When "reality news" kicks out the real news

Remember the old days when the first three pages of The Star focused on political and current affairs news? That was then, this is now. Of late, we have noticed a new trend in The Star’s reporting. It looks like the People’s Paper has stumbled on to the delights of “reality” reporting - that is, it is presenting us with ongoing stories involving ordinary people’s lives almost as if to compensate for its dearth of reporting on pressing social, political and economic news.

Thus, over a few days, the paper frontpaged the story of the missing trekkers, their joy at being discovered, how they were greeted in school and how they related their stories to their schoolmates. (But there were hardly any stories about the real heroes in this search-and-rescue drama: the Orang Asli who discovered the boys and whose traditional way of life is under threat by rapacious 'development'.)

Another example of this kind of ongoing 'reality' series was when the paper highlighted the story of a little Malay girl in Penang who had to heroically stay at home and look after her grandmother instead of going to school. Soon after that, The Star frontpaged a large picture of the same girl meeting a Chinese girl in the same situation and gushed as both children developed an instant bond. This was followed by another prominent story about the same Malay girl finally going to school and describing what it was like.

Human-interest stories are fine, but when they are featured without any attempt to probe into the underlying issues, then we should wonder whether they are merely being used to sell newspapers. For example, The Star did not ask why there is no public social welfare system to ensure that children in similar situations receive a proper education instead of having to rely on charity and heart-rending appeals for help.

Next we were treated to the saga of the pirates taking control of a ship only to be foiled by a brave crew member who escaped and contacted police. Over the next few days, we were given a glimpse of the hero and how his family was delighted at his courage and how he even got a makeover.

You see the trend? It’s reality TV merging with your daily newspaper and you get to pry into the lives of others over a few days in the name of “human interest”.

Now don’t get us wrong, there’s nothing wrong with human-interest stories but these should not be at the expense of reporting the issues that matter to the public and asking the deeper questions as to why people are in the dire situations they are in.

Because The Star cannot report on the really important political, social and economic issues (such as persistent and worrying inflation), it has to resort to human-interest stories to sell its paper. After all, what else can it put on its front pages to sell its paper? Do these stories really warrant front-page treatement?

Thus a hugely important issue like Keng Yaik’s annoucement that he was scrapping water privatisation was shoved into page 2. Page 2? Is the future of our water supply not an important enough issue to merit page 1 treatment?

What are the other important issues that our papers are not reporting on?

How about reports on:

- the ISA and other detainees held without trial
- the fate of refugee children denied an education in Malaysia
- economic issues that matter such as low-cost housing, rising retail prices and inflation
- more coverage of opposition politics
- the progress, or lack of it, in the war on corruption
- Malaysia’s stand on what is going on in Iraq
- what’s really going on behind the plans to introduce a national health insurance scheme in Malaysia. Who are the consultants working on the proposed scheme? who will benefit? who will lose out?
- an examination of the pathetic record of privatisation in the country
- the real story behind US-Malaysia military cooperation
- what is happening to the key recommendations by the Royal Commission on the police? why has that story disappeared from the radar screen?

Readers, why not give our newspapers more suggestions on what else they can report on since they are obviously having a big problem finding out what really matters to you. Just leave your comments here: