THE RISE OF MALAYSIAN ANIMATION INDUSTRY

By Muhamad Saifullah Bin Roslan

The animation industry in Malaysia is still at an infant stage compared to the bigger countries such as the United States and Japan, which is the biggest in the production of animation with famous animation studios such as Pixar, Walt Disney, Dreamworks and Toei Animation. Philip (2019) stated that it is common knowledge that Los Angeles, Tokyo and Paris are among the top established animation hubs. As reported in “Global Animation, VFX & Games Industry: Strategies, Trends & Opportunities” (2019) the total value of global animation industry was US$ 259 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach US$ 270 billion by 2020.

The history of Malaysian animation industry goes back to 1978 when the first animation in Malaysia, a short film, Hikayat Sang Kancil was produced in by the National Film Department of Malaysia (FNM) and this short animation film successfully being screened in 1983. The film was accepted very well among the Malaysian audiences and this situation led to the appearances of more animated short films such as Sang Kancil & Monyet, Sang Kancil & Buaya, Arnab yang Sombong, Gagak yang Bijak and Singa yang Haloba according to Juhan & Ismail (2016).

The Malaysian government strives for the use of digital technology in the industrial sector in 1980 and this resulted in the producing of the first animated TV series, Usop Sontorian and in 1998, the first animated film, Silat Lagenda. Following the success, another animation series, Keluang Man started being aired on the television in 1998. Governmental push for the use of digital technology has resulted in the appearance of 31 animated TV series, and 3 animated feature films in Malaysia (Juhan & Ismail, 2016).

Animation sector in Malaysia starts to enlarge and portray substantial growth during the ruling of the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Suriawati (2012) stated that, due to his excellent premiership caused the Malaysian government to urge for digital technology to be utilized to a maximum level in order to encourage the development of local contents to overcome the invasion of foreign animation that contain of elements which are not suitable for Malaysian cultural lifestyle (Hassan, 2009; Azahar & Russlan, 2010; Kamarudin & Sajilan, 2013).

Due to the emergence of 3D animation, in 2007, a new TV series, ‘Upin & Ipin’ produced by Le’s Copaques Production emerge in the animation scene in Malaysia. The series obtain a lot of popularity within the Malaysian community. The success of this TV series led to the first 3D animated film by Les Copaque Production in 2009, ‘Upin & Ipin, Geng: Penggembaraan Bermula’. Finas (2011) reported that this film became the most successful Malaysian animated film at that time with box-office returns of RM6.2 million.

Following the success of Upin & Ipin, in 2011, another 3D animated series was aired on local TV Station. Boboiboy by Animonsta Production was aired in March 2011. The first film, ‘Boboiboy: The Movie’ was released in March 2016, and it continues on with another series, ‘BoboiBoy Galaxy’ started from November 2016 to July 2018. Only after one season of the new series, another film that is the second film, BoboiBoy Movie 2 was released simultaneously in 4 countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Singapore on 8 August 2019. The Vietnamese dub version of the film was released in Vietnam on 30 August 2019. BoboiBoy Movie 2 is currently the highest-grossing animated film in Malaysia that has ever been recorded with box-office return of RM29.60 million (US$7.3 million).

According to Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), the Malaysian animation industry was worth RM 567.85 million (US$ 187.7 million). There are now over 100 homegrown studios that have produced more than 20 original IPs and seen their work rate to 120+ countries, with an export value of RM132 million (over $32.2 million). With these statistics, it can be proven that the animation industry in Malaysia is developing and has started to penetrate the global market and compete with international animation.

References

Aiza, M. Z. (2019). Championing Malaysia’s Digital Economy: A Case Study. Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).

Digital Vector. (2019). Global Animation, VFX & Games Industry: Strategies, Trends & Opportunities. Animation, VFX & Games Market Research.

FINAS. (2019). Collection and Admission for All Local and Foreign Films in Cinema: 2012 – 2018. Retrieved from National Film Development Corporation Malaysia FINAS : https://www.finas.gov.my/en/industry-information/

Juhan, M. S., & Ismail, N. (2016). Character Design towards Narrative Believability of Boboiboy in the Malaysian Animated Feature Film Boboiboy: The Movie. Academic Research and Solutions.

