1 Malaysia strategy (1 Malaysia) was revealed by the incumbent Leading Minister, Dato'Sri Najib Razak upon taking office on 3rd April 2009. The goals to provide this insurance plan is to unite the nation, to create the collateral in the economic dimension, enhance the social cohesion and also make sure the people stay in harmony and serenity between different races (1 Malaysia. com, 2009). According to the Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Tun Abdul Razak, "Satu Malaysia" means the shared respect between the various races in Malaysia and to donate to the success of eye-sight 2020.
According to the research done by the Merdeka Centre for Impression Research, conducted from 19 June 2012 until the 1st of July, there are over 75% of Malaysian aware to the coverage with 23% of men and women agree that it help promote the unity among races and 18% of folks think One Malaysia strategy is approximately the equitable among the various races in country. Besides, this review shows that 46% respondents agreed the main one Malaysia policy would be able to achieve the goals, the rest are generally not agree with it, which mean there are over 50% of respondent aren't even aware and understand about the policy. The survey proven the majority of respondent felt that the federal government has successfully creating recognition on the "Satu Malaysia" concept among the country, but this concept is not completely accepted by all the Malaysians.
As we realize, mainstream media employed by government to make awareness on the main one Malaysia principle, and used on enhance the approval of the idea by the citizen of Malaysia. Mainstream advertising plays an important role to provide information, report media and instruct the audience about authorities policies, especially in the pluralism population like Malaysia. Mainstream press do not identify between our residents on the basis of their track record or ethnic source, the media generally deliver the meaning in the different dialects like Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese language, Tamil and English. For instance, there are different stations in mainstream TV channels to transmit the news programs with different dialects, even the One Malaysia programs likewise have different version of dialects. This is to ensure all the citizens can receive the information that they can simply to understand.
The mainstream mass media in Malaysia like RTM, Press Prima and Bernama are controlled by federal, and the alternative marketing like MalaysiaKini along with the Insider are the popular information site to article the unvarnished news and event in Malaysia. Athough the alternative media occupy the tiny section of advertising in Malaysia, it still have a tons of audience an supporter compare to the mainstream press.
Mainstream press used to market the main one Malaysia concept, for example the papers as tools to publish Malaysian federal government propaganda. Every day, there are extensive newspapers released mainly in Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese, Tamil and British, almost all of them are government-controlled. Mainstream newspapers report on every stunts of the main one Malaysia policy and emphasis only on the benefit for the idea and jobs, it never reveal or concentrate on the negative side of the policy. For instance One Malaysia store, one of the task by KARISMA. If the job was finally launched, the mainstream newspapers mostly report about how the 1M store may benefit to resident and establish it as headline or supply the news a broad space in layout, however when the criticism come up because of the low quality of 1 Malaysia's products, magazine only publish out the news with small space or never look. It shows the mainstream multimedia are partial in support of shows what they would like to show and filtered the important info before publish out.
Another example like RTM, local tv channels certified to broadcast in Malaysia, it employed by government to market the insurance policy too. TV train station will broadcast the videos about One Malaysia strategy, including the one Malaysia's advertisement. For every important day like Merdeka's Day, TV will Keep demonstrating the One Malaysia Merdeka advert and "Satu Malaysia" theme track to produce a strong impressive on the audience. Besides, mainstream mass media will article about the major event of just one 1 Malaysia that happen around, including the Sitiawan's Chinese language New year Open House. This CNY event was live broadcasted through RTM1, and it effectively gets a wide coverage in Malaysia and even the reporter of CCTV from China taken care of make a live statement. This event is designed for the CNY special event and help to foster unity among the many races in Malaysia, by showing this event on Television, it help to promote the One Malaysia concept and to gain support from the chinese language community, so that the One Malaysia concept can be generally accepted in region.
Nowadays, mainstream advertising especially free to air TV channels and radio place now losing a sizable numbers of audiences and readers, the trustworthiness of mainstream press was suspected. People won't totally recognize the announcements of mainstream advertising before verify the reality through online. Most Malaysians are now become more polite and wiser to tell apart the facts, people start to search information through online, plus they verify and confirm the reality before accepting the reality. One of the hot matters was the censored reports of Bersih 3. 0 on 28th Apr 2012. The British isles Broadcasting Organization (BBC) and ASTRO (Malaysian pay Television set train station) broadcasted both different version of media, the BBC's original broadcast been censored and the interview of the respondent about Bersih 3. 0 filtered by Astro. This video clip will not seem on the mainstream multimedia programs like RTM1. Astro is not government-owned advertising, but it is indirectly control by the government. This shows that the majority of the advertising in Malaysia have no freedom, the reporting is incorrect and be biased towards one aspect which is the dominating group.
In my own opinion, however the mainstream media occupy almost all of the press space in Malaysia, it isn't powerful enough to change people head and effect on the habit of citizens, this probably due to distortion of real truth and biasness of mainstream mass media. Nowadays, increasing numbers of people start to tone out and express themselves in cyberspace. It shows the influential power of sociable networking sites. The example of interpersonal networking sites like facebook, blog, twitter and YouTube are actually becoming the source to get media and information, especially the unvarnished news. Most people said that the mainstream press tell lies and incomplete, they rather imagine the alternative advertising rather than biased reporting.
