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Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 13(1): 47-65 (2005) ISSN: 0128-7702© Universiti Putra Malaysia Press

Social and Cultural Influences in Reception of a Development-orientedTelevision Programme in a Multi-ethnic Society

'JAMALIAH AHMAD & 2ISKANDAR ABDULLAHfaculty of Communication & Media Studies

Universiti Teknologi MARA40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

2Graduate School of ManagementUniversiti Putra Malaysia

43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Keywords: Social and cultural influences, reception, development-oriented television programme,The Parkin's Theory of Meaning Systems

ABSTRAKKajian ini disusun untuk mentafsir bagaimana masyarakat berbilang kaum memberi kesan kepadarancangan televisyen yang berteraskan pembangunan. Dalam erti kata lain, ia berkisar kepadaaktiviti masyarakat yang berlatarbelakangkan pelbagai kebudayaan sebagai penonton rancanganseumpamanya. Integrasi kaedah penyelidikan Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan membolehkananalisis perbandingan empirikal dijalankan dalam topik ini khasnya antara media dan perbincanganaudien. Satu kajian awal telah dijalankan untuk mengenal pasti isu yang boleh digabungkandalam struktur borang soal selidik dan kemudiannya dibincangkan dalam sesi bersama kumpulansasar. Kumpulan sasar tersebut merupakan kaedah penyelidikan utama melalui data yangdikumpulkan daripada pelbagai kumpulan kajian yang dinilai secara perbandingan. Daripadadapatan tersebut, didapati bahawa setiap kumpulan etnik yang menonton program televisyenmembuat pertimbangan kompleks yang dimanipulasi, justeru, menyebabkan penghasilankepelbagaian maksud yang terhasil daripada kecenderungan peribadi. Kajian ini juga menyokongtafsiran bahawa kandungan program televisyen adalah bersifat sosial dan merewang. Faktor yangmenjadi belenggu sosial seperti budaya, cara bekerja dan sikap serta taraf pendidikan didapatimenyumbang kepada pembentukan sikap pentafsiran responden. Kecenderungan mereka dilihatapabila mereka mengaitkan kandungan media khusus memaksa mereka untuk mengambil posisipentafsiran yang berbeza. Teori Parkin, Meaning System (1972) menolong untuk mengukur posisipentafsiran ini dan dikenali sebagai the dominant, the negotiation dan the oppositionai Walaupunbegitu, kajian ini mencadangkan satu kaedah lebih fleksibel dibina yang boleh menjelaskankompleksiti dan kepelbagaian dalam pembinaan maksud media. Menariknya, kajian ini jugamengukur subjek pembangunan yang dianalisis daripada pandangan komunikasi denganmenggunakan model komunikasi yang signifikan. Secara khususnya, strategi pembangunan semasaMalaysia, dengan menyentuh cabaran Wawasan 2020, telah dianalisis melalui pemahaman respondendalam program televisyen yang terpilih. Responden mengambil kira tentang persepsi di manapenggubalan polisi adalah dikawal secara politik, justeru mengakibatkan kebimbangan di antaraetnik yang berbeza dengan kadar dominan yang berbeza. Maksud diterbitkan yang berpuncadaripada interaksi media dengan kandungan media tidak dibayangkan secara nyata pada tahappsikologi pengguna, tetapi selalunya ia juga mencapai pengaruh sosiologi. Kajian ini jugamencadangkan agar kajian seumpamanya dijalankan di penempatan pelbagai kaum di serata dunia.

ABSTRACT

This research sought to understand how a multi-ethnic society interprets a development-orientedtelevision programme. In other words, it dwelt into the reception activities of the people from

Associate ProfessorAssociate Professor

Jamaliah Ahmad & Iskandar Abdullah

various cultural backgrounds as they watched such a programme. The integration of the SocialSciences method of inquiry and the Humanities enabled a comparative empirical analysis to becarried out on this topic specifically between the media and the audience discourses. A preliminarystudy was first conducted with a purpose of identifying issues that were to be incorporated intothe structured questionnaire which were later used in the focus group sessions. The focus groupwas the main method of inquiry through which data were collected from various study groups andcomparatively assessed. From the findings we found that different ethnic groups made sense ofthe television programme in a complex and manipulated way, thus, resulting in the productionof various meanings that reflect their personal invested interests. The study also supported thatinterpretations of television programme content were social and discursive. The socially boundedfactors of the respondents such as their cultures, working style and attitude and educational levelwere found to have contributed to the shaping of the respective decoding behaviours. Theirpredispositions came into play as they relate to the particular media contents forcing them to takedifferent decoding positions. The Parkin's Theory of Meaning Systems (1972) help to measurethese decoding positions and described them as the dominant, the negotiation and the oppositionaLHowever, this study suggested that a more flexi measure if developed could account for complexityand multi-variability in meaning making of media messages. Interestingly, this study also indicatedthat the subject of development could also be analyzed from the communication viewpoint usingthe significant communication models. In particular, the present Malaysian development strategies,with special reference to the challenges of Vision 2020, were "analyzed through the interpretationof the respondents on the selected television programme. The respondents were very concernedabout the perception that the development policies were politically-bound, thus causing certainlevel of anxiety among the different ethnic groups with different dominant level. Meaningsproduced as a result of interactions with media contents are not conceived merely at thepsychological level of the users but often reaching the realm of the sociological influences too. Thestudy suggested that a similar research be conducted in other multi-ethnic societies in other partsof the world.

INTRODUCTIONReception is the central activity and trust of thisresearch. Reception of development-orientedmedia contents by the society, however, has asignificant role in determining the general healthof this country in its effort to gain stability,growth and unity among the different ethnicgroups that make up its society. The use ofcomplementarity and non-complementarity ofcodes in the interpretation of such media contents,and in this case, the development-orientedtelevision programme, had brought somesignificance to this study.

Audience members acquire differentexperiences in life, and this decides the members'different social discourses. Reception studiestradition assumes that meanings do vary andthese variations are caused predominantly bythe audiences' own personal discourses. Althoughvariations in meaning are inevitable in decodingof media contents, in cases where the texts arepurposely loaded with some political ideologiesthat support the national hegemony, meaningsthat vary from the conventional rules may renderspecial attention. This implies that the audiencemembers have selected the non-complementarity

of codes in their interpretation work. Meaningsresulted from a non-complementarity of codeare regarded as resistant or oppositional to thedominant ideology.

This study was dominantly to find out whatkind of decoding pattern exists among thedifferent ethnic groups in this country and whatinfluenced it. What effects did the decodingpattern bring to the society at large socially,economically and politically? Specifically, howwould the television relate to the demand of thepeople towards the meaning of development inthis country where the development strategiesare predominantly determined by racialhegemony? What would seemingly be the rightfulrole of television in its attempt to position itselfin a country of multi-ethnic societies like Malaysia?In short, could media power in the professionalsense be free from hegemonic ideologies?

Why Malaysia? It is non-other than its multi-ethnic nature of its society. Beyond the ethnicsegmentation the society is also characterized bythe dichotomous 'dominant-subordinate 'relationship which breeds a form of powerstruggle, each grasping for an identity socially,economically and politically. A genuine inter-

48 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 13 No. 1 2005

Social and Cultural Influences in Reception of a Development-oriented Television Programme in a Multi-ethnic Society

ethnic unity was hard to come by. The seeminglyinter-ethnic relationship was built on a politicalcensus over a conference table for the sake ofgetting independence from the colonial power,the British.

