The Public Sphere and Media Politics in Malaysia
Author: Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani
Date Of Publication: Apr 2009
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-0360-1
Isbn: 1-4438-0360-X
This book analyses Malaysian media from the Jurgen Habermas’ perspectives of “the public sphere” especially from the aspects of bourgeois public sphere, mass press, the commercialisation of the press and refeudalisation. Malaysia has also faced all of those aspects. However, the highlight of this book is the process called defeudalisation. The 2008 General Election has shown that a new public sphere of cyberspace or the Internet and the mobile phone was accessed and utilised significantly and was enough to be used by the opposition in influencing the public to vote them. It became one of the major factors in determining the result of the election which is for the first time the opposition denying the ruling government a two third majority in the parliament and taking control or governing of five states. This new and influential public sphere in Malaysia has reversed the Habermas’ argument of refeudalisation to a process called “Defeudalisation”. However, in creating a civil public sphere for the people to deliberate views, this book also argues that Malaysia needs a responsible media or freedom of the press with social responsibility. This book urges Malaysia to accept the idea or theory of social responsibility and the concept of public journalism in the public sphere.

This book is suitable for all interested–politicians, journalists, academia, and students of politics, media studies, laws and Malaysian studies–in the issues of media politics, free press and the role of media in Malaysian society as well as those interested in civil liberties, democratisation, political theory, media theory, law and Malaysian studies.

Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani, PhD is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the College of Law, Government and International Studies (COLGIS), Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok. He received his PhD at School of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy (SPIRE), Keele University, United Kingdom. His works have been published in several publications such as in Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Harvard Asian Quarterly, Asian Journal of Political Science and Journal of Contemporary Asia. He has also written two books on Human Rights, and Fundamental Rights and Free Speech and edited a book on Globalisation (all in Malay).

Azizuddin Sani has written a vitally important book on the interactions among media ownership, political bias, and public debate in Malaysia. His emphasis on the impact of the changing nature of mass media on the public sphere brings together a careful inventory of print and online publications with an assessment of government regulation and its technological limits, all measured against a strong theory of the need for vigorous public debate. This book is a major contribution to the study of politics, public policy, and applied political theory in Malaysia.

—Donald L. Horowitz, James B. Duke Professor of Law and Political Science, Duke University, US

In this bold and original work Azizuddin Sani uses Jurgen Habermas’s idea of the public sphere to develop his conception of “defeudalisation” as a tool for analysing the changing political role of the Malaysian media. In particular, he explores the development and impact of new communication technologies in the context of the 2008 election. This book should be of interest to all students, scholars and members of the educated public concerned with

democracy in Malaysia.

—John Horton, Professor of Politics, Keele University, UK

Price Uk Gbp: 39.99
Price Us Usd: 59.99

Sample pdf (including Table of Contents)