The ‘Moral Panics’ behind television advertising regulation in Malaysia

The bloody racial riots in 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...

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Main Author:	Mokhtar, Aida
Format:	Conference or Workshop Item
Language:	English English
Published:	2011
Subjects:	P87 Communication. Mass media
Online Access:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/73913/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/73913/12/73913%20certificate%20and%20acceptance%20letter.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/73913/13/73913%20Moral%20Panic.pdf

id	iium-73913
recordtype	eprints
spelling	iium-739132019-08-14T07:16:36Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/73913/ The ‘Moral Panics’ behind television advertising regulation in Malaysia Mokhtar, Aida P87 Communication. Mass media The bloody racial riots in 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, 2009). Malaysian viewers believe that television advertisements can affect behaviour and are most concerned by ‘foreign’ advertising images regarded as a threat to post-colonial Malaysian culture. The Film Censorship Board Malaysia in particular was most attentive to viewers’ complaints which influenced and reinforced their own (similar) concerns when examining television advertisements for screening. Local advertising practitioners express their doubts of the grassroots model of moral panic which guide the decision making of the Censorship Board and voice their opinions supporting the elite-engineering model of moral panic. 2011-09-26 Conference or Workshop Item NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/73913/12/73913%20certificate%20and%20acceptance%20letter.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/73913/13/73913%20Moral%20Panic.pdf Mokhtar, Aida (2011) The ‘Moral Panics’ behind television advertising regulation in Malaysia. In: Seminar on New Media and Islamic Issues: Challenges and Opportunities, 26 September 2011, Kuala Lumpur. (Unpublished)
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	International Islamic University Malaysia
building	IIUM Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English English
topic	P87 Communication. Mass media
spellingShingle	P87 Communication. Mass media Mokhtar, Aida The ‘Moral Panics’ behind television advertising regulation in Malaysia
description	The bloody racial riots in 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, 2009). Malaysian viewers believe that television advertisements can affect behaviour and are most concerned by ‘foreign’ advertising images regarded as a threat to post-colonial Malaysian culture. The Film Censorship Board Malaysia in particular was most attentive to viewers’ complaints which influenced and reinforced their own (similar) concerns when examining television advertisements for screening. Local advertising practitioners express their doubts of the grassroots model of moral panic which guide the decision making of the Censorship Board and voice their opinions supporting the elite-engineering model of moral panic.
format	Conference or Workshop Item
author	Mokhtar, Aida
author_facet	Mokhtar, Aida
author_sort	Mokhtar, Aida
title	The ‘Moral Panics’ behind television advertising regulation in Malaysia
title_short	The ‘Moral Panics’ behind television advertising regulation in Malaysia
title_full	The ‘Moral Panics’ behind television advertising regulation in Malaysia
title_fullStr	The ‘Moral Panics’ behind television advertising regulation in Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed	The ‘Moral Panics’ behind television advertising regulation in Malaysia
title_sort	‘moral panics’ behind television advertising regulation in malaysia
publishDate	2011
url	http://irep.iium.edu.my/73913/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/73913/12/73913%20certificate%20and%20acceptance%20letter.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/73913/13/73913%20Moral%20Panic.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T21:44:47Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T21:44:47Z
_version_	1777413377746796544

The ‘Moral Panics’ behind television advertising regulation in Malaysia

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