Muslim communication academicians and writers had been calling for portraying Islam in drama. This call has been answered by some directors and producers who attempted to produce drama about Islam. However, these attempts are facing criticism due to misportrayal of the original characters in the drama produced. The objectives of this study are to identify the main characters of The Message and to test the authenticity of the portrayal of the characters of The Message. The main finding of the study is that the characters of The Message were misportrayed. The misportrayal took place on the psychological dimension of the characters. Some of the Muslim characters were degraded, while some non-Muslim characters were elevated. The misportrayal of the characters lies in their voice tone that shows Muslims as barbaric and hegemonic on the first hand, while on the other hand non-Muslims are portrayed as wise and logical people.

iPad merupakan sebuah peranti yang direka hasil gabungan komputer dan tablet. Kegunaannya semakin meluas dan meliputi pelbagai urusan sama ada di pejabat dan sekolah ataupun untuk beraktiviti santai seperti bermain permainan video atau melayari internet. Peranti ini turut dijadikan medium untuk menimba ilmu di sekolah seawal tahun 2010 sebagai satu alat bantuan pembelajaran dan pengajaran di sekolah-sekolah terpilih di Malaysia. Kajian ini dijalankan untuk melihat keberkesanan penggunaan iPad dalam kalangan pelajar sekolah menengah dengan menggunakan kaedah kualitatif iaitu temubual separa struktur. Oleh kerana ini adalah kajian awal, para penyelidik hanya menemubual dua orang guru dari setiap sekolah iaitu Sekolah Menengah Imtiaz Ulul Albab, Melaka dan Kolej Genius Insan, Nilai yang menggunakan iPad dalam pembelajaran dan pengajaran mereka. Antara persoalan yang akan dijawab dalam kajian ini termasuklah kebaikan dan keburukan penggunaan iPad dalam kalangan pelajar, rutin penggunaan iPad dalam pembelajaran dan pengajaran sepanjang waktu sekolah, dan cabaran menimba ilmu barakah dengan peranti teknologi komunikasi yang terkini. Artikel ini merupakan ringkasan hasil dapatan awal kajian yang masih sedang berjalan. Hasil temubual awal menunjukkan penggunaan iPad di kedua buah sekolah ini menjadikan pembelajaran lebih efektif dan memudahkan guru-guru berinteraksi untuk menyampaikan maklumat, nota dan tugasan kepada semua murid.

Campus radio or college radio is a non-commercial community-based radio, used as a training platform for university students. However, some campus radio were perceived as unproductive and managed unsystematically. Thus, leading to the campus community’s low interest in tuning in to the campus radio channel. This article addresses the challenges and measures taken in sustaining the broadcast of campus radio programmes. What kind of constraints does campus radio in Malaysia and Indonesia universities faced and the form of approaches they adopted to ensure the continuation of operation? In-depth interviews with ten members of production team across four campus radio stations in Malaysia and Indonesia were gathered. One of the key result highlights that financial constraints are central to the management of campus radio. The sense of belonging to their “alma mater‟, enticed participation among university alumni, which subsequently, contribute to the sustainability of campus radio in Malaysia and Indonesia. Programmes are mainly for generating knowledge and educational purposes. Programme content was reformed to suit funding and station promotion strategies to elevate radio listenership.

This paper proposes a model of human management developed from a qualitative research project carried out between 2016 and 2019. The project involved a total number of 100 participants who work with television and new media industries in Malaysia. These participants include 14 managers, 46 creative production workers, 30 production workers (technical), and 10 participants representing policymakers. The model was built upon a four-layer conceptual framework comprising analyses of (i) organisation, (ii) policy, (iii) production community and (iv) product/text. In doing so, we examined how these media production workers manage and balance between their; (i) personal, emotional, (ii) religious-spiritual and (iii) professional life. The study also identifies systematic approaches to managing the challenges faced by Muslims media professionals. A model of human management proposed by this project takes into consideration of elements, such as (i) organisational culture, (ii) values, (iii) leadership, (iv) workplace policy and also, such meanings as (i) ‘being human,’ (ii) ‘humanised workplace,’ and (iii) ‘doing good work.

