Books by MD Azalanshah
International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 2023
This article discusses the emergence of Turkish serial dramas as a site for contestation over the... more This article discusses the emergence of Turkish serial dramas as a site for contestation over the impact of Islamic modernity on Malay women in contemporary Malaysia. Despite its popularity among Malay women, Turkish serial drama has been criticized for misleading and confusing the audience about Islamic history, faith, culture and civilization. The controversy over this television genre raises the question of how Malay women, constrained within their position of being female subjects of the state, manage to circumvent the authorities and watch this Turkish serial drama. They are not supposed to challenge social norms, moral propriety, cultural identity and the state vision of modernity. Therefore, this article argues that although Malay women exhibit excitement towards this television genre, they consistently use Islamic knowledge to develop watching skills and become more sceptical as well as competent in interpreting popular Islamic texts. The findings also show that Islam in the Malay world is culturally diverse, progressive and flexible.
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penontonan drama rantaian dalam kalangan wanita Melayu, 2015
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journal article by MD Azalanshah
Plaridel: A Philippine Journal of Communication,Media, and Society, 2023
Academic studies often explore the dynamics between Malay women and popular culture within the co... more Academic studies often explore the dynamics between Malay women and popular culture within the context of Malaysian modernity. Researchers commonly investigate resistance to the government’s moral initiatives for women in society. This article examines how popular culture, specifically serial television drama, depicts the portrayal of Malay women during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on the concepts of obedience, disobedience, and control. The government’s “Duduk Rumah” [Stay at home]and “Kita Jaga Kita” [We take care of ourselves] campaigns, initiated by then Prime Minister Muhyidin Yassin to combat the COVID-19 epidemic, placed additional burdens on women, assigning them significant domestic responsibilities as household managers, including the well-being and education of their children, as well as maintaining family cohesion. We argue that these targeted government policies exacerbated the concerns and uncertainties experienced by Malay women during lockdowns. Furthermore, we contend that the government demonstrated less sensitivity, care, or coordination in managing the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to an increase in domestic violence, divorce, depression, and emotional stress among Malay women. These challenges were prominently depicted in Malay television serials, serving as a vital platform for contemplating the impact of the government’s moral initiatives on Malay women. Our research offers insights into the enduring progress, or lack thereof, in the status of women both within and beyond the domestic sphere, as part of Malaysia’s pursuit of modernity.
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Intellect, 2022
Audiences’ shifts to online and interactive engagement have posed numerous challenges to Banglade... more Audiences’ shifts to online and interactive engagement have posed numerous challenges to Bangladesh’s media ecology. This descriptive case study examines the current state of digital transition, complexities and competitions faced by the local television industry by putting Ntv Online, one of the first-generation television station’s online portals and convergence pioneers, at the centre of the discussion. It explains how Ntv Online is internalizing and responding to convergence practice from both media market dynamics and organizational perspectives. This study believes that issues other than those raised by media technology are equally important in comprehending the digital transition of Bangladesh’s television industry. The key findings indicate that the hybrid regime’s intervention in free media practices as well as complex market competition from massive tech platforms limit Bangladesh’s trajectory as a competitor in the global digital media arcade. This also implies that existing ownership and corporate structures may not support the required interoperability between management and journalists. However, the digital transitions of the private TV industry may pave the way for the creation of a democratic space for public deliberation, which is essentially demanded in the current hybrid regime’s intervention in actualizing this shift.
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Abstrak Kajian kualitatif ini memfokuskan kepada penyertaan generasi muda Melayu dalam perdebatan... more Abstrak Kajian kualitatif ini memfokuskan kepada penyertaan generasi muda Melayu dalam perdebatan popular mengenai kempen I Want to Touch a Dog menerusi media sosial. Tidak dapat dinafikan bahawa salah satu ciri penting dalam proses pemodenan negara ialah penyertaan khalayak awam terhadap perbincangan isu-isu sosial bagi pembinaan masyarakat yang lebih demokratik. Berdasarkan kempen tersebut, kajian ini berhujah bahawa generasi muda Melayu hari ini mempunyai tafsiran yang rencam khasnya mengenai identiti dan imej peribadi. Mereka cenderung untuk menyesuai dan mentafsir semula struktur ideologi masyarakat Melayu khususnya Islam dengan tahap narsisisme yang tertentu. Pada masa yang sama, Islam turut menjadi objek imaginasi visual dalam membentuk tanggapan terhadap persekitaran sosial semasa. Penyertaan generasi muda Melayu dalam perdebatan yang rencam mengenai Islam, identiti dan perkaitannya menerusi kempen I Want to Touch a Dog telah meletakkan mereka sebagai khalayak sebar dalam teori kajian khalayak yang menyaksikan ketepuan penggunaan internet dalam konteks kehidupan seharian. Keadaan ini dipamerkan menerusi aspirasi terhadap imej-imej moden dan penyesuaian tradisi dalam membentuk imej Melayu semasa.