Today, after about 47 years of independence,unity is still hardly called the product ofacculturation because time and again the countryhad been tested and challenged. Learning fromhindsight, affective national policies have beenintroduced to enable acculturation starts fromprimary schools. The country is now in theprocess of social re-engineering of schools toavoid further pseudo unity affecting future society.

With that as a background, the mainobjective was to analyse the reception ordecoding of the different ethnic groups, namelythe Malays, the Chinese, the Indians and theSarawak indigenous people (to represent theBumiputra population from East Malaysia)towards a particular development-orientedtelevision programme.

The specific objectives of this study, however,are as follows:1. To examine the range of meanings made by

respondents (the different ethnic groups)and what causes them to vary,

2. To construct a decoding pattern from thevarious groups of meaning above,

3. To find out what is the nature or descriptionof Tit' between the income level based codeand the ethic based code in the productionof meaning',

4. To identify the 'point of contact' betweenthe respondents and the televisionprogramme text, in terms of the mostcommon and salient issue that might haveemerged from the viewing,

5. To find out what attitude (s) the respondentshave towards the issue and to plot a patternof their responses,

6. To identify the decoding strategies orinterpretative codes used by the groups thatproduce anti-dominant meanings'

7. To examine the relationships between thepro and anti-dominant decoding and therelevant challenge of the 'Vision 2020'.

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Reception Analysis is an emergence of a newtype of audience studies, first led by Morley'swork on the 'Nationwide Audience' (1980). Sincethen, much of the writings on this have focused

on the new tradition in understanding of howaudiences 'read' media contents. Following hispath, several studies have been carried out inthe last decade implying that reception is socialand discursive. The main approach used wasthrough a convergence of text-oriented semioticsand audience-oriented cultural studies. Theliterature mentioned, Ang (1989); Becker (1984);Evan (1990);Jensen (1987, 1990a, 1990b);Jensenand Rosengren (1990); Lewis (1985, 1992);Lindlof (1988); Lull (1980); Morley (1983, 1993);Radway (1988); Schroder (1994); and Wren-Lewis(1983). The most significant studies were coveredeither in the factual or news area, theentertainment area, or ethnic, sub-ethnic andsub-cultural area.

The Factual or News Area

In the news-type area, the works of Morley (1980),Lewis (1985), and Jensen (1990a) are worth notingbecause they represent quality and strength inthe qualitative audience studies tradition. Morley(1980) found out that culture determined therespondents' non-complemetarity decoding morethan their class position in which his respondentswere a part of. The cultural domination orresistance manifested in the respondents'discourse was a powerful determinant in explainingmeanings made from media contents.

Lewis (1985), on the other hand, foundthat decoding of news materials was quitedifferent compared to non-news materials. Itinvolves encoding and decoding process of texts.Viewers of news programmes usually have only alimited range of appropriate meaning systems(narrative contexts) to draw upon. Through whatis called 'lexias' (units of meaning as constructedby viewers) the viewers will have only a specificform of access. Therefore, if the narrativecontexts of the news items are well constructed,the interpretative meanings will be moredominan or match the preferred meanings ofthe texts. Lewis' study of 'News at Ten' (1985)found that it failed to get its message across toa majority of its decoders because the narrativecontexts were poor, thus affecting the lexias thatwas produced.

While Lewis worked on the narrative contextof the text as a determinant in reception, Jensen(1990a) on the other hand, found that the themesin the news did facilitate participation by thepublic in political processes. Factual programmecontents such as news are usually ideological and

PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 13 No. 1 2005 49


thus, carry ideological implications to the viewers.Jensen saw the respondents' evaluation of'DanishTelevision News' as a cultural forum. The nationaland international political issues and events thatserved as themes became the determinants inexplaining political participation from the public.

Reception of news or factual genre wascarried out in many different modes. However,the new audience studies tradition through itsempirical qualitative approach has seen thatreception could also be explained by therecipients' cultural backgrounds, the narrativecontexts of the texts as well as the themes of themedia contents.

The Entertainment AreaIn this area, great interests have been placed inanalyzing the relationship between the soapopera genre and gendered recipients, especiallywomen. Researchers like Ang (1985), Hobson(1982), Radway (1994) and Seiter et al (1989)were interested in knowing 'what' in the'feminine' genre actually appeals to women whowere described as the most common viewers. Ang(1985) described the new tradition as a form ofCultural Studies because it has developed atheoretical assumption that people create theirown meanings rather than absorbed pre-givenmeanings imposed upon them. The success of'Dallas' against the European public policy byAng, the work of Hobson on 'Crossroad' (a soapon Independent Television (ITV) channel), andRadway's work on reading of romances, allshowed that decoding experiences were relatedto the broader context of the social system.

The Ethnic, Culture and Sub-cultural ContextsKatz and Liebes (1984) and Lull (1980, 1988a)concluded that mass communication could bean important resource within other culturalpractices. Katz and Liebes (1984) did a study onthe reception of 'Dallas' by multi-ethnic andcultural people of Israel. They found that televisionviewing was social and culturally determined ofthe meanings they made. Both the culture of theviewers and the producer are manifested throughthe programme. Methodologically, the focusgroup method was found to be the most naturalway of looking at reception because the discussionsacted as a forum for discussing social issues andthemes. However, the 'critical distance' of theparticipating groups contributed further to thedifferent decoding. As such, decoding was

categorized at three different levels; as Israelites,as sub-cultures, and as wife and mother.

Lull also stressed that the social use oftelevision depends much on how televisioninfluences and how the users interpret and usetelevision within their contexts. He alsosupported the qualitative nature of looking attelevision viewing such as, in families becausethe detailed events the viewers create in order tomake meaning will all be considered.

The claim in the new audience studies thatreception is a social phenomenon and culturallydetermined was well proven by the aboveresearchers. Focus group method was mostadequate in capturing the fundamental aspectsof human interactions, the core of receptionactivities.

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

The main theory used in this study is ReceptionTheory as opposed to other audience theoriessuch as Effects Theories and Uses and Gratifi-cations. It is a step closer to a better approach inunderstanding audience reception because it isnot merely looking at what media do to peopleand what people do with the media consecutively;rather, it is understood in relation to the existingsocio-cultural system.

This study also touched on the issue of'preferred reading' that is central to the processof reception. Thus, addresses on reception andpreferred reading were also made in contexts ofHall's Theory of Encoding and Decoding (1973)especially concerned with whether it is theproperty of the text or is it something that isgenerated by the audience. Nevertheless,according to Morley (1989) this theory doessupport the fact that audiences do engage inproductive work. The other important theorythat helped the understanding of reception isthe Theory of Meaning Systems by Parkin (1972).It provides the 'potentials' in decoding thestructure the various types of meaning audiencesmake from media contents.

The communications analyzed in this studywere made in the context of the Malaysiandevelopment policy known as the Vision 2020.Through the viewing of a development-orientedtelevision programme, the respondents madetheir perception of what development meant tothem especially when related to the specificchallenges. This shows that development neednot necessarily be measured by development



theories and economic indexes only butcommunications too.