Kamarudin, H. S., & Sajilan, S. (2013). Critical success factors of technopreneurship in the creative industries: A study of animation ventures. Review of Integrative Business and Economics Research, 2(1), 1.

Les’ Copaque. (2019). Malaysia: Animating an International Brand. Retrieved from ASEAN Intellectual Property Portal: https://www.aseanip.org/Portals/0/Case%20Studies/CS%20Malaysia.pdf

Malay Mail. (2019, August 13). MalayMail. Retrieved from MalayMail: https://www.malaymail.com/news/showbiz/2019/08/13/boboiboy-movie-2-collects-rm9.9m-after-just-five-days/1780290

MarketsandMarkets. (2011, November). Global Animation & Gaming Market by Application, Geopgraphy, Market Trends and Forecast (2011-2016). Retrieved from Markets and Markets: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/animation-gaming-market-514.html

Nukman, R. (2019, November 21). Strategis in Producing BoboiBoy Galaxy the Movie 2. (R. Saiful, Interviewer)

Philip, M. (2019, March 17). Why Malaysia is the Asian Animation Market to Watch. Retrieved from Toon Boom Bring Stories to Life: https://blog.toonboom.com/why-malaysia-is-the-asian-animation-market-to-watch

“MENTAL HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY: A MATCH NOT MADE IN HEAVEN?”

By Nor Hasaliza Asikin Binti Nawi

The proliferation of technology has brought 1001 benefits to human’s life through incredible invention and innovation that will change the future. However, there’s the bane behind the boon of these achievements which turn out to be the global issue and the rise in suicide cases is one of the costs that must be paid by the human. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1 person dies every 40 seconds and almost 800,000 people take their own life every year, which makes suicide as the second leading cause of death among young people after road injury. By 2020, it is predicted that the rate of death will increase to 1 person dies in every 20 seconds (Ritchie, Roser & Ortiz-Ospina, 2019).

It might be unfair to pointing fingers solely to the technology proliferate for an upward surge in the suicide cases. However, research indicated that technology has contributed to the issues, especially through the social media. According to The Lancet medical journal, low self-esteem, poor body image, poor sleep and online harassment are contributed by social media (Balasegaram, 2019). As an example, in a few months, there are 2 suicide cases of Sulli and Goo Hara, a K-Pop idol which take their own life after receiving hateful comments and cyber bullying in social media(Hun & Lee, 2019). Earlier, in Malaysia, a 16 years old girl has been reported to take her own life after getting 69% votes on a poll asking if she could die or not via her Instagram account (Balasegaram, 2019). All this is just few suicide cases that covered by the media, while there’s could be numerous attempted depression cases out there awaited and might be ended with a tragic ending.

Suicide is the serious global public health issues which need the tremendous actions at world level due to its impact to the public and our future generation. The preventive action must be taken from now onwards and WHO has been prioritized the reduction of suicide mortality as a global target (“Suicide in The World”, 2019). However, this preventive initiative needs the comprehensive action by each country to ensure that the tragedy that cost millions of lives can be overcome.

In Malaysia, the survey conducted by national mental health survey in 2017 indicated that 1 in 5 Malaysian’s teenagers have suffered from depression with 10% from it have the thought to take their own life (Balasegaram, 2019). Suicides should be put as an uppermost concern in drafting the 12^th Malaysia Plan and Malaysian society must come together in order to nurture a robust world for future generation (Abdul Razak, 2019). Ministry of Health (MOH) has prepared for National Strategic Action Plan on mental health 2019 – 2025 and as part of World Mental Health Day 2019 which initiated by WHO as world’s awareness programs, #Let’s Talk campaign has been introduced by MOH to encourage people in need to seek help (Amirul Ihsan, 2019).

In conclusion, suicide is the serious global mental health issues and the preventive action to combat this threat in order to create a better world for our future generations is the entire world responsibilities. The awareness program or any initiative by the world organization or each country is supposed be discuss and share to the international level in order to give an idea and helps other countries in needs. This is because, day by day the challenges will be vary and towards the industrial revolutions 4.0 it will definitely get greater. Hence, our action’s today will command the world’s of tomorrow, where our future generation will heritage.

