Abstract: The launch of the 1Malaysia concept in 2009 was part of the Malaysian government’s holistic effort in transforming and branding the country by stressing on the multicultural features of the country with the aims of building a united and progressive nation. The 1Malaysia concept is built upon the foundation of Malaysia Federal Constitution various laws and policies, the Rukun Negara, Vision 2020 and the national mission. Regardless of the wide publicity received by the 1Malaysian concept, there has been very little research on the modes of communication used in promoting the concept. Thus, this study attempted to explore how the youngsters, specifically the secondary school students learned about the 1Malaysia concept and which modes of communication were found to be most effective for them. Questionnaires were distributed to 2200 secondary school students in Malaysia using stratified random sampling method. The findings showed that secondary school students learned about the 1Malaysia concept through television, newspapers, magazines and internet. Newspapers, magazine and radio were ranked as top three most effective modes of communication for the dissemination of the 1Malaysia concept. Majority of the students agreed that media plays an important role in disseminating information on the 1Malaysia concept. However, they felt that media only plays a neutral role in influencing their behaviour towards other ethnics in Malaysia. Thus, it is hoped that the findings from this study will serve as a platform for the 1Malaysia campaign planning unit to reassess their current stand and formulate future strategies to further enhance the acceptance of 1Malaysia among the youngsters.
Keywords: 1Malaysia, Media, Branding.
Title: The Influence of Media in Branding the 1Malaysia Concept from the Perspective of Secondary School Students in Malaysia
Author: Siti Maziha Mustapha, Amli Hazlin Ahmad Mokhtar, Suhida Hani Suid, Farrah Alwani Hamzah, Dil Froz Jan
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3164 (online), ISSN 2348-3156 (Print)
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