Analysis of discrimination towards the mental health of women COVID-19 survivors

Infectious disease patients such as those with HIV, AIDS, TB and Leprosy have always been shunned by society. They often face discrimination such as people refusing casual contact and social isolation from the community due to the stigma people hold. These discriminatory actions have a detrimental effect on the patients’ emotional and mental health. The effect is reported to other infectious diseases such as COVID-19. Discrimination toward COVID-19 survivors was high in 2021. Despite the sentiments going down in 2022, no studies have been conducted to explore the phenomenon. Hence, this study attempts to understand the causes and effects on the mental health of women COVID-19 survivors. Therefore, the study employed qualitative research to determine the causes and effects on the mental health of women COVID-19 survivors. To arrive at the result, researchers interviewed six COVID-19 survivors that were infected in 2021 and 2022 purposely from civilian, media, and medical practitioners. The result of the study discovered four themes namely ‘Public Reaction Towards COVID-19 Survivors’, ‘Survivors’ Behaviour During the Mistreatment’, ‘Mental Health of Survivors facing Public Discrimination’, and ‘Causes of the Discrimination according to the Survivors’ - all of which answered the research question developed. By creating an indicator that recognises early warning systems of potential indicators of conflict, the government may be able to address this issue as well as other potential kinds of discrimination. Besides that, media practitioners must adhere to Peace Journalism elements and Society of Professional Journalists to promote social stability

Strategi pemulihan imej kerajaan melalui liputan berita penutupan dan pembukaan sesi persekolahan ketika COVID-19

Koronavirus Sindrom Pernafasan Akut Teruk 2 (SARS-CoV-2) atau lebih dikenali sebagai COVID-19 mula dikesan pada 17 November 2019 di China dan diisytihar sebagai pandemik oleh Pertubuhan Kesihatan Sedunia (WHO) pada 11 Mac 2020. Sehingga 31 Julai 2022, pandemik COVID-19 telah merebak ke 215 buah negara di seluruh dunia mana jumlah kes yang direkodkan adalah 577 juta kes dan 6.4 juta kematian. Di Malaysia, sebanyak 4,677,270 jumlah kes dicatatkan sehingga 30 Julai 2022 dan sebanyak 35,960 kes kematian telah direkodkan. Pandemik COVID-19 telah menyebabkan kelumpuhan ekonomi yang sangat teruk dan menjejaskan kehidupan masyarakat di seluruh dunia termasuklah penutupan sektor pendidikan untuk mengelakkan penularan wabak COVID-19. Tahun 2020 sehingga 2022 adalah tahun yang agak mencabar untuk lanskap politik negara. Pertukaran kerajaan dan Perdana Menteri Malaysia sebanyak tiga kali menjadikan rakyat Malaysia kurang yakin dengan kredibiliti kerajaan dalam menguruskan krisis COVID-19 ini. Kajian ini dibuat untuk mencapai dua objektif iaitu mengenalpasti jenis mesej yang digunakan oleh kerajaan untuk berkomunikasi tentang isu penutupan dan pembukaan semula sesi persekolahan ketika COVID-19 dan menganalisis strategi pemulihan imej kerajaan melalui liputan berita tentang penutupan dan pembukaan sekolah ketika COVID-19. Kajian ini menggunakan 12 sampel berita dari akhbar digital dan portal berita dalam talian. kaedah analisis kandungan kualitatif yang dianalisis berpandukan Teori Pemulihan Imej. Hasil analisis mendapati struktur mesej adalah bahagian berita yang paling penting dan paling banyak mengandungi maklumat serta strategi pemulihan imej. Melalui pemerhatian pengkaji, hal ini disebabkan oleh penerangan yang lebih terperinci tentang maklumat penting isu persekolahan ketika COVID-19 diletakkan di bahagian struktur mesej. mendapati bahawa strategi pemulihan imej yang paling banyak digunakan adalah strategi tindakan pembetulan, di bawah ciri utama ‘mencegah dan menyelesaikan masalah’ dengan 11 petikan ayat dari sampel liputan berita

A content analysis of propaganda in Harakah newspaper / Shamsiah Abd Kadir and Ahmad Sauffiyan Abu Hasan

