The School of Media and Communication has recently organized a Public Relations Webinar on 11th June 2020 with Professor Drew McDaniel. The area of discussion was on the psychological effects on the well-being of the social media users, based on Professor McDaniel’s survey conducted in Thailand and in the United States of America during the lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemics.
Professor McDaniel is from the School of Media Arts and Studies at Ohio University, USA and he has written on media in Asia and on technology in media and communication. Among his book publications are Electronic Tigers of Southeast Asia: The Politics of Media, Technology, and National Development, Broadcasting in the Malay World, Fundamentals of Audio Production, and Fundamentals of Communication Electronics.
More than 400 Facebook users participated in this survey and they were asked about their habits when using Facebook. In his conclusion, he highlighted two possibilities. Firstly, people who have low well-being are more likely to use Facebook and secondly, using Facebook lowers one’s sense of well-being.
The webinar was attended by lecturers, students from Taylor’s University and other local universities such as Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC), International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) and Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam and Melaka branches.