abstract

Malaysia commemorated 50 years of independence in 2007. In many ways, the country is a success story in the model of a modern Asian nation. Poverty has declined from 50% of the population at independence to 5% today. In Asia, only Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and Brunei rank higher than Malaysia on the UN Human Development Index. Most importantly, Malaysia has maintained peace among groups that include Muslim Malays (about 50%), Buddhist and Christian Chinese (roughly 25%), Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim Indians (less than 10%), and many indigenous peoples of diverse faiths and ethnicities. The slogan ‘Unity in Diversity’ has long resonated with Malaysians, but of late, the situation has changed slightly. Time magazine, in an article titled ‘Identity Crisis’ on December 10, 2007, said that “racial and religious tensions are forcing Malaysia to grapple with a vexing question: What kind of country does it want to be?” The magazine termed it a ‘midlife anxiety’. Whatever the situation is in a country, the media plays a big role in weaving the social fabric. Media pluralism is a key factor in this process. 

Bangladesh is often compared with Malaysia in terms of development and modernization. In the late 50s and early 60s, the social and economic conditions in Bangladesh and Malaysia were similar. However, over the past several decades, Malaysia has advanced economically and left Bangladesh far behind. The media is part of this progress. 

In seeking to explore the relationship between media freedom and pluralism, the study examines the claims of leading media and political scholars regarding the liberal concept of democracy, libertarianism and social responsibility, the free press, and the representative role of the press. The study's theoretical perspective strongly asserts that the press should reflect the pluralistic nature of society and not be dominated by any viewpoint or controlled by the government or any interest group. The press should make available the 2 pieces of information necessary for citizens to make informed choices and provide the means by which the public debate that underpins free and democratic societies can take place. The study also examines diversity in media products and news coverage as two important factors in assessing the multifaceted role of the media. (Find in Google Scholar)

Jude William Genilo, Md Asiuzzaman, Md Mahbubul Haque Osmani 

Academic studies on newspapers in Bangladesh revolve round mainly four research streams: importance of freedom of press in dynamics of democracy; political economy of the newspaper industry; newspaper credibility and ethics; and how newspapers can contribute to development and social change. This paper looks into what can be called the fifth stream—the readability of newspapers. The main objective is to know the content and proportion of news and information appearing in English-language newspapers in Bangladesh in terms of story theme, geographic focus, treatment, origin, visual presentation, diversity of sources/photos, newspaper structure, content promotion and listings. Five English-language newspapers were selected as per their officially published circulation figure for this research.  (Find in Google Scholar)