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This article addresses the contention of cultural identity in a traditional healthcare practice a... more This article addresses the contention of cultural identity in a traditional healthcare practice among Malay women of Javanese descent in Malaysia. The Malaysian Javanese are constitutionally recognised as Malays. However, in some aspects of life, particularly traditional healthcare practices, this community still retains the ways and images of being Javanese while at the same time keeping the Malay image intact. Through ethnographic fieldwork in the district of Sabak Bernam, Selangor, this study reveals that the practice of jamu (herbal medicine) consumption among Malay women of Javanese descent as the everyday medication practice reinforces their Javanese identity and sense of belonging to their communities.
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This study explores the uses of Islamic television content in bridging the gap between Javanese a... more This study explores the uses of Islamic television content in bridging the gap between Javanese and Malay identity among the Malay women of Javanese descent in Malaysia. Malaysian religious television programmes have constantly promoted the Islamic identifications of Malayness, enabling the Malay audience to reconstruct the culturally religious identity. While the reconstruction of Islamic identity through television viewing simply represents a lived experience for the majority of the Malay society, it has some cultural meanings for certain Malay sub-ethnic communities, such as the Javanese. This ethnographic study on a Malaysian Javanese community reveals that the interpretive engagement of this particular community in Islamic television viewing serves the purpose of negotiating Malay identity. The results of this study suggest that religious content can serve as an engaging platform to construct multi-ethnic identities beside popular and ethnic-related contents.
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Malaysian Journal of Youth Studies
Kajian kualitatif ini memberi tumpuan kepada pembentukan idea Melayu menerusi penggunaan media d... more Kajian kualitatif ini memberi tumpuan kepada pembentukan idea Melayu menerusi penggunaan media dalam kalangan belia Melayu di Malaysia. Penulisan ini melihat bagaimana idea Melayu ini turut membentuk identiti seharian mereka terutamanya dari segi pembinaan identiti diri (self-identity) dan identiti sosial (social-identity). Belia Melayu adalah pengguna media yang mempunyai perwatakan taktikal bagi tujuan penyesuaian sesuatu teks budaya. Justeru, artikel akan memperhalusi bentuk-bentuk perwatakan taktikal yang dimiliki oleh golongan belia Melayu dalam menangani isu-isu politik, sosial dan budaya semasa berdasarkan penggunaan dan pemahaman mereka terhadap kandungan media serta penglibatan politik dalam kalangan mereka.
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Malaysian Journal of Communication
Artikel ini membincangkan penontonan televisyen dalam kalangan
wanita keturunan Jawa di Sabak Be... more Artikel ini membincangkan penontonan televisyen dalam kalangan
wanita keturunan Jawa di Sabak Bernam dan hubungannya dengan
pembentukan identiti seharian. Masyarakat keturunan Jawa di
Malaysia diiktiraf sebagai bangsa Melayu dan terdedah dengan
budaya arus perdana negara ini melalui pelbagai saluran seperti
televisyen. Pada masa yang sama, mereka masih mengekalkan
identiti dan budaya Jawa mereka. Dengan perkataan lain,
pembentukan identiti budaya mereka dipengaruhi oleh “agensi
manusia dan struktur sosial.” Bagaimanapun, artikel ini berhujah
bahawa pembentukan identiti dan imej kendiri masyarakat
keturunan Jawa di Malaysia perlu difahami dalam konteks yang
lebih luas dengan mengambil kira peranan kandungan televisyen
yang turut mempengaruhi proses tersebut. Berdasarkan dapatan
awal kajian etnografi di Sabak Bernam, artikel ini mendapati
bahawa wanita keturunan Jawa di Malaysia mengamalkan
penontonan keagamaan dan demokratik untuk mengukuhkan
identiti budaya dan politik mereka dalam usaha untuk menjadi
sebahagian daripada masyarakat Melayu.
