General election and the enigma of free press in Malaysia

Political Transformation Programme (PTP) announced by the Prime Minister of Malaysia in 2012 is forecast to have changed the political and the local media landscape.This is because, traditionally, political news coverage in the Malaysia mainstream media is often seen as unbalanced and too favourable to the ruling party.To what extend this reform has been translated into meaningfn PTP has impact Malaysia newspapers press freedom with reference to Malaysia 2013 General Election (GE13) case.Through content analysis of three highly circulated newspapers, this paper discussed the press freedom scenario in contemporary Malaysia

Confucian value-based leadership communication: a study on Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad

The study on leadership communication is one of the most often researched topics on leadership. However, there have been only a few studies focused on Confucian value-based leadership in a multicultural society. Therefore, this study is designed to develop a leadership communication model that works in an intercultural context. The aim of the study is twofold, first, is to identify the attributes of Dr. Mahathir’s vision formation and vision articulation associated with Confucian values, which focus on leadership communication; and second, is to provide a Confucian model of leadership that can be applied by multi-cultural leaders. This study analysed 37 speeches and interviewed 15 Chinese leaders. Findings reveal that Dr. Mahathir applied numerous attributes in developing his speech content, such as value-based cores, growth and ideological goals to capture his audience’s minds and hearts simultaneously. This study identifies three main attributes of Dr. Mahathir’s vision articulation; they include clarity, inspirational imagery and challenge. Five Confucian values which are relevant to the Chinese community and Dr. Mahathir’s leadership communication are also presented in this study. The Confucian values are Zhi (wisdom), Xin (trust), Xiao (filial piety), Ren (benevolence) and Zhong yong (moderation). This study also contributes to the expansion of the leadership communication research in Malaysia and other Asian countries

News framing and ethnic conflicts vulnerability in multiethnic societies

The springboard of conflicts in most multiethnic African societies have been alluded to the media and ethnic group leaders, however much attention has not been directed at these helixes.More so that there is a new strong concern about the increasing cases of ethnic conflicts being stimulated by dramatic surge in intolerant expressions, the hardening of ethno-political positions and the proliferation of ethnic militias that have unleashed varying degrees of violence and terror on the polity while the government interventions appeared ineffective.This motivates the main objective of this study which goes beyond understanding the immediate motives for ethnic conflicts in Nigeria but to discover the mainsprings of ethnic conflict behaviour in relation to the roles of newspaper framing and ethnic groups’ attitudes alongside a long lasting solutions.Therefore, series of accusations against the Nigeria newspapers by the ethnic group leaders lead us to understand that the media are indeed insensitive on the issues of ethnic conflict. Also, that from bias framing of ethnic issues, newspapers have enormous power in setting ethnic differences which shape conflict behaviour. Another salient but veiled influences emanating from the findings are the ethnic consciousness and intolerance that have continued to impede the relationship among ethnic groups as well as progress of Nigeria. Due to high level intolerance for each other, every action and inaction is given ethnic coloration as a result conflict ensue. Meanwhile, both government and media self-regulation should be strengthened to curb the excesses that stimulate ethnic conflicts.Hence, how the newspaper presents news of ethnic issues should be a direction for future research

Malaysia newspapers portrayal of 13th general election: The case of political transformation plan era

Political Transformation Plan (PTP) is an integrated and visionary plan push by the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak to transform Malaysia into a truly developed nation by 2020.Since then, the biggest transformation and regarded as Najib's boldest step in political reform was the repealing or amended preventive laws long deemed as draconian, such as the Internal Security Act (ISA), the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) and several emergency declarations. Those actions been regarded as supporting healthy freedom of speech and press freedom in Malaysia.However to what extend these reform has been translated into meaningful practices of Malaysia‟s newspaper is an interesting and very significance to understand? Generally this paper aim to assess to what extent the current political transformation has impact political reporting by Malaysia newspapers. For that, Malaysia 2013 General Election (GE13) is choosing as the case study.In particular, this study will identify how the political parties have been portrayed? Have they been fairly covered? Thus the coverage of Malaysia 2013 General Election by two Malaysia main newspapers was analysed.The Star (including Sunday Star) and Harian Metro (including Metro Ahad) were chosen as the study samples based on their circulation volume.The GE13 portrayal of these newspapers of the two weeks campaign period was content and thematic analyse using qualitative data analysis software, NVivo10. The content analysis output of this study provides some indicators on the PTP and the trend on Malaysia's newspaper political reporting in PTP era

The relevance of confucian values to leadership communication

Research on leadership communication is still an active area of inquiry as can be seen from the growing number of studies employing different perspectives to enhance the contributions of the field in its own right.From the intercultural communication perspective, every culture provides a particular view of leadership communication because each culture has tended to look at certain cultural conceptual artifacts differently. For example, in Asia, the studies on leadership communication tended to focus on Japanese and Korean and there are only a few studies which have used other cultural notions like the ones carried out in Malaysia.Among the challenges faced by the leaders in Malaysia are the ways to remain relevant in light of rapid changes in the country. The priority is, therefore, to be able sustain the impressive achievements made thus far in the rather challenging context of a multi-racial and multireligious society, especially the need to understand the cultural thinking of the Chinese community after the recent General Election (GE13).This article discusses the Chinese and Western leadership cultures and the roles of Confucian values in leadership communication in East Asia.On the basis of insights gained, a model has been proposed to guide the development of subsequent leadership communication studies, particularly that which involves the Chinese community in Malaysia