According to the limited results theory by Lazarsfeld, marketing aren't powerful enough to impact on individuals which is also known as limited effect perspective. He also claims that the heavy press users were the person whose advice was being presented by others. Thus, the heavy mass media users will become the gatekeepers and view leaders. Opinion market leaders used to advice the enthusiasts which is later known as the two step move.
The Prime Minister in Malaysia, Dato Sri Najib Razak as the judgment leader and also a heavy media user, he created an online site called "1Malaysia" with a tagline " The Personal Website of Dato'Sri Najib Razak" to give a place for open up discussion and also to encourage the popularity of One Malaysia idea by the residents of Malaysia. The website now become one of the mainstream multimedia in Malaysia, it always shows at the top of Google page for the keywords "One Malaysia". He comprehends the influential electricity of internet, as well as the less popular of mainstream mass media, he began to be a part of sociable networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and blog, many of these sites have gathered over an incredible number of followers. Our Leading Minister become the opinion leader not limited to the true life but also in the cyberspace, this is one of the ways he used to promote the main one Malaysia idea and impact his followers. This is known as two step circulation. The message about One Malaysia idea share from mainstream advertising in Malaysia can easily reach to audience but this does not indicate the mainstream mass media can influence visitors to accept the policy, the most influential things is the thought of opinion leader rather than mainstream multimedia. Another example like the critic or commenter who bombard the biasness of mainstream press will be looked at as the nation hero and judgment innovator, for example Namwee. He has an enormous of fans on facebook, he act as the opinion innovator to critic the biasness of mass media and also the BN politicians. His judgment could effect his fans because people craving of experiencing the actual real truth about the federal government leaders and insurance policies.
According to Lazarsfeld, advertising rarely had power to change people mind because it is nearly always mediated by the individual differences. Individual influences in subconscious make ups cause press influence to vary from person to person. Everyone has different ideas, mainstream press only can deliver the information or information of 1 Malaysia concept to the citizens but not powerful enough to effect people decision, and make people agree to to the idea. It is because audiences have the right to choose what things to expose, this is recognized as selective process.
The selective process, information that is inconsistent with a person already held attitudes will generate psychological discomfort or cognitive dissonance. People generally work to keep their understanding of themselves and their understanding of the world somewhat constant via selective processes. People have a tendency to enough time cognitive dissonance after determined. Thus people will avoid the reality that can prove the decision was wrong, so the more potential dissonance, the more we tend to avoid. People will denial and pretend that they never seen the data. Because of men and women have right to choose what to expose in mainstream media's text messages, the main one Malaysia concept cannot be completely accepted by the individuals. The mainstream marketing in Malaysia keep promoting the concept, but this policy might not the ideal policy for some of the people, they can make to refuse the subject matter or choose to keep in mind some part of the principle they like. Within the selective process, there are three form of selectivity, for example the selective publicity, selective retention as well as the selective retention.
Selective visibility, people have a tendency to expose themselves to information that same to their pre-existing attitudes and belief. For example, the mainstream TV station RTM1 broadcast the main one Malaysia program, audiences can choose never to watch this program and switch to some other channels if they don't buy into the notion or not interested to the information. This is because they obey to their subconscious and don't want to change the pre-existing belief.
Selective retention, people tend to remember the best and interested text messages that are most meaningful to them. For example, the mainstream multimedia keep showing the benefit of One Malaysia's assignments, the IPT students only choose to keep in mind the stunts of 1 Malaysia Siswa Credit card (KADS1M), because this project is benefit to them and help them to reduce the daily cost of living, they only pay attention and accept the subject matter that can satisfy their requirements.
Selective belief, people changes the meaning of messages in order that they become steady with pre-existing attitudes and belief. For example, When multimedia shows the advertisements of 1Malaysia store and promote the products, audience will think purchasing 1M'product is a ridiculous action because in their pre-existing belief One Malaysia products are low quality and they never consider to get those products. These three forms of selectivity show mass media cannot control how audience think, how audience take action and even allow to the main one Malaysia concept.
The ways the mainstream mass media are used to market the approval of the One Malaysia concept effectively creating awareness on the list of Malaysian, but this will not mean that people are completely admit the idea and support the idea of the policy. As everybody knows, the mainstream press actually under handled by the prominent group, the government plus the Barisan National. No-one dare to eject or deny the government policy, they remain silence since they have no flexibility to speak out the idea, and they frighten to bear the results of against administration so they choose to declare it, including the preventive detention laws. So people continue to be silence because they think their views are in minority but in fact there may be no person to speak out their impression. Based on the Spiral of Silence theory by Neumann (1974), a people view control the general public scene and others disappeared from the general public consciousness as it adherents became silent. People concern with being isolation and know very well what actions and behaviours should try avoid their probability of being socially isolated. For example, some people have a tendency to keep their negative judgment toward the federal government coverage to themselves when they think they can be in the minority. This context is called "Spiral of Silence".
In realization, mainstream advertising in Malaysia are not powerful enough to change people mind, but it do have certain impact. Therefore, under the assumption of both step movement process, selective process, and the Spiral of Silence theory, the messages of the mainstream mass media would not be able to reach the resident directly. Thus, the effect of the mainstream multimedia in Malaysia is recognized as limited effect. In my opinion, the federal government has effectively creating understanding on the plan among the residents of Malaysia through the mainstream media, however, not the approval of the concept. The completely approval of the concept among region might happen when there is no partial and biased information from the mainstream multimedia, if media tend to be more control by the dominant group, the less trust of Malaysia's citizens can provide to the mainstream mass media.