References

Abdul Razak, D. (2019, September 13). Tackling suicidal tendencies. Retrieved from New Straits Times https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnists/2019/09/521241/tackling-suicidal-tendencies

Amirul Ihsan. S. L. (2019, October 8). A beacon for mental health. Retrieved from New Straits Times https://www.nst.com.my/lifestyle/heal/2019/10/527962/beacon-mental-health

Balasegaram, M. (2019, Mei 26). Human Writes: Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people today. Retrieved from The Star Online https://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/living/2019/05/26/suicide-help

Hun. C. S., and Lee. S. H. (2019, November 25). Suicides by K-Pop Stars Prompt Soul-Searching in South Korea. Retrieved from The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/25/world/asia/goo-hara-kpop-suicide.html

Ritchie. H., Roser. M. and Ortiz-Ospina. E. (2019). Suicide: one person dies every 40 seconds. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/09-09-2019-suicide-one-person-dies-every-40-seconds “Suicide in The World – Global Health Estimates”. Geneva: World Health Organization (2019). Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/09-09-2019

Future banks in Malaysia

by Muhammad Hasif Bin Che Kar

Age can be just a number for some, but for this research the age gap different could mean everything. As generations grow, we can see baby boomers that are born between 1946 to 1964, which post-cold war era, very optimistic about the future. During this time, they have a good economic opportunity, (Wj Schoroer, 2004). While the millennials or gen Y were born between 1974-1994, this two-age gap has different timeline over the years. In terms of technology, these two generation has different ways of accepting and use technology.

The millennials are ‘media-conscious’ of everything that’s happening in the world, in their tip of their fingers. Moreover, there are known as digital natives. Facetime and social media play vital role in their communicating channel. While generations before that have the traditional media ritual, whereby newspaper reports play bigger role than reporting. For generations before the millennials, newspaper act as not only reporting but also news validating. The senior generations find it difficult to accept changes that have been made rapidly, (Dlodlo & Mafini, 2013).

For generation X, they are no specific years on what year they were born, but they are also known as digital immigrants. They form of communications are personal computers, and SMS and email play significant role in their life (Linnes & Metcalf, 2017). They are the generations after baby boomers and exposed to technology early in their life. They have exposed to technology whether by their workplace or devices.

In contrast these generation have evolved, from normal phone to smart phones, to social media. next, we are looking at sectors that also involved heavily with technology nowadays, and what has it compare to generations before.

Bank is financial institution that provide service such as safeguard money, accepting deposits, and provide loans. These types of service are few objectives why the bank is important. Together with the evolution of time and technology, banking sector has also evolved to provide facilities, payments service and insurance, (Shod & Ganga, 2016). Throughout the years, banking has been segmented to commercial banking, investment banking and housing finance. These separations were maintained by various forms of official regulation such as exchange control and lending constraints, (Bowen, Hoggarth, & Pain, 2016).

The increasing tempo of economic activity lead to tremendous increase in volume and complexity of banking activity. Banks have now come out to fulfill national responsibilities through catering to the needs of agricultures, industrialist, traders and all to all other section of the society. Transferring money to overseas, or payments to international account have to go through banking activity which expand the role of banking for more than just daily banking activity, (Kwak, Lee, Park, & Moon, 2010).

The year of 2000 see the new dawn of banking sector. Fintech or financial Technology has been created and slowly taken over the use of manual banking to online banking. Companies such as Ali Baba and Tencent has grown to ease the china market banking transaction. Many of the develop countries and developing countries has offer similar platform in financial sectors, these countries are embracing FinTech waves as they come in plain sight (Bowen, Hoggarth, & Pain, 2016).

References

Bowen, A., Hoggarth, G., & Pain, D. (2016). The recent evolution of the UK banking industry and some implications for financial stability. business and banking faculty, 22-45.

DELOITTE. (2017). EMBRACING A DIGITAL FUTURE. NEW YORK: DELOITTE ANALYSIS.

Dlodlo, N., & Mafini, C. (2013). The relationship between technology acceptance and frequecy or mobile commerce use amongst Generation Y consumers. Acta commercii 13(1), 8 pages.

Kwak, H., Lee, C., Park, H., & Moon, S. (2010). WHAT IS TWIITER, A SOCIAL NETWORK OR A NEWS MEDIA? DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE, 26-30.