This study aims to analyse propaganda technique used in alternative Malaysian print media, by using the ‘Harakah’ as a case study. The two objectives of this study are to identify a) the types of propaganda that are in use by Harakah to influence its readers and b) the techniques of propaganda employed by Harakah to influence its readers. Qualitative media content analysis is conducted in this study; a specialised sub-set of content analysis as well as being a wellestablished research methodology. Data collected is analysed to determine the frequent types and techniques of propaganda used in Harakah. Data collected are derived from the National Section of Harakah within the limits of a threemonth period from February 2013 until April 2013

Strategi mesej dalam Berita Harian terhadap kempen diabetes di Malaysia

Masalah diabetes semakin membimbangkan semua pihak terutama kerajaan dalam membendung masalah penyakit diabetes supaya tidak terus meningkat. Peranan media amat penting bagi memastikan semua maklumat dan mesej kesihatan yang berkaitan dengan diabetes dapat disebarkan dengan lebih meluas. Kajian ini mendapati bahawa strategi mesej yang digunakan dalam akhbar kurang berkesan untuk mengubah tingkah laku pembaca khususnya penghidap diabetes. Sehubungan dengan itu, kajian ini dijalankan bertujuan untuk mengetahui pemaparan arah berita dalam Berita Harian yang berkaitan dengan kempen diabetes di Malaysia. Selain itu, kajian ini dijalankan untuk mengetahui dan menganalisis strategi mesej kesihatan yang digunakan dalam akhbar tersebut untuk menyampaikan berita yang berkaitan dengan diabetes. Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) telah digunakan sebagai landasan kajian dan analisis kandungan kuantitatif telah dijalankan ke atas 25 berita berkaitan diabetes bermula pada tahun 2022 sehingga 2015. Hasil kajian mendapati bahawa strategi mesej yang digunakan oleh Berita Harian cenderung memaparkan strategi mesej ‘mengajar tentang risiko’. Kajian ini memberi implikasi kepada akhbar di mana strategi mesej berbentuk ‘seruan untuk bertindak’ perlu digunakan bagi memperkukuhkan mesej kesihatan untuk memberi galakan kepada pembaca mengambil tindakan perubahan tingkah laku. Hasil kajian ini dapat dijadikan rujukan kepada penyelidik akan datang dalam mengkaji strategi mesej kesihatan dalam skop yang lebih luas seperti rencana dan komentar

Social media visual framing towards political participation : an analysis on BERSIH 2.0

The political atmosphere in Malaysia had witnessed a growing trend of social movement organisations and protests. The recent attention is on the phenomenal record usage of social media platforms as tools to spread political ideology. The multimodal nature of social media has made it an efficient tool where users can post textual information as well as visual materials to reach out to its audience. This article sets out to examine the visual strategy of one of the largest political social movements in Malaysia, the BERSIH movement, within a social media setting. Building on the existing work on visual framing, it asks: How were issues visually portrayed on the BERSIH social media account during the peak of the movement in Malaysia? In this context, Facebook was chosen as the social media platform analysed as it is the main social media used by the movement. Adapting on the level of visual framing, a content analysis was done to a sample of 59 (N=59) top liked photos posted on the Bersih 2.0 Official Facebook account which received more than 0.5% engagement rate (ER= >0.5%). The findings showed that at the denotative level, the main forms of visuals used were photos of protesters, followed by posters and photos of important individuals. The findings also showed that at the connotative level, the main frame highlighted was ‘solidarity’ followed by ‘call for action’ in the form of direct and symbolic visuals

LEIQ™ as an emotion and importance model for QoL: fundamentals and case studies

Past literature has increasingly highlighted the importance of understanding people’s emotional responses towards the characteristics of everything that has points of interactions with the people. Ever since it was introduced, research relating the emotional responses to the economic power of industrial products, hospitality services, as well as employees’ or peoples’ productivity has been expanding. This paper presents a model called Lokman’s Emotion and Importance Quadrant (LEIQ)™, which was built based on axes of emotion vs. importance, to investigate emotion and the importance of the influential factors of the emotion. The paper presents two case studies; i) Employee’s Happiness, ii) Student’s Well-being, with the implementation of LEIQ™ to showcase the process to discover the indicators that affect people’s emotion, and its importance to the people in the effort to provide information to the leaders or management advocates for their strategic decision-making in ensuring well-being and Quality of Life (QoL). Both case studies have enabled the research to understand factors that affect Employee’s Happiness and Student’s Well-being, and how it is important to them. The effective use of this model could facilitate decision makers in an organisation, community, society, and even a nation at large to gain knowledge and devise correct strategies to boost people’s well-being, promoting more positive emotion, and ultimately upsurge productivity and QoL of the people

