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As described by People Communicating, communication is the act of transferring
information through mass media (2010). With that said, news media is media that focuses on
delivering news; such as newspapers and magazines (TheFreeDictionary.com, 2011). Over
the years, current updates and immediate access are few of the major roles in what people
nowadays look for in news media. Thusly, and quoting Foreign Minister Browne, the internet
plays an important role in this current technology-influenced society (2011). This paper will
explore and disseminate online media through a selection of three news publishers, which are
- British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), News Straits Times (NST) and The Malay Mail
(TMM). A timeframe of only one week was set (which was from 20 th April 2011 to 26th April
2011) due to time constraint. Alongside that, the paper also acts as a written document of the
group presentation executed during the previous week.
The Malay Mail, owned by the Redberry media group, is an English-language

newspaper based at Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and on 26 November 2009, it became a free
afternoon paper (The Malay Mail, 2010). The types of news covered in TMM are of both
hard news and soft news. For the news content, both local and international news were
published. However, as this is a Malaysian newspaper, more concentration was on local
Malaysian news. Also, TMM emphasizes on human interest news, this is proven as more
focus were given on news content such as campaigns for the distressed, voices of the main-
in-the-street and sports (more articles were available in the ‘sports folder’). No elaborative
language was used, short and simple words enabled straight to the point titles and articles. In
terms of how technology influences TMM website, the web layout is designed to be user-
friendly. There were buttons (such as ‘email’ and ‘facebook’) located on top of news articles
which functions as tools to enable readers to easily share the aforementioned around. Readers
can also interact and voice out opinions with TMM community (and each other) through
commenting on an article or on another comment. Lastly, printer-friendly versions of the
news articles (located alongside file-sharing buttons) make it easy for the readers if a hard
copy of the news were desired. Other features on the website would include the presence of
advertisements (located top, bottom and on the right column of the page).
News Straits Times is another Malaysian English-language newspaper publisher. It is

owned by Media Prima, which also owns other local media stations (such as 8TV and fly.fm).
NST’s target audience are those from age 20 to age 35 (NSTP.com, 2011). For the type of
news published, both hard and soft news were covered. Again, being a Malaysian newspaper,
more focus was given to the local Malaysian news. This was confirmed in the presence of
more stories in the ‘Local’ folder. Asides that, as NST is a pro-government newspaper
(world-newspaper.com, 2010), there were quite a number of political/government news (filed
under Top News). As stated, soft news stories were also present and arranged into sub-
categories (folders) – Life&Times, 4Youth, e-Media and my gadget. The style of writing for
all of the news was simple and clean, therefore easy to comprehend. The NST website can be
considered as heavily influenced by technology. NST web-developers have created respective
NST Facebook and Twitter community. Hyperlinks to their Facebook and Twitter community
(located on top and at the side of the website) directly links readers to the pages. Another
point is that on the index page, constant current updates of the actual Facebook news
headlines can be seen. These headlines are also hyperlinks that will subsequently direct
readers to the Facebook news pages (‘notes’ in Facebook website) counterparts. RSS Feeds,
with current news and timestamps, were also incorporated in the index page. Lastly, for other
features of the NST website, an archive existent with a search column on the upper right
corner of the page to facilitate easy access for readers. The NST website can be reflected as
advertisement oriented as advertisements were present around the website and in the form of
1klassifieds and Property.
As for international web publishers, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was
chosen. The BBC News is based mainly on a news centre in Television Centre (west
London). Its community is wide; consisting of around 3500 staff, in which 2000 are
journalists, and an audience of 150 million people (Boaden, 2004). With that said, there is an
option in the BBC home page for readers to select their desired language. Unlike the above
Malaysian websites, the news content is balanced for international and local news. In the
BBC website (English language), both soft news and hard news were available and divided
into 12 sections –Top travel stories, Spotlight News, News, Business, Sport, Most popular
news, Science and environment, Weather, The Royal Wedding, Travel, World services and
Explore the BBC. A mixture of both hard and soft content in an article is present in articles
such as Volcano eruption in Ireland caused European airspace to close (Science and
Environment). The language used was with strong yet crisp words. For the web layout, the
news content was spread out evenly. As content was abundant for the BBC, the index page
was designed to save space to fit the content; each sub heading was complimented with a
hyperlink to the actual story and top travel news were placed in a slideshow that also links to
the actual news. Explore the BBC feature allows viewers to search and locate past news or
news with a directed subject. For other aspects, advertisement was also present.
The similarities and differences for selected online media were discussed. Similarities
include the point that local news is given priority as compared to global news. This may
possibly be due to publishers wanting to cater to their selected target audience. Hyperlinks
were used in all websites to link to other stories or locations (links to Facebook community).
It improves the tidiness of the websites (links to past stories, archives). Another similar point
is that all of these websites contain advertisements. The few differences between the observed
websites are that the writing language and layout used were different. To justify, NST and
TMM use simpler English language with a mixture of some Chinese and Malay terms. This
demonstrates that MM and NST writes in a manner that is more directed towards Malaysians.
As for layout, BBC’s layout is neat and organized, making the news substance more
dominating. NST has a more complex layout with its RSS Feeds and Facebook live updates.
Aforementioned differences may be because BBC is an international news media house that
caters to a wider target audience scope while NST and TMMs’ audience are majorly
Malaysian market.
Conclusively, each website boats of its own style of writing and web layout.
However, the main aim of having an online counterpart is to publish news promptly. To
reinstate, the reason to these different types of news presentation may be due to different
audiences and geographical factors.
References
BBC News 2011, Home, viewed on 20 April 2011, < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ >
Boaden, H 2004, This is BBC News, viewed on 12 May 2011,

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi/newsid_3970000/newsid_3975900/3975913.stm>
Foreign & Commonwealth Office 2011, Role of media in society, viewed on 15 May
2011, <http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?id=580248382&view=News>
New Straits Times 2011, Home, viewed on 20 April 2011, <www.nst.com.my>
NSTP.com 2011, About NSTP Group, viewed 12 May 2011,

<http://www.nstp.com.my/wp/?page_id=5>
People Communicating 2010, What is Communication, viewed 15 May 2011, <

http://www.people-communicating.com/what-is-communication.html>
The Malay Mail 2011, Home, viewed on 20 April 2011, <www.mmail.com.my>
The Malay Mail 2011, Introduction to The Malay Mail, viewed on 13 May 2011,
<http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=139021692810962>
World-Newspapers.com 2011, Malaysian Newspapers, viewed on 14 May 2011,

<http://www.world-newspapers.com/malaysia.html>

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As described by People Communicating, communication is the act of transferring

The Malay Mail, owned by the Redberry media group, is an English-language

News Straits Times is another Malaysian English-language newspaper publisher. It is

Boaden, H 2004, This is BBC News, viewed on 12 May 2011,

New Straits Times 2011, Home, viewed on 20 April 2011, <www.nst.com.my>

NSTP.com 2011, About NSTP Group, viewed 12 May 2011,

People Communicating 2010, What is Communication, viewed 15 May 2011, <

The Malay Mail 2011, Home, viewed on 20 April 2011, <www.mmail.com.my>

World-Newspapers.com 2011, Malaysian Newspapers, viewed on 14 May 2011,

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