Siti Zobidah Omar

Addictive Facebook Use among University Students

The Facebook has become an essential part of almost every university students’ daily life, and while a large number of students seem to get benefits from use of the Facebook by exchanging information for educational goals, make friends, and other activities, the literature indicates that this social networking site can become addictive to some university students’ users, which is one of the today’s higher education matters. The aim of this study, therefore, is to explore the phenomenon of Facebook addiction among university students. Qualitative study using interview is used to gather data from nine International postgraduates of Universiti Putra Malaysia and the data established three themes (Compulsion to check Facebook, High frequency use, and Using Facebook to avoid offline responsibility) relied on the participants interviews. The findings from these three themes showed that these users considered their Facebook dependency, are known as salience, tolerance, and conflict. These results also lead to the conclusion that like most activities, moderation and controlled use are key. So, the best approach to preparing students for life in a knowledge-based society is to help them exercise self-control and achieve a level of balance when using Facebook. It is believed that the findings of this study would help other Facebook researchers by contributing to the limited academic literature in this area.

Mapping the patterns and problems in using rural library services among rural youth in Malaysia

This study attempts to discover the pattern of rural library usage among rural youth in Malaysia and to determine the problems that are associated with such usage. The findings of this study provide an insight into youth usage of rural library services. The most obvious pattern that resulted from the findings is the connection between library usage and the availability of reading materials. Furthermore, it was found that some of the respondents raised their concern with regard to rural libraries being congested with children. A number of recommendations have been highlighted and it is expected that these can be used by concerned parties to further improve and develop rural library services.

Information and Communications Technology Acceptance by Youth Entrepreneurs in Rural Malaysian Communities: The Mediating Effects of Attitude and Entrepreneurial Intention

This study aims to examine information and communication technology (ICT) acceptance among youth entrepreneurs in rural Malaysian communities by employing two tailored technology acceptance models based on attitudes (AT) and entrepreneurial intention (EI) that influence actual use (AU). The study involved 400 rural youth entrepreneurs selected from four states in Malaysia, and both mediating effects were analyzed using bootstrapping procedures through structural equation modeling. The two models were tested, and vary in terms of different conceptualization of the pathways of mediating entrepreneurship latent factors. The models in the present paper are closely related to the model in a prior study that used the same data set [Zaremohzzabieh et al., 2015. A test of the technology acceptance model for understanding the ICT adoption behavior of rural young entrepreneurs. International Journal of Business and Management, 10(2), 158–169.]. The results revealed that the first model is better than the second model. The results also revealed that the confirmatory strength of the two models improved the initial TAM through some form of mediating effects (i.e. AT and EI). The outcomes of this study contribute to our theoretical understanding of variables that influence ICT acceptance, and inform practice by recognizing methods to improve ICT acceptance among rural youth entrepreneurs in the country. The results provide new insights for small rural businesses and help to explain ICT acceptance, which is relatively underresearched in these growing nations.

Mapping the Patterns of Mobile Phone Usage Among Fishermen in Malaysia

The main attempt of this paper is to identify the patterns of mobile phone usage among fishermen in Pangkor Island in Malaysia. This study is quantitative in nature, where a total of 250 fishermen were selected as the respondents. The findings confirm that although the majority of fishermen do not spend much time and money on making and receiving calls and messaging, the mobile phone is still a crucial tool for them, particularly in its role in enhancing their safety and easing the communication process with their family while conducting their fishing operation. Although the mobile phone has superior functions in marketing, fishermen in Pangkor Island seem to place less importance on it. The findings also show the similarities and differences relevant to the patterns of mobile phone usage in Pangkor Island, and hopefully this can be applied to other fishing areas and further intensify the development in the fisheries industry.

The coastal community awareness towards the climate change in Malaysia

Purpose – The present paper attempts to investigate the awareness of coastal community towards climate change in Malaysia and to explore the factors associated with their awareness toward the climate change. Design/methodology/approach – This is a quantitative study where a set of questionnaires was developed based on reviews of literature and series of instrument development meeting. Through a multi-stage cluster sampling, a total of 210 respondents from three coastal villages in Peninsular Malaysia were selected. Findings – The coastal community are shown to record a high mean score on their awareness toward changes relating to the sea, temperatures and the coast. Surprisingly, fishermen are found to be less aware toward climate change compared to other groups, such as housewives/retirees and students. Further analysis confirms that there are significant differences regarding coastal community awareness to changes relating to the sea, temperatures and the coast. Research limitations/implications – This ...

