On 28 April 2012, ‘Bersih 3.0’, a rally calling for freer and fairer elections estimated that 250,
000 people gathered to support its cause. Government controlled newspapers the New
Straits Times and Utusan Malaysia accused this rally attended by 20, 000 demonstrators as a
plot to destabilise and overthrow the ruling coalition through chaos and disorder. Online
news portals Malaysiakini and Malaysian Insider however reported that the rally attended by
150,000 demonstrators began peacefully but ended chaotically as demonstrators, journalists
and police personnel were attacked and manhandled. While the conflicting reports of
Bersih 3.0 and other news reports unpublished by the state controlled media through the
new media suggests political dissent and possible media liberalisation, it does not
necessarily mean that press freedom is well and alive. It however marks the beginning of
a larger movement in cyberspace that threatens the hegemony of the ruling coalition. This
paper examines the proliferation of the new media within the political economic structure
of the Malaysian society and media; selected representations and messages in the old
and new media; and whether the strategies and if representations in the new media are
counter hegemonic tools capable of creating space for diverse voices, dissent and