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This essay is a critical examination of the ability of Malaysia's new media to promote political liberalization. Drawing on a historical approach to Malaysia's political development since independence, it argues that the political effects of the rise of Malaysia's new media are best understood as being parallel to those of modernization and socio-economic change from previous decades, which augured important changes in the political strategies of incumbent and opposition politicians, but did not upset the fundamental logic through which the Barisan Nasional (BN) regime has ruled since the 1970s. That logic of rule is closely attuned to Malaysia's cleavage structure, which centres on ethnicity and the economy and which has pervaded the country's politics since independence. Malaysia's new media--despite being far more open to critical voices than its establishment print and broadcast media--serve as venue in which more basic political conflicts are waged. Although Malaysia's 13th General Elections may spell further losses for the ruling BN, this essay argues that the rise of Malaysia's new media is unlikely to be responsible for political liberalization. Instead, liberalizing pressures are most likely to be effective when groups targeting democratic processes and procedures, thereby superseding Malaysia's cleavage politics. Keywords: Malaysia, democracy, modernization, media, technology., Analysts of Malaysian politics since the 1970s have repeatedly anticipated how various socio-economic changes will foster a more democratic, accountable and representative political system. In previous decades, modernization and globalization [...]

There were 136 entries for the Julia Wood Prize, and competition was fierce. The Committee eventually awarded the Prize to Olivia Grant of St Paul's Girls' School for the essay […]

There is general agreement that mass political parties emerged during the Jacksonian era, but there is no consensus about their precise origins. Institutional theorists within political science contend that political parties trace their beginnings to elite who nurtured them within the civil service bureaucracy, whereas theorists in political science who rely on microlevel explanations consider that parties developed to solve problems of social choice and collective action. Historians, in contrast, indicate that newspaper patronage in Washington, DC, beginning with Jefferson, was critical for the emergence of federal political parties. This study systematically examines the empirical implications of that assumption and considers both the organizational and political processes that underlie establishment of newspapers in the Capital, contributing to the understanding that newspapers provided a model both for the civil service and for political parties.

A review of works discussing the history of the mass media's influence on society is presented. Topics include national consciousness, public forum, and social history.

Sir Robert Menzies implied he would resist the domination of television however Menzies entered the realm of this new medium in the 1950s and '60s and used it effectively for political gain. He helped shape and develop the role for television in political life on his own terms. Later television would become the entity that would dominate the relationship between media and politics.

Washington is abuzz with rumors, whispers and innuendo. Individuals with a stake in the outcome of the scandal involving President Clinton and his relationship with former intern Monica Lewinsky are [...]

An analysis of Detroit, MI, daily newspapers from 1865 to 1920 illustrates the shifting role of the press as both a participant in the political community and dependent upon the political outcomes and functions of the community. The late 19th century press was very partisan and heavily influenced by the formal political community. The early 20th century press became more independent and strove toward nonpartisan, nonpolitical accounts of events and circumstances.

In the 1790s a press campaign Lambasted Jacobins and fellow-travellers. Stuart Andrews considers whether the Government orchestrated it all. The inaugural issue of the Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine for July [...]

An historian says the usual excuses for their absence aren't valid. Americans haven't always hated journalists. Nor have American Presidents. At the turn of the last century, no magazines were [...]

Jeanne Hurley Simon was an institution in her own right. Brilliant, gracious, committed to all the civil and social causes which are dear to progressives, an author, she carved out [...]

The first issue of the St. Louis Journalism Review hit newsstands in September, 1970. At least that's how the calendar read. Actually it was still The Sixties. The country was [...]

... The press conference as an organized biweekly meeting was instituted by Woodrow Wilson, fell into disrepair under Harding, and was reinstituted in a very limited form by Mr. Coolidge. [...]