For the study, a research frameworkindicating the important variables derived fromthe above theories was developed as illustratedin Fig. L In reception, the central issue reckonedwas 'meanings', the outcome of the respondents'interaction with the television programmecontent, of "Miskin", meaning, poverty. Thesource of its production was the government,since poverty is a topic of state and nationalinterest. The government is the state authorityin the eradication of poverty programmes aswell as in the construction of the nationaldevelopment policy. The television was a toolfor reproduction of national ideologies despiteits private status in ownership. The communitiesof meanings characterized by the respondents'socio-cultural qualities of discourse or their worldof experience belonged to the various ethnicgroups that made up the interpretive communitiesof this study. Those meanings were regarded onlyas empirically worthy as the analysis of the

programme text was comparatively analyzedagainst the analysis of respondents' decoding ofthat text. The meanings that resulted were sociallyvalued as they were interpreted in the context ofthe social system in which the group lived.

The pattern of meanings resulting from themapping out of sample groups' responses thusindicated to us the different types of effects thatthe programme had offered to this study.Therefore, a dominant decoding position wasread as the society being receptive of the statehegemony and the reverse was also true.Effectiveness of the media in reception is viewedboth from the functional point of view as well asfrom the support it gives to the presenthegemony.

The above model shows that a reception ofa development-oriented television programmetakes place in a multi-ethnic society. Applying itto the study, the government acts as the sourceof the messages that influence the television inits production of development-orientedprogrammes. The messages are loaded with

Influence

TheGovernment(Ideologist)

The Television(Ideological and

cultural)

TransmitsIdeologicalProgrammes

Decode theprogrammes

The Multi-EthnicSocieties

(InterpretativeCommunities)

Decode

The Multi-Ethnic Society Systems

Resulting In

The Meanings inDifferent Typesand Patterns

The Effects(Ideologicaland cultural)

The Multi-Ethnic Society Systems

Fig, 1: A research framework model for reception analysis of a development-orientated

television programme in a multi-ethnic society



ideologies and cultural elements that aimed toinform, influence and persuade the multi-ethnicaudiences (interpretive communities) to believein the policies and programmes planned by thegovernment in its nation-building activities. Asthey decode the messages, they make meaningsin many ways and patterns resulting in theproduction of effects, which are ideological andcultural too. This signifies the theory thattelevision serves as an ideological reproductionapparatus of the government in developingcountries. The elements contained in theframework interact with each other within thesocial-cultural system where reception takes place.Thus, media reception in one place producesmeanings that signify the behaviors and attitudesof the users at that particular place.

METHODOLOGYA significant difference between the old audienceresearch tradition and the new is in the mode ofenquiry. The old research tradition, which wascommonly carried out in effect studies and laterimproved to Uses and Gratifications, wascriticized of its limitations, both in the humanitiesand Social Sciences likewise. The new audiencestudies well known by its Reception Analysis, hadquestioned the validity of interpretative contentanalysis from the humanities, as a source of dataabout the uses and effects of mass media onaudiences, whose positions have mainly beenimplied. The predominant methodologies ofempirical Social Science research have also beenquestioned. Its criticism has contributed to manydebates about the purpose of media scholarship(Rosengren 1989). In reception, comparativeanalysis is carried out between the media discourseand the audience discourse rather then betweenthe structure of the contents and the structureof audience regarding that content as found ineffects studies and Uses and Gratifications.

Studies in Reception Analysis have thendeveloped the 'audience-cum-content' analysis,which is both qualitative and empirical in nature(Jensen and Rosengren 1990). Methodologically,comparing analytical and empirical data fromthe media discourses and audience discourseshave managed to give a more significant bearingon the realistic way of media use and impact ofmedia content. Thus, a phenomenology paradigmstressing the social construction approach ingathering data was more appropriate to describethe social process of reception that lays centrally

in attitudes and values of the decoder. Aqualitative research design via the process of in-depth interview was carried out in this studysince it could effectively show how the differentethnic groups make meaning out of the televisionprogramme content, "Miskin" (A magazinetelevision programme from TV3 known asMajalah Tiga).

The Research Design

We conducted the study in three stages. The firststage was an exploratory study whereby our mainaim was to get as much information as possibleabout the television programme being examined.Such an input about the programme "Miskin"was crucial to the study because it helped in thestructure of the focus group questionnaire. Weconsequently interviewed those TV3 professionalsinvolved in the production of "Miskin". At thesame time, RTM television professionals involvedwith the production of same programme genrewere also called to inform us on the rationaleused in producing such programmes.

The second stage, the focus group interviews,were the main activity as it consumed almostabout 85% of our research time. Theconstruction of our focus group process believedin the strong qualities of the phenomenologicalapproach in terms of (a) how the researcherplays his/her its role, (b) how samplingtechniques and sampling size are determined,and (c) how the fieldwork is executed.

The third stage was mainly about acquiringopinions from the government and relatedorganizations regarding "Miskin" and the rightfulroles of television in developing countries. Thiswas to substantiate the whole research more.

Researcher Involvement

The concept that 'the researcher and the subjectsof research are partners' by Easter-Smith (1991),and the concept of 'co-operative inquiry' byReason (1988), were used to reflect theresearcher's involvement in the process of study.Empirically, the participants were required tomake their readings from watching theprogramme. However, such readings could onlybe made possible by the questioning efforts ofthe researcher. In the process, these researcher-participants interactions have resulted in furthergeneration of ideas that was worth researching.The involvement of the researcher indeed helpedto enrich the whole quality and quantity of the

52 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 13 No. 1 2005


meanings developed in this study. The partnershipwas indeed an important component of theempirical work.

Sampling and Sampling Size

It is important to note that this study aimed atobserving the processes of the different ethnicgroups in this country, rather than how thegeneral Malaysians, 'read* a development-orientedtelevision programme. In other words, the studywas more interested in finding out how theMalays, the Chinese, the Indians (to name someof the ethnic groups) make meanings when theywatch such a programme. The people are betterknown or characterized as multi-ethnic and multi-cultural rather than as homogeneous Malaysians(S. Husin Ali 1984). Ethnic distinctions were soobvious and not only marked by their physicaltraits but cultural norms and religious beliefs.Inter-ethnic relations if they exist, are more of'plural society-oriented'. It is for these reasonsthat we did not select the typical demographicfactors, like age, gender, education, etc., torepresent our interpretive communities. Webelieve that these factors would not add far greatervalidity to any conclusions of our study. Ethnicsegmentation, hence, became our prime techniquein determining our focus group samples.

However, being a country that is beingdominated socially, culturally and politically byone race, could this objectivity be raised at all?In other words, can class-consciousness emergeas a more important determining factor thanethnic consciousness in explaining reception ofdevelopmental messages as the country developsfurther? As such, it has also been the intentionof this study to see if class consciousness has nowdeveloped into a significant determining factorin accounting for the varied nature of receptionof development-oriented contents amongMalaysian society.

For that purpose, this study opted for incomesegmentation as the other criteria for our samples.Thus, when the groups were formed to reflectthe three socio-economic representations, namely,low-income level, middle-income, and high-income level, they were also to represent thefour different ethnic groups found in the society.

Twelve (12) sample groups were formed forthe four sub-ethnic groups, namely, the Malays,the Chinese, the Indians, and the Sarawakians.However, the Malays and the Sarawak Indigenous

had an extra group each, which made up fourteen(14) groups. The affiliation of the Malays inUMNO and PAS was seen as a factor to accountfor the different ways the politically-dividedMalays in interpreting development-orientedcontents. Thus, we formed one group from thosesupporting UMNO and one other that supportPAS. Incidentally, the PAS group also representedthe rural character of the Malay population inthis country.