Linnes, C., & Metcalf, B. (2017). iGeneration and their acceptance of technology. International Journal of management and information system, Volume 21, Number 2.

Shod, & Ganga. (2016). Introduction of Indian Banking System. Shod and gangga journal banking sector, 1-3.

Wj Schoroer. (2004, february 4). social marketing. Retrieved from Generations X,Y,Z and the others: http://socialmarketing.org/archives/generations-xy-z-and-the-others/

CYBER-ATTACKS ON PERSPECTIVES OF ECONOMICS

by Zaliha binti Idris

The cyber risk landscape is growing rapidly in many fields. The government faces an unprecedented level of cyber-attacks and threats with the potential to undermine national security and critical infrastructure, while businesses that store customer information and confidential client’s online struggle to maintain their reputation amid massive data violations.

The potential economic impact of cyber threats cannot be underestimated. Economic have been warned of digital disintegration (The Global Risks 2014 report, 2014). A scenario in which cyberspace can be truly undermined because it strengthens attacks where the internet is no longer a trusted medium for communication or trade, at a high cost to the economy and society.

Cyber-attacks are now happening all over the world at an increasingly fast pace. Recently, the Office of Personnel Management in United States of America announced that hackers stole social security numbers and other sensitive information for more than 21 million people. Sony Pictures has a company and hacked personal email and also salary information for vice presidents and executives. Stuxnet is a US and Israeli computer virus that has been rumoured to attack centrifuges that are used to control machines that are important for the manufacture of nuclear weapons. As more companies and governments rely on the internet, this makes them vulnerable to malicious cyber-attacks from groups of hackers and countries that use hackers to infiltrate countries with sensitive computer systems (Mike & Jack, 2015).

There is a very urgent need for cyber security professionals to fill the many white-collar loopholes that have sprung up when companies struggle to protect their programs from outside attacks. Recent casualties include well-known brands such as eBay, Target, Neiman Marcus, Michaels Stores, NATO, JPMorgan Chase, Adobe, Social life and the list continues.

For our country, the government is seriously considering the threat of cyber-attacks in line with the rapid development of information and communications technology in the country. The reliance on the use of information technology for socio-economic development could pose a threat and cyber-attacks if not protected. Based on statistics produced by Malaysia Computer Emergency Response Team (MyCERT), 7,962 cyber threats were reported over the last year. Malaysia was no exception to the threat of cyber-attacks and the country ranked third among 193 countries in the world in terms of commitment to cyber security based on the Global Cyber Security Index (GCI) 2017. This is because of today’s industrial development is based on the digital economy and the challenges to tackle this threat are increasingly difficult.

Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation claimed that they will help to develop research and development of cyber security incubation to remain competitive. Cyber Security is information technology security, focusing on the protection of computers, networks, programs and data from unwanted or illegal access, change or destruction. Cyber security affects us all when we are online, using a mobile device or tablet, or using cloud-based services. We all interact with various tools designed to protect your personal information, similar to the tools used to protect our country’s infrastructure. It’s important for everyone to understand cyber security and our role in being safe while staying connected to minimize the possibility of incidents (CHIPS Magazine, 2014).

Cyber Security can be defined as activities or processes, capabilities or capabilities, or countries where information and communication systems and information contained in them are protected from or defended against unauthorized damage, use or modification, or exploitation. Cyber Security focuses on protecting computers, mobile devices, tablets, networks, programs, and data from unauthorized access or manipulation. Understanding cyber security is the first step to protecting yourself, your family and your organization (Melike, Ali, Ihsan, Aysenur, & Murat, 2019).

Cyber threats are real a danger and the government should be worried on this issue. The economy, financial, and national security can be breached by the cyber-attacks. For example, we discussed on Malaysia’s scenario in economics. The study reveals that the potential economic loss in Malaysia due to cyber security incidents can hit a staggering US$12.2 billion (RM 49.6 billion). This is more than 4 per cent of Malaysia’s total GDP of US$296 billion (RM1.2 trillion) (based on studies by Microsoft in collaboration with Frost & Sullivan). The study revealed that a large-sized organization in Malaysia can possibly incur an economic loss of US$22.8 million (RM92.6 million), more than 630 times higher than the average economic loss for a mid-sized organization (US$36,000) and the cyber security attacks have resulted in job losses across different functions in three in five (61%) of organizations that have experienced an incident over the last 12 months (Sugriiva, 2018).

