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Issue no. 4 | 2020ssue no. 4 | 2020

The New Directions in BY DR. HELENA VARKKEY

Malaysia Studies The workshop brought together a group of 13 young
Malaysian scholars from both public and private, national
Workshop and international universities, and from sub-fields such as

anthropology, history, cultural studies, international
Malaysian Studies has been responsible for bringing the relations, and media studies.
academic world cutting edge work from scholars such as
Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Syed Hussain Al Attas, and Khoo Participants shared their recent research findings,
Kay Kim, who have successfully interrogated history, conceptual frameworks, and methodological approaches
society and governance. to find common ground and develop collaborative
projects moving forward.
But as we depart from 2020 into a new decade, Malaysian
studies must find ways to encourage the birth of newer Through this process, the workshop is hoped to have
and more dynamic forms of research that are able to contributed towards the boosting of camaraderie and
impact international academia. Thus, the Faculty of Arts fellowship within this field, and the development of new
and Social Sciences, University of Malaya organised a collaborative interdisciplinary approaches to Malaysian
two-day brainstorming workshop entitled "Malaysian Studies scholarship. Moving forward, several follow-up
Studies Beyond 2020: Crossing Disciplines and activities, including projects, and publications have been
Rethinking Critical Approaches” on 30 November and 2 planned involving collaboration within and beyond this
December 2020. group.

On Tuesday 22nd December 2020, one of the earliest
Constructive
researchers in the emerging subfield of Constructive
Journalism
Journalism, Associate Professor Dr. Karen McIntyre, spoke
at a special international guest speaker session of the
Talks
Master of Media Studies (MMS) AQA7012 Global
Journalism class.

Dr. McIntyre is an Associate Professor and Director of
Graduate Studies at the Richard T. Robertson School of Asma Xinyue Cai, an MMS student from China, took the
Media and Culture, Virginia Commonwealth University, opportunity to share with Dr. McIntyre and other students
USA, where she teaches and researches solutions- that the positive notions underpinning Constructive
focused approaches to journalism and the news, Journalism has inspired her to think about her own
including Constructive Journalism. This emerging form of personal communicative practices, sharing that she has
journalism applies Positive Psychology techniques into been more mindful of communicating in more
the news making process to produce solutions-focused constructive ways.
news stories. According to Dr. McIntyre, feel-good fluff
pieces or positive news do not constitute Constructive Dr. McIntyre’s nearly 90-minute talk, conducted via
Journalism. Instead, constructive reporting includes Google Meet at 10pm Malaysia time (9am in Virginia), was
shining light on problems in society and focusing on attended by around 30 postgraduate students who joined
solutions, dialogue and restorative narratives. the event from various locations in Malaysia and China, as
well as Pakistan.
Based on her research in Rwanda, Dr. McIntyre found that
constructive approaches to news reporting played a vital The talk was organized and moderated by the AQA7012
role in the country’s post-genocide peacebuilding and Global Journalism lecturer, Dr. Amira Firdaus. By
societal healing. In response to a question from MMS integrating Constructive Journalism approaches into their
alumnus and former Deputy News Editor at The Star news writing assignments, for three years in a row, Dr.
Online, Edward Gomez, who also attended the talk, Dr. Amira’s Global Journalism students have consistently
McIntyre conceded that there is no one definitive won 1st and 2nd places as well as placed as finalists in
definition of Constructive Journalism but points out that a the Malaysian International Committee of the Red Cross
general agreement on basic notions of nuance and (ICRC) Young Humanitarian Writers Competition since
solutions is a starting point. 2018 until 2020.

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