Sarawak indigenous society or the SarawakBumiputra, is made up of many different sub-groups. Thus, conveniently we drew a linedividing the Sarawak Malay and non-SarawakMalay, the two main political-bias indigenousgroups. Both groups then formed a group each.Psycho-culturally, these two groups were differentand hence, we believed that they could supplyvaried opinions about development. Please referto Table 1 below for a summary of the samplegroups (interpretive communities) of this study.

The table shows a matrix of Ethnic-Incomerelationship of our interpretive communities.Directly, it was the purpose of this study toexamine the decoding pattern of our interpretivecommunities from these perspectives.

Since our study was not aimed at achievinga generalization or validity effects as that ofresearch in the positive type, our sample sizemay be considered small (85 participants). Eachgroup ranged from, as little as, 5 (five) to 10(ten) persons.

We made a careful study in our recruitmentexercises, taking high consideration of the factorsthat could reduce credibility and validity of theresearch. The sampling work gave particularattention to certain issues like 'familiarity amongthe participants within a group1 and 'repre-sentation of population to achieve sufficientvariability/ We took efforts to remove thecommon pitfalls, like, lacking moderating skillsof the researcher, domination of strongcharacters in the group, cultural hindrances ofthe participants especially those from the ruraland some political interventions. We faced theselimitations or hardships in the process becausewe dealt with the open society. Fortunately, withthe co-operation of people and other supportingcommunity members at research locations, wemanaged to complete our data collection workwith high satisfaction.


Jamaliah Ahmad 8c Iskandar Abdullah

TABLE 1The sample groups (interpretive communities) of this study

Income / ethnic Malays Chinese Indians S'kians Total

High-Income• Professionals

Middle-Income• Clerical/Technical• Teachers• University students

Low-Income• Farmers• General laborers

223

S1

Total 14

Profiles of the focus groups were:

Group 1 : Professionals, Shah Alam, Selangor.Group 2 : Universiti Putra Malaysia students,

Serdang, Selangor.Group 3 : Small-scale farmers, Kuala Rengas,

Perak.Group 4 : Small-scale farmers, Kota Bahru,

Kelantan.Group 5 : Executives, Malaysian Airlines, Kuala

Lumpur.Group 6 : Universiti Putra Malaysia students

Serdang.Group 7 : Universiti Sains Malaysia clerks,

Penang.Group 8 : Universiti Sains Malaysia technical

staff, Penang.Group 9 : Universiti Putra Malaysia students

Serdang.Group 10 : Manual workers, Kelab Golf

Perkhidmatan Awam.Group 11 : Professionals, Kuching.Group 12 : Student teachers, Kuching.Group 13 : Student teachers, Kuching.Group 14 : Small-scale farmers of the Senyawan

long house, Saratok, Sarawak.

The researcher conducted the focus groupinterviews, running from several sub-regions inthe Malay Peninsula to Sarawak in Borneo, fromJuly 10 to September 25, 1994. The researchermoderated most of the sessions except two, dueto some language problems. To overcome these,the study was assisted by a trained facilitator whomainly helped in translating some of the termsthat gave problems in understanding.

The FieULwork and the Empirical Data

The study opted for in-depth focus groupinterviews as advocated and adopted by Morley(1980). Although this methodology is not a typicalethnographic inquiry, the data (qualitative) weresufficient to meet the objectives of this study.More importantly, the comparative analysisprocedure carried out between the examinationof the programme text and the analyticalresponse of the participants towards that textmade our research inquiry a scientific andempirical one. As a result, a certain amount of'closure' resulting from the work of textual orgenre conventions contained in the structure ofthe text (Hall 1973), guided their decoding.The participants did not decode on their ownfree judgment. This was indeed the essence ofthe 'preferred reading' theory claimed by Hall(1973).

The proponents of critical research traditionsargued that qualitative data from media-audienceencounters are empirical and ethnographicalbecause the sources of data are from in-depth,open-ended interviews instead of the 'self-reporting' of the questionnaire-type. Morley (1980,1992), Ang (1985, 1990),Jensen (1990a), to namea few, advocated the importance of qualitativedata in examining reception of media consumers.

Conducting the Focus Group InterviewsThe focus group sessions were conductedimmediately after the participants had viewedthe recorded programme. The intention was toexploit the participants' fresh memory to themaximum. Although studies in television viewing



had called for the activity to be done naturally inthe viewing environment or viewing during theactual transmission time, the choice is stilldependent on the overall objective of the study.'Naturality' was not the main aim of the studybut the act of decoding of the participants was.The latter took into account both the ideologicaldetermination and significance of the text aswell as the competence of the participants indecoding the content.

Hence, the fear that the 'pseudo socialsetting' would reduce the effects of physical andinterpersonal conditions in shaping viewers'interpretation would be less of our concern.

Above all else, we were interested to findhow codes rather than those factors like physicalor interpersonal setting shape their meaningpositions to be either dominant, negotiation oroppositional to the present hegemony. Theconcept of interpretive communities itselfstressed on the importance of codes and itssources rather than the environment where thereception took place. 'Naturality' and 'informalenvironment' were soon achieved as discussionsheightened. A high consideration was given tothe use of space to remove physical orpsychological blockages but motivate effectivecommunication during the interviews. By theway, sessions were mainly conducted in offices,classrooms and houses.

In every session, after viewing theprogramme, a brief discussion was held tointroduce some fundamental issues meant tospark off the thinking process. Common questionslike, 'Who is responsible for the eradication ofpoverty in this country?', 'Can this country befree of it by the year 2020?', 'Can you help?',and 'Do you want development?' After the 'icebreaking' session, the participants were slowlybrought to the film again and the first questionfrom the prepared topical guide was given tothe participants to start the discussions.

The range of topics attempted to extractboth the explicit and the implicit meanings ofthe content. Since development messages areideologically symbolic, we certainly neededcareful analyzing skills and strategies tounderstand why such meanings were made. Forthat purpose, we mapped their reasons withinthe participants' discourses and experiences.

The topical guide prepared for this studymerely contains listed questions relating to theresearch problems and objectives. It was useful

in keeping our time effectively and at the sametime helping the moderator to carry out his jobconsistendy across all groups. The major topictouched includes the following:1. What explicit meaning they make from the

visuals or programme content.2. What implicit meaning they create from

interpreting the 'ideologies' transmittedthrough the programme messages.

3. What 'development ideologies' could thestudy identify from the programme content.

4. What roles and status our television plays inour society.

5. What presentation styles the programme uses.

Although the order of topics waspredetermined, the actual usage was flexible asthe needs arise. However, handling shifts wasdone with much care, as it is known to be oneof the fallacies in moderating work.

All along, a video camera was used to recordour activities and more importantly to assist inthe analysis. Every movement and sound wasrecorded and the nonverbal interpreted.Although videotaping caused anxiety we exploitedit to produce a more dynamic result.

The Choice of Television Programme "Miskin"One of the requirements of this research was toselect an appropriate development-orientedtelevision programme, informative and 'light'enough for any ordinary nonprofessional tounderstand when viewing it but 'heavy' enoughto contain important issues pertaining todevelopment. On deciding which programme tochoose, we took note of the concept of'programme-type preference' from Morley's work(1981) on the issue of taste and preference ofthe audiences. This is an attempt to avoidmismatching of interest between the programmeand the decoders. However, Majalah 3 managedto solve this question because it came up to beone of the most highly watched televisionprogrammes at that time. The high rating itreceived as shown in the Survey ResearchMalaysia Report supported this.