Investigating Rural Library Usage among Rural Youth in Malaysia: Its Corresponding Determinants and Impacts

The demands for information are increasing nowadays, providing adequate sources of information for the community is a crucial agenda as it is an essential part of community development particularly the youth; the future leader of our community. As information and communication technology (ICT) play significant roles as sources of information, similarly, the rural library in Malaysia can play the same roles in offering updated and needed information of the community. The main objective of this paper is to know the potential factors, benefits and problems in using the services provided in the rural library. Discussion of this paper is based on applied documents and literature analysis. Based on the analyses done, a number of potential benefits offered by the rural community have been identified and certainly information offered is the main benefit available. Potential problems faced by the rural community in using the rural library services need to be overcome to ensure the rural community will profits from the benefits offered. Besides, a number of related factors and theories have been further discussed.

Facebook usage pattern among rural youths of 1Malaysia Wireless Village

The aim of this study is to discover the pattern of Facebook usage among the rural youths of 1Malaysia Wireless Village in Malaysia. Technology Acceptance Model and the Theory of Social Categorization were used to further explain their Facebook usage and the benefits of Facebook functionality in attaining a virtual community among rural youths to make them feel social bonding. This study is quantitative in nature and a survey method was adopted by using a questionnaire to collect the data. Results show that rural youths would continuously use multiple platforms to get connected to Facebook. The rural youths of 1Malaysia Wireless Village have a high Facebook usage acceptance and have frequently used the five main Facebook functionalities; such as group, conversation, sharing, identity and reputation to sustain their interpersonal relationships between close and distant friends. Several recommendations were made to ensure positive utilization of Facebook in enhancing the social context of rural youths’ social interaction.

Illustrating News Bias Towards Islam and Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia by Wall Street Journal and The Telegraph

This article attempts to look at how two international newspapers, Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and The Telegraph (TT), have reported on Islam and Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia from 2012 to 2014. The study explores the demography of the news articles, including the article frequency, number of paragraphs, news focus and lastly the news sources. A total of 420 news paragraphs from a collection of 20 news articles from WSJ and 10 articles from TT were analyzed. The researchers used the SPSS program to analyze the demography of the news and the news sources used. In assessing the extent of news bias, the researchers used a qualitative content analysis tool (QSR NVivo 11). The findings revealed that a majority of the news articles studied had reported negatively on Islam and Muslim issues in Malaysia and Indonesia. Based on this fact, it can be seen that Islam in Southeast Asian countries is still receiving negative reporting from the Western media.

E-community system towards first class mentality development: an infrastructure requirements analysis

E-Community portal can be classifed as an extension of normal type of knowledge management system (KMS) development towards first class mentality. It servers varities of expects in term of capabilities and services especially for the benefits of community. Most of the community today are looking on this matter as a very important issue and try to search the best way to manage or organize this community system for sustain a high rate of continuous improvement. While e-community system (ECS) or portal is a system that related to the process of knowledge capture, re-use, searching and representation to the user in a variety of form. The role of system could be determined by looking on the issues on how knowledge can be applied at the right time in the faster ways that based on the simplest command or agent given to the system in order to get the relevant knowledge from the portal. Besides that, system also could be looked on how the best element of infrastructure requirement could be used for, in the benefits of users in order to stored and captured as well as presenting the knowledge portal. The paper presents the analysis of the ECS infrastructure requirement, and its system implementation in a community of practise (CoP) especially towards first class mentality development as well as discussing a variety issues that related to its involvement, so that it will help CoPs to increase their productivity and quality as well as to gain return on investment (ROI).

Communication of Culture through Malay Quatrain

The role of a language is as the tools of relationship in a society. The Malaysian societies use a lot of ways to send messages, educate, give advice, keep order and and serve many more purposes. This literary form uses comparison and idiom to achieve these ends. Every quatrain expression uses interesting and beautiful words. The aspect of the language is important while the aspect of the sound is giving aesthetics expression to the creator of the Malay quatrain. The aspect of the sound is preferred as syllables especially at the final syllables for every line. This matter is not only medium or ways of the societies is expressed, also the Malays who strongly value decency, politeness, and many more virtues. Malay quatrains state the power of high thinking and meaning and also the civilization of the Malay race. In fact since the past years, quatrain is used extensively in some social and legislative councils, trading and also in the constitutional field. Hence, this paper will discuss the role and the types of the Malay quatrain that was used to deliver the thinking and civilization. Among the classical text are the Sejarah Melayu, The Tale of Hang Tuah (Hikayat Hang Tuah) , The Tale of Abdullah (Hikayat Abdullah), and The Chronicles of the Malay (Misa Melayu). The research data will be analyzed by using the sociolinguistics and pragmatic apgroaches. Besides that, this paper is also going to focus on the value of patriotism and humanity in the Malay quatrain.