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Journal for Cultural Research
This article is concerned with how urban and remote Malay women communicate with the images of gl... more This article is concerned with how urban and remote Malay women communicate with the images of global modernity mediated through Asian soap operas. Asian soap operas have been identified as a popular platform for Malay women to engage with modernity in contemporary Malaysia. While promoting it at first, as appropriate television programme, this television genre has created some discomfort amongst the Malaysian authorities due to excessive representation of foreign images such as consumer culture and middle-class lifestyle. They believe the excessive of these representations might compromise the cultural values and identity of Malay women. However, we want to argue that Malay women are critical viewers who are able to communicate and negotiate global modernity without necessarily ignoring their identity. Importantly, as an adult and matured audience, they perform specific watching competencies with which to engage the depiction of various issues of modernities in the Asian soap operas.
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Asian Women, Mar 2012
"This paper is concerned with how urban Malay women negotiate and imagine their modernity as medi... more "This paper is concerned with how urban Malay women negotiate and imagine their modernity as mediated through imported television dramas. It is clear that one of the platforms through which to articulate modernity in contemporary Malaysia is the consumption of popular culture. Promoted at first as an appropriate television genre to strengthen the agenda of Malaysian modernity, Asian soap opera has not been without its tensions. Some authorities have expressed anxiety over what they consider to be the negative influences of foreign issues of morality, which they believe might undermine the standards of Malay woman- hood and compromise Malay cultural and national boundaries. Against this perception, however, we propose that urban Malay women negotiate their cultural re- sources to establish specific watching competencies with which to intelligently and adeptly engage foreign lifestyles in Asian soap operas imported to Malaysia. Watching competencies involve an active mobilization of those resources through which Malay women watch these soaps and measure their adherence to tradition. This paper will focus on how selected urban Malay women exercise their cultural resources, particularly those of adat (the traditional Malay custom as practiced by the Malays in Malaysia) and Islam, to form specific watching competencies for engaging with the depictions of complex inappropriate foreign lifestyles portrayed in Asian soap operas.
"
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Gender, Place & Culture A Journal of Feminist Geography, Aug 2012
This article examines how Malay women in remote Malaysian villages engage with images of transnat... more This article examines how Malay women in remote Malaysian villages engage with images of transnational modernity shown in popular soap operas imported from other Asian countries. While the government promoted these Asian soap operas at first as appropriate vehicles for the cultural project of modernising the mindsets and attitudes of the masses, authorities have now expressed some discomfort and ambivalence about the excessive representation of consumer culture in these soaps, which they fear will compromise the cultural values of Malay women. However, I argue that Malay women are discerning viewers who are able to critically negotiate the images of consumer culture in these soaps without necessarily ignoring their cultural values or social responsibilities. This debate about whether these soaps broaden the mindsets of Malay women viewers or teach them degenerate values of consumerist culture is part of an ongoing contestation over the cultural ramifications of modernity in Malaysia. This television genre of Asian soaps can be conceptualised as a site for negotiating modernity, where Malay women derive pleasure from the consumerist modernity depicted in the Asian soap operas while remaining mindful of the strictures posed by local culture.Este artículo estudia cómo las mujeres malayas en las aldeas remotas de Malasia interactúan con las imágenes de la modernidad transnacional que se muestran en las telenovelas importadas de otros países asiáticos. Aunque en un principio el gobierno promovió estas telenovelas asiáticas como vehículos apropiados para el proyecto cultural de modernizar las mentalidades y actitudes de las masas, ahora las autoridades han expresado cierta incomodidad y ambivalencia acerca de la representación excesiva de la cultura del consumo en estas telenovelas, con la que temen se comprometan los valores culturales de las mujeres malayas. Sin embargo, sostengo que las mujeres malayas son espectadoras perspicaces capaces de negociar en forma crítica las imágenes de la cultura del consumo en estas novelas, sin necesariamente ignorar sus propios valores culturales o responsabilidades sociales. Este debate sobre si las telenovelas abren las mentes de las espectadoras malayas o les enseñan valores degradados de la cultura del consumismo es parte de una disputa continua sobre las ramificaciones culturales de la modernidad en Malasia. Este género televisivo de las telenovelas asiáticas puede ser conceptualizado como un sitio de negociación de la modernidad, donde las mujeres malayas obtienen placer de la modernidad consumista mostrada en las telenovelas asiáticas mientras se mantienen conscientes de las restricciones que plantea la cultura local.