Like other television stations in the country,TV3, though private, is a well-regulated broadcaststation. It is equally responsible in helping thecountry meet its goal in nation building. Everysocially constructed programme produced expectsto operate within the guidelines of Rukun Negara.Loyalty to the ruling government, which is UMNO-based, is thus, an undeniable fact.



Analyzing the Programme "Miskin"The study did an analysis on the programmebefore conducting the focus group study. Thepurpose was to develop a set of empirical dataabout the programme, which is to be matchedlater against the empirical data developed fromthe groups* decoding of the same programme.This process also enables us to identify or predicton the 'preferred reading' built within themessages. We did this with the producer whowas responsible in making the intention becamea reality. The next step was to seek the followinginformation on:1. how the topic was first articulated, in

particular in terms of how the first idea wasgenerated and by whom.

2. how the development ideology within themessage was constructed, in particular interms of TV3's attitude towards the Vision2020 or the government's attitude towardseradication of poverty project among theethnic groups.

3. how the content was structured (howbackground and explanatory frameworkswere mobilized, visually and verbally; howguests were recruited and commentsintegrated; how discussions were monitored;and how ideologies were stated, openly orcovertly).

This content analysis was crucial in masscommunication research because it informed ushow symbolic the programme messages were.This was particularly true especially whentelevision in developing countries is commonlyperceived as the ideological reproductionapparatus for the government. The affirmativeeconomic and development plans in Malaysiahad made researchers more eager to concludethat "Miskin" contained the politicallyconstrained preferred reading built in theprogramme messages.

Analyzing the Focus Group Interview DataThe objectives of the study were determinedthrough two-level analysis: the participants-contentlevel (micro) and the interactions between themeanings developed from the first level analysisand the selected issue or challenge in the Vision2020 (macro). As Ang (1990) has suggested,media reception should not stop at the media-audience encounter but should also address thedifferentiated meaning (if any) and significance

of specific reception patterns against articulatingsocial relations of power. Understanding of mediareception certainly requires equal attention tothe structural and historical aspects of the societysocial system where the media are a part. Povertyin Malaysia was thus interpreted as a socio-cultural and political phenomenon, and anyforms of contradictory meaning (if any) were'read' as constraints to the existing hegemony.

As mentioned earlier, analyses were donemicroscopically and macroscopically. Severalcomparative group analyses were carried at fourlevels in a hierarchical manner. This means thatwe approached the most basic level before thenext higher level is processed. The first threelevels which refer to microscopic level aimed atanalyzing the different ethnic groups' decodingon the. programme, "Miskin". The last andhighest level referred to as the macroscopic levelwas to match the results of the groups' receptionagainst the eighth challenge of the Vision 2020.Fig. 2 shows the hierarchy of the decoding analysisof a development-oriented television programmein the multi-ethnic Malaysian society.

The above figure shows that the qualitativedata obtained from the study went through fourlayers of analysis. At the first level, each individualgroup responses on viewing "Miskin" was recor-ded and analyzed. As a result, this process managedto generate fourteen (14) groups of data.

Comparative studies among the groups'responses within a particular ethnic were thencarried out. This brought us into the second levelof analysis. In particular, responses from Group1 to Group 4, which refer to the Malay grouping,were analytically compared, and so were theresponses from Group 5 to Group 7 (Chinese),Group 8 to Group 10 (Indian), Group 11 toGroup 14 (Sarawakian). As a result, we wereable to generate Malay decoding, Chinesedecoding, Indian's and Sarawakian's decodingof "Miskin".

Consequently, these four ethnic groups'decoding data were then crossly examined. Thepurpose of this third or higher level analysis wasbasically to see how the Malays, for an example,look at development messages compared to theChineses. What were found to be commonamong them and what were different? When themeanings differ why were they so? What factorscontributed to the different meaning positions(dominant, negotiated and oppositional) asproposed by Parkin (1972)? The multi-ethnic



4th level(in relation toVision 2020)

3"1 level(inter-group decoding andbetween the different ethnic groups)

2nd level(Inter-group decodingand within ethnic group)

1st level(individual groupdecoding)

Malaysian decodingin context of Vision 2020

GPGPGPGP

1234

GPGPGP

i

567

GP 8G P 9GP 10

GPGPGPGP

11121314

Fig. 2: The hierarchy of decoding analysis of development-orientedtelevision programme in the multi-Malaysian society

decoding that resulted at this level indeed reflectan array of the 'Malaysian feeling and attitude'on development in this country.

As mentioned earlier, mass communicationfunctions in the societal system where it is apart. As such, interpretation of mass mediamessages has to be made in the context of thesocial, cultural and political environment of theconsumers if it is to be meaningful. In this study,the fourth level of the analysis took this role,which was to find out how the Malaysians feelabout development in context of the Vision2020, the big blue print for the multi-ethnicMalaysia to be a fully developed country by theyear 2020. The hierarchical analyses that workedon the data obtained from the focus groups-media encounters thus have produced an outputthat revealed the many ways the multi-ethnicMalaysians perceive development in the contextof the Vision 2020.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONSThe study brought up three main discoursesthat have generally influenced the Malaysiandecoding on the programme "Miskin": the ethnic-

cultural, the socio-economic, and the social-oriented factors. The ethnic-cultural discoursewas found to be the dominant Titter' indetermining the decoding positions proposedby Parkin (1972) compared to economic andsocial factors. Socio-economic and other socialfactors had little or no relationship in determiningtheir decoding behaviours. This means eachindividual ethnic group interpreted poverty ordevelopment mainly from the context of thegroup's own existence (history-politically andsocio-economically) as a sub-ethnic group in abigger Malaysian society. Relationships betweenthe Malays and Chinese or the Indians and theChinese acted as important determinants ininterpreting development messages. In fact, theeconomic achievements of the Chinese weregarded as the 'yardstick' to the Malay supportof the present corrective economic policy. Atthe same time, the participation of the Bumiputragroups in the Non-Bumiputra economicmonopoly, was a source of Non-Bumiputradiscontent. Each ethnic group indeed has itsown dilemma and this is affecting the inter-ethnic relationship.

PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. 8c Hum. Vol. 13 No. 1 2005 57

Jamaliah Ahmad 8c Iskandar Abdullah

Other examples from the findings supportedthat ethnic-cultural discourse is significant ininfluencing the groups' decoding. The Malayprofessionals thought that the present economicpolicy is very crucial because it is a source oftheir overall survival, to recover their lost racialpride, and prove wrong the unfair stereotypingthe Malays received. They argued that they havethe constitutional right to lead a life as good asthe Chinese who have for a long time controlledthe economy of the country.

In Sarawak, the Bumiputra teacher-studenttrainees voiced out how urgent is to change thenegative attitude of the indigenous people inorder to stop the Chinese from further exploitingthe people's weaknesses for their own businessends.

On the other end, the Chinese MAS officersfelt that the emphasis on rural poverty againsturban poverty that is affecting many of the non-Malay communities is a good example ofgovernment biases in handling poverty. Similarly,the Indian groups used their experiences andassociation with the poor estate dwellers as abasis for their discontent with the government'saffirmative economic policies, such as, the NewEconomic Policy and later revised and changedto the New Development Policy.

In particular, the fear of the Bumiputragroups of the high-rise economic performanceof the Chinese and the biases of the government'scorrective development policies were the twomain sources of the opposite codes used by theNon-Malay or Non-bumiputra groups ininterpreting the progamme contents. This showsthat there was a lack of a unifying factor thatmight help the different ethnic groups agree ofwhat should be a good development plan forthe multi-ethnic Malaysians at the moment Thatunifying factor, which is hard to come by, is'racial unity', which is merely happening (if everthere is) at a superficial level.

