Paradigm Shift: PR and Activism
Moderator Zain speaking to the students.
Shah Alam: Youth activism generally attracts negative attention from the public. In a conventional country such as Malaysia, activism is muffled and widely discouraged. However, the final year students of Public Relations at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) recognized the increased involvement of youths in activism and organized a colloquium titled “The Role of Public Relations in Promoting Youth Activism” on 10 October 2009 to explore the different approaches of PR and provide a platform to discuss youth activism.
The invited speakers were David Gibson of Inter Asia Communications, Sonia Ong of National Council of Women’s Organizations, Niki Cheong of The Star, Khairun Nisa Mohamed Zabidi of Malaysian Youth Climate Justice Network (MYCJN) and Rusyan Sopian of Amnesty International Malaysia. The colloquium covered an array of topics ranging from the influence of social media to discussing the semantics of ‘activism’ to exploring the challenges and issues that NGOs and activists face.
Niki Cheong and Khairun Nisa.
David Gibson highlighted the significance of social media which NGOs and activists should not oversee in communicating their causes. According to their research, 1.8 million Malaysians are Facebook users and growing at a rate of 100,000 each month, 66% of global internet population uses social networks, 13 hours worth of video is uploaded every minute on YouTube, 3 million Tweets go out every day, and 3.6 billion photos are uploaded on Flickr as of June 2009. These figures speak for itself the extent of influence social networks have on today’s net generation.
Over the years, youths have been sidelined in decision-making processes and their voices are seldom heard. But the situation has now shifted as more youths are beginning to make their voices heard in matters concerning nation-building and being involved in an activist movement that is now growing momentum. According to Niki Cheong, youths are “the ambassadors of the country” and engagement must take place as we exchange ideas “that are not static” and “shape each others’ thoughts.” Information is no longer a one-way, top-down communication.
Rusyan Sopian speaking his points.
For Rusyan Sopian, activism is “synonymous with citizenship,” and PR should open the “doors to dialogue.” It should not be seen as something negative, but a responsibility every citizen should take and be involved in issues that are close to their hearts. Youth activism does not necessarily mean venting anger out on the streets, but as Sonia Ong puts it, “involves young people having a desire and commitment to affect a positive change in their communities.”
Youth activism should no longer be viewed as a nuisance but a pro-active measure to promote change and PR can be utilized as a tool to shift the general views via strategic and effective communications methods. Malaysia is now entering an exciting period where more youths are being involved and speaking up, as illustrated by MYCJN. Dialogue is possible and is slowly taking place as the PR students of UiTM, a government university famed for its rightist views, had just demonstrated with this colloquium.
What does the final year students have to say on this topic? Coming soon.
