Why Najib is the most interesting politician on Instagram

LETTER | Hate him or love him, Najib Abdul Razak is the most interesting Malaysian politician to follow on Instagram. With over half a million followers, he may not be the most popular, (that title goes to Dr Mahathir Mahomad who currently has over three million) but he is amongst the most active and most personal. It is in his sharing of the personal that makes Najib’s Instagram appealing. He invites people to look at the different and many sides of Najib, the sides of him that are no longer covered in the news. Sharing of the personal among Malaysian politicians is now becoming more common especially among the younger ones. Syed Saddique, Nurul Izzah, Hannah Yeoh and Khairy Jamaluddin are among those who are very popular and have been inviting their followers into their everyday lives. Who can forget that photo of Syed Saddique in that bathtub full of ice

Instagram and political storytelling among Malaysian politicians during the 14th General Election

The popularity of Instagram as a political tool has world leaders adopting it as an integral part of their communications. Over the recent years, governments and world leaders have flocked to the mobile photo and video sharing social network to share their official as well as personal pictures with a worldwide audience. Malaysian politicians are jumping on the Instagram bandwagon as well. Almost all the prominent politicians have an Instagram account and a significant number of followers. As such, this study explores Instagram’s affordance for visual imageries and political storytelling and its subsequent impact on political communication during election campaign. Methodologically, image analysis was conducted for two months on three Prime Ministerial candidates’ Instagram accounts running up to the historic Malaysian 14th General Election that happened on May 9th, 2018. The result showed that the candidates were actively using Instagram and were uniquely authoring their own stories by switching between narratives that were personal and political. These narratives were presented through six image types that included 1) fieldwork, 2) professionally-produced campaign materials, 3) politician-at-work, 4) family, 5) personal activities and 6) throwbacks. In addition, this analysis offers a crucial look into the mediatization and personalization of politics and contributes to the academic literature on social media, election campaign, as well as political communication in Malaysia

Netflix, Muslims and cultural imperialism

What do most people do when in quarantine? They watch Netflix. While most businesses are at their wits end trying to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 health crisis, Netflix is capitalising on people under lockdown. The streaming service has more than doubled its subscription since the world started to stay home in early 2020. (https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2020/04/22/netflix-doubles-expected-signups-but-warns-coronavirus-boost-may-fade). So what is Netflix really? It is a streaming service that provides on-demand online entertainment source for TV shows, movies and other streaming content. It provides an alternative to cable and satellite on demand service, often at a lower cost. Some other popular streaming services include Youtube and Hulu which stream films and television shows; Spotify and Apple Music, which stream music; and the video game streaming sites Twitch, and Mixer. These new streaming media have rapidly changed the media landscape by providing content that are hyper individualised. In contrast to traditional mass media where the same content is indiscriminately broadcast to the audience, streaming media allows the audiences to choose, design and control their content and viewership

Political bloggers and the personalisation of political participation

his study argues that political blogging challenges traditional understanding of political participation that defines politics as ultimately institutional and electoral. By focusing specifically on the experiences of the Malaysian political bloggers who are generally confined within a very closed and elitist political culture, this study captures how blogging empowers everyday citizens to be involved in politics. These bloggers are able to become political by personalising issues and politics according to their own interpretations. Through intensive interviews that focused on the bloggers own understanding of their blogging experiences, the study found that these bloggers were able to see themselves as important political players by positioning themselves as the authority, the political centre and the public figure

Factors influencing the behavioral intention to listen to IIUM.FM among non-listeners

This study is part of a longitudinal study done on the audience reception of IIUM.FM, a campus radio the first study or phase 1 was done in 2011 and the second phase was done in 2016. This study specifically compares the non-listeners in Phase 1 (2011) and Phase 2 (2016) in terms of demographic characteristics, academic-related information and computer-related information. In addition, both internal and external factors that may intensify the listening to IIUM.FM are explored and so that the barriers and challenges facing the listeners are eliminated in the near future as IIUM.FM will remain as the only campus radio in IIUM. The same survey questionnaire is used in the data collection at both phases of the study. In addition to the comparison between both phases using t-test and ONEWAY ANOVA, a simple-multiple regression is conducted to determine the predictors of behavioral intention to listen to IIUM.FM. If the predictor is considered a barrier then it should be eliminated so that the listening habit of the students can be improved especially now that the radio can be listened to via multiple sources such as the app, webstream and social media. If the barriers are the reasons that prevent listening to IIUM.FM are removed, then there is a possibility that IIUM.FM are listened by many more students not only among IIUM students but also others worldwide

Internet and social media in Malaysia: Development, challenges and potentials

The penetration of the Internet and social media has helped Malaysia abreast with the other developed countries. Nonetheless, being a multicultural country, Malaysia has to ensure her multiracial population lives in harmony and peace. This happens with the help integrated the media control and regulations exercise in Malaysia: the Printing Presses and Publications Act, Film Censorship Act, Broadcasting Act, Communication and Multimedia Act, and media ownership control. Many researches have been conducted pertaining to the Internet and social media that have been published locally in line with the development of the Internet and the social media in Malaysia. Similarly, the new media is also subjected to its being controlled through methods such as controlling the Internet, blocking and filtering, and content removal. The paper also looks into the impact of the Internet and social media on its civil society, thus creating a momentum to promote toward giving suggestions for future research involving not only theories but also models using more sophisticated analyses. More research can be done and the future of research is bright. Other areas that can be looked at are the impacts of the Internet and social media on the young populace of the nation

A letter to my students… Let’s do this together!

Assalamaualaikum warahmatullah iwabarakatuh, To My Dearest Students, We were supposed to meet tomorrow (12 October 2020). Despite some minor changes, everything was supposed to be like it was before. The registration would be a nightmare. You will be complaining about the whole process and the lecturers would be complaining about you. It was supposed to bring us back the campus life that we dread yet love with all our hearts. But Allah SWT has better plans, as promised. So it turns out we will not be meeting each other face-to-face. There will be no crowding the department for registration, no salams, no annoying jokes, no smiling faces that would often brighten my morning every time I come to class. Online classes are the real challenge for me. I am not sure if I have given enough. How can I convince you when I cannot make eye contact? How can I make the class lively when I can’t even make jokes about you sleeping in class? Most of the time, I cannot even see your faces. It is not easy, but I know things could be much worse. So I am learning, as we all are; to be more technically-savvy so that I can give you as much knowledge, if not more

Media and Muslim societies during the time of Islamic revivalism (1800s-1950s)

The decline of Islamic empires, most notably the Ottoman Empire, in the late 1800s and early 1900s proved to be a watershed moment in the development of modern Muslim societies. Western civilizations with their secular, modern, and exploitative ideas encroached on Muslim lands, beliefs, and way of life. Muslims who found themselves at a crossroads between the eventual collapse of their own political structure and the disputable, yet attractive prospects of Western modernism faced a revivalism that drove them to re-examine their place in a Westernizing and modernising world. The availability of publishing technology, as well as exposure to new ideas, aided in the dynamic changes occurring in Muslim societies during this time period. This article examines how Muslim societies responded to these developments in the past, and how the media played a critical role in their attempt to endure Western colonial threats while maintaining their Islamic beliefs