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Malaysian Journal of Media Studies
Kajian kualitatif ini melihat kepada kemasyhuran berterusan yang dinikmati oleh drama rantaian As... more Kajian kualitatif ini melihat kepada kemasyhuran berterusan yang dinikmati oleh drama rantaian Asia dalam kalangan wanita Melayu di Malaysia. Keadaan ini telah menarik perhatian pelbagai pihak dan ia bukanlah sekadar suatu fenomena biasa. Pihak pemerintah telah mengkritik genre drama ini kerana menyemai citra kemodenan asing yang berakar umbi kepada elemen-elemen budaya kepenggunaan dan gaya hidup bandaran. Ada juga antara mereka yang berhujah bahawa drama sedemikian telah merendahkan martabat wanita Melayu yang cenderung mengabaikan tugas serta peranan domestik mereka dalam ruang lingkup peribadi. Kami ingin berhujah bahawa wanita Melayu merupakan penonton yang arif menilai dan mereka membina kemahiran menonton untuk mempertimbang dan seterusnya menyaring makna-makna kemodenan dalam drama rantaian Asia tanpa mengabaikan nilai-nilai budaya mereka. Mereka juga bukanlah penonton yang pasif dan hanya menerima sahaja apa yang ditonton tetapi adalah berupaya menilai dan menimbang tara apa sahaja pertembungan nilai yang terjadi di antara kemodenan dan tradisi dalam konteks politik, budaya dan agama.
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Malaysian Journal of Media Studies, Nov 1, 2011
This article seeks to situate soap opera as a popular vehicle for Malay women in contemporary Mal... more This article seeks to situate soap opera as a popular vehicle for Malay women in contemporary Malaysia to engage with an increasingly globally oriented form of transnational modernity. While this study employs a textual analysis to examine this television genre, it argues that non-Western soap opera provides sense of modernity to the local audience particularly Malay women through various representations of consumer culture and its potential as a site for escapism and a channel for mediated reality. Through an insight into the role of a non-Western soap opera as a privileged site for engaging with modernity amongst Malay women, this article provides a clearer understanding of television’s role and its representation in the Malay world.
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Journal of Consumer Culture, May 2013
Soap opera is a potent cultural site for Malay women to imagine the meanings of modernity. Initia... more Soap opera is a potent cultural site for Malay women to imagine the meanings of modernity. Initially the Malaysian government promoted non-Western soap operas to circulate the state’s vision of alternative Asian-style modernities. Now the authorities have voiced a concern that some images and discourses of transnational modernity articulated even in non-Western soaps pose a threat to the cultural integrity of Malay women. This paper studies the significance of non-Western soaps to an understanding of gendered expectations and the progressive re-territorialization of the socio-political order in the context of an ethos of mediatized cultural globalization. Our referent is patriarchal Islamist state Malaysia. We conduct an empirical case study exploring Malay Muslim women’s negotiation and understanding of non-Western soap operas in Malaysia. Results from a series of guided in-depth interviews with 12 rural and urban Malay women enable us to understand how they negotiate their position as viewers of these non-Western soaps, given the criticism about the supposed immorality of these programs. We argue that Malay women act as strategic audiences who mobilize sophisticated viewing tactics that we call ‘watching competencies’ to negotiate the pleasures and potential conflicts of their access to non-Western soaps. This research indicates that Malay women are neither passive, vulnerable consumers of foreign soap, nor easily manipulated by those who claim authority; rather, they confidently assert their autonomy as consumer-citizens of a modern Islamic state.
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This article focuses on an extensive discussion of audience ethnography as a methodological appro... more This article focuses on an extensive discussion of audience ethnography as a methodological approach to study popular cultural text consumption among Malay women in Malaysia. Audience ethnography is the most well-known research tradition to examine the process of television genre consumption including soap opera. However, some elements in audience ethnography’s approach have raised a doubt amongst sociology and anthropology scholars in terms of selection of respondent and interview technique. At the same time, despite the dominance of positivism and quantitative tradition in Malaysian media research, this article provides a clear understanding and solution toward these particular issues and how it is viewed in the context of current Malaysia.
