Non-Verbal Communication in the Context of Social Presence in Virtual Space

Studies related to non-verbal communication in virtual space need to be explored as a result of changes in communication processes that largely rely on online interaction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Undoubtedly, it has extended the scope of understanding an individual’s virtual presence and the effectiveness of non-verbal communication practices. In this study, non-verbal communication is explored in the process of online teaching and learning. Social Presence Theory has been used in understanding the practice of lecturers to establish relationships through their virtual presence and build closeness with students during online teaching and learning. In-depth interviews were conducted with a total of ten students of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). This study has found that lecturers can establish relationships and closeness with students through non-verbal communication cues such as kinesic, proxemic, chronemic, and paralinguistic. Lecturers who practice effective non-verbal communication enable a positive effect on students in terms of motivation to learn, focus in learning sessions, create interest in understanding topics, and feel at ease in learning. However, the lecturers' non-verbal communication has had a negative effect if the lecturer is unable to build a good relationship especially in terms of chronemic and facial expressions cues. It will cause students to be unmotivated and experience emotional stress. In conclusion, non-verbal communication is still vital in the process of establishing a social presence and building relationships even online. The practice of non-verbal communication during the individual social presence in virtual space needs to be explored in other contexts such as in organisations. Keywords: Non-verbal communication, online learning, qualitative, Social Presence Theory, Covid-19.

Language Impoliteness among Indonesians on Twitter

The presence of technology changes the way humans communicate in cyberspace compared to the real world. “Hootsuite We are social” research in January 2019 showed that there are approximately 150 million social media users in Indonesia or 56% of the total population. There has been an increase of 20 million social media users in Indonesia compared to last year. The extensive use of social media, including Twitter, is changing the news production platform. News is not only produced by mass media, but potentially by everyone who can produce reports, shape public opinion, and create a virtual society. This condition has a destructive power because it can quickly spread and provoke powerful emotions and heated discourse. This paper discusses the characteristics of Indonesian language impoliteness on Twitter using qualitative research methods. The data were collected from Twitter statuses of Indonesian users in 2018. The analysis showed that impoliteness in speech and language occurs because of the ideology and power of each speaker. The impolite speech in this research related to the impoliteness nuanced with contempt to ethnicity, religion, race, and to a social group. The impoliteness nuanced with insult to ethnicity was 20% of our observed samples, while impoliteness nuanced with religious contempt was 25.1%; impoliteness related to race was 18.3%; and impoliteness toward social groups was 36.6%. The impoliteness is also often caused by the stimulation of the occurring social and political causes at that time. Keywords: Impoliteness, contempt of ethnicity, religion, race, social groups.

Communication Strategy Analysis of COVID-19 Pandemic’s Public Service Announcement (PSA) Production

Communication through media is one of the most important aspects if a country faces a health crisis such as a pandemic. One of the mediums that are often used is via the production of public service announcements or PSA. PSA is a short video lasting between 30 to 120 seconds, communicating to large-scale audiences for social behaviour changes. However, certain PSA will be considered a failure if the audience ignores or does not understand the message. When Malaysia faces a health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the PSA barely emphasises the aspects of behavioural balance, message recall, and the aesthetic of message presentation. Thus, this paper aims to discuss the mode of presentation and styles in 30 public service announcements related to COVID-19 in MyHealth’s YouTube channel under the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) from January to June 2020. The preliminary finding shows that most PSAs used 2D animation production techniques by representing the real scenarios and situations faced by the Malaysian to facilitate the audience's understanding of the message. Overall, PSA's presentation style on COVID-19 in Malaysia emphasises the balance between the importance of message and communication strategy with five phases in the theory of audience behavioural change. Keywords: Public service announcement, media production, crisis communication, pandemic, COVID-19.

Online Opinion Leaders in the Health Promotion Digital Era

Health opinion leaders have widely embraced social media for health promotion and public health communication which can make a strong influence on the public decision making. However, despite the growing relevance of public health threats such as infectious diseases, pandemic influenza and natural disasters, research has paid little attention to the qualities of opinion leaders. Moreover, there is limited evidence that public health organisations use social media appropriately to engage in meaningful conversations with audiences. Thus, the aims of the study are to describe principles of communication practised by online opinion leaders to promote health issues, to discuss the strategies of social media used, to explain the opinion leaders’ influence attributes in health decision making and finally to develop a model of online opinion leader in the contemporary health promotion era. Content analysis was conducted on Facebook postings of five selected health opinion leaders. In addition, semi-structured interviews with 10 followers were conducted. The findings of the study revealed that there are three principles of communication practised by online opinion leaders, which are language, interaction and themes. There are three strategies opinion leaders use to influence the public: social connectivity, social support and social consultation. Furthermore, there are five opinion leaders’ attributes that influence the public’s decision making, namely personality, authenticity, trust/credibility, professional knowledge and social position. The model would be beneficial in educating and guiding the current public health opinion leaders in order to establish health and social well-being. Keywords: Online opinion leader, online health communication, public health, two-step flow theory, decision making.

