FROM THE FIRST LINE TO THE BYLINE: MALAYSIAN JOURNALISTS’ LEARNING IN PRACTICE UNDER THE POWER OF MEDIA OWNERSHIP by KIT YOONG NG (Under the Direction of Ronald M. Cervero) ABSTRACT This study aimed to understand how Malaysian journalists learn in practice in order to carry out their professional responsibilities. A qualitative study design using the critical incident method and a semi-structured interview guide were used to interview 15 Malaysian journalists from the mainstream print media. The constant comparative method was used to analyze the verbatim-transcribed interview for emerging themes. This study found that Malaysian journalists learned two major skills – substantive journalism and negotiating. There are three sub-categories under substantive journalism skills – basic journalism skills, communication skills, and skill at managing content and publication space. For negotiating skills, journalists learned three important elements, namely gaining trust, maintaining relationships, and strategic withdrawal and intervention. This study also found that there are three ways how journalists learned to carry out their professional responsibilities: 1) guidance from the community of practice; 2) informal learning; and, 3) formal learning. Guidance from the community of practice includes guidance from their senior co-workers and counterparts, one-to-one coaching from superior, and mentoring relationships. Informal learning uses observational learning, incidental learning, and trial-and-error learning methods. There are two ways that journalists learned through formal learning – in-house training and learning from textbooks. Lastly, three categories of contextual factors were found to be affecting journalists’ learning and practice. They were structural power relationships, editor’s political survival, and topic of writing. Three sub-categories of structural power relationships were discovered: 1) legal control; 2) political interference and control; and, 3) ethnicity and language of writing. As a conclusion, although Malaysian journalists are free to negotiate their learning and are able to learn the skills needed to carry out their professional responsibilities, their learning process is essentially being choreographed. It is being choreographed in such a way that what have been learned could only be applied to practice if they are within the boundary(ies) sanctioned by the media organization they work with. The media organizations, in turn, are controlled by the government through ownership and laws governing the media industry. Like the journalism practice in Malaysia that is shaped by the legal constraints and political interference, Malaysian journalists’ learning path is similarly negotiated while being navigated by the power of press ownership. INDEX WORDS: Journalists’ learning on the job, Continuing journalism education, Workplace learning, Community of practice, Reflective practice, Learning and power, Political-economy of learning, Situated Learning, Mass media in Malaysia, Media ownership. FROM THE FIRST LINE TO THE BYLINE: MALAYSIAN JOURNALISTS’ LEARNING IN PRACTICE UNDER THE POWER OF MEDIA OWNERSHIP by KIT YOONG NG Bachelor of Communication (Honours), Universiti Sains Malaysia, 1990 Master of Education (Adult Education), University of Hiroshima, Japan, 1998 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2004 © 2004 Kit Yoong Ng All Rights Reserved FROM THE FIRST LINE TO THE BYLINE: MALAYSIAN JOURNALISTS’ LEARNING IN PRACTICE UNDER THE POWER OF MEDIA OWNERSHIP by KIT YOONG NG Major Professor: Ronald M. Cervero Committee: Laura L. Bierema Sharan B. Merriam John W. Schell Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2004 DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated in loving memory to my father Ng Eng Kong (1928-1993) for his gentle spirit, patience and belief in education and to my mother Leong Lan Keow for her unfailing support and belief in education and finally, in exaltation and exultation to my very best friend, God and personal Savior, Jesus Christ. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As I was trying to make sure that I do not leave out any individual’s name on this acknowledgment page, I remembered an incident occurred in Japan when I was studying there years ago. A Japanese senior was trying to hurry us to attend our departmental weekly seminar so that we would be there before our Japanese professor arrived – as the custom is. I said, “Why worry? The seminar can’t possibly be started and conducted without we students being there!” The senior was somewhat amused but was perhaps more shocked because no Japanese would dare to make such a joke, particularly about any Japanese much-feared and revered professors who are regarded almost as “gods” too. Looking back now, I do not think my joke was rude in any way because I found it to be very true in my own research now. My research could not have possibly be carried out without my respondents! For that, to all my respondents (you know who you are) my BIG TERIMA KASIH (thank you in Malay language). No words could possibly express my appreciation to your willingness to participate in my research and to enrich the fields of journalism and adult education studies in Malaysia. The first person on my official list of acknowledgement is my mother, Leong Lan Keow. Thank you for your moral support and your belief that education is not for sons only and that education is for women of all ages too! I also want to thank my major professor, Ron, for his professionalism, understanding and speed in guiding me throughout my doctoral program. In fact, I should say even before I started my program. I would not have achieved my targeted date of v graduation if not because of Ron’s speed and urgency, and yet without sacrificing quality, in giving me his comments for all my drafts. He handled in stride the barriers of some 13,000 miles between us when I collected my data and wrote my entire dissertation in Malaysia. You are the greatest major professor, Ron! The second person I want to acknowledge is Sharan, not just because she is my methodologist. I will never forget the “coincidence” of our first meeting with her husband, Bob, in Malaysia many years back. It was this meeting and her subsequent encouragements via email that prompted me to decide to pursue a doctoral program at this Department of Adult Education. I also want to thank my other committee members, Laura and John, for their constructive comments. Laura, you went through with me my dissertation process as you went through, I believe, one of the most challenging moments in your life when you lost your son. John, I enjoyed the many moments of our independent studies and discussions on community of practice theory. I also want to express my thanks and gratitude to Jackie B. Thomas who has walked the extra miles to care and help me when she did not have to. You have been sensitive to my needs when I needed it the most both while I was in the U.S. and in Malaysia. My dissertation would not have reached my committee in time if not because of your help in getting them printed and personally delivered to each of their doorsteps. You are a friend in need and indeed! To my friend, Sook Wah, thank you for your tireless efforts and for sacrificing your time to proof read my drafts. Thanks for your sharp eyes and mind, and your constructive suggestions! vi I also want to thank my real friends, Pik Har and Loo Gee, for their prayers and the countless international phone calls that both of you made to help me keep my sanity! Both of you have truly demonstrated the meaning of sisterly and brotherly love-in-Christ. Thank you, Dr. Herbert L. Brussow, for taking a keen interest in encouraging me to transfer my doctoral program when I was thinking of giving up. Thanks for being part of my doctoral journey. To Didi, thank you for being my “research assistant” in collecting reading materials and have them sent to me from Malaysia. I also want to acknowledge both the professional and friendly advice of my former lecturers, Associate Professor Zaharom Nain, and Dr. Mustafa K. Anuar of Universiti Sains Malaysia, in helping me to familiarize myself again with research on journalism. Thank you for helping me to collect the countless of reading materials too. Finally, but not the least, I want to acknowledge and proclaim God’s faithfulness in seeing me through. Jesus Christ, my personal Savior, has been my pillar of strength and wisdom throughout this enduring process of research. You have shown me the meaning of humbleness and knowledge-seeking as Your word says in Ecclesiastes 1: 18 – “For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.” I have learned that the obtaining of a Ph.D. degree is the beginning of a long journey in seeking Your wisdom and knowledge in humbleness. Kit Yoong Ng March 22, 2004 Athens, Georgia vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................ xii CHAPTER Prologue ...............................................................................................................................1 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................6 Problem and Purpose of