Something Fishy: Blog Task 2: Malaysian Media

How can the industry overcome these challenges?

“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent” ― Victor Hugo

The music and film industry in Malaysia are getting more stagnant and boring recently. Famous local music artists are moving their career away from Malaysia and into foreign countries like the United States. The film industry on the other hand is just so repetitive and dull. We as a community cannot just let this happen again and again. Things need to change for the benefit of our media and the citizens of Malaysia. My group has researched various ways that can help boost the local media industry.

Suggest at least 3 recommendations that you would
implement to help boost the local media industry:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glfTTOnBoWM

"I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. And I plan on finding out what that is." - Zoolander (2001)

Source:(http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/music)

One of the methods is our government should assign more funds in order to enhance the production of local movies. If the movie industry in our country had more budget, directors would be able produce films of on a higher scale with better quality. Production crews are able to possess better equipment that are considered expensive such as cameras, boom microphones, lighting stands etc. Viewers will be able to enjoy watching local movies instead of just going to the cinema, look at the posters and just ignore them. Our local films would actually be able to be compared and compete with international movies. This provides incentive and motivation to production crews and actors to make awe-inspiring movies that the audience can appreciate. With inspiration and ambition, film makers are able to make a motion picture with quality plot, great casting and a fantastic setting. More funds also means the government enables better training for fresh new actors and film makers who have just recently dipped their toes into this industry. Soon enough, these newbies will learn and adapt to their workplace and who knows, maybe they will be better than those of them who come from Hollywood. Our governments should strongly consider building a school that is dedicated to performing arts like an acting school or maybe more universities should create courses dedicated to film making. This way, students can focus on what they want to do instead of wasting their time, money and efforts in a subject they are not interested in.

Another method to help the media industry in Malaysia is all local media outlets should help each other in growing instead of competing against each other. By practicing this symbiotic relationship, both parties are able to receive benefits from each other. If media outlets in our country keep on going in a competitive spell, things will just get more complicated and nobody will benefit from it. In terms of the film industry, movies are able to receive much higher promotional and profitable success if local cable networks and online news outlets help to spread the word. For example, Astro promoted the release of the film The Journey which aided in its success. Astro helps advertising the film and in return Astro will get a fair share of the profit. This is proof that media outlets can help each other if they are willing to for the welfare of both groups. In terms of news, online news and mainstream news outlets ideally should be uniformly providing news (not biased even with the authoritarian news ownership) and should be helping each other. Readers may only read from one of the two and not get enough information. So if online news and mainstream news are willing to work together, readers can get the full information on a certain issue. Online news and mainstream news can share new information with each other and increase the credibility of their news.

Lastly, the media must appeal to the better interest of the Malaysian citizens. Film makers and TV producers need to analyse the interest and norms of the Malaysian community with more effort. Doing a survey can be a way for producers to get a better understanding of what our society wants in a movie or television programme. This will make it easier for producers to know what genres and storylines are satisfactory for our society. The production of films and TV shows those are over used and have cliché plots should be stop. Audiences will just get bored and unamused to this kind of storyline. It is time we put an end to this. Upcoming film makers should not be afraid to break free from the repetitive pattern that their predecessors have left them with. A completely new and fresh movie is just what we need instead of five different horror movies or another sequel of a same gangster themed movie. Year in and year out, we get the same type of movies and that is probably why the film industry in our country cannot progress forward. It is a given that it should be encouraged for movie makers to produce stories that are ground-breaking and original to potentially raise awareness. A movie that has a different plot can grab audience’s attention easily because it does not have the monotonous and mundane element in it. This way, Malaysian films and local movie makers can be recognised easily on an international scale.

In conclusion, local media outlets has a lot of challenges to deal with but once these problems have been dealt with then the film and news industry can improve to greater heights. Unless we want our local media to just be the plain old boring media as we know it, changes need to be made for the greater good. If the ways stated above is implemented to the media, Malaysia will be a more developed country.