In addition, the political consensus obtainedfrom the different racial groups at the time ofindependence in 1957, left some legacies thatcontributed to the differences in treatment ofsome groups receive especially between theBumiputra and the Non-Bumiputra. In theConstitution, the special rights of the Malaysand the Malays as the 'masters' of state land,always run fresh in the blood system of theMalaysian. On these issues, sparks are easilyturned on to start a racial conflict.

Besides the ethnic-cultural discourse, othersocial-oriented factors, such as political affiliation,working environment and organizational culture,did influence certain groups beside the existingethnic-cultural factors. Some may be regarded asisolated cases but some others may be significantenough to create an alarm on national security.For example, the low-income Indian workersfrom the Kelab Golf Pentadbiran Awam, KualaLumpur, were driven by the fulfillment of theirbasic needs when discussing development. Thisis only possible if they support the presentgovernment. To be too ethnocentric and fightthe mainstream is just too abstract for them.

On the other side, the small-scale Malayfarmers in Kelantan pointed at political affiliationon the course of Islamic survival as the mainreason why they were in opposition to the presentgovernment. The PAS sympathizers regardedethnic as secondary to the creation of Islamicnation that they bow to build. They rejected theUMNO-based government's effort to developthe Malays but accepted PAS because theythought that PAS could guarantee their spiritualneeds, which they manifest through their politicalactivities. This is a case of high level abstract insetting up a discourse.

Understanding reception of developmentmessages in Malaysia does require us tounderstand first the history and ethnic-culturalperspectives of the interpretive communities.They are the main sources of their decodingcodes in interpreting development-orientedprogramme contents.

The first level of analysis examined how thisethnic-cultural discourse plays its role in helpingthe different groups decode or make meaningout of "Miskin". This analysis aimed to answerthe first objective of this study, which is to findthe range of meanings, and what causes them tovary as the groups responded to the text. Asummary of the findings are as the following:1. That development is ethnic-oriented: the

challenge is to ensure the state experiencesan economically-just society.

2. That 'communalism' (Malay-biased) occursin television: the challenge of establishing aunited Malaysia

3. That government and its policy function asa source of strength and weaknesses: thechallenge of establishing a prosperous society.

4. That the poor has a poor attitude: thechallenge of creating a psychologicalliberated society.

58 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sri. 8c Hum. Vol. 13 No. 1 2005


5. Religion versus development among theMalays: the challenge of establishing a fullydeveloped and moral society with strongreligious values.

6. That education is politicized: the challengeof establishing a progressive society.

7. That television functions as an ideologicalapparatus: the challenge to achieve theobjectives of the Vision 2020.

The above served as the 'ideological themes'generated by all of the groups and used as theagenda for the next subsequent analyses. Tounderstand the attitude of the groups furtheron the 'ideologies', we drew up a decodingpattern according to the Parkin's Theory ofMeaning System (1972) that tracked the variousmeaning positions made in this study.

Parkin introduced three types of meaningposition: the dominant value-system known asdominant meaning, the subordinate value-systemknown as negotiated meaning, and the radicalvalue-system known as oppositional meaningpositions. Since the value of each decodingpositions vary from one to the other, we assignedeach decoding with a numerical tag reflecting itsdegree of dominance. The value ranges from(+3) to (-3), with (-3) carrying the least value ofdominance.

The process of making the verdict, whichgroup takes what position and with what value

was the prerogative of the researcher, very muchdependent on our intuitions and feelings. Toknow what decoding the groups make is highlyimportant because in reception studies decodingpositions manifest some important 'signals' outof the text the audience come in contact with.This is more so when the concept of 'economicowners' of the television and the concept of'media as ideological apparatus' were muchdefended in the Critical School of Thought.Generally when studying reception in developingcountries, dominant decoding implies that thetelevision has been effective in defending thegovernment policies and programmes, inwhichever way, the status of the governmentcould undoubtedly be enhanced and strengthened.On the other hand, the reverse is also true aboutthe role of television, but more importantly,contradict decoding criticized the dominantpower of the dominant class (in this case theMalay Bumiputra), the ruling government, andthe completely socio-economical and politicalstructure of the Malaysian system. This is a threatto national stability. Please refer to Table 2 inthe next page, for the summary of decodingpositions of all groups.

The above table illustrates the pattern ofdecoding positions assigned to the various ethnicgroups and in fact, a graph according to thedegree of dominance could easily be plotted outof this data to show the pattern of distribution

TABLE 2A summary of the decoding of "Miskin" by the various ethnic groups according to

the degree of dominance, as in Parkin's Theory of Meaning System (1972)

Decoding Positions & Degree ofDominance / Ethnic groups

Dominant Negotiating Oppositional(+1 to +3) (-1 to -3) (-1 to -3)

Malay- Gp 1 professionalsGp 2 studentsGp 3 farmers (Perak)Gp 4 farmers (Kelantan)

Chinese- Gp 5 professionalsGp 6 studentsGp 7 general staff

Indians- Gp 8 technical staffGp 9 studentsGp 10 laborers

Sarawakians- Gp 11 professionalsGp 12 teacher trainees (M)Gp 13 teacher trainee (NM)

+2+1

+2

+1

+1

-2-1

-2-2

-3

PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. 8c Hum. Vol. 13 No. 1 2005 59


of the decoding position. Fig. 3 in the next pageillustrates the above mentioned graph on thegroups' decoding positions indicated by theirvalue of dominance. However, the above tableshows that the Malay groups except theKelantanese (Gp4) represented by the PASsympathizers fall into the dominant column.The rest fall into either the negotiation column

or the oppositional column, except the Indianlaborers, who went under the dominant column.The Chinese students from UPM (Gp6) wererather oppositional to the government. GrouplOrepresented by low-income laborers thought thatbasic needs to their survival are more urgentthan political matters. The Sarawak professionals(Gpll) however, felt that the Bumiputra status

FOCUSGROUPS

^DecodingPosition

Oppositional Negotiated Dominant

Fig. 3: Graphical pattern of groups* decoding position indicated by their value of dominance

Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 13 No. 1 2005


treats the indigenous and the Malays from thePeninsular, rather differently. They also believedthat a certain amount of religious discriminationcause the difference in treatment.

The second level analysis, which examinesthe decoding of the four ethic groups separately,brought up a list of 15 types of 'developmentideologies', that is, from the Malay groups, theChinese, the Indians and the Sarawakians.Comparative analyses on these four decodingwere then carried out to locate the most salientissue brought up by the study. These ideologieswere as follows:

1. Development is politicized2. Television is controlled by the government3. Negative attitude of the poor4. Problems of the implementers5. Sympathy towards the government6. Caring concepts7. Development programmes in television as

propaganda8. Involvement from the private sector9. Malay hegemony10. Economic gap11. Poverty ruins nation's credibility and image12. Television as a source of awareness13. Economic imbalance among regions or states14. Abuse of the term 'Bumiputra'15. Education is politicized

The next process was to identify the 'mostsalient issue' and this was succeeded by countingthe highest score in the 'number of mentions'received by a particular issue. This then becameour 'perspective' against which a relevantchallenge of Vision 2020 is matched. In research,this particular issue is regarded as the 'point ofcontact' the groups had with the text.

