www.citizenbyte.
com
New Media & The Informed Citizen.
Find Out from the Industry Experts how New Media is affecting the
Democratic process in Malaysia and Australia
Citizen Byte is a Paradigm Infinitum
community research project – “New Media
and the Informed Citizen.” The project is a
comparative study of the use of new media
and its impact on the political system in
Malaysia and Australia and is threefold –
involving a research paper, a website
(citizenbyte.com), and an international
symposium to be held in Brisbane on the
24th July 2009. This project is funded by
the Australia Malaysia Institute, a unit of
the Department of Foreign Affairs and
Trade, Australia.
Inspired by the unprecedented involvement
and influence of bloggers, citizen
journalism, online reporting, and social
networking sites during the Malaysian
General Elections of 2008, Citizen Byte
seeks to examine what the implications of
the new media environment is on politics
and the political sphere both in Australia
and in Malaysia.
Steven Gan – Editor in Chief &
Co-owner MalaysiaKini,
Malaysia’s Online Newspaper
Tian Chua - Malaysian
Member of Parliament,
information chief of PKR, the
largest opposition party in the
Parliament of Malaysia.
Datuk Azman Ujang, Director
Berjaya Media, Prominent
Media figure and Chairman of
Malaysia Press Institute,
Mohd Zulkifli Abd Jalil,General
Manager (Content, Brand &
Marketing), Media Prima, which
controls several television
networks, newspapers, radio
station in Malaysia
THIS INITIATIVE IS SPONSORED BY
“New Media and the Informed Citizen”
Symposium
takes as its subject new media and
internet technologies and the impact New Media & The informed Citizen
and interaction of these technologies A Comparative Study of Australia and Malaysia
on political empowerment, democracy,
and citizenship. Some of the issues to
be examined include:
Freedom of speech |Governance of
Censorship| Government policy on
new media | The interplay between
politics and new media | Access of
citizens to new media | New media as
an added marketing channel or new
information channel | Relevance of
New Media in Australia and Malaysia |
Entrance is FREE but seats are very LIMITED.
Ed Coper, Campaigns
To avoid disappointment PLEASE register at
Director for GetUp
citizenbyte.com for tickets or email us at
info@paradigminfinitum.com Tickets are available
on a first come first serve basis
Professional Consulting
Graham Young, founder and
contributor to Online Opinion
Attire: Smart Casual
and former President of the
Liberal Party in Queensland
24thJuly 2009
Citizen Nades prominent Wai Kiong – CEO of Paradigm
infinitum, and President of the Ian Hanger Recital Hall,
award winning online and
investigative journalist for The
Australian Malaysia Business
Council (QLD) part of the
Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University
Sun newspaper (Malaysian) Citizenbyte initiative 16 Russell Street, South Bank, Brisbane
24th July 2009, Friday
Raj Thanarajah, Technology
Shona Leppanen-Gibson – General 9.30am till 3.30pm
Manager of Paradigm Infinitum and
and Media Lawyer, who is part part of the Citizenbyte initiative www.citizenbyte.com
of the Citizenbyte initiative
 Professional Consulting

July 2009

“Citizen Byte, the project and the

symposium are not aligned to any
political party or ideology, and will
be carried out in an objective and
strictly non-partisan manner in the
interest of expanding and sharing
knowledge and further developing
mutual understanding between
Australia and Malaysia.”
CONNECTING PEOPLE
“an initiative to promote mutual understanding and inculcate
communication between all stakeholders in the New Media
Industry in Malaysia and Australia .”
The main purpose of the citizen byte initiative is;
• To promote and enhance bilateral Media and Communication links between
Australia and Malaysia;
• To encourage well-informed Malaysian Media interest in Australia and well-
informed Australian Media interest in Malaysia.
• To encourage professional networking and linkages between professional
media bodies in both countries.
• To encourage increased knowledge about Australia among representatives of
the Malaysian media, including the Malay language media.

Citizenbyte: • To increase the numbers of Australian media representatives with knowledge

and appreciation of Malaysian media.

Research Paper • To promote understanding of the general themes of the project to students of
media and journalism in Australian and Malaysian universities.

A Comparative Study of Australia and Engaging With New Media Users

Malaysia
‘New media’ is a term meant to encompass the emergence of digital,
computerised, or networked information and communication
technologies. This includes online news portals (clicks-and-mortar),
online newspapers (digital press), blogs (independent
authors/commentators), and social networking sites which use Web
2.0 applications such as Twitter, Facebook and Myspace. This project
focuses on the use of new media to disseminate news, information,
opinions and general discourse to web-citizens and its implication
from a socio-cultural, political and legal stand. The primary focus
would be on how and to what extent new media has affected the
democratic process in both Australia and Malaysia, and the
interaction with the policy and regulation regime on censorship and
transparency in each country.
Symposium on New Media & The informed
The Australian Federal elections in 2007 and the Malaysian General
elections of 2008 saw an unprecedented use of new media
techniques such as blogs, online news, You-Tube postings, and
social networking sites by politicians, commentators and voters. This
trend was similar to that seen all over the world but there are
distinctive differences between how these techniques were employed
in the Australian context and the Malaysian context and the interplay
of politics and new media in each.
Citizenbyte seeks to explore the above issues in this Initiative.
info@paradigminfinitum.com , Tickets are available
Citizen
Ian Hanger Recital Hall,
Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University
16 Russell Street, South Bank, Brisbane
24th July 2009, Friday
9.30am till 3.30pm
For more information visit www.citizenbyte.com
Entrance is FREE but seats are very LIMITED.
To avoid disappointment PLEASE register at
citizenbyte.com for tickets or email us at
on a first come first serve basis
Attire: Smart Casual
The Citizenbyte team has conducted a series of
interviews with prominent Media and Political figures in
Some of the issues to be
Malaysia; to discuss the impact of New Media on the
examined include:
democratic process in Malaysia. A webcast of the
interviews will be soon hosted on www.citizenbyte.com Freedom of speech
Internet Censorship
Government policy
on new media
Interplay between
politics and new
media
Access of citizens to
new media
Relevance of New
Media in
The above are that of prominent Malaysian political and media figures that were interviewed.
From top Left; Tun Dr Mahathir (Former Prime Minister & Malaysia’s top blogger), Ragunath Australia & Malaysia.
Kesavan (President Malaysian Bar Council, Rocky (Editor of the Malay Mail & President of National
Alliance of Bloogers), Datuk Kadir Jasin (Blogger & Former Editor in Chief for New Strait Times, Din
Merican; (Chief of Communication for Anwar Ibrahim’s office)
Bottom Left, Datuk Ahmad Talib (Director of Media Prima & NSTP), Khairy Jamalludin (Chief of
UMNO Youth and Barisan Nasional Youth, Politician and Blogger) Tian Chua (Member Parliament &
member of Opposition Party, PKR, Activist and blogger), Senator Tunku A Aziz ( Vice President of
Democratic Action Party, Founder of Transparency International Malaysian chapter, columnist and
blogger, Jeff Ooi first Blogger to be elected as a Member of Parliament in Malaysia’s Parliament.