The Influence of Charismatic Leadership Communication Towards the Credibility of Public Organisation in Malaysia

The credibility of public organisation as the source of information often receives negative intuition and misinterpretation from the public at large. Since credibility of public organisation is very much related to public trust, scholars have focused on antecedents of organisational credibility such as leadership constructs to restore trust and confidence among the public. Yet not much research has investigated the role of charismatic leadership communication in building and establishing organisational credibility of the public organisation. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between charismatic leadership communication and the influence of its three dimensions (task oriented, enthusiasm and empathy) with organisational credibility of public organisation in Malaysia. This study employed a quantitative approach to measure participants' perception on their organisational leadership communication and credibility. A total of 368 public organisation employees which were selected through stratified random sampling participated in the survey. The hypothesis of this study was tested using Pearson correlation to examine the relationship between the constructs, whereas multiple regression was used to examine the variance of each dimension of charismatic leadership communication on organisational credibility. The finding reveals that there is a significant relationship between charismatic leadership communication and public organisation credibility, while task-oriented communication appears to be the most significant dimension influencing the credibility of Malaysia public organisation. The implication of the study suggested that public organisational credibility is influenced by the way the information was delivered by the organisation through its charismatic leaders. Theoretical and practical contributions were advanced in this study. Keywords: Charismatic leadership communication, empathy, enthusiasm, task-related communication, organizational credibility.

Analisis Fenomenologi Khalayak Sinema Tamil Malaysia

Sinema Tamil tempatan merupakan sebahagian daripada industri perfileman nasional. Pengaruh sinema ini dilihat mula berkembang sejak beberapa tahun kebelakangan ini sehingga berjaya mencapai kutipan pecah panggung menerusi Vedigundu Passange arahan Dr. Vimala Perumal. Namun, cabaran industri ini bukanlah disebabkan statusnya sebagai sinema minoriti, tetapi perlu bersaing dengan industri perfileman India khususnya Kollywood yang bertaraf global dan sentiasa dijadikan ukuran perbandingan. Tujuan utama makalah ini ialah untuk mengimbau dan memahami sikap dan pengalaman penontonan filem-filem berbahasa Tamil dalam kalangan khalayak masyarakat India di negara ini. Pendekatan fenomenologi telah digunakan sebagai panduan untuk melakukan penelitian tentang bagaimana khalayak membina pengetahuan, kesedaran dan pengalaman individu selaku subjek yang menonton filem-filem Tamil tempatan dan Kollywood. Menggunakan kaedah temubual berfokus, dapatan kajian dapat dirumuskan dalam 3 aspek: pertama, khalayak sinema Tamil tempatan hari ini majoritinya ‘mendewasa’ dengan keetnikan Tamilnadu atau jingoisme Bollywood dan masih bergelut untuk menerima kelainan dan inovasi pada naratologi, sinematografi, penataan muzik atau seni lakon, dan penggunaan teknologi komputer dan kesan khas; kedua, khalayak sinema Tamil tempatan dilihat mula menyedari fungsi Bahasa Tamil dan Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil sebagai penanda keetnikan masyarakat Tamil; dan ketiga, pendekatan fenomenologi telah mendedahkan walaupun kesedaran dan afiniti kolektif khalayak tempatan telah dibina oleh imaginari ‘tanah leluhur’ secara signifikan, mereka komited untuk membuktikan daya ketahanan mereka dalam menghadapi pengaruh imaginari berdiaspora itu. Kesimpulannya, sikap ambivalen dalam kalangan khalayak filem Tamil negara ini mungkin terbentuk dari imaginari ketamilan yang global. Mereka seharusnya turut sedar akan implikasi daripada konstruksi dan konsumsi imaginari ini ke atas payung kebudayaan negara ini. Kata kunci: Diaspora, keetnikan, Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil, sinema Tamil, vernakular.

Cultural Sensitivity Health Communication Model: An Exploration Among Young Muslims in Malaysia

The issue of health is one of the problems that not only involves science, but its intervention is rooted in society. The World Health Organization (WHO) in one of its reports acknowledged that cultural factors play a role in health behaviours. Generally, the study of the relationship between religion and behaviour has long been established. However, looking at that aspect from the point of view of health communication is considered relatively new. The extent to which aspects of religious values such as Islam influenced health promotion efforts should be identified in line with the development of Islam as one the most growing religions. Using the focus group method, this paper explores Islamic values and elements in health promotion to eight Muslim youth groups in Malaysia. Focused group interviews of eight groups with a total of 40 participants were analysed using thematic analysis methods with the support of NVivo software. This finding first elaborates on the conceptualisation of Islamic health communication. The concept of divinity has a great influence in promoting health. In addition, elements such as religious references, goals and the role of life in Islam also contribute to the formation of a health communication framework based on Islamic values. Secondly, the findings of the study also explain how these religious elements contribute to the changes in health behaviour. Through these findings, an Islamic health communication model has been proposed. The results of this study have developed an empirical understanding of cultural sensitivity in health communication practices. Keywords: Health promotion, health education, religion-based communication, cultural sensitivity, Islamic communication.