Work and the environment of today's human life often cause stress. Media convergence has changed the media industries, which in turn, acquires new technological systems, organisational structure and patterns of production processes. Changes in the way we work in today's digital technology era continue to create work stress. One of the industries associated with extreme work stress is the creative media industry. A working culture based on business profit orientation had always been about productivity in producing creative ideas and creative products. Unfortunately, there may not be many employers who are particular about ensuring workers' mental and emotional health as part of their efforts to inculcate employee productivity. Therefore, this paper seeks to identify factors affecting the wellbeing of media workers in Malaysia, the extent to which these factors shape their wellbeing, and how these media workers manage such challenges. The qualitative research approach was executed through an online interview to collect data among media workers of several electronic and print media. Data were analysed using thematic analysis approach. The findings had identified factors influencing the wellbeing of media workforce and strategies to manage pressures within media work environment. Factors relating to production management, workplace policy, organisational leadership and technology transformation constraint are the challenges faced by Malaysian media practitioners affecting their wellbeing.

The humanwill always expose with various diseases. In nature, they will find a suitable medicine for the particular disease. They can get the medicine either from the conventional medical center such as clinic or hospital, or through the alternative medical center such as the Islamic medical center or etc. In the Malaysian context, the Muslim community preferred to choose the Islamic medical approach to cure the disease, especially after they failed to recover from the treatment given by the conventional medical center. This study was conducted to describe the concept of Islamic medicine from the perspective of Islamic Akidah and Sharia. This study believes that the Islamic Akidah and Sharia should be the foundation for the Islamic medical approach, which has been ignored by the few Islamic Medical Center. This study also was conducted to identify the method and the implementation of Islamic medical at the Islamic Medical Center. To answer the previous objectives, a case study has been conducted. The case study was analyzed based on Al-Quran, hadis and the opinion of the Islamic scholars. The data for this study was collected from 24 Islamic Medical Center in Selangor. This study reveals that the of Islamic medical still needs for standard guideline to ensure the professionalism in this field.

This special edition compiles a collection of papers presented at International Conference on Islamic Higher Education (SeIPTI) 2018 organised by Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) on 25 to 26 November 2018. SeIPTI is a conference that groups scholars to discuss issues pertaining to Islamic higher education. The fifth conference this year brings about the theme of “Barakah Campus”. Under this theme, various issues have been discussed including the concept of barakah in universities and wider topics that are not confined to merely discussions on Islamic higher education but also broader debates on developments related to Islam in various fields in different kinds of organisations. Hence, this special edition highlights the theme, “Developments in Potential Fields in Achieving Barakah”.

Research on media representation on Islam and Muslims have been carried out widely in the post 9/11 tragedy from a cultural, religion, political and social group lens. However, this paper discusses a science fiction film, Interstellar (2014), directed by Christopher Nolan. It is a film about space exploration by a group of scientists in their quest to find a new planet for humankind to replace the earth. The film portrays scenes of the scientists travelling into places in space - the wormhole and other potential planets for a living. Apart from highlighting space and its discovery journey from the perspective of modern science, this film can also be explored from the perspective of Islam. Many scenes in the movie represent and translate what Allah SWT has thought of Muslims through verses in the al-Quran. What are the scenes, and how does it relate to verses in the Quran? This paper uses qualitative content analysis to highlight selected verses of Kauniyah (verses explaining about Allah’s creation of the universe and its system) in the al-Quran as evidence that reflects the truth of al-Quran and the Islamic teachings. The findings are highlighted based on the relationship of scenes containing this evidence in the film with the verses in the Quran and their meanings.

