Written by Nazmi Suraya Ruslan
Identity of News Organization: The Star
The Star is the famous local English-language newspaper in Malaysia. Based in Petaling Jaya, it was established in 1971 as a regional newspaper in Penang. As of September 2016, The Star is effectively controlled by the Malaysian government, whose controlled entities hold a majority of the shares in the publicly-listed Star Media Group.
Practicalities and Agenda of the media
The main agenda of The Star that can be observed from the headlines of the news is that they want to highlight that the Hindraf rally is unreasonable and disturbing the public order as the Hindraf were gathering and protesting towards the government as well as defying a court order, forcing the police to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd. The trouble started at Batu Caves, with demonstrators forcing open the locked gates and breaking temple property at 2am, this shows that Hindraf rally was really dangerous to the public according to the Star.
Identity of News Organization: Reuters
Reuters is an international news agency headquartered in Canary Wharf, London, England, United Kingdom and is a division of Thomson Reuters. Until 2008, the Reuters news agency formed part of an independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data. It was established in 1851
Practicalities and Agenda of the media
Based on the Reuters news reporting, they took the issue of Hindraf rally differently than The Star online as they kept updating and publish follow-up articles from various dimensions. However, it can be seen that Reuters emphasized on the Malaysian perception and opinion of this issue. Their article consists of the opinion of Malaysian citizen and media towards Hindraf rally. For example, one of the articles described that the demonstration happened as an anti-government street protest. News published by the Reuters is always accompanied by sources as the reporters of the Reuters get the information by personally interviewing one of the demonstrators.