The study found that the politic-biaseddevelopment policies and programmes becametheir main concern when discussing economicor national progress. Thus, it represents themeaning that 'binds' all the four ethnic groupstogether by inscribing their attitudes. Does theNon-Bumiputra have equal opportunities in theeconomy? Does the new developmentprogramme change their traditions in acquiringwealth? For general information, the next mostfrequently mentioned issue is 'television is notobjective', followed by 'the poor attitude of thepoor'. Among the least frequently mentionedare 'Malay hegemony', poverty ruins the nation's

image, and 'television as a source of awareness'.This makes our study a holistic one in trying toexamine the inter-ethnic reception towards aselected development issue in the country.

The third level analysis, however, focusedon the attitude and other psychological aspectsof the groups who represent the Malaysian nationin conceptualizing the idea that the nationaldevelopment policy is politically-biased towardsthe needs of the Malays and Bumiputras. Moreimportantly, this examination has brought usfurther into how this issue relates to the well-being of the different ethnic groups in terms ofrelating themselves to each other.

The Non-Bumiputra generally agrees on theissue that development needs to be redressed.Nevertheless, they were not in consensus at howthe government plans to implement the policy.The Bumiputra members argued that the basesused in the restructuring of this 'untypical'affirmative development policy, were historicalrather than logical. Failing to accept this point,they will never be in favor of the dominantideology.

The 1969 riots were an important point inhistory, and the development policy resultedfrom it was mainly structured to 'correct' manyof the past 'wrongs' done by the then government.Critiques analyzed that the newly independentgovernment (1957-1969) actually took off on thewrong premise (Mahathir 1970). This naturallyrequires more than an ordinary reformation.The UMNO-based government demands thedominant Malay's economic needs must continueto be served and protected. Such a developmentpolicy will not survive unless it is supported bypolitical regimentation.

The study revealed that justifications onformulating a national development policy thatserve every ethnic group's needs are hard tocome by. The meanings generated from thecomparative decoding analyses were groupedinto either the Bumiputra or the Non-Bumiputratype of meaning.

As mentioned earlier, all the Malay groupswith the exception of the PAS supporters favoredthe dominant position. They actually are thebeneficiaries of the policy. On the other hand,the Non-Bumiputra with the exception of thelow-income Indian group, took either thenegotiated or the oppositional stance. This levelof analysis resulted in the birth of Bumiputraand Non-Bumiputra dichotomy of meaning. The



following is a list of the 'pro-dominant' meaningof the Bumiputra groups and 'anti-dominant'meanings produced by the Non-Bumiputra groupsin this study:

/. The pro-dominant meaning

1. Assistance to the Bumiputra must continue2. National stability3. Racial equality4. Humiliation of being dominant but poor5. Power for the elected government6. Responsibility7. National pride8. The 'we can' attitude9. Contra-cultural economies (emigrant's

control over the economic welfare of thelocals)

10. Heterogeneity causes ethnic orientation indevelopment approaches

11. The special position of the Bumiputra12. Racial harmony

//. Anti-dominant meaning

1. Development is for 'supporters'2. Discrimination in eradication of poverty3. Rural vs urban development4. Subsidy culture5. The commercial, industrial and professional

Bumiputra community6. Position led to communalism

The comparative analyses carried out at thislevel indeed answered the quest to understandhow multi-ethnic Malaysians decode developmentin this country. The study managed to producean empirical theory that supports the notionthat 'audience in modern mediated-societies iscomplex and at the same time contradictory';that mass cultural text is complex andcontradictory, so much so that the multi-culturalaudience who use the multi-layered meaningtext, produce a culture of equal complexity andcontradiction'. This study also confirmed that thedominant group decided on the dominantdecoding position and the reverse is true.

As mentioned earlier, reception studiestradition believed that reception studies wouldonly be meaningful only if they are examinedand analyzed within the socio-cultural frameworkof the society. Ang (1990) raised the status ofreception analysis by conceptualizing it as a'cultural critique' because it is deeply embeddedin the political and cultural processes where the

media are a part. Every study is thus differendytailored and unique to its surroundings. Thisadded value to reception is made possiblebecause, unlike the positivist approach, she said,this tradition is far better able to explain theways in which people creatively make their ownmeanings and thus create their own new-bornculture. That is what underlies the thesis ofCultural Studies, in which consumers are indeedseen as cultural users of mass culture. With that,reception has successfully secured a central placein Cultural Studies.

Findings from this study confirmed this whenthe fourth level analysis brought an importantinsight where some form of political tension andideological dilemma did exist when testing thegroups' reception on poverty. The televisionand the groups were indeed involved in a contextof power relations when they discusseddevelopment or poverty eradication, which isthe ideological issue contained in the eighthchallenge of Vision 2020. This analysis therefore,is to examine how the different groups decode"Miskin" in relation to the 8th challenge ofVision2020 because it has a direct relevance tosocio-economic development in Malaysia - thepolitical scenario which served as the prevailingcultural condition affecting the activities of Vision2020.

In this study, the vision has created a feelingof dissatisfaction among some groups, inparticular the Chinese. They were basically nothappy about the idea of middle classing of theBumiputra; the creation of a commercial,industrial and professional Bumiputra community;and the 30% target for Bumiputra ownership ofcapital equity in corporate sectors. The newdevelopment should not be at the expense ofthe economic expansion of the Non-Bumiputramembers, they claimed. The swing, they said,had affected their businesses and industries. Theact of 'ethnicizing' and 'politicking* of thenational development was responsible in creatingthe 'resistance' among them. These notesillustrate some of the central as well ascontroversial issues emerging from the nationaldevelopment plan constructed during the post1969 era. In political-cultural terms, this couldbe understood as disempowerment on thedominant discourse by the minority.

The 8th challenge of Vision 2020, whichaims at "establishing an economically just societyin which there is a fair and equitable distribution



of the wealth of the nation, in which there is fullpartnership in economic progress", implies thathappiness and peace will never be achieved aslong as identification of race is linked to someeconomic functions. The government believedthat our quest for nation building would notmaterialize if the nation were unwilling tostruggle for economic justice.

The findings indicated that resistance andthreats still lived by the people, especially theNon-Bumiputra more so if they are sympathizersof the opposition parties. To them 'specialposition' makes all the difference. Theindigenous people of Sarawak felt that they weretreated as 'second class Bumipura' while thePAS sympathizers found the vision wasincompatible with their political ideologies.

However, the response was, in general,encouraging compared to that in the past. Thisfact points to the economic progress experiencedby the country. Despite this, there is always abasis for alarm because inter-ethnic problemshave its roots deep down in the history.Nevertheless, we still need to ask some questions.Firstly, to what extent will this affirmative policyremain the dominating factor in upholding orbreaking the inter-ethnic relationships, evenamong the Malays or the Bumiputra? Secondly,will Malaysia have other significant cultural valuesin the future that will serve as new discourses forinterpreting economic justice and development?Further research on reception of development-oriented messages is therefore necessary andneeded to ensure that Malaysia will foreverpreserve the successes she has achieved in herquest for progressive nation building.

CONCLUSIONS

The final attempt of this effort was to test theselected theories used to see whether or notthey were able to explain the reception processof Poverty by the multi-ethnic Malaysians. Theconcept of meaning is indeed a very complexentity. Hence, other related theories other thanthe Reception theory (Morley 1980) wererecruited so as to produce a more meaningfulresult. The study proved that the Receptiontheory together with Parkin's Theories ofMeaning Systems (1972) and Hall's Theory ofEncoding and Decoding (1973) had successfullyexamined the multi-ethnic Malaysian's receptiontowards the television programme on deve-lopment. It dealt with the strengths and

weaknesses of each theory in its process ofexplaining the attitude and the discourses as faras development is concerned.