This article examines how Islam is being represented in Malaysian comedy films: Syurga Cinta/Paradise of Love (Ahmad Idham, 2009) and Ustaz, Mu Tunggu Aku Datang!/Ustaz, I’m Coming! (Pierre Andre, 2013). As one of a popular genre in film, comedy and its comical narratives has the ability to critique social, cultural and political conditions within the specific context of Malaysia. Using film narrative analysis, this study identifies that both films revolve around a similar plot of a male quest for haram (forbidden) obsessions, such as fortune or women, and a return to morality (i.e. humility and true love). As these comedies attempt to illuminate the intersection between religion and comical narrative, the way they feature the main characters are not simply as sinful or immoral. Rather, they are portrayed as misguided, but equally amusing in dealing with misfortune and wrongfulness. This article found that the central element of both films lies in its incongruity between the traditional Islamic principle and trajectories which against morality. Besides the call for morality, this article also argues that Malaysian comedy is also shaped in response to the Islamisation of the public sphere, thus, underlines the ‘re-imagine social life’ within the Malay (sian)-Muslim context.

The spiritual Islamic medical has a significant contribution to the Muslim community. It was regarded as a basic for Islamic medical. It has been introduced by the prophet Muhammad SAW, which implemented till now by the Islamic scholars. The Muslim community were interested with this approach. However, there are still ambiguity among them in regard to originality of the spiritual Islamic medical. Therefore, this study was conducted to explore this issue in the context of Malaysia. In specific, this study examine the relationship between akidah, sharia and Islamic medical. In addition, this study was conducted to investigate the implementation of Islamic medical, in order to decrease the ambiguity among the society toward the Islamic medical. To achieve the objectives of this study, a case study was conducted. This study reveals that the ambiguity among the society toward the Islamic medical is because of miss understanding in akidah and sharia. Another reason is because the Islamic medical practitioners not emphasize on akidah and sharia during the implementation of Islamic medical.

Perkembangan kehidupan moden hari ini mendorong manusia menggunakan teknologi komunikasi dan maklumat (TKM) untuk melaksanakan tugas harian. Atas kesedaran ini, kerajaan telah berusaha gigih untuk meningkatkan mutu pendidikan negara yang diintegrasikan dengan kemajuan teknologi bagi melahirkan rakyat yang mampu bersaing dalam arus globalisasi masa kini. Pelbagai kemudahan pendidikan berasaskan teknologi baru dan canggih disediakan tanpa mengira latarbelakang, bangsa dan agama. Islam juga menggalakkan umatnya mencari ilmu pengetahuan demi kebaikan ummah sejagat. Kertas kerja ini membincangkan mengenai kepentingan kefahaman dan kemahiran TKM yang dapat meningkatkan status kehidupan umat Islam ke arah melahirkan masyarakat berpengetahuan. Penggunaan TKM dalam proses pelaksanaan strategi dalam pelbagai bidang adalah sesuatu yang sukar dilepaskan bagi mengembalikan kemakmuran dan kedaulatan umat Islam di seluruh dunia.

Working in an eco-system that dominantly targeting at wealth creation often force workers to face many forms of pressure and sacrifices. The situations worsen in the private sector of media industry as media workers in creative industries work for long exhaustive hours that leads to imbalance and unhealthy lifestyle including emotional wellbeing, which in the long run involved in serious health issues. This paper therefore intends to find out the influence of eco-system of a workplace influencing Muslim media practitioners� wellbeing. To what extend does the environment at a workplace influence Muslim media practitioners� life and job performance. How do they negotiate the environment, their work and religious life at workplace? Interviews among Muslim media managers in Malaysia discovered that leadership, time management, and work culture are key factors ensuring healthy eco-system for Muslim media workers in creative media industries.

Film is a medium that depicts human activities. It visually portrays ideology and culture as well as empowers knowledge and the understanding of civilisation. The most concern is about the misrepresentation of media content, particularly concerning Islam and Muslims in films. The Message (1977, dir. Moustapha al-Akkad) is one of many made-in–Hollywood films that portray Islam and Muslims livelihood in Mecca during the revelation era of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and His migration from Mecca to Madinah. This paper intends to focus on how Islam is being represented in this film and how it portrays Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his companions. The main question that this paper attempts to answer is: are the actions and incidents of The Message film authentically portrayed? Identification of scenes containing actions and key incidents were done through the lens of content analysis. Based on the analysis of key incidents, findings indicate that the film supports the propaganda against Islam that Islam is a terrorist religion and Muslims are aggressors.