Strategi mesej dalam poster kempen diabetes Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia

Kajian tentang aplikasi media dan komunikasi sebagai intervensi pencegahan dalam kempen kesedaran kesihatan menjadi punca kurangnya tahap kesedaran dalam diri masyarakat berkaitan dengan masalah diabetes. Salah satu faktor yang menyebabkan perkara ini berlaku adalah kerana kurangnya hebahan berkaitan bahaya diabetes kepada masyarakat umum. Sebagai contoh, poster yang dipaparkan oleh Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia (KKM) juga mempunyai gaya penyampaian mesej yang kurang strategik untuk menarik minat orang ramai dalam melakukan perubahan tingkah laku kesihatan. Oleh itu, kajian ini telah mengenal pasti tahap keterlibatan khalayak dan strategi mesej kesihatan dalam kempen poster diabetes oleh KKM, serta menganalisis bentuk penggunaan imej dan strategi mesej kesihatan dalam kempen poster tersebut. Kajian ini bersandarkan kepada teori Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) yang mempunyai empat elemen strategi mesej, iaitu “seruan untuk bertindak”, “mengajar tentang solusi”, “mengajar tentang risiko” dan “mengajar tentang solusi dan risiko”. Kaedah analisis kandungan kuantitatif dilakukan ke atas 83 poster kempen diabetes, dari tahun 2014 hingga 2022. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa tahap keterlibatan khalayak menunjukkan respon positif iaitu sebanyak 45,316 respons. Seterusnya, strategi mesej “mengajar tentang solusi” dan “mengajar tentang risiko” paling banyak digunakan dalam poster kempen diabetes, iaitu sebanyak 45.8% dan 38.6%. Strategi imej “mengajar tentang risiko” dan “mengajar tentang solusi” pula merupakan strategi imej yang mempunyai kekerapan tertinggi iaitu sebanyak 36.1% dan 28.9%. Hasil kajian ini boleh digunakan sebagai rujukan kepada penyelidik akan datang dan pihak kerajaan dalam mengubah tingkah laku masyarakat terhadap bahaya diabetes

Social media usage and interactions: an in-depth interview on BERSIH 2.0 social media visual framing

The BERSIH movement in Malaysia is a coalition of civil society organizations advocating for clean and fair elections. This research examines how visual communication shapes political participation by focusing on the visual framing of the BERSIH movement. The study interviewed ten visual communication experts to uncover the meanings and ideological representations behind the visual frames used in the movement. The investigation identified three main themes: portrayal of the crowd, significant individuals, and injustice. The portrayal of the crowd theme highlighted the use of visuals to create a sense of unity and solidarity among participants, while the significant individuals theme emphasized the importance of visual representations of influential figures in shaping people's perceptions. The injustice theme highlighted the use of visuals to expose the injustices and inequality within the electoral system. The study found that visual framing plays a significant role in shaping people's attitudes towards political participation. Neutral or cool visual elements can evoke strong feelings and attract people to the cause, demonstrating that visual elements play a vital role in political mobilization. The findings suggest that carefully crafting visual frames can evoke strong emotional responses and encourage participation in political action. This research sheds light on the power of visual communication in shaping political participation in Malaysia's social movements and highlights the need for a strategic approach in creating visuals that appeal to people's emotions and encourage political engagement

Exploring indicators for happiness and its effect to people's emotion using LEIQ(TM)

Many assumptions were made about people's dissatisfaction with their daily lives, such as debt burden, social problems, unstable economic conditions, health problems, cost of living, lack of job opportunities, lack of educational support, and so on. The positive or negative emotional experience is distinctive between individuals or groups of people who share similar life experiences. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the emotional responses of a specific population to daily obstacles that may be related to the mentioned scenarios. The Lokman's Emotion and Importance Quadrant (LEIQ)TM, which was built on axes of emotion vs. importance, was used in this study to discover the importance of the identified indicators to the people’s happiness. The model is based on the idea that accurate strategies to improve people's quality of life can be devised by classifying indicators that contribute to people's emotions and understanding their importance to the people who interact with the stimuli. The findings of this study will eventually enable the identification of indicators that significantly influence people's positive or negative emotional states, which can then be used by stakeholders to devise effective strategies for future improvements