Local (Malaysia) Media Icon

Source: https://cupcakesmusictea.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/yuna.png

Source: http://www.ammboi.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/yuna-ujibakat-oiam-2006.jpg

Yunalis Zarai is a renowned Malaysian indie pop vocalist with the stage name known as Yuna Zarai. At the age of 14, she started to write songs on her free time. Yuna’s father, the current legal advisor of Pahang, always became a figure that supported her love and passion in music. She managed to get into top 40 in a competition show based in Malaysia called “One in a Million”. She was born in Alor Setar, Malaysia and a little known fact, she performed a few shows whilst attending law school. She began to make herself a name in the music industry on her final year in law school. Later on, Malaysian media grew to fixate on Yuna. She decided to follow her dreams of being an artist as her songs were a big hit and that led on to her moving to Los Angeles, America. One of her famous Malay song is “Dan Sebenarnya” which has been nominated countless times, achieving 9 awards and racking up million of views on YouTube. On the side, Yuna, being the avid fashion lover she is, also has her own boutique. In fact, she owns an online store named November Culture which has expand expeditiously in the past 6 years to such an extent where she is now capable to open a physical store in SS15,Subang Jaya.

Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r28hanjNIfI

Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo7EIndDGtC3RwmXAEx6o1ukdMs96C22sEa98gg60ck_Qwk_w1Hrgh3IIhGoOtiDT0DocISRiTEnv-8FLZr0iPyAUZG8vUTOQHvX0sLCTI3MY8YtbnS0aGgUPdQimopbitsrhsf7-gtGo/s1600/tiny+forest+yuna7.JPG

Check out the store if you are interested! November Culture Online Store Link: http://novemberculture.com/collections/all

In 2009, Yuna was contacted by Ben Willis, CEO/Co-Owner of a Indie-Pop record label through an email after watching her online videos. Then in the early 2011, she signed with ‘The Fader’ label. She got the chance to work with Pharrell Williams in the studio through Fader. During the time spent, they created some of the hit tracks in the album and one of the song is “Live Your Life”. Yuna is an inspiration and motivation to many because she still keeps her Muslim roots even though she pursues her career abroad. She also stands strong being titled as a twist in the group of up and rising female artistes by keeping her traditional hijab. (head scarf)

Live Your Life MV source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RSXJUG8Sa0

Information source: http://www.elle.com/culture/music/news/a18861/yuna-interview/

Information source: http://www.billboard.com/artist/431716/yuna/biography

Information source: http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-10-15/malaysian-singer-yuna-far-more-just-muslim-pop-star

Information source: http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/491664/yuna-talks-career-start-pharrell-williams-more

Foreign Media Icon

Source: http://www.kiss925.com/files/2015/02/Taylor-Swift-1200x800.png

Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter and a highly respected country singer. She was born on 13^th of December, 1989 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Her journey started at the age of 5 when her family moved to neighbouring Wyomissing. When she was 9 years old, a musical theatre grab her attention as she performed at Berks Youth Theatre Academy. Being born in a privileged family, she had the opportunity to attend vocal and acting classes in New York City frequently. However, after years of failed auditions in New York, she started becoming engrossed in country music. Soon enough after being supported by her family and friends, Taylor took the first step of her carrier and released her debut country album and astonishing age of 16.

Source: http://www.taylorswiftplanet.com/images/taylorswiftbio3.jpg

In 2008, she was nominated for the Grammy Awards for the Best New Artist category and from then on she had won multiple music awards. She then released her next music album, Fearless which became a top hit on both country and pop charts for 11 weeks consecutively. In 2009, she began claiming titles in the industry such as, "Video of the Year", "Female Video of the Year" for her song "Love Story" at the CMT Music Awards and at the MTV Video Music Award for "Best Female Video" which then made her the very first country music star to claim that particular award. There was a dispute when Kanye West disrupted Taylor’s speech on stage claiming that singer Beyoncé Knowles should have won that award. Fortunately, this incident was resolved with Kanye West’s apology. Taylor Swift is indeed a great example to look up upon as she was driven by her deep – seeded passion for song writing and from there she built a brand out of her name. She never gave up and took the risk in making a career out of music.