The ‘moral panics’ behind television advertising regulations in Malaysia
The bloody racial riot of 13 May 1969 marked the underlying animosity between the dominant cultural groups which had been developing for some time in Malaysia (Mohamad, 1970). The National Cultural Policy 1971, by defining a common Malaysian culture, was the catalyst used by the government to b...
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| Format: | Conference or Workshop Item |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2010
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/16656/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/16656/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/16656/1/The_%27moral_panics%27_behind_television.pdf |
| Summary: | The bloody racial riot of 13 May 1969 marked the
underlying animosity between the dominant cultural
groups which had been developing for some time in
Malaysia (Mohamad, 1970). The National Cultural
Policy 1971, by defining a common Malaysian culture,
was the catalyst used by the government to bind the
predominantly Malay, Chinese and Indian ethnicities.
Establishing peace through commonality is important
to achieve the government’s vision of a developed
Malaysia in its own ‘mould’ in the year 2020 or Vision
2020 (Mohamad, 1991). Television advertisements in
Malaysia are made to portray images of the Malaysian
culture and promote a common roof between different
ethnicities by the country’s television advertising
regulatory authorities (Frith, 1987). In relation to this, the study attempted to examine the
television advertising regulatory framework in
Malaysia with the dearth of previous research studies.
It focused on understanding ‘what’ decisions were
made by regulatory authorities when approving
television advertisements for Malaysian television and
‘why’. A thematic analysis on interviews with key
regulatory authorities found that they based their
decisions on the moral panics (intense concerns) of
Malaysian viewers as defined by the ‘grassroots
model’ (Goode and Ben-Yehuda, 1994). Malaysian
viewers believe that television advertisements can
affect behaviour and are most concerned by ‘foreign’
advertising images regarded as a threat to the
Malaysian culture. The regulatory authorities were
most attentive to viewers’ complaints which influenced
and reinforced their own (similar) concerns when
examining television advertisements for screening. |
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