No abstract

Purpose: Insufficiency of information delivery within agricultural extension services (AES) is a worldwide concern and been recognized as unresolved debate. This issue triggered AES on governance structure demand upward communication to encourage more input at farm level to allow farmers to make a decision and improve their ability to problem-solving. Methodology:  This research includes review the literature on the issue, the theoretical arguments of STOPS and finally to test the items for the measurement of farmers’ response in this problem and identified items for future study. Items were tested through a survey distributed to 110 respondents. The exploratory data analysis was performed using principal components with varimax rotation to assess the performance of each items in measuring their respective variables. Study only retained items that loaded on the variables at .50 cut off criterion, and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure verified the sampling adequacy for the analysis, KMO more than .50 Findings: Result of analysis found the items fell into factor groups as suggested by theory and finalized with 58 items of measurement for future study. Practical implications: These results offer initial guidance into the relevance of STOPS on farmers response in problem-solving towards insufficient information delivery within AES and how they react to issues that affect them. Social Implications: The investigation of STOPS on the sample in the local context of the public would provide a deeper understanding of farmers in Malaysia on their dimensions of conceptual of situational perception, communicative behavior and motivation in problem-solving towards insufficient of information delivery. Research Limitation: Evaluation of Malaysian farmer’s perception and communicative action is limited to the theoretical proposition of STOPS. Originality Value: Study unleashed farmers response in problem-solving capacity towards insufficient of information delivery which have not been fully addressed through the assumption and concept of STOPS.

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

The popular microblogging platform known as Twitter has become a legitimate and frequently used communication channel in the Malaysian political arena. While the 2008 Malaysian general election was notable for the use of social media by the opposition parties during their campaigns, the 2013 general election saw a level playing field in which the Barisan Nasional coalition had quickly caught up in its use of social media. This study draws on a content analysis of election-related Twitter messages collected under the #pru13 hashtag to describe the key patterns of activity and the thematic foci of the election's coverage on this particular social media site. The dataset is collected from Twitter's public timeline from May 1to May 6, 2013. What emerged from this analysis is there are evidently intensified and amplified campaign messages polluting the #pru13 hastag from accounts that are questionable in their origin. This study adds to the literature that has questioned the predictive power of social media in an election.