LAST Friday, a feature article on yours truly came out in a major local newspaper. As per tradition, I would go out early to find copies for me to keep press clippings and also to show to the family that all those years in the subterranean music wilderness were not in vain.

However, to my dismay, I searched high and low and not a copy could be found. I don’t think it sold out, merely that it probably reduced its prints.

I even asked the writer if I could get a copy. He replied that they don’t keep physical copies anymore except the e-paper. To quote the band Weezer, the world has changed and left me here.

The role of the press and the arts is utterly underrated. It doesn’t help that in Malaysia, arts and culture sections in the newspapers never had a large presence and depended a lot on the will of not just the writers but also the proactive measures of the editors.

Reviews, news bites and feature articles occupy what theorist John Hartley calls “popular reality” in this book, Popular reality: Journalism, modernity, popular culture (1996).

Journalism is in fact a gigantic archive of textuality, a huge store of human sense-making, unselfconsciously generated by and documenting the social, personal, cultural and political interactions of contemporary life, while at the same time displaying its own particular properties and characteristics, its own patterns, histories, quirks and accidents.

In performing arts, film and music higher education programmes, there is almost a complete oversight of how to engage and leverage the mass media in promoting their works and maintaining a healthy and realistic relationship with the press.

The basic skill of writing a press release should be a skill all future practitioners should be taught about since what is a film, song or even theatre performance about if no one knows about it?

Many would argue that social media has replaced the traditional role of the press, but as someone who reluctantly partakes in social media activity to maintain my visibility and relevance in the circuit, I can attest that nothing beats the acknowledgment of being validated by the press in print.

Plus, nothing beats an aged and browning newspaper article hung in a frame on a wall compared to a dead hyperlink to an article that was published 10 years ago. Add to the fact that Malaysia has a poor track record and institutional support when it comes to archiving media artifacts.

Yes, you can share or spam (depending whose perspective you’re taking) a weblink to your article, but to what degree of assurance do you have that whoever “liked” your post actually took the time to read the article save for the headline?

Social media is a noisy place – a common characteristic of an environment that depends on the attention economy. It’s alarming to know that a lot of pitching for stories and funding in the media field has now gravitated towards the quantitative qualifier of numbers of “likes” or “followers” – something that can be manipulated by “like farms”.

Nevertheless, a large part of the media industry is dictated by quantitative data, such as readership, distribution etc. But as usual all industries need to keep one small corner available for our souls – the arts section.

The ritual of reading something in print differs greatly, in my opinion, compared to reading a digital article on a smartphone or any other fancy portable device.

The first is the limited content – there’s only so many pages you can flip before you find yourself starting over from the first page. With a digital article online, you may choose to just ignore it and get on with whatever your whim or fancy is the moment you find yourself in the world wide web.

Print forces us to focus on what is physically in front of us while the digital is alluring in its promise of possible endless options at your disposal, although in reality your options is limited to the duration of time you have to browse or whatever (even recommended less so if your daily reading habit involves a private secluded moment on the porcelain altar – a favourite, apparently, of many).

In the context of my world, music journalism has never truly flourished in this country in spite of the number of music writers who have tried.

Music journalism isn’t writing that is dictated by marketing – the kind of writing that only emerges to promote an artiste’s new release or fancy superficial style/fashion/gossip/sex appeal that surrounds a popular figure. Music journalism also encompasses the broader cultural and societal impact a musical work or artist has beyond the “entertainment” sphere.

It involves independent, critical assessment and commentary of the work not influenced by commercial or publicity intents. In other words, much of music writing in Malaysia is shallow and superficial, pandering to the lowest common denominator.

The media is polite and conscious of its own reaches, which is detrimental in developing critical readers who are given the opportunity to think for themselves. It’s symptomatic of the broader political malaise that permeates the broader Malaysian attitude.

Maybe this Covid-19 world will be a reset and a game-changer, who knows? But whatever it is, we need to grow up and respect constructive opinions given by those who are willing to give them (not necessarily because they are paid to – legally or illicitly). 

Haters are gonna hate – maturity of mind is to not hate back. – November 13, 2020.

* Azmyl Yunor is a touring underground recording artiste, and an academic in media and cultural studies. He has published articles on pop culture, subcultures and Malaysian cultural politics. He adheres to the three-chords-and-the-truth school of songwriting, and Woody Guthrie’s maxim “All you can write is what you see”. He is @azmyl on Twitter.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.