Speaking during MIDF’s “Conversations” series hosted by MIDF group managing director Charon Mokhzani today, FMT managing director Azeem Abu Bakar said the media had a duty to show people a true picture of the state of the country, highlighting the good and bad from all sides of the political and social spectrums in order to promote understanding and harmony.
“As the media, our duty is to educate the public as much as possible to lead towards that. We have to be open to debate about policies, even racial policies. We have to be open to accepting everybody’s views and be able to compromise,” he said.
This was particularly vital for the next generation, he said, as their worldviews were increasingly becoming more globalised and open to new ideas, rather than rooted in longstanding ideologies.
“Care”, he told the youth. “Just care about this nation, care about how it affects you, and make your choices.
“Our job is to inform you so that you make educated decisions, informed choices when it comes to advocating something or on polling day so that together we can make the right choices for the nation.”
On the globalisation of media, he said the goal must be for Malaysian content to reach a standard that can be exported and marketed globally.
“The world is our playground, we cannot rest on our laurels, we must grow the audience base.
“There’s a reason Malaysia’s business model has always been exporting our products. For us to become a high-income nation, we have to export, therefore, we need to have a good positioning of our brand, of how Malaysia fits in the world supply chain.”
Rafiq Razali, group managing director of Media Prima, agreed that there was a need to look beyond Malaysia’s borders, noting how South Korea’s coordinated efforts to promote the development of its local content had led to the global success of K-pop and Korean-language films and television.
“It would require us to be a little braver in terms of how we approach content creation,” he said.
“We need to start thinking globally, I don’t think that’s happening yet. The majority of content we create is meant for our own population.”
He said that devising a business strategy that allows for global expansion has always been a challenge, adding that it may be a matter of growing regionally first, before extending further.