Book Published =)

So here's the book that was based on my thesis =D

Title: Blogging and Democratization in Malaysia - A New Civil Society in the Making
Authors: Jun-E Tan and Zawawi Ibrahim
Publisher: SIRD, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia


Back cover commentaries:

Before the 12th Malaysian General Election, bloggers were called numerous, often unflattering, names by Malaysian government officials and other unsavoury charaters. Virtually immediately after the election results, they were hailed by many, including the same unsavoury characters, as "key players" and "prime movers". Some have even gone so far as to blame the dismal election performance of the Barisan Nasional on bloggers and blogging.

Amidst all this, and the post-March 8 hype, this original, well-researched and very readable volume by upcoming Malaysian scholar, Jun-E Tan and renowned and committed social anthropologist, Zawawi Ibrahim, provides a necessary resource for those who wish to understand Malaysian blogging more comprehensively within a wider socio-political context. This volume is certainly necessary reading for Malaysians who wish to understand how the new media may or may not be able to contribute to the expansion of democratic space. And it really ought to be compulsory reading for the unsavoury characters who still refuse to understand where Malaysia is heading.

Zaharom Nain, Centre for Policy Research and International Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Jun-E Tan and Zawawi Ibrahim have written a most timely (and readable) book. The blogging phenomenon has been credited with playing an important part in the historic results of the 2008 General Election. It has also been lauded with the democratization of Malaysian public life in general. Here the authors have put together hard data coupled with interesting interviews with the main players to bring the discussion of blogs out of the realm of punditry and the anecdotal into a more studied empirical sociological sphere. For that, it is a significant work which hopefully would pave the way for similar efforts at studying the impact of new technologies on democracy in Malaysia.

Azmi Sharom, Faculty of Law, University of Malaya.

The book is priced at RM25. If you're interested to buy it, you can email me at june.tan@gmail.com and we'll work out something ;)