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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| Format: | Conference or Workshop Item |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2011
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/73913/12/73913%20certificate%20and%20acceptance%20letter.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/73913/13/73913%20Moral%20Panic.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/73913/ |
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| Summary: | 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. |
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