This study explores the influence of education, length of service, professionalism, and ethics on the professional values of public relations practitioners in Malaysia. A total of 427 questionnaires were distributed to public relations practitioners in Malaysia, and 322 questionnaires were returned. The study included 61% female respondents, and 39% male respondents. The study analyzed and identified the influence of professionalism and ethics on professional values of public relations practitioners. Additionally, the study examined whether education and experience influence professional values through professionalism, and code of ethics. Six hypotheses were tested to answer the research questions. The results from this study fully supported the hypotheses indicating that professionalism and ethics had an influence on professional values of public relations practitioners. The results also showed that education influenced both professionalism and ethics, and length of service influenced both professionalism and ethical practice.

Media are said to set the public agenda. However, the actual scenario of a public agenda among the Malay and Chinese communities in Malaysia has yet to be ascertained. This study employs both content analysis and survey to examine media and public agenda of two major ethnic groups during the 2008 General Elections. In total, 9,135 news items, relating to elections, were obtained from three major languange newspapers, comprising Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian, Sin Chew Daily, Nanyang Siang Pau, The Star, and New Straits Times, during the campaign period. There were 12 important issues identified. Overall, the study found media agenda had no significant rank-order correlation with the public agenda, or the important issues raised by 1,454 Malay, Chinese, and Indian respondents nationwide. The same happens to the Malay media agenda with Malay public agenda. The study found the Chinese media agenda to have a significant rank-order correlation with the Chinese public agenda suggesting the newspapers influence among the Chinese readers on what to think about. Ethnic newspapers therefore could be setting the agenda for the various ethnic groups during elections.

The paper recorded the tremendous changes in the academic and media landscape in tracing the development of communication studies since its beginning in 1971. Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) was the first to offer the communication programme followed by Universiti Technology MARA (UiTM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and the other public universities. USM and UiTM benefitted from the American experts in the preparation of their academic programmes. The early communication programmes in public universities were American oriented due to the presence of the local lecturers whose early post graduate training was from American universities. This paper traced the turnover of academic staff in "generational order" to record such changes had on the development of the programme. The first generation of lecturers in the communication programmes has been taken over by the third and fourth generation compared to the new universities that only recorded the first generation of lecturers. The paper then discussed the challenges faced by the communication programmes in public universities such as the growth of the communication programmes in private universities, the lack of academic staff, and the adoption of the new media technology. Keywords

No abstract

This paper provides a historical perspective on communication studies in Malaysia since its beginning in 1970. Government policies and support in addition to institutional factors shaped the development of communication education in Malaysia. History is important for scholars of communication to understand the foundations and influences that have shaped the development of the communication field. The communication programmes in public universities were American oriented in the early years but took a Malaysian orientation later. This paper traces the first juncture when media education was first introduced, in the second juncture when it was accepted as an academic subject at the tertiary level, and the final juncture as it evolved into an internationally recognised field of study. This paper made references to newspaper and annual reports of communication influences throughout the years but highlights the opinions and comments made by early educators through a series of interviews conducted between the years 2013 to 2017. The paper then discusses the growth of the communication programmes in the universities. To conclude, a discussion of future challenges in the communication field are discussed. As communication education in Malaysia progresses, universities will face increasing pressures in terms of funding, competition and loyalty to the foundations of the field.