This came into my inbox. I called the author Stanley and got his permission to put this up in this blog.It complements People's Parliament's HARTAL MSM efforts.
Tak Nak star: Peace to all Malaysians,
In our recent meeting with the Regional editor and staff of STAR PUBLICATION Penang, I discovered that, it`s really a waste of our money and time supporting this kind of publication and making them rich day by day. They Do not have a stand and are playing games in the tune of the people. They are not committed to journalism and does not have the quality of being a press company. They admitted that they are PRO GOVERNMENT.
They have also denied in not giving a fair and equal coverage to all parties in the General Election. The Regional editor Anna cheah said that, We have given our best and had given a fair and equal coverage to all contesting parties. It was clear that she was defending her company.They are not even willing to admit their mistake. How can we expect an apology from this guys.
They continued saying that, any sensitive report or political report which is unsafe to be publish, will be first send to kl to the big bosses for editing and for advice on whether or not to publish the report.. Now, who are the big bosses !!!!!!! MCA Guys..... And we have seen by our own eyes, the results of the report about the opposition during the GE 08.. Full of BULLSHIT and negative views of the opposition. And yet, they still have the pride to say, We are not wrong. It is a big shame and humiliation for the journalism career !
They even said that, their license are given on a yearly basis. And that there are many rules to be followed. So, does that mean that they will be in favor for the government even if right or wrong. And if they publish a true negative report on BN and a true positive report on the opposition will their license be in trouble. Let me tell you guys, this company is not afraid of their license being revoked, they can get it back like in the past. I think it is the boss whom belongs to MCA whom chooses to be a tool of barisan nasional and reject press freedom, trying to fool the readers in to what he wants the people to read. He is trying to give a good impression to BN that he`s doing his part for the government and standing up for them, hoping to get a minister post in the cabinet in years time i think !
Do we want to be the reason of this companies success. Do we want this kind of people to succeed in their plans.
We have change our government, Let us change our paper too!!!!! Stop making them rich.
create SMS and sent out to all your contacts to boycott the star !!!
No point complaining. Let us put it in to action!
It worked during our General Elections !!!
And it even worked on all the Nasi Kandar shops in Penang !! they are badly hit.
Now we wanna use it on THE STAR... SMS/ EMAIL/ FLYERS..
Be creative and design your own words!!! and send it out to everyone !!!!!
We also demand for advertisers to stop advertising in The Star as that is their main profit.
We also demand the international press association to withdraw all awards given to The Star.
We will keep track on companies advertising in The Star and include them in our boycott list if they continue to advertise in The Star.
Forwards this mail to all your contact. Let us stand united as BANGSA MALAYSIA rejecting companies who denies us our rights to hear and read the truth.
STAR IS A CANCER. STOP IT BEFORE IT`S TOO LATE.
Let`s show them the People`s Power.. MAKKAL SAKTHI ! We can do it.
Thousands have stop buying, Why not you ?
Regards and Love
K.Sudhagaran Stanley
Coordinator,
Islanders Tamil Youth Network
More reading at People's Parliament.
SHEIH (Kickdefalla) called to inform me that his mother passed away after 5.00pm this evening. Rocky's SMS followed shortly. Supermum has been ill since July 2007. Sheih is stranded and can only catch a ferry at 8.00am tomorrow morning before proceeding to Kuala Lumpur. The funeral rites are expected tomorrow morning. I'd like to attend the funeral, if I know where and when. Anyone can help? I wanted to call Sheih for this information, but thought otherwise. I'd like to leave him with his thoughts just for his Super Mum.
March 19th, 2008 at 6:26 am
The elections prove a very critical point. Return to basics.
Quoting Henry Tan “Content is not necessarily king, distribution is king and engagement is the ultimate”. BN manage to maintained their simple majority simply because of mass reach of conventional media especially in rural areas. The Opposition could have probably won the elections had they not been denied the access to mass media. To counter that effect, the opposition ENGAGED the public via any means necessary effectively from online blogs to door to door visits and “ceramahs” fully utilizing powerful speakers like Anwar Ibrahim. Hence, this really proves how media planning has to evolve to communications channel planning - leveraging on touch points. Communications channel planning must be brought to the fore and not some after thought.
Understand your consumers! BN had misread the “rakyat” and therefore paid dearly. A clear lesson is getting the right information. Research is no longer calling up acquaintances and asking them what they think. Proper research via the correct channels is required to provide an accurate picture of any political and market situation. All parties (either client, media, creative, PR, research, etc) involved then have to really sit together to piece out REAL consumer insights. The opposition got this right by opening up to the grouses of the “rakyat”. It was BN’s development campaign vs the opposition’s change campaign. Cheesy and corny patriotic TVCs and testimonials versus a really witty sarcastic humorous online clip. A clear David vs Goliath example. By understanding your consumers then the right communication via the right channels within the right context could be achieve.
This would also mean that the mass media would have to seriously evolve too and see the people they are reaching as real consumers with real issues and needs. If not, consumers will move towards other media distribution points ie online. Hence, the shift of control over information distribution. These developments would be indeed interesting to observe especially how mainstream media will evolve in the content distribution business.
With all that said, it would mean advertisers must start seeing agencies as business partners and not just a another service provider. Agencies would have to make a really big leap of faith to explore the unknown and provide results oriented solutions by investing into research, training and optimizing. The industry would have to evolve by putting the consumer to the fore. Sometimes its not what is being said but more of what isn’t said.
As DAP puts is, “Change it” and not be be as the Malay saying goes “Katak di bawah tempurung” (Frog under the coconut shell). The elections have very important lessons which the BN government will not take for granted come the next election but to the industry as a whole.