The daily covid-19 information from the publics’ lens

COVID-19 pandemic has imposed an unprecedented impact to people around the globe and Malaysia is not excluded. The cumulative cases of COVID-19 in the country as of September 16, 2021 has exceeded two million with more than 20,000 fatalities. The battle to fight the unseen virus came along with infodemic; a massive amount of information that include a mixture of true and false narratives that make intervention efforts to be even more complicated. The role of the Ministry of Health (MoH) has been instrumental in managing the pandemic and infodemic in Malaysia. The ministry has laid down all preventive measures including a total lockdown to contain the virus. The Director General of Health (DG), has never failed to update the public and the media through press conferences and press statements since the first few cases of COVID-19 were reported in the early of January 2020. Daily statistics of COVID-19 cases are also uploaded in MoH’s website and social media platforms. In recent development, detailed of COVID-19 cases is now reported in a new website known as CovidNow. This research is developed based on an ideal yet very important premise. Living with a fatal pathogen such as SARS-CoV-2 requires every person to have access to trustworthy information about the disease and able interpret the information accurately leading to the right action to mitigate risk. However, the publics’ ability to interpret scientific information such as COVID- 19 did not receive adequate attention. It is worth noted that publics’ interpretation of COVID-19 is not free from biases thus, a sound scientific literacy is fundamental. This study aims to explore on publics’ perception of the daily COVID-19 update. It will examine whether the information shared by MoH was comprehensible, perceived useful and improve the publics’ scientific literacy about the disease. This study argues that a sound scientific literacy will enable the publics to question, investigate and draw evidence-based conclusion about COVID-19 and subsequently empower them to protect themselves and others. This study will initiate an online survey nationwide to obtain data from the public. Findings of this research will assist policy makers and public health officials to improve their communication strategies in their attempts to educate and empower the publics to take the right action during a severe public health crisis. COVID-19 will soon become an endemic that requires everyone to remain vigilant to protect themselves and their loved ones. As the virus will continue to stay, public’s awareness, understanding and scientific literacy about the disease ought to be enhanced. At this stage, scientific literacy is no longer ideal but a critical goal to achieve to continue with life

The daily Covid-19 information from the public's lens

COVID-19 pandemic has imposed an unprecedented impact on people around the globe and Malaysia is no exception.The battle to fight the unseen virus came along with infodemic: a massive amount of information that includes a mixture of true and false narratives that makes intervention efforts even more complicated. The role of the Ministry of Health (MoH) has been instrumental in managing the pandemic and infodemic in Malaysia. The MoH has never failed to update the public and the media through press conferences and press statements since the first few cases of COVID-19 were reported in early January 2020. Daily statistics of COVID-19 cases have been uploaded in MoH’s website and social media platforms. In a recent development, details of COVID-19 cases are now reported in a new website known as CovidNow. This research argues that living with a fatal pathogen such as SARS-CoV-2 requires every person to have access to trustworthy information. Furthermore, understanding of the information is fundamental as it empowers the public to make informed decisions to save lives. This study argues that effective public communication of science related information such as COVID-19 is essential to contain transmission of the disease particularly when the country is preparing to enter the endemic stage. However, the publics’ ability to interpret scientific information has not received adequate attention in the literature. This study explores whether the information shared by the Ministry of Health (MoH) were perceived to be reliable, trustworthy and subsequently improved the publics’ practices in terms of adhering to the standard operating procedure (SOP) to prevent COVID-19. More than 1000 responses were received from a survey that was conducted online. The study found that information about COVID-19 was mainly obtained through MySejahtera apps and WhatsApp. Generally, the publics’ perception of the daily update of COVID-19 has been very positive. The information shared by the MoH was perceived useful, clear, reliable and trustworthy by the publics and subsequently resulted in high compliance among the publics towards the SOPs

The relationship of individual well-being and working environment with job satisfaction among factory workers in Malaysia