To calculate the cost of cybercrime, Frost & Sullivan (2018) has created an economic loss model based on macro-economic data and insights shared by the survey respondents. This model factors in three kinds of losses which could be incurred due to a cyber-security breach. There are direct, indirect and induced. Firstly, direct is a financial losses associated with a cyber-security incident which included loss of productivity, fines, remediation cost, etc. Second, indirect is the opportunity cost to the organization such as customer churn due to reputation loss and lastly, induced in which that was the impact of cyber breach to the broader ecosystem and economy, such as the decrease in consumer and enterprise spending. There are many other hidden losses that we have to consider from both the indirect and induced perspectives, and the economic loss for organizations suffering from cyber security attacks can be often underestimated. In addition to financial losses, cyber security incidents are also undermining Malaysia organizations’ ability to capture future opportunities in today’s digital economy, with more than three in five (62%) respondents stating that their enterprise has put off digital transformation efforts due to the fear of cyber-risks based on the studies by Frost and Sullivan (Sugriiva, 2018).

Although high-profile cyber-attacks, such as ransom ware, have been garnering a lot of attention from enterprises, the study found that for organizations in Malaysia that have encountered cyber security incidents, data exfiltration and data corruption are the biggest concerns as they have the highest impact with the slowest recovery time (Sugriiva, 2018).

In a world where cyber threats are a constant danger, companies find themselves in a continuing battle to keep their data safe. A large amount of risk now exists because cyber criminals are constantly looking for new ways to break our boundaries and get our vital information. However, did you know that 99.9% of exploitation is possible because the organization does not handle basic security cleanliness? The fact is that many industries focus on the wrong things, often using basically defective security strategies and ultimately not providing the right protection that they need (Andy, 2016-2017).

REFERENCES

Andy, G. (2016-2017). Breaking Into Information Security: Learning The Ropes 101. Retrieved March 26, 2019, from Leanpub: https://kyhwana.keybase.pub/books/breaking%20into%20infosec%20.pdf

CHIPS Magazine. (2014, October 16). Cybersecurity or Convenience? Retrieved mARCH 26, 2019, from CHIPS: https://www.doncio.navy.mil/CHIPS/ArticleDetails.aspx?ID=5594

Melike, E., Ali, K., Ihsan, K., Aysenur, B., & Murat, C. (2019). A Fuzzy Based MCDM Methodology for Risk Evaluation of Cyber Security Technologies. International Conference on Intelligent and Fuzzy Systems (INFUS 2019: Intelligent and Fuzzy Techniques in Big Data Analytics and Decision Making) (pp. 1042 – 1049). Switzerland: Springer, Cham.

Mike, L., & Jack, D. (2015, July 9). 22 Million Affected by OPM Hack, Official Say. Retrieved March 25, 2019, from abc News: https://abcnews.go.com/US/exclusive-25-million-affected-opm-hack-sources/story?id=32332731

Sugriiva, P. (2018, July 12). Cybersecurity threats to cost organizations in Malaysia US$12.2 billion in economic losses. Retrieved March 26, 2019, from Microsoft Malaysia News Center: https://news.microsoft.com/en-my/2018/07/12/cybersecurity-threats-to-cost-organizations-in-malaysia-us12-2-billion-in-economic-losses/

The Global Risks 2014 report. (2014). Part 2: Risks in Focus:2.4 Digital Disintegration. Retrieved March 25, 2019, from World Economic Forum: http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2014/part-2-risks-in-focus/2-4-digital-disintegration/?doing_wp_cron=1564101657.5671370029449462890625

The Role of Mass Media: Application by Government and Society

by Fadzil Hadri bin Mohd Nawawi

Nowadays, we could describe that the communication have expand and evolve to the borderless world. Most of the public and society could communicate through various channel and platform including media. It is one of the most powerful tools of communication in the developing countries, as well as in the developed countries. It can aid in promoting the right things at a right point of time, or can make use of any situation to create disturbance around the people or in the society (Biswas, 2016). Could we imagine the world without boundaries? People communicate to one another as present without limitation including demographic, cost and more. The development is also positively affecting information communication technology (ICT) where people sharing information, news and messages through available sources. This evolvement is due to mass media that become influential sources of present communication. What is mass media? Mass media is communication—whether written, broadcast, or spoken—that reaches a large audience. This includes television, radio, advertising, movies, the Internet, newspapers, magazines, and so forth.