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book chapter by MD Azalanshah
Popular Culture in Asia: Memory, City, Celebrity, May 2013
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Reading Asian Television Drama: Crossing Borders and Breaking Boundaries, Feb 20, 2014
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conference proceedings by MD Azalanshah
ipedr.com, Oct 4, 2011
Asian soap operas with their spectacular representation of consumer culture, have emerged as the ... more Asian soap operas with their spectacular representation of consumer culture, have emerged as the most popular television genre among Malay women audiences. This has caused a certain degree of anxiety amongst the local authorities who fear that consumerism has a corruptive effect on the cultural integrity of Malay womanhood. We conducted interviews with rural Malay women, to investigate how women engaged with the images of consumerist modernity depicted in these soaps. In this paper, we want to argue that Malay women do not passively submit to the lures of consumerism, as the authorities allege. Instead, Malay women are discerning viewers who engage critically with the elements of consumer culture in Asian soaps through a worldview formed by Malay cultural values. We elaborate three tactics of such a process of negotiation with relation to the consumerist images of presentation of self: perceiving image as a distant spectacle, observing Islamic injunctions regarding female and exercising personal judgment.
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Asian Media Information and Communication 22nd International Conference Proceedings, Jul 4, 2013
This ethnographic research examines how female Javanese descendants in the small village of Sabak... more This ethnographic research examines how female Javanese descendants in the small village of Sabak Bernam, Malaysia negotiate their identity through television consumption. Living in Malaysia for many years, their presence and cultural identity are elaborately questioned in the debate of cultural products ownership between Malaysia and Indonesia. It can be argued that the Javanese descendant’s communities in Malaysia are too complex to define in terms of identity and self-images. For example, while our respondents in this research persistently maintain their Javanese identity and customs, they also strongly embrace the local Malay conformity. Based on the preliminary findings, this research reveals that the female Javanese descendants in Malaysia engage with devotional and democratic viewing to produce the sense of reflexive identity and interpretive identity practices in relation to their hybrid identity construction. Growing up as Javanese, Malay and Malaysians, their identity formation contribute to the Southeast Asian literatures of ethnic identity debate and television culture in the transnational contexts.
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Books by MD Azalanshah
journal article by MD Azalanshah
wanita keturunan Jawa di Sabak Bernam dan hubungannya dengan
pembentukan identiti seharian. Masyarakat keturunan Jawa di
Malaysia diiktiraf sebagai bangsa Melayu dan terdedah dengan
budaya arus perdana negara ini melalui pelbagai saluran seperti
televisyen. Pada masa yang sama, mereka masih mengekalkan
identiti dan budaya Jawa mereka. Dengan perkataan lain,
pembentukan identiti budaya mereka dipengaruhi oleh “agensi
manusia dan struktur sosial.” Bagaimanapun, artikel ini berhujah
bahawa pembentukan identiti dan imej kendiri masyarakat
keturunan Jawa di Malaysia perlu difahami dalam konteks yang
lebih luas dengan mengambil kira peranan kandungan televisyen
yang turut mempengaruhi proses tersebut. Berdasarkan dapatan
awal kajian etnografi di Sabak Bernam, artikel ini mendapati
bahawa wanita keturunan Jawa di Malaysia mengamalkan
penontonan keagamaan dan demokratik untuk mengukuhkan
identiti budaya dan politik mereka dalam usaha untuk menjadi
sebahagian daripada masyarakat Melayu.
"
book chapter by MD Azalanshah
conference proceedings by MD Azalanshah
wanita keturunan Jawa di Sabak Bernam dan hubungannya dengan
pembentukan identiti seharian. Masyarakat keturunan Jawa di
Malaysia diiktiraf sebagai bangsa Melayu dan terdedah dengan
budaya arus perdana negara ini melalui pelbagai saluran seperti
televisyen. Pada masa yang sama, mereka masih mengekalkan
identiti dan budaya Jawa mereka. Dengan perkataan lain,
pembentukan identiti budaya mereka dipengaruhi oleh “agensi
manusia dan struktur sosial.” Bagaimanapun, artikel ini berhujah
bahawa pembentukan identiti dan imej kendiri masyarakat
keturunan Jawa di Malaysia perlu difahami dalam konteks yang
lebih luas dengan mengambil kira peranan kandungan televisyen
yang turut mempengaruhi proses tersebut. Berdasarkan dapatan
awal kajian etnografi di Sabak Bernam, artikel ini mendapati
bahawa wanita keturunan Jawa di Malaysia mengamalkan
penontonan keagamaan dan demokratik untuk mengukuhkan
identiti budaya dan politik mereka dalam usaha untuk menjadi
sebahagian daripada masyarakat Melayu.
"