This paper investigates whether online news that are shared onFacebook set the agenda for its readers. In response to the importance ofsocial networking sites as sources of information, news media organizationshave set up Facebook channels in which they publish news stories or links toarticles. This allows for a wider news reach as well as audience participation.When audience members read and subsequently comment on news articles onFacebook, it becomes possible to identify public opinions and sentiments on theissues being covered. To investigate (...) whether user comments mirror the issuesand sentiments presented in the news articles, the agenda-setting approachwas applied. Content analysis was used to analyse audience comments onover 450 news articles from 4 major newspapers written during the Rantauby-election in Malaysia. The findings showed that while thenewspapers and the readers do share some issue salience, the relationshipdoes not typify a traditional agenda-setting dynamic. The news readers are notjust the ones receiving the news and issues. Rather, they are also commenterswho are influencing how others receive news and issues hence disrupting theconventional public opinion model. (shrink)

This paper discusses the contents and roles of the bulletin Giat, a community-based periodical published in Jakarta by a Koto Gadang foundation to support development in Koto Gadang, West Sumatra. Giat played a role as a communication medium linking people from Koto Gadang who lived outside their home area to their original villages. In describing and analysing the bulletin, I explore its content and focus on its collecting of funds for the clean water pipeline project in Koto Gadang and on (...) its distribution of information, especially information about Minangkabau customary law, culture, literature, and the women’s movement. The bulletin also facilitated the sharing of family news among people from Koto Gadang in the village and the rantau. Giat became a medium for maintaining interpersonal connections and accommodated initiatives to develop the village. It is shown that, as a community-based publication, Giat played a role in developing village infrastructure as well as its social and cultural fields. (shrink)