The present study examined the factors influencing job satisfaction in the context of factory workers in Malaysia. The major purpose of the study was to identify the main problems faced by those factory workers. The study also aimed to examine the influence of demographic variables on job satisfaction and the relationships of family income, individual well-being, and perceptions of the working environment with overall job satisfaction among those factory workers. A survey was distributed among 551 factory workers working in the Klang Valley area. Results from the survey indicated that the two main problems faced by the factory workers are, fear of the influx of foreign workers that may threaten their jobs, and the relatively low pay, taking into account the high cost of living in the Klang Valley. Findings also indicated that while gender and race did not significantly influence perceptions of the working environment and job satisfaction, job positions did. Those working as security and logistics staff were significantly more satisfied with their working environment than those holding administrative or technical/production posts. Job satisfaction also varied significantly across job positions; those working in security and logistic positions were significantly more satisfied with their jobs compared to the other employees (administrative, managerial/professional, and technical/production). Finally, using hierarchical linear regression, with family income as the control variable, the findings suggested that both individual well-being and perceptions of the working environment emerged as positive. Both of these are significant predictors of perceived job satisfaction among factory workers. The implication of these findings will be discussed within the framework of organizational satisfaction and individual well-being.*************** Kajian ini meninjau faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kepuasan pekerjaan di dalam konteks pekerja kilang di Malaysia. Tujuan utama kajian ini adalah untuk mengetahui pengaruh demografik ke atas kepuasan pekerjaan dan hubungan pendapatan keluarga, kesejahteraan individu, dan persepsi persekitaran pekerjaan dengan kepuasan pekerjaan di kalangan pekerja kilang. Satu kaji selidik telahdijalankan ke atas 551 pekerja kilang di sekitar Lembah Klang. Dapatan menunjukkan dua masalah utama yang dihadapi oleh pekerja kilang adalah kebanjiran pekerja asing yang mengancam keutamaan mereka dalam pekerjaan serta gaji yang rendah, megambil kira kos sara hidup yang tinggi di Lembah Klang. Dapatan juga menunjukkan bahawa jantina serta bangsa tidak mempengaruhi persepsi persekitaran pekerjaan dan kepuasan pekerjaan tetapi ainya mempengaruhi jawatan yang disandang. Pekerja dalam jawatan keselamatan dan logistik adalah lebih berpuas hati dengan pekerjaan mereka berbanding pekerja dalam jawatan lain (pentadbiran, pengurusan/professional, dan teknikal/pengeluaran). Akhir sekali, dengan menggunakan hierarchical linear rergression, dapatan mencadangkan bahawa setelah menggunakan pendapatn keluarga sebagai pengubah alih kawalan, kesejahteraan individu dan persepsi persekitaran pekerjaan dilihat sebagai positif, peramal yang signifikan terhadap kepuasan pekerjaan di kalangan pekerja kilang. Implikasi dapatan akan dibincangkandi dalam kerangka kepuasan organisasi dan kesejahteraan individu

Media and politics: a study among youth in Malaysia

Media have a tendency to shape youth’s opinion on politics and election. The exposure of youth to media is more likely to change their opinions towards political issues that are widely covered in the media. This paper discusses media usage patterns among youth in Malaysia and their particpation in politics and election. A study using focus groups with Malaysian youth was carried out in June 2015. The purpose of the study was to examine how media influence perception of youth in Malaysia in relation to politics and election. Using purposive sampling, the study employed focus group to examine how and why youth use media to understand about politics and election. Findings indicated that youth mostly rely on new rather than traditional media to get updated with political news. Facebook and whatsapp are among the two channels that they mainly utilised to gain information about politics

COVID-19 in China

Covid19 outbreak started in China earlier than any country in the world. China has conducted effective crisis management strategy to efficiently restrict and further control the transmission of Covid-19 in the country. In order to limit the spread of infection, the Chinese government adopted innovative, specialized, and advanced information systems. In this process, the strategic crisis management plan of the Chinese Communist Party, together with the cooperation among different level and departments within the Chinese government has finally helped it overcome the crisis brought by the pandemic. This paper, aims at identifying the method used by the Chinese government in controlling the transmission of Covid-19 in both its regional and inter-regional fight towards the pandemic. This paper also aims at how the Chinese government managed the public awareness on the severity of the virus and lead the citizens to practice personal protection. The four main objectives are: To identify immediate action and immediate response done by the government when it was firstly transmitted, to identify the most effective method of restricting direct and contact infection of Covid-19 in China, to clarify the cooperation that was formed among different levels of government of China to limit inter-regional extension of the virus, and to enhance citizen’s awareness on the severity of Covid-19. Data was collected from the official website of the National Health Commission of People's Republic of China. This site is chosen for it is the official media of the National Health organization, where comprehensive and detailed information about crisis management strategies could be obtained. The information will be organised in a coding sheet was based from the focus of the study on the classification of the observation. The observation was conducted from 22th January to 22th April 2020