One of the significant mass media role for government is it has become the government source of information channel. In early days and in an effort in achieving independence, the mass media especially newspaper and radio has become the propaganda channel. The freedom fighters will plays the national issue in order to instill the national spirit among the citizen. However, as present, the emergence of media has seen transformation from the traditional media to the new media era particularly through the connection of internet. In the today context, the traditional media comprising its print and broadcast components are being increasingly challenged by modern media in cyber space such as the internet, the blog, and the SMS, in the market of news, views and previews (Stephen Tan, 2006). Therefore, most of the governments used mass media in order to deliver their messages including policy to the public. Despite using traditional media which is newspaper, television and radio, the government also spreading the information and messages via new media such as blog, social media platform, SMS and more.

Furthermore, in order to persuade the public and society to maintain support, the government apply social media, blog and news portal as part of their political campaign. New media have become a significant channel in order to attract support especially between the young adult and youngsters. Frequent uses among youngsters of Internet are watching videos, using search engines for finding new knowledge and information, and downloading or uploading music or videos (Shanti, 2010). The trends show that the society especially among young generations prefers new media of source of information. Therefore, the government has enhanced its new media platform in order to persuade the public to maintain their support to the government and in the same time delivers latest government announcement, policy and more.

The mass media for government also plays a role in providing new education branch specifically focusing in media. Since the formation of traditional media in pre and post-independence period, the government note that the requirement to enhance the public especially among student to focus on media studies. Since then, the media education has become one of the prominence social science fields to be chosen by student. The wider agenda was to churn out trained and competent ‘professionals’ for a country that was still rather young and needed to develop its economy rather quickly (Z.Nain, 2003). The government believes that the media plays a vital role in shaping community resulting to the decision of media professionals training among the young generation. The majority of media academics received their higher degrees from Western – principally American – universities (Z.Nain, 2003). The situation resulting to the direction of media studies which taking Western perspective as main sources.

Therefore, the evolvement of media studies which many are offered in private and public education institution giving a new light to the local media education. Furthermore, the mass media also have been transformed as an education channel as well as method in learning and teaching. Most of educators and academician probably transform into electronic-learning (E-Learning) as learning and teaching method. This method particularly provides a new teaching and learning excitement among students. For example, there are few E-Learning channels in most of the nations introduced by the government (via government linked-companies) or academic institution of Smart School, Edu-Web TV, I-Learn and more. E-learning platform tools for automatic knowledge check, systems of questionnaires and voting as well as systems of communication between students and academic teachers increase students’ motivation for regular and independent studying which in final effects gives comparable and slightly better results than traditional methods (Półjanowicz, 2011).

Nonetheless, the mass media also plays a vital role in generating economic income to the nation. The economic perspective generated through the platform of advertising that considered transmitted to the audience through mass media channel. Advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media (Bovee, 1992). Usually advertiser will purchase advertisement either through printed, electronic and new media in order to promote their product and in the same time persuade the public. As present, most of advertisers opt for new and digital media that enhance the capability to reach target audiences especially among young adults.

The advertising industry today is showing a change in the traditional media to include the digital media in order to reach audience more effectively (MCMC, 2009). Hence, the evolvement of advertising industry plays a significant role in generating economic income to the government via tax collection. The government could apply all the tax collection and contribute back to the society via services including health, transportation and more. Furthermore, mass media through advertising industry also creates job opportunities among the young generation especially fresh graduates. The job opportunities offered through the industry consists of graphic and creative design, ads installation, media analysis and more. Therefore, it also creating and supporting the human resources needs among the society through the job opportunities.