Media Framing on 2018 General Election: A Comparative Content Analysis on Newspapers Coverage Toward Political Parties in Malaysia

This article explores the mainstream media favorability towards political parties in the context of newspaper coverage in Malaysia during the 14th general election in 2018 (GE-14). The newspapers selected for this study are three Malay, two English, two Mandarin and two Tamil newspapers namely: 'Utusan Malaysia,' 'Berita Harian', 'Sinar Harian', 'New Straits Times', 'The Star', 'Nanyang Siang Pau', 'Sin Chew Daily', 'Nanban' and 'Osai'. The background of the newspapers was explored in order to understand the ownerships and approaches in covering the news about GE-14. This study was carried out in two separate phases, in which the data were derived from both periods before and after the GE-14. The data were classified into few categories based on reports on Barisan Nasional (BN), Pakatan Harapan (PH), Gagasan Sejahtera (GS) through the frequencies and percentages of the positive, negative, and neutral forms of coverage. The result of this study implies that in 2018, most of the mainstream media reporting was pro-government, which attributed to the linkage to political parties. Surprisingly, the unprecedented victory of the opposition can be seen to relate to the growth of positive coverage towards Pakatan Harapan, subsequently after the general election. Through content analysis of these selected newspapers, the author discussed gender-related coverage and general issues during the chosen period of the study. Keywords: Mainstream media, media ownership, political partisanship, general election, Malaysia.

Exploratory Factor Analysis for SME Entrepreneur Subjective Norm Instrument towards e-Commerce Acceptance during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic that has hit the world since the end of 2019 has resulted in the contraction of the country’s SMEs economic activities. To maintain business continuity, SME entrepreneurs have been advised to apply e-Commerce in their business routine. Throughout the crisis, subjective norms are seen as a dominant element in determining the implementation of SME entrepreneurial behaviour to accept new changes. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the factors that influence the subjective norms of SME entrepreneurs to accept e-Commerce. Despite this necessity, the delineation of the subjective norms constructed is still not comprehensive as there are limitations in terms of instrument development and the number of items to measure social influence. Hence, this study was conducted to explore item suitability, analyse the degree of validity and reliability as well as to validate the instrument for SMEs' subjective norms toward e-Commerce acceptance behaviour. A total of 159 SME entrepreneurs around Nilai and Seremban, Negeri Sembilan were selected as the respondents through random sampling technique. The results from Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) revealed two component factors of subjective norms which are Interpersonal Influence and External Influence explaining 81.981 percent of the total variance as conceptualised through this instrument. Meanwhile, the reliability index was above 0.9. Based on each analysis performed, it can be concluded that the instrument developed was very satisfactory and relevant in assessing SME entrepreneur subjective norms in accepting e-Commerce. Keywords: Subjective norms, exploratory factor analysis, e-Commerce, COVID-19, SME entrepreneurs.

Hatenography: An Analysis of Hate Speech on Facebook in 2019 Indonesian Presidential Campaign

This article discusses hate speech on Facebook from two groups of supporters for the presidential candidates in the 2019 Presidential Election in Indonesia. The study used a virtual ethnography approach to analyze cultural groups or communities through their conversations on the Facebook platform. Data collection was conducted by observing and collecting words, phrases, and sentences in the Official Facebook account of two presidential candidates in the 2019 Presidential Election and statements of both presidential and vice-presidential candidates in 2019. In addition, researchers also observed three voluntary group accounts for each candidate. Therefore, the total number of accounts observed was eight. Data was analysed with Nvivo 12+ to obtain statistics on the strength of the chosen speech word and the dominant phrase or word that appears. The result shows that specific phrases or terms to intimidate each supporter of both parties in massive numbers appeared in the form of hate speech during the campaign. The purpose of the hate speech is to insult/humiliate, intimidate or accuse others of doing something inappropriate or evil (accusation which involves sarcasm and foul language directed to the opponent. Candidates also provoked each other by accusing the other party of being stupid, disgusting, pathetic, ugly, and retarded. The implication was that hate speech has disunited the public on the social media space. Accusing and attaching bad characters to other groups through hate speech has strengthened inter-group stereotypes and formed an unhealthy democratic climate. Keywords: Provocation, hate speech, verbal message, virtual ethnography, communication.