Communication and media research during Covid-19 pandemic

COVID-19 disease caused by SARS-CoV2 virus has caused an unprecedented impact in almost every aspect of human life around the globe. By August 2022, there have been more than 500 million cumulative cases and the death toll has exceeded six million worldwide (WHO, 2022). The battle to fight the unseen virus came along with infodemic; “a massive amount of information that includes a mixture of true and false narratives” (Ahmad, Buyong & Souket, 2022, p. 87) that are hard to discern. This makes intervention efforts to contain the spread of the virus even more complicated. The ordeal in dealing with COVID-19 continues with the emergence of new variants which are believed to be more contagious, e.g., Delta, Alpha and Omicron. Scientists are working around the clock to learn how the virus mutates into different variants. At the same time, academics and researchers from all disciplines have shifted their focus to the implication of this severe public health crisis to socio-political conditions, economy, education, media, well-being and many other areas. Similarly, communication and media studies continue to cover the usual research topics such as media usage, media content, ethics, law, crisis management, types of media use, to name a few, but within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The unprecedented effect of COVID-19 serves as a wake-up call for hard sciences and social sciences researchers to work together to find the best alternatives for the population to continue with their life. In the meantime, countless efforts have been made to communicate about the disease using various forms of media. Numerous communication strategies have been used by the government and public health authorities to communicate about COVID-19 to all levels of stakeholders in society. A clear information about COVID-19 and its preventive measures would help to empower the population to protect themselves, their family and community from the fatal disease. Access to trustworthy information and ability to understand scientific information such as COVID-19 disease are fundamental in the midst of the infodemic. The proliferation of social media that carries diverse opinions and perspectives about the disease has been a constant challenge to COVID-19 intervention efforts. This article addresses how the pandemic shapes news and information in the media and the issue of trust. It will later delve on how COVID-19 affects research activities and some ethical concerns of conducting research online

Content analysis of online news portal:issues and challenges

Content analysis is a well-established research technique that has been used to examine myriad type of texts including political messages. In the field of media research, it is a popular method to examine media contents systematically. At present, researchers continue to apply the established content analysis technique that was originally designed for traditional media on Web-based media and social media. However, the application of an established content analysis in the digital environment was claimed to be problematic by many scholars in view of the liquidity of online content. The paper is based on an empirical work conducted during the general election campaign period in 2013 that examined type of political news reported in a news portal; Malaysiakini. We argued that analysing online news using content analysis requires a different procedure especially in terms of capturing the ever changing content of the news portal. The paper also highlighted issues and challenges of adopting established content analysis technique on online news. Keywords: content analysis, Malaysiakini, method, liquidity, online news, political new

Perception of issues by factory workers in Malaysia: the role of media

Media have the ability to shape people’s opinion on many important issues of a country. The public’s exposure to media is likely to change their opinions towards certain issues that are widely discussed in the media. Factory workers’ perception on major issues of a country is important as it entails strong participation in the government’s programmes. In light of this concern, a study was conducted to examine the influence of media on factory workers’ opinion concerning the issues of importance that take place in Malaysia. Among objectives of the study are: a) to examine the usage of media among factory workers; b) to find out the relationship between media and their perceptions about main issues of the country; and c) to determine the relationship between media and the Prime Minister’s leadership. Using purposive sampling, findings of the study were obtained from a survey conducted among 615 factory workers in Klang Valley which was carried out few months before the Malaysian 13th. General Election in 2013. Findings drawn from the survey data indicate that factory workers are high users of media particularly the new media. The findings also indicate that issues from the main media did not solely influence the factory workers in their decision making of whom to vote in the general election. Since they were high users of the new media, they also have the new media as their alternative source of information. Moreover, the findings also show that credibility and reliability of the media play an important role. The respondents would only believe the news only when the sources of information were from reliable sources