The credibility of the mainstream media can only be regained by discrediting the social media and attacking political cybertroopers, a senior journalist claimed.

"The rise of cybertroopers have made the social media unreliable. Cybertroopers are liars, thus making liars out of social media," said English-language daily The Star ’s executive editor Wong Sai Wan at a forum in Kuala Lumpur today on the new role of media in the coming national polls.

"This is our only way of regaining back our credibility. Our job is to get this word out.

“Social media does not provide information, it’s (a form of) entertainment. We must be on the attack," stressed Wong, who is also very active on social media microblog, Twitter.

The forum, which had been hosted by national news agency Bernama and Press Forum Asia, was titled, 'GE13, the role of the new media landscape in Malaysia'.

wong sai wan Wong also believed that the only way to run a media company independently, is to make profitability their only key performance indicator (KPI).

"You do everything and anything for the bottom dollar. Any other way, and it becomes politically motivated," he argued.

Wong's strong views were, however, not in tune with fellow panel member Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) journalism dean Professor Syed Arabi Idid who felt that the question of the mainstream media's credibility may have structural roots, instead of just being seen as victims of social media development.

"The product you serve must be good products," Syed Arabi reasoned.

He opined that simply hitting back may not be the only answer, if the mainstream media do not first ensure that their output are of a good quality.

Although Syed Arabi believed that the real battlefield is indeed in cyberspace as according to his study, the readership of newspapers and viewership of television has fallen since 2004 - with the number of newspaper readers falling from 61 percent of respondents (voters) to 41 percent, while television viewership has since gone down from 42 to 32 percent.

Internet users amongst them, however, have risen to nearly double in the same time period.

Syed Arabi has also noted the correlation between the public trust in the mainstream media and popular votes for BN, with lowering faith in mainstream media coinciding with less votes for the ruling coalition.

'We need more balanced reporting'

On a related matter, veteran media editor A Kadir Jasin, who completed the three-member panel, said that the mainstream media needs to start publishing more balanced reports.

Citing news of opposition pact Pakatan Rakyat’s GE13 manifesto - which had been launched this Monday - by The Star , Kadir said that the English daily, while providing coverage of opposition news, only published editorialising articles that attacked the opposition document, but did not report news on it.

"They just attack, without reporting about it first," he said.

a kadir jasin interview 060705 smile Kadir argued that the more balanced journalistic approach is to report on the manifesto first, then run editorials attacking it the following day, if they so want.

Similarly, forum moderator Bernama acting general manager Yong Soo Heong recounted in one of his forum round-ups that the national news agency, after running scathing articles against the Pakatan-controlled Selangor government on the ongoing water issue in the state, had then ran a response from the state Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim.

Doing so, said Yong, is necessary to provide balanced reporting and give Khalid the right of reply, things that Yong believes are important journalism principles which may help restore public trust in the mainstream media.

The issue of the rakyat's loss of faith in the credibility of the mainstream media continue to be more glaring with falling readerships, lowering circulation and more publications losing money.

Many believe this is tied to the political ownership of media outlets, which then tends to publish news slanted to their owners instead of the facts, as they should have done.

'Smartphones present greatest danger in GE13'