January 2016

Desktop PublishingKhairuazhar Sahabudin

Staff ContributorsDr. Khairuddin OthmanAzmir HusniNurdiyana Mohd Jonis

Student ContributorDenielle Leong

Other ContributorBebe Chooi

VOICE is a newsletter produced by the Faculty of Communication, HELP University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

HELP University Sdn Bhd (84963-D), ELM Business School

No. 15, Jalan Sri Semantan 1,Off Jalan Semantan,

Bukit Damansara50490 Kuala Lumpur

Comm new students in January ‘16 orientation

It was truly an experience worth noting in the dairy for the new batch of students

who came for the recent two-day orien-tation of the Faculty of Communication. First, they were greeted by none other than the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Dr Khong Kim Hoong. In his welcoming speech Dr Khong highlighted the impor-tance of communication in society. “The channels of communication is expanding into new areas such as min-iaturized devices that people could not even think of before. Look at the tele-phones and wrist watches that also act as two-way video communication devices,” he added in his speech at Auditorium Block A on the first day 13 January.

Dr Khong urged the new students to be creative and have the courage to explore new things. “To be in university is to be in an exciting time of your life. You have the opportunity to understand the world around you and judge things criti-cally,” he said. In an interview, Joyce Pooi, a new student to the Faculty who enrolled in the Diploma of Communication, had this to say: “It is exciting to see the vibrancy of student activities in this faculty.” She expected to experience more exciting events as the days unfold.

To Ms Joyce, our reply is this: “You bet!”

1. Welcoming speech by Dr Khong Kim Hoong, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic).2. Meeting faculty academic staff on second day of orientation.3. COMM Student Representative Council members sharing their experiences and wits.4. Lunch treat at the Faculty office.5. Video shooting for the orientation introduction.6. Ms. Azila (extreme right) with student committee for the orientation.

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Media Studies/Public Relations

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Enroll in our programmes today!

Call 03 2716 2000

Branding: A Challenge for 2016

NEWSPage 2

► KUALA LUMPUR: High speed train between KL and Singapore soon

Train riders will have shorter time travel-ling between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore once the High-Speed Rail (HSR) trains ply between the two cities. Talks are ongoing between Malaysia and Singapore for the 350km project before an internation-al tender for it is expected to open late 2016. It will have its own railway line for safety reason and, following most HSR top speed, is expected to travel up to 350kph.

Source: The Star, 25 December 2015, p. 17.

News Bites: News that you can use

Branding is one of the main challenges that the advertising industry faces in 2016. Branding efforts should therefore

focus on creating and maintaining meaningful connections with consumers, because trust is no longer enough to win and sustain consumers. The recent 2015 Havas Meaningful Brands study found that 74% of consumers do not care if brands disappear for good. The meaningfulness of brands is now more important than ever. This is the key brand driver, says Andrew Lee, managing director of Havas Worldwide Kuala Lumpur. Making meaningful connections with consumers must be seriously looked at. “Brands that focus on improving quality of life and well-being, on making lives easier and healthier will gain a greater share of existence and receive higher levels of engagement and trust in return. These are the ones that have successfully made meaningful connections with consumers,” Lee says. Brands like Samsung, Google, Nestle, Sony, Microsoft and IKEA have been successful because they have played a mean-ingful role in people’s lives.

Source: The Star Online, Biz News, 19 December 2015

► Consumers confused by smart-phone consent

A new study from researchers at the Uni-versity of British Columbia and the Uni-versity of California, Berkeley shows that too often consumers are unaware of what their apps are accessing. The majority of smartphone owners are in the dark or are at least very confused about what they’re sharing when they install an app. Per-missions are given in list form during the installation process and the only way to refuse a condition is to not install an app. Source: The Star Online, 19 January 2016

► Unifi users – get iflix for free or extend your existing subscription

TM has announced that subscribers to its UniFi service will get one year’s sub-scription to video streaming service iflix for free. Users only need to install the app on their mobile devices or visit play.iflix.com on the PC while they are on the UniFi network and start watching – the device will automatically be activated and you will be able to view all content without needing to even login to iflix. There is however, a five device limit per usage. Source: The Star Online, 14 January 2016

