This study examines how Malaysian online news organisations framed public calls to boycott McDonald's Malaysia following heightened sensitivities surrounding the 2023 Israel-Gaza conflict. Although boycotts are widely discussed in consumer behaviour research, limited attention has been given to how news media construct boycott narratives, particularly within geopolitically charged contexts. Using inductive qualitative content analysis, the study analysed 48 news articles published between October 2023 and April 2024 across four major outlets-The Star, Berita Harian, Sin Chew Daily, and Malaysiakini. Through open coding, categorisation, and intercoder reliability testing (kappa = 0.61-0.87), the analysis identified five thematic clusters comprising 19 distinct frames. Findings demonstrate how media outlets emphasised conflict, economic consequences, moral concerns, and corporate responses, shaping public interpretations of the crisis. The study contributes to framing scholarship by developing a typology of boycott-related frames and offers practical insights for brands navigating crises in geopolitically sensitive, culturally diverse environments.
The ideal female body stereotype is one of the longstanding aesthetic standards in Chinese society and culture, which not only affects individual women's self-perception and psychological state, but is also constantly reinforced in social media, with increasingly outrageous aesthetic standards causing distress in females. Red (Xiaohongshu), as the most popular social media platform for Chinese women, presents a growing number of users who are aware of the negative effects of this ideal body image and challenge it by posting positive body image posts under the theme "rejecting body anxiety". Existing studies mostly focus on the analysis of static images or single text symbols of positive body image, and thus, the lack of research on the dynamic construction process of videos and how to construct a positive body image on the Red platform is addressed in this study. This study utilised the representation theory and employed textual analysis as the research method to analyse 134 posts by five influencers promoting a positive body image on Red. Results show that influencers use visual and verbal elements to close the distance between themselves and viewers, and guide viewers towards a more positive body image, which helps challenge the "white, young and thin" ideal body standard. The findings provide useful insights into applying the representation theory to short videos on social media. They also demonstrate how influencers use visual and spoken elements to promote positive body images and help us understand how women interpret their body experiences online.
In recent years, Chinese films have been extensively remade from South Korean films, but both reputation and box office collections have been underwhelming. To understand Chinese audiences' attitudinal behaviour toward this type of film, this study collected textual materials reflecting Chinese audiences' reception attitudes: Douban long reviews, short reviews, and questionnaires. This study analysed 220,264 words from long and short reviews, plus questionnaires using thematic analysis, and identified four themes: Films, Audience, Reality, and Expression. The study found that the localization strategies employed by Chinese films in cross-cultural adaptations have left Chinese audiences dissatisfied. Furthermore, audiences are not averse to the remake nature of the films; rather, they are more concerned with the director's professional ability and the story's logic after adaptation. The actor choice also significantly drives viewership. The study shows that even in culturally similar markets, neglecting story and logic during adaptation can lead to audience rejection. Moreover, themes of reality and emotions, as well as more authentic stories, are relatively more favoured by the audience.
The widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly transformed several production methods in the global creative industries, including Malaysia. The application of AI-assisted media is seen to be utilised as the initial tool in developing the early pre-production development from the conceptual process of developing an idea to the final script for the creative industry, specifically towards animation pre-production. Each component in the pre-production phase is seen to incorporate AI-driven technology as the primary catalyst for initial development. This transformative role is evident and can be specifically applied in conceptualising and realising storytelling within animation preproduction. This paper explores and examines the utilisation and integration of AI-assisted media in the initial story development process in the pre-production stage of animation. The study employed a qualitative indirect observation method to examine the AI-assisted media currently available for generating story elements. The functionality of these AI-assisted media is monitored based on their ability to generate ideation and storytelling elements using the four steps of the story-driven approach in story development: ideation, story arc, logline, and scriptwriting. The samples of available AI-assisted media were selected using purposive sampling based on the criteria of generating story elements through the generative capabilities of natural language processing (NLP) and existing online data derived from user reviews, forum discussions, and expert analyses. The findings indicate that two AI-assisted media were identified for each of the four steps of the story-driven approach. These eight distinct AI-assisted media can enhance story development for aspiring storytellers and animators in animation pre-production. The integration of AI-assisted media indicates that AI tools are transforming the story development process by making it more efficient and reducing the time required for production. Additionally, it effectively communicates the desired story and plot development.
While religious radicalisation can occur at any age, youths seeking a sense of belonging, purpose, and identity may very well be highly vulnerable to radicalisation. While the digital landscape continues to evolve rapidly, the spread of the "radicalism virus" remains a pressing concern, particularly in the wake of accelerated online interactions. Much of the existing research focuses on top-down, state led countermeasures, leaving a significant gap in understanding the role of grassroots, youth-led initiatives. This study addresses this gap by analysing the factors contributing to students' radicalisation and exploring counter-radicalisation communication strategies based on youth initiatives within the context of Indonesian universities. The authors employed a qualitative case study method, focusing on intra-university student organisations. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with eight coordinators of religious affairs and a thematic analysis of official documents, including work programmes and accountability reports. The data were analysed using a hybrid thematic analysis approach. An inductive process was used to identify emergent themes from the data, followed by a deductive analysis guided by the Radicalisation Process Theory and Strategic Communication Theory to interpret the findings. The study's findings reveal critical factors influencing student radicalisation, categorised as internal (frail religious foundations and psychological transitions) and external (improper social contexts). Furthermore, the findings identified an existing bottom-up, student-led strategic framework. This framework comprises two main components: (1) offline participatory religious programmes and, (2) online social media-based religious initiatives to counter religious radicalisation within higher education institutions. This study contributes a vital bottom-up perspective to counter-radicalisation literature. It provides a practical synthesis of a student-led framework, offering tangible lessons for universities and student organisations aiming to shape radicalisation awareness and resilience among youths.