Culturally competent communication in Malaysia medical tourism

Culturally competent communication has become increasingly important due to the growing demand for the health services in medical tourism. In Asia, the medical tourism sector is expanding rapidly.Moreover, with a steady rise in the number of tourists with different culture into Malaysia, has recognized the culturally competence communication as an important component of health care delivery.Thus, this paper provides an introduction to the culturally competence communication in healthcare industry specifically to the medical tourism.Furthermore, the relationship between nurses and patient in health care delivery reflect the quality of care in medical tourism.In particular, this paper has two objectives: (i) explore the nurses-patient relationship; (ii) determine how does culturally competent communication contributes to the quality of care in medical tourism.This paper will be a significant endeavor to contribute to the quality of healthcare in medical tourism.Moreover, this paper will also be beneficial to the authorities to enforce the important of culturally competent communication in medical tourism as part of quality of care improvement agenda.Subsequently, the result will provide some insights and information on communication and health

Issues and consequences of newspaper framing on ethnic conflict: a qualitative study of ethnic group leaders’ conflict frames

This paper attempts to explore the waves of media frames on ethnic group leaders’ conflict frames. In general, the effects of what media frame as news on public behaviours to politics have been discussed extensively in scholarly works. However, the extent that newspapers framing stimulate conflict frame (behaviours) in ethnic leaders who rheostat the hearts and minds of ethnic groups, are still underexplored. Specifically, this study seeks to understand the extent that media frames about ethnic issues have become the driving force behind volatile ethnic groups in Nigeria. Therefore, series of in-depth interviews on 26 ethnic group leaders were conducted and data were analyzed thematically using NVIVO 10 software. The study found that the unswerving newspapers framing on ethnic issues, especially on interethnic relations and politics, culminated to inciting, double standard, name calling, all of which stemmed from the ownership interest, are some of the major factors that widen ethnic differences and eventually stimulated ethnic groups into conflict. Based on the lived experiences of the ethnic group leaders, newspapers are culpable in the emergence and escalation of ethnic conflict as a result of these stimulations. This study has significantly contributed to the understanding of potential influence of conflict frames (behaviors) of ethnic group leaders on ethno-political conflict

Cultural sensitivity in health promotion program: Islamic persuasive communication

Although scenarios in global health are witnessing benefits from new medicines and technologies, nonetheless there are unprecedented reversals. As a result, the World Health Organization has encouraged more innovative approaches in promoting health risk reduction and the reconsideration of risky lifestyle behaviour. The concept of culture sensitivity has emerged as a key topic of interest to health communication. The growing awareness about culture argues both for a shift in the philosophical and theoretical approaches, and in methods underpinning health communication. On the other hand, a lack of understanding of Muslims and their cultural and religious tradition contributes to potential conflicts in health promotion. Thus, based on present study involves health promotion policy makers, implementers, and health practitioners, this paper suggests the use of Islamic values and elements in developing a strategy for communicating health promotion. In specific, this paper has three main objectives: (1) to briefly review the research on cultural sensitivity factor with focus on religious factors in health communication; (2) to discuss what are the values and characteristics that formulate Islamic persuasive communication in general and in health promotion specifically; and (3) to discuss the constrain and challenges of Islamic persuasion in promoting health. This insight may contribute to further development of health promotion strategy for Muslim in Islamic nations as well as Muslim communities in non-Islamic nations through interculturalisation process

Exploring work-family balance perception in creative industry

Previous research suggests that employees in the creative industry are likely to hold several jobs, working irregular time, employment are short-term, with little career security and uncertain job prospects, and nevertheless the workforce appears to be growing.As Creative Industry has been projected to be one of the Malaysia economic sources, it is critical to understand the working-life quality on this highly increasing industry. This study explores how Malaysian creative industries’ related workers view a balanced work-family life. Series of in-depth interviews were conducted on 12 creative industry workers. Data were transcribed and analyse using thematic analysis methods.The results suggest that work-family balance was viewed from several perspectives – role participation, role conflict, and role achievement

Conceptualization of investigative journalism: The perspectives of Malaysian media practitioners

This study explores the conceptualization of investigative journalism by Malaysian media practitioners through in-depth interviews.Their conceptualizations were stimulated by various values and factors affecting their practice.Using qualitative analysis software Nvivo, this study found four major themes that characterized the conceptualization of investigative journalism among Malaysian media practitioners.Although the stimuli are different from other countries, their perception on investigative journalism still concurred with general understanding, but they alter the practice to suit local media environment, values and culture