The Kancil Awards, acknowledged as Malaysia’s largest and most prestigious advertising awards competition, is

organised annually to recognise creative excellence in adver-tising. The year 2015 was the 20th anniversary of the Kancil Awards. Dentsu Utama, which is part of Dentsu Aegis Network, a Japanese advertising agency, was last month (December 2015) crowned “Agency of the Year” at the advertising indus-try’s most prestigious annual event, the Kancil Awards 2015. Dentsu had won 12 silver, 64 bronze, and three merit awards, totalling 79 wins. However, there were various complaints that there were obvious similarities to the original works created in the UK and Sweden. The creative work submitted by Dentsu Utama for “Cross River Gorilla”, an anti-poaching campaign for WWF in Indonesia, as well as for “Professional Man”, an internet privacy awareness campaign for Web Privacy Watch, contained almost identical images to the foreign works, which were posted in public much earlier. To remedy the contentious situation, while upholding the principles of eligibility for the Kancil Awards, a thorough inves-tigation was initiated by the 4As (Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia). On 29 December, Dentsu Utama was accused of plagia-rism by the 4As, a claim which it strongly disputes. Dentsu had started its internal investigation, which is supported by independent legal advice. The conclusion is that such accu-sations are unfounded. Dentsu was also not given the oppor-tunity to defend itself. As a result, “Agency of the Year”, Dentsu Utama, and its representatives resigned from the 4As “with immediate effect” (i.e. on Friday 8 January 2016).

Source: StarBizWeek, Saturday 9 January 2016

Accusation of PLAGIARISM in Ad Industry

image source: http://www.emineomedia.com/branding/

FEATUREPage 3

Byline DENIELLE LEONG

As a Media Studies major, I always make it a point to find avenues where

I can put the knowledge and skills that I learn from the classroom to the test. Over the years, I’ve written for a national newspaper, organised TEDx confer-ences, and managed the social media accounts for a local theatre group. With those experiences, I was selected by the Ministry of Youth and Sports to represent our country at the ASEAN Youth Media Literacy Workshop in Bangkok, Thailand with four other Malaysian youth delegates - Lizza Imelia, Muhammad Hasif, Nuralif Affandi, and Fatin Nur Izzati. Held on December 16-19, the workshop aimed to bring ASEAN youths together to highlight and discuss the im-portance of media literacy. It was truly an eye-opening experience as I got to meet students and young professional from our neighbouring countries and hear their thoughts on the industry. The introductory session on social media literacy by Nudee Nupairoj was highly relatable and relevant for youths, especially in this digital age. According to the media lecturer, it is the lack of media literacy that contributes to the universal habit of sharing posts without verifica-tion - and this can be very dangerous. “There are so many hoaxes and fake

links on the internet. Sometimes they may seem very real, but you should always check if it’s reliable before you click the ‘share’ button,” she said. Besides the talk, we also participat-ed in the ASEAN Youth News Centre programme, an expansion from the 17-year-old Thai Youth News (TYN) Center initiative that was first introduced to empower children to voice out and address children-related matters in the media. According to TYN founder Weera Suwannachot, the media sometimes overlooks important issues which affect children. So he started TYN as an initia-tive to address them from the perspec-tive of the children themselves. “We covered a story about children from the hills who did not have access to education. It was an issue that people were completely unaware of,” he said. “It’s very important to be a voice for these people and to help make the change. Politicians won’t take notice and take action if nobody talks about them.” Nearly two decades later, Weera hopes to introduce this programme to other ASEAN countries so they too can use journalism as a means to empower their youth to stand up for their rights. And that’s where we come in.

As part of the ASEAN Youth News Centre exercise, youth delegates were divided into two groups and each group had to produce one news video regarding media literacy. It was very exciting to be working with the delegates as we worked through our communication barriers. We managed to pull through to produce quite a decent video on a recent social media hoax. The end product was then played during the official ceremony on the following day in front of esteemed guests such as Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security Maitri Inthusut, and the Indonesian and Malaysian Ambassa-dors to Thailand. My first experience representing Malaysia was truly an eventful one as I got to learn abtout the other ASEAN countries through the eyes of its youth. It was also quite interesting to teach them about Malaysia in return. I certainly did not know what to expect when I first signed up for it, but I’m glad that I got to learn so much from this trip. And I have two parties to thank for this opportunity - the Ministry of Youth and Sports for sending me to Bangkok, and my ever so supportive lecturer Ms Nur Diyana Jonis for getting me to apply for the workshop.

An experience with fellow ASEAN youths

The ASEAN youth delegates visiting the Faculty of Communication Arts of Chulalongkorn University at the end of the programme in Bangkok, Thailand.

Malaysian youth delegates posing in front of the wall mural of the ASEAN Youth Media Literacy workshop (from left): Muhammad Hasif, Nuralif Affandi, Lizza Imelia, Fatin Nur Izzati, Denielle Leong

SNAPSHOTS Page 4

Comm students memorable shots for 2015

Students preparing for the mock newscasting. Green screen set up for the mock newscasting in video editing class.

Leroy & Brenda candid pose during Astro tour briefing. The students’ organising team for Graduation Survival 101 event.

Comm students taking group selfie at ASEAN - JAPAN Television Festival Bob and his students teasing around after the conference ends.

Photos Credit: MOHD AZHAR (BOB)