There is a lot of mental health cases among teenagers were reported in the mass media recently. With the on-going pressure and stressful school life, family issues and peers relationship resulted in teenagers exposed to mental health problems like depression and extreme worries. Therefore, a creative initiative needed to give awareness to the public concerning this conflict faced by teenagers. This conceptual paper shares some initiatives taken by mass media and new media in creating awareness to teenagers and the public about the importance of recognizing the symptoms and methods to handle mental health issues among teenagers. This paper will also evaluate how the initiative applied is suitable and able to attract public attention in order to lessen the stigma and prejudice towards teenagers with mental health issues. A conclusion obtained from this literature research will be presented for potential future research.

Mutakhir ini pengaruh teknologi hebat menekan pemilik dan para pengamal media untuk bergerak seiring bagi memastikan kelestarian kandungan media dan perniagaan syarikat. Jika kesan konvergen penyiaran televisyen dan jalur lebar internet telah menghapuskan sempadan antara siaran televisyen dengan internet, pengaruh teknologi digital telah mengubah siaran media khususnya terhadap penjadualan program media, pengagihan kandungan, model perniagaan dan tingkahlaku pengguna. Penggunaan teknologi digital juga mengubah tren proses penerbitan kandungan media konvensional mahupun digital. Beberapa media tempatan dilihat sudah memperkenalkannya dalam proses kerja iaitu dari sudut pemilihan isi kandungan berita, penyuntingan, pemaparan visual dan penyampaian kepada khalayak. Walau bagaimanapun, sesetengah pihak berpandangan bahawa teknologi kepintaran buatan (AI) ini mampu 'membunuh' wartawan, jurukamera, serta editor and teknologi yang meliputi keseluruhan proses menerbitan kandungan media seperti akhbar, rancangan televisyen dan video pendek dari sudut penghasilan karya asli, kreativiti dan kesan sosial kepada pengkarya dan pengamal media. Apakah pengaruh dan kesan perubahan dan perkembangan teknologi digital kepada industri media tempatan? Justeru kajian ini ingin meninjau pengaruh penggunaan teknologi digital khususnya teknologi kepintaran pembuatan (AI) dalam proses penerbitan media dalam kalangan pengamal media di syarikat media.

There have been a significant rise of local programs in TV stations in Malaysia. One form of the program that have been gaining interest is known as Islamic televangelism. Online focus groups discussion were conducted to understand audiences’ perception on Islamic televangelism programs. The interaction among these television audiences-turned-online followers revealed aspects of audience taste, audience segmentation and the use of social media. Findings illustrate that Muslim audiences in Malaysia are rather diverged due to a large amount of religious television programs. The diversity of the programs shown in television allows for audience to receive a variety of Islamic knowledge and contemporary religious issues. Muslim audiences now have access to an assortment religious programs with different hosts explaining and simplifying religious principles and practices. Caution, however, must be exercised when audiences display a rather intense preferences when acquiring religious knowledge through television. Unjustified reasons and obsessed emotions can interrupt the unity of Muslim society as whole and some form of vigilance should be observed for Islamic televangelism programs. Keywords: religious programs, Islam, television, Muslim audiences, Malaysia

Not much attention has been given to Islamic films produced in Malaysia. However, the role to spread dakwah through media is an obligation. In the effort to vary the medium of da’wah, a film is seen as an influential way that can be explored as film can be an interesting tool/medium to spread da’wah, rather than through the conventional preaching, books, magazine and others. To understand the role of film in spreading the da’wah, the researchers reviewed two different films produced which are; Bisik Pada Langit (2017) and Adiwiraku (2017). For the analysis purpose, a set of coding sheet is created to record the film plot. The storyline of each film was analysed quantitatively using content analysis method to determine the frequencies of Islamic values emerged in these films. As a result, this article introduces themes that can visualise the Islamic values as appeared in non-Islamic films. These themes can illustrate how the Islamic values have been portrayed in those films which eventually deliver a positive message to the society especially on Islamic teachings. Through this discovery, it proves that non-Islamic film has played a role as medium to enlighten Islamic images and teachings for the benefit of society. Most importantly, the correlation between non-Islamic films with Islamic teachings has been proven through these selected films. Keywords : Islamic values, non-Islamic film, media and dakwah, media representation

