In the editor’s and journalist’s point of view, there are several rules and regulations on publishing. Therefore, editors and journalist have to obey these rules and regulations in order to maintain their job and their safety. If there are editors or journalist that did not act ethically according to the rules and regulations, then it may cause them into trouble, such as being arrested by Internal Security Act (ISA) which is to prevent people who criticize the government and defend human rights, based on Scribd (n.d). Accordingly to Patterson and Wilkins (2008), most journalist carries the concept of right to know, need to know, and want to know with them in order to get the most accurate and up-to-date story.
For the cases in section one, I had chosen the first issue which is ‘Berita Harian issues public apology over tsunami cartoon.’ It is saying that Berita Harian publishes the icon of Ultraman running away from an oncoming tsunami in Berita Minggu; it seems that they did not feel sympathy for the Japanese instead they are making fun at the disaster that took place at Japan. Below is a picture showing the popular Japanese icon Ultraman running away from an oncoming tsunami.
Figure 1 - The popular Japanese icon Ultraman running away from an oncoming tsunami drawn by Mohd Zohri Sukimi or known as Zoy.
After the drawing was published, it attracted the citizen’s attention but most of them were unhappy about it and were commenting and criticizing on the issue in their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Subsequently, Berita Harian has to issue a public apology on their website, Twitter, and Facebook after receiving several of complains from the other publications mentioned in thestaronline (2011). Here is the link to the article for further understanding.
Next, I will be discussing on the issue faced by the journalist and the theory that relates to this issue. The angle that I am looking on this case is why the journalist publishes such a drawing that it may be a sensitive issue to the citizen and also it may affect them. To my opinion, it seems that the journalist has portrayed the picture in a way that it could mislead the citizens to the wrong ideas.
Based on Walsh (2006), levels of meaning are depending on the types of pictures we use and this is related to the reader’s background knowledge of how language, texts, and pictures works as well as the recognition of discourses and ideologies. Walsh (2006) also says different people may have different understanding that is related to their previous knowledge, cultural knowledge, general knowledge, specific content knowledge, or linguistic knowledge.
It is about medium ability, which helps people to understand when they see the pictures. Besides that, it also lead people’s mind to imagine what the pictures are trying to say. As a result, different cultural of people has their own interpreting knowledge; therefore this may easily lead them to the wrong ideas.
Hence, it is vital to consider the cultural context first before publishing the document, text, or pictures. Therefore, it may not mislead the citizen to the wrong ideas or create any misunderstanding.
References:
- Laws of Malaysia 2006, online, viewed 8th June 2011, <http://www.agc.gov.my/Akta/Vol.%202/Act%2082.pdf>
- Scribd.com n.d, Malaysia’s Internal Security Act - ISA, online, viewed 8th June 2011, <http://www.scribd.com/doc/7708549/Laws-of-Malaysia-Internal-Security-Act-1960>
- thestaronline 2011, Berita Harian apologises over insensitive Ultraman cartoon, online, viewed 8th June 2011, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/13/nation/20110313224851&sec=nation>
- thestaronline 2011, Berita Harian issues public apology over tsunami cartoon, online, viewed 8th June 2011, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/14/nation/8262608&sec=nation>
- Walsh, M. 2006, “ ‘Textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual, and multimodal texts,” Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pg. 24-37.
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