In an attempt to add further research valueto the study, the analysis did not stop at media-audience relationship but went beyond toevaluate the Malaysian development strategies.The reception of Poverty thus became moresocial and public worthy. Generally, the 'true'sense of how Malaysians felt about thedevelopment systems was then revealed.

The research concluded that, firstly, theReception Theory was successful in accountingfor the complexity in meaning making. Thedifferent ethnic groups did make sense of thetelevision content "Miskin" in complex andunexpected ways, while the interpretive meaningsthey produced were social and indeed discursive.Meaning making involved not only thepsychological aspect of the decoders but also theinterplay of other factors, such as, their socio-cultural discourses, the power relationexperiences and the language constraints causedby language rules and codes in the text faced bythe different ethnic groups that made up thesociety. These factors helped to explain why acommunication phenomenon might beinterpreted in many different ways.

Secondly, the groups' opinion that 'thedevelopment policy is being politicized, thus,creating a biased development policy favoringthe Bumiputra' was claimed to be the 'preferredmeaning' to the programme content. Themessages were intentionally structured by theproducer and were a reproduction of thehegemonic ideologies. The 'closure effect'concept by Hall (1973) had helped the Malaydecoders (especially the Bumiputra) to decodethe message as such, thus, making the opinionthe dominant meaning. Nevertheless, the non-Bumiputra groups were found to be taking theoppositional position regarding this meaning.

The Bumiputra and the non-Bumiputradiffered in their 'critical distance' (in Katz andLiebes (1984) terminology) towards theprogramme. Likewise their attitude towards whathad been manifested by the text also differedamong the groups due to the varied discoursethe groups experienced. The study theorized inpolitically-oriented messages or propaganda-typedprogrammes; the concepts of 'encoding' and'preferred meaning' are related to the issue of'intention' of the producer. Preferred meaning



is not the absolute property of the text becausetextual production is full of language constraints,more so when the content is politicized, muchof the meanings are unsaid.

Thirdly, the three decoding positions definedby Parkin (1972) delimited the probability ofhaving extra meanings to the programmecontent, hence, the intention of generating newinsights from the study, if unchanged, wouldhave been much defeated.The decoding positionneeds to be expanded so that all the complexitiesin decoding will be accounted for.

Fourthly, media effects are an indirect variablehere delivered through the interplay of mediain presenting a specific ideology. The conceptionof effect is being superimposed by the moreimportant role, that is, the reproduction ofhegemonic ideology. Effects were translatedthrough the extent of the television inmaintaining and defending the State'shegemony. The understanding of effects thusremains with the extent of power the media hadin getting the people to think like the dominantpowers.

Finally, the National Economic Policy firstintroduced in 1970 was an inevitable response tothe May 1969 racial crisis and had arousedrelatively little opposition in principle. Even thenon-Malays, especially those from the higher-level income and educated groups, understoodthe rationale for such an affirmative policy. Post-1990, the Malaysians experienced furtherconsolidation of all of the policies.

RECOMMENDATIONSOur recommendations are divided into two parts.The first was on the communication theoriesused in this research and subsequendy on howto make the process of decoding or meaningmaking go in tandem with the governmentdevelopment policies. The second part was onhow to address the issue of 'national unity' withthe national development model Vision 2020, asits base.

In the first part of the recommendation, thestudy supported the Reception Theory to accountfor the complex, unexpected, social, anddiscursive nature of decoding, but there are afew areas within the theoretical framework thatneeded modifications. As the content was aboutdevelopment, the 'level of education' and the'system of education' were found to be significantcharacteristics of the 'interpretive communities'

to be examined. These factors are worth resear-ching, as they might have been able to explainthe tolerance level of the people towards theaffirmative development policies in this country.

With regard to Parkin's theory, the gapbetween one decoding position and the nextwas rather too wide to accommodate the variouscharacters of decoding. As a result, a detailedaccount of decoding variations of the groupswas unable to be captured exhaustively. Werecommend that each type of decoding positionbe subdivided. The decision on the fraction ishowever, the choice of the researcher, dependingon how detailed the researcher wishes theaccount to be.

Finally, the Genre theory was equallyimportant in the study of reception.Consideration should be given to whether ornot the selected media text is relevant to thedecoders discourse. Morley's (1981) recommen-dations on plotting the 'purchase' (Moores'terminology) of media genre for variouscategories of decoders, should be given dueattention. The question of 'who prefers what'before proceeding into the investigation wouldhelp the researcher not to experience'programme distance' (Moores 1993).

The second part of the recommendation wason national unity. The growing ethnic divisionhad a class texture, which originated ingovernment policy, albeit unintended (Jomo1994). The non-Malays have been quite tolerantof the current development scenario because ofthe coalition government concept used by thegovernment. The issue on national unity shouldbe measured using both the traditional economicapproach and non-economic approach. The non-economic, which is more of our concern, shouldwork towards nationalizing or 'Malaysianizing'all schools so that 'unity' starts from young.Therefore, the country should reform the schoolsystem so that the country is able to remove allidentified obstacles to national unity. One of theexisting issues in the school systems that iscurrently bothering the nation is the vernacularsystem that many people think is hinderingnational unity. Thus, 'Malaysianizing' the schoolswill create a new Malaysian society that is willingto watch local media production more and willlove the country even more.



Suggestions for future research in mediareception are as follows:

Firstly, development-oriented televisionprogrammes are relevant media contents forthe study of reception in developing countries.More so if they approach the study using thecritical audience research tradition. The resultwill be more holistic considering the socio-cultural and political perspectives that influencethe meaning making activities of the mediausers. As such, more research is needed indeveloping countries where the selection of suchgenre is relevant and the ethnographic approachcan give a more meaningful finding, while atthe same time, able to preserve and maintainthe empirical quality of the work.

Secondly, future researchers may adopt thesame research framework model to replicatereception studies in other developing multi-ethnic countries having similar backgrounds asMalaysia. The hegemonic status could becrystallized and the roles of the media couldfurther be defined for the benefit of the variedcultured society.

Thirdly, future studies may capitalize thelocal television news programme to track thereception of various local social groups towardssome of the contemporary issues transmittedthrough the television. A decoding pattern couldthen be plotted to show the people's attitudetoward the issues broadcasted in the programmeand their perception on the media's attitudetoward the same issues. For programmescommunicating foreign-based ideologies, studiescould be focused on how reception will be readin the context of the local societal set up.

Finally, a follow up research should becarried out after the year 2000 (five years afterthe study was carried out), because the characterof the interpretive communities might havechanged following the changes brought upwithin the country or globally. Specifically, thestudy would like to see if the decoding trends ofthe Bumiputra versus the non-Bumiputra, theMalays versus the non-Malays, the west versusthe east Malaysians, have changed. Has theincome level factor become very more importantthan ethics factor in analyzing people's receptionin decoding development-oriented programmse?Finally, would there be new emerging variablesto describe the future social character of theMalaysian society? We believe that the forthcomingresearch would be able to deliver a comparative

reception analysis 'before and after' themillennium year 2000.

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ANG, I. 1990. Culture and communication. EuropeanJournal of Communication 5: 239-260.

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(Received: 11 December 2003)


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