Like many countries, television enjoys a special interest among the society, even though information and communication technologies (ICT) have invaded the country. In 2010, the coverage of TV is about 75 percent of the population as compared to 77 percent of radio and 56 percent of newspapers. In the same year it was reported that adults spend 3.5 hours of watching TV per day as compared to 3 hours listening to radio and 2.4 hours engaging with Internet. The objectives of this paper are to examine the number of programs that were produced by TV stations in a week, and to identify the category of the programs produced by the stations. Data for this research was collected from published TV programs of the Free to Air (FTA) TV stations for a period of one week. Among others, the elements of TV program recorded were program genre, language, origin, duration of program, time of broadcast and target audience.The findings showed that each TV station has their own interest, target and focus in selecting and broadcasting TV programs to their audiences. Even though each TV station has fragmented their audience according to the language of TV programs, it is believed that the government’s effort to promote a harmony life in a multi-cultural society through TV programs is successful. Keywords: TV program, program genre, spiritual development, multicultural society.

Pihak berkuasa secara berterusan telah menangani ekstremise melalui kaedah penguatkuasaan undang-undang dan langkah-langkah reaktif. Kertas kerja ini merungkai pelaksanaan kaedah dalam menangani ekstremisme melalui persepktif naratif alternatif sebagai wadah yang perlu digerakkan seiring pendekatan reaktif (seperti rehabilitasi esktremis dan penguatkuasaan undang-undang). Kaedah naratif alternatif perlu dilihat sebagai usaha proaktif agar ekstremisme dapat ditangani dengan lebih menyeluruh. Dapatan kajian ini berasaskan temu bual mendalam yang dijalankan dengan pelbagai pihak termasuklah pakar anti-ekstremisme, ilmuwan agama, pakar bahasa, pakar tasawuf, wakil Polis Diraja Malaysia, pempengaruh media sosial, pencipta kandungan, menteri terdahulu di Jabatan Hal Ehwal Agama dan wakil pertubuhan bukan kerajaan. Gabungan pelbagai perspektif ini menyumbang kepada kefahaman menyeluruh tentang pendekatan dalam talian atau digital dan secara alternatif dalam menangani ekstremisme di Malaysia. Kajian ini menggunakan analisa tematik dan tema-tema utama dari dapatan kajian menunjukkan kepentingan klasifikasi audien, pendidikan dan kesedaran seiring dengan peranan media digital.

In Agricultural Extension Services (AES), radio plays a role in situational problems like insufficient information delivery. Radio not only helps farmers in acquiring information, but also creates a tendency for farmers to deal with informational interaction and to stay connected with the problem. For that reason, under structural governance reforms such as decentralisation, radio is expected to have an influence on farmers’ actual perception and opinion in minimising the problem when used in the AES informational delivery process. Drawing upon the Situational Theory Problem Solving (STOPS), this study seeks to determine the role of radio in problem solving (RIPS) on the perceptual situation variables which include problem recognition, constraint recognition, involvement recognition, and referent criterion towards solving insufficient information delivery. A total of 400 farmers within AES or the “Rice Bowl” area of Northern Malaysia participated in answering the questionnaire. Data was analysed using the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The findings reveal that RIPS plays an important role in influencing farmers’ problem recognition, involvement recognition, and referent criterion apart from reducing their constraint. As a result, all of the four hypothesised relationships proposed in the study’s conceptual model were significant and supported. Hence, RIPS can now be considered as a joint element in public communication strategy to deal and solve insufficient information delivery for Malaysia’s AES.