ABSTRACT
The basic premise of this book is that the media of all ranges and provenances – “big/small” and “old/new” – in Malaysia matter. As elsewhere in the academic world, the media in polyglot, multi-ethnic and multi-religious Malaysia can be profitably viewed as a convenient analytical site for making more visible contemporary configurations of cultural production and of contestations of meanings. Some of the key questions that frame the book include: What kinds of imaginaries do the media (mainstream and alternative) project and promote? How do they converge/diverge from one another? How are the range of media (and communicational) technologies appropriated by different social actors for their respective agendas and projects? What do they index about the contours of cultural economy and social power in Malaysian society?
