Critique on The Star Online by Iqbal Shamsul

The Star Online has the unique distinction of being the first Malaysian newspaper to have a parallel web site on the Internet. The site was launched sometime in 1993, two years before the World Wide Web explosion took place. At the time it was the only source of Malaysian news on the Internet. Today its position as the premier provider of Malaysian news on the Internet is quite unchallenged, since other Malaysian news web sites are in the Malay language and thus unreachable to the majority of web-surfers.

The Star Online web site is composed of several major sections which resemble strongly the arrangement of its paper counterpart. These sections are namely news, business, sports, features,archives, weather, commerce, education, technology, and leisure. Additionally, it has two sections unique to the web version of the paper: the Site Map, and the Write2Us section.

The bulk of this critique will be on the news section, since it represents the most significant part of the paper, both in terms of bulk of data devoted to it and in terms of the web hits this part receives. The news section is arranged quite simply, most of the news items are placed in the order they appear on the "hard" version of The Star. So, at the top of the news section is the front page item and below it are the pieces placed on the subsequent pages of the newspaper. The presentation of news on this web site is quite orderly if simple.

Surfers will notice that the site doesn't fully take advantage of the Web media. In essence, what we find on the site is basically a digitized version of the things that are in the newspaper itself. No web links to sites related to the story is given, for example. This is quite a major drawback since the major advantage of news presentation on the Web lies in the fact that the readers themselves are able to research the topic at hand if s/he so desires and then form a fuller, and more in-depth mental picture of the subject. Even such sites as CNN.com and Slate.com provide related web links. As such, it is surprising to see that a newspaper that considers itself a serious information provider fails to give its readers option to explore news stories further than its own coverage of it.

That aside, the site is one of the more visually clean and pleasant ones I've encountered on the Internet. All to often on-line news sources resort to garish graphics, wild animation and other attention-grabbers to their web site in vain efforts to portray itself as hip and cool to the web-surfer set. Not only do most web-surfers usually see through such transparent devices, many are repelled by them and a site which employs such banal techniques are usually shunned upon. That is one failing The Star Online doesn't have. Throughout the site readers are given navigation tool bars at the top and bottom of each page, making for simple and efficient browsing of the web site. Also, the site uses eye-pleasing colors which on one hand is not too dull, but on the other, does not distract the reader from the meat of the web site: news. The use of Java is also minimal, which is a boon for me at least. Ever so often my fourth-generation browser decides to crash at a Java-"enhanced" web site i.e. CNN.com. While the use of Java is can be advantageous, more often than not it adds little to the quality of news content at a web site.

In conclusion, The Star Online is in general an excellent source of Malaysian news on the Internet. Though it may have some minuses to it, the site's many positive features more than outweigh its drawbacks. While this site is an excellent stand-alone site it does little to enrich a reader of the "hard" version of the paper. Overall, it is an excellent web site for Malaysians abroad and interested foreigners to obtain daily news from the South-East Asian nation.

IQBAL SHAMSUL