Malaysian Representations in Magazines��� Advertisements

With the development of technological progress in communication and information the issue of identity as one of the fundamental bases in the formation and maintenance of the essence of individuals has faced new approaches and has been accompanied with some issues such as multiple identities alienation and so on. This research is centered on the issue of Malaysia''s images and its national identity also it tries to acquire a better understanding of the ways in which Malaysian identity is represented through advertising images in magazines published in Malaysia. As Malaysia is a multi-racial society that consists of mainly Malay Chinese and Indian ethnic groups this research examines two magazines per ethnic group in order to represent each ethnicity. Content analysis is used in this study to discover what images of Malaysians are represented through the magazines whether or not they encourage ethnic diversity and if they are mainly focused on other ethnicities. In this regard this research aims to understand firstly how Malaysian identity has been presented through advertising images and secondly which lifestyle has been accentuated through these images.