Interestingly, mass media role have been applied as communication channel through social media platform. Social media are web-based communication tools that enable people to interact with each other by both sharing and consuming information (Nations, 2017). The social media platforms that actively applied consist of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more. It means that through social media, people could have an unlimited communication to one another including the among nation’s leader. Our very own Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is also among the rank of world leaders who use Twitter to connect with fellow Malaysians at home and abroad (Khushairi, 2017). Through social media, society could interact to one another including sharing information, data, picture, music and more. Social media allows everyone to be more approachable and personal in sharing updates and comments daily (Khusairi, 2017). There could be vast reasons the application of social media as communication platform which are convenient, affordable, mobile, borderless, limitless and more. For example, pertaining gathering support from public, a politician could communicate with his/her social media followers in order to share thought, activity, announcement and persuasion.

Most of the nation leader could have their own social media team to enhance the engagement with the public. Meanwhile, the public especially young adults tend to apply social media for communication enhancement. Somehow, most of the interaction and verbal talk happening through social media platform and it have become a present trend. It’s difficult to predict anything exactly, but if one thing can be said about the future of social media, it will probably be more personalized and less noisy (Nations, 2017). Nonetheless, through the development of technology, social media will become a partial and vital changing agent in shaping the future society.

Hence, mass media have become needs among the global society including Malaysian. As discussed above, mass media role could be concluded into several perspectives that are government source of information channel, providing new education branch specifically focusing in media, generating economic income to the nationand applied as communication channel through social media platform. Furthermore, most of the society applies mass media as present main source of information. They tend to choose mass media as communication sources due to the flexibility and reliability of the media. Even though the media could have negative impact and effect, people could still rely in order to meet individual gratification as explained by Uses and Gratifications Theory[WN1] (Musa, Nazri & Salina, 2015). Furthermore, while granting the media some effects, the theory gives the audience more credibility and holds that people actively seek out specific media and specific content to generate specific gratifications or result (West & Turner, 2014). It is depending to the society on how applying the mass media since it could also be inviting negative effects. Users consists of government and public should be wisely and effectively applies mass media as according to the suitability in order to enhance the development of the nations and society. Perhaps the mass media would promote national development and in the same time maintain the human relationship between societies.

References

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(n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2017, from https:// www.mcmc.gov.my/skmmgovmy/files/attachments/Ad_Dev_Malaysia.pdf

Aisar Salihu Musa, Mohd Nazri Latiff Azmi and Nur Salina Ismail. 2015. Exploring the uses and gratifications theory in the use of social media among the students of Mass Communication in Nigeria. Malaysian Journal of Distance Education

Bernadette J. Saunders and Chris Goddard. (n.d.). The role of mass media in facilitating community education and child abuse prevention strategies. Retrieved October 28, 2017, from https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/role-mass-media-facilitating-community-education

Important Role of Media in Malaysia. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2017, from https://www.scribd.com/doc/50321301/Important-Role-of-Media-in-Malaysia

Kushairi, A. (2017, January 25). Use social media wisely. Retrieved October 28, 2017, from https://www.nst.com.my/news/2017/01/207073/use-social-media-wisely

Richard West & Lynn H. Turner (2014). Introducing Communication Theory. McGraw-Hill International Edition

Role Of Mass Media In Today’s Society. (2016, December 01). Retrieved October 28, 2017, from http://esolz.net/mass-media-plays-a-crucial-role-in-influencing-peoples-mind/

The Role of the Mass Media in a Country. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2017, from http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/bar_news/berita_badan_peguam/the_role_of_the_mass_media_in_a_country.html

W.(n.d.). History of local media. Retrieved October 28, 2017, from http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/echoes_of_the_past/history_of_local_media.html

DO NOT VIRAL. MAKE USE OF RESPONS RAKYAT TO LODGE COMPLAINT IN JUST A CLICK

by Mariani binti Abdul Razak

Did you experience waiting so long to be entertained by the service counter? Dealing with rude and snobbish staff? Poor accommodations and closed counter? These are some of the circumstances that might occur when we use or seek for services in the public sector. It may even occur in some private organizations. Others countries also face the same problems and good governance is needed in order to handle the complaints.

Many years back, I had experienced dealing with one agency that had made me wait more than 5 hours. Waiting is torture for me as time would move so slowly and it would make me tired and upset. However, I have no choice besides being patient and wait in order to get my errands done. When asked about the waiting time, the common answer is that “you will be entertained shortly”. The response causes me to become more upset and have the mind-set that the service industry will never change.

