Analysis on the Survival of the Newspapers Despite the Emergence of Social Media Platforms in Malaysia

Paychimuthu, Jivakaliswary (2022) Analysis on the Survival of the Newspapers Despite the Emergence of Social Media Platforms in Malaysia. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

The threats over newspapers have been enormous since the emergence of social media platforms. Since its establishment, the performance of printed newspapers has been declining steadily and it is understood that the media evolution is a continuous process. As such, this thesis analyses the survival of newspapers despite the emergence of social media platforms in Malaysia. The objective includes finding the reasons behind the decline of local print newspapers consumption, analyse the factors that make readers switch to social media for news gatherings, and investigate the strategies that persist the survival of local newspapers and the outcomes from the improvisation to survive along with the emergence of social media. The empirical part of this research uses a qualitative approach. This consists of four expert interviews from editorial department of newspaper organisations namely Berita Harian, Sin Chew Daily, Makkal Osai and The Star as the primary data collection via online in-depth interviews. This research uses administrative management theory developed by Henri Fayol that focuses on functions which are planning, organising, controlling and directing that can be used by management to arrange the internal activities of an organisation to be successful. The findings indicate that social media platforms had majorly impacted newspaper production in many ways despite the newspaper organisations' given their effort in improving their print and digital publication. Thus, their limitation in internal activities of management raise an unsolved dilemma which becomes an immense challenge for them to compete with social media news. Therefore, newspaper organisations must remain optimistic by managing their internal activities efficiently to change their traditional printing method and marketing sectors, avoiding political influence and encourage team work not only within departments but also as a whole publication in order to survive during the emergence of social media platforms in Malaysia.