A Study on the Decision Making Process in Public and Private Broadcast Newsrooms in Malaysia

The decision making process in the newsrooms based on interpretation, influence and pervasiveness of the news from different media organizations is unarguable. This study examines the decision making process in the public and private newsrooms of three major broadcasting houses namely TV1 and TV3 to determine the process of how this happens. The objectives of this study is to identify the changes that have taken place in the editing policies, to explore the internal and external factors that have influenced the decision making process and to study if news programming patterns have changed since Najib’s reign as Prime Minister and which government policies have influenced the network’s programming. This study engages in several qualitative methodologies specifically in-depth interviews and document analysis. Notable editors, chief editors and group editors gave in-depth interviews on their decision making process and issues that ‘dampen’ the process of nation building in shaping the trajectory of the news. The findings showed that the decision making process in these three newsrooms are made through consensus by a specific group of people. Two daily meetings are conducted on a daily basis to determine news coverage and headlines. Although it sounds simple but there are internal and external factors that influence the decision making process. While government broadcast newsrooms predominantly runs on the government model, the private broadcast newsrooms follow the professional model but with different approaches. Media organizations give coverage to all government policies as and when it happens and not as a daily routine. The study implies that decision-making made under policy considerations are more stringent in terms of control, procedures and protocol in Malaysia.