Yes, we understand the overload of customers that the public sector has to cater, but it is not an excuse for poor service. Most people will get frustrated when something does not meet their expectations. It becomes worse when the matter is brought upon social media and becomes viral. These days, this is the way people release their frustrations and anger towards something especially anything that involves services given by the public sector. Controlling your anger is a very crucial step to settle the problem in a diplomatic way.

The government has introduced various programmes and initiative to improve the delivery of public service as we are moving forwards to the fourth wave of industrial revolution. Innovation is the main ideology in improvising these services. Our government has a mechanism to handle public complaint in a systematic way. Public Complaint Bureau (PCB) has been given the responsibility and a big role to handle public complaint towards the public sector ministries and agencies (Aziz, 2016). According to (Laporan Tahunan Biro Pengaduan Awam, 2018) stated in year 2017 BPA received 5,386 complaint cases. About 636 complaints or 8.3% is come from ‘Rakyat Responz’ sources. Others come from multiple sources which linkage to BPA agency. Meanwhile breakdown for complaint classification which is 3,232 complaints equal to 60% is complaint against ministries and Federal Agencies. Another 40% equal to 2,154 complaints is against State Government Agencies.

PCB has not missed out on the latest technological advancements. As the public nowadays are moving forward by using technology in their daily lives especially with mobile phones as a gadget for many things such as reminders, calendar, camera, voice recordings and many other features, PCB had put an effort towards their initiative to build a mobile application called ‘Rakyat Responz’ in 2016 and rebranding it to ‘Respons Rakyat’ in 2019 with add on features. This application is also known as RR and can be downloaded on mobile phones via Apple apps Store and Google Store.[WN1] (Kannan & Babulal, 2019).

The Respons Rakyat apps can be download with the link:

What is so special about RR? Will our complaints be entertained? How fast is the response time? Just relax and stay for more input about RR. Many of us are probably not aware of this application within the marketplace and do not know the right channel to lodge a complaint. By using RR, the public can lodge a complaint by just a click on their mobile phones no matter the place or time. It also caters to all public sector agencies.

I would like to share the benefits of this application. RR comes with great functionalities where you can put upload pictures, video recordings and voice notes as an attachment for the complaint. The files that are uploaded become an evidence to the complaint that is made and can be forwarded immediately. This is helpful for the investigation process later on and is used to cancel out fake complaints. The important thing is, this application also allows the complainant to track down the status of their complaints easily the chronology of action and any feedback can be reviewed by the complainant himself through the application. (Kannan & Babulal, 2019)

Nowadays, work process has changed and the public sector are more concerned towards achieving an excellent service for the nation. As I said before, I did not believe that complaints are able to change the public service industry. However today, it is true that our complaint is important and needs to be addressed properly. Complainants can help improve the quality of service by lodging a complaint to make sure the administration gets alerted with their weaknesses in serving the public.

I would like to advice the public to use a proper channel to make a complaint and not by make it viral without cause. This will only worsen the situation and does not bring any benefit to the customers as well as the agency. It only takes a second for you to address your concern by using the RR application on your mobile phone.

Furthermore, with the application, we don’t have to worry whether actions are taken on the complaint as we are able to monitor is ourselves. The application is made for two-way communication which is why we can ask for the administration to give a feedback as promised on their customer guideline.

Every problem comes with a solution. Complaints are not a burden anymore to the government, but it is a gift for improvement and to move forward for a better service. RR apps is one of the methods made for people to ensure they have a response for each complaint had been made to PCB. Just as simple 1, 2, 3 you can download the RR apps and using it right now.

References

Aziz, F. (2016, May 17). Got a complaint?Download the ‘Rakyat Responz’App and get it fixed within 15 days. Retrieved from New Straits Time: http:www.nst.com.my

Kannan, H. K., & Babulal, V. (2019, July 18). PM launches ‘Respons Rakyat 2.0’ mobile application. New Straits Time. Retrieved from The New Straits Time: http:www.nst.com.my

Laporan Tahunan Biro Pengaduan Awam. (2018). Putrajaya: Biro Pengaduan Awam.