Foul!

What is more interesting - the fact that Malaysia held Pakistan to a 3-3 draw in the Asian Champions Trophy or that the national news agency Bernama had to rely on a blog - Malaysian Hockey - for the results. Shouldn't the national body - the Malaysian Hockey Confederation - provide latest results of the national team? Shouldn't a media officer accompany the team for every tournament in order to quickly provide official results and quotes so that journalists will not constantly 'disturb' the coach or the players? Shouldn't such be practiced across the board - hockey, football, badminton and all the other sports? If the blogs instead do a better job, shouldn't they then be appointed to provide results or acknowledged by the NSAs as a source of information? Mere basics. So all I want for Christmas - is professionalism within national sports associations. Can't be that difficult, no? HD says: Will be listening to Christmas songs in office. Merry...

The National Sports Council's (NSC) ' Pelapis ' Department may be seen as a just a molding ground for the future stars of the nation. However, their initiative and impact within the social media should not be overlooked. While most sports organisations have yet to fully embrace the power of the internet, the team at Pelapis has found itself in four important mediums within the World Wide Web. They have been on Facebook , Twitter and maintain a blog for quite sometime and do enjoy a steady following. There are videos of our young athletes on YouTube too. If one is keen to learn how to maximise publicity on the internet or would simply like to monitor the progress of our future champions, visit those sites. HD says: Credit ought to be given when due.

UPDATE: An influential weapon - From the Sidelines. ------- I was at a function over the weekend when a government official admitted he was surprised to see the huge turnout for the Bersih 3.0 rally in KL. "There was no publicity in the newspapers and yet the organisers managed to gather so many people." I smiled and said; "They don't need the newspapers anymore. Twitter, blog and Facebook is good enough to create such an impact." It's sad that as a true blue newspaper man, who still enjoy getting my fingers dirty with ink flipping through the pages of a newspaper, I have to admit that social media is where the masses especially the youths read up and disseminate information. We knew about it - even before the 2008 elections. Yet, the old-timers- till today - don't take it seriously. Prime Minister Najib Razak even made an announcement recently that candidates on Twitter more likely to be selected for the coming General Election. Ownin...