My Master’s Degree Convocation @ UPM : Shahrill Ramli, A Master Of Corporate Communication Degree Holder!

The date 22nd October 2016 was a day to be remembered. I had my Master’s Degree Convocation Day at the UPM Great Hall! It was a bittersweet memory for me, I can vouch that. It felt as if yesterday that I wrote my blog entry on the Master’s Degree briefing at The Zaa’ba Hall on 13th February 2014 (REFER to https://undomiel84.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/master-of-mass-communication-episode-3-the-choice-master-of-corporate-communication-mccomm-universiti-putra-malaysia-a-k-a-upm/) and now I have already graduated and is pursuing my 1st semester of Ph.D in Human Communication (Insya ALLAH!). Surreal, feeling!

A shot by Dr. Akmar! Thanks Dr.! Wow, I looked so ROUND from the hindsight! I must control my eating routine! Haha! But oh, well! Malaysia has so many delicious and sumptuous food!

A shot by Kakak from the VIP seating. Vague but precious. Thanks Kakak!

The two years throughout Master’s Degree was not easy. I don’t know if people said that “Master’s Degree is easy” or “easier than Degree”; but for me those were untrue. Doing it part time, driving back and forth to UPM from Serendah & Batang Kali was really tiring as the journey tantamount to 70 km per journey. Nevertheless, I am proud of myself for being bold to follow my heart and to do what I want to do. I have been aspiring to study Communication my whole life and now I did what I always aspired to. When Ayah wanted me to do Science Stream at Form 4, it was a point of “7 years of aimless pursuit”.

Haha! Master Haus! Najmi, Ereen, Kak Bed, I, Bad, and Hilya. LMAO!

(,”).

Miss you guys! Farah Nijida, Lynn, Hilya, Bad, Kas, Kelwin, Najmi, Aan, Kak Bed, Sha and Ereen!

Gonna miss you guys! Thanks so much. A great memory during our 2 years of Master’s Degree. Mat Ley, Najmi, Ajie, Ereen, Hilya, Bad, Kak Bed and Chen Chen.

I always knew that I was inclined towards Humanities (I am good in History and languages) but I was stuck with Chemistry, Physics and Biology and the dreadful Add Maths! I wasn’t a total loser as I did score A2 for Biology, B4 for Chemistry, B3 for Physics and C5 for Add Maths (gasp!) but I know if I was in Arts Stream, I would have nail all As including the Science. But, oh well. Dragged into Penang Matriculation and then into Biological Science (Microbiology) in USM. And FINALLY, Master in Corporate Communication! For in-depth narration, REFER to my past entry at https://undomiel84.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/why-do-i-choose-masters-of-corporate-communications-a-microbiology-degree-holder-a-banker-a-teacher-the-barenaked-confessions/.

Najmi, Hilya, Kak Bed, Ereen and Bad from Master Haus! Thanks guys for believing in my strength and helped me in this world of Communication. Learn loads from you guys. Will not forget our IMC (Integrated Marketing Communication) endeavours and PR (Public Relation) event. 

I am glad that I actually took initiative to blog about my Master’s Degree endeavors in my blog under the CATEGORY of https://undomiel84.wordpress.com/category/master-of-mass-comm/ . Sometimes, a few people messaged me to inquire about the Master Of Corporate Communication programme in UPM and I am glad that I could help them. I also bumped into a few strangers and received anonymous callers who were interested to know about the programme and the mini research I conducted on Cadbury’s Halal Image (not that my research was academically good; it was more on the technical part on taking subjects, etc). I blogged almost everything during my Master’s Degree programme (2014-2016) :-

• The subjects I took every semesters;
• The presentations I did every semesters;
• The group projects and events I participated;
• My CGPS for every semester and CGPA overall;
• My Mini Research Paper “Malaysian Moslems’ Perceptions Towards Cadbury’s Image Repair & Its Halal Image (Process & Presentations);
• The death of beloved sister figure coursemate, the late Kak Yati (Noraiyati Omar);
• and many more issues related to mass and human communication from my amateur point of view.

Haha, Bird’s view?

Having friends outside from the school and education cocoons also help me to “breathe again”. After 4 years stuck in the same atmosphere, I need fresh air and new angles to scrutinize. Initially, I did feel the prejudice or apprehensiveness (or maybe it was just a hunch; but usually my guts are sharp!) of my coursemates towards me. An effeminate childlike primary school teacher doing Corporate Communication, no? But I soon proved my worth and I myself learned to acclimatize with them.

On the way into the Great Hall. What a Harry Potter moment for Bad, I and Najmi! Haha!

Above all, my Master’s Degree Convocation was all about meeting back my friends! It was nice to have get-together. We have gone through the ups and downs together. To my Master Haus coursemates, you guys are the best. When no one befriended me, you guys appeared! I always remember that! I told my parents that it would not be practical for them to come as then they would have to go back to Kedah for Rifqi’s schooling. So, Kakak and Abang Zam came. And well I didn’t bask for anyone’s attendance except for this one particular person who has been my rock. But an eleventh hour setback was that there was a duty called to Perak. I was being an emotional childlike and refused to prolong the conversation although I could tell the nervousness in the voice trying to tailor words to convey that news to me. And on the next day, I did receive a congratulatory message from Perak. I guess I should shun my emotional part and be grateful that at least I have someone who is so dear to me. Look at my married friends! They are OK and understand that their spouses couldn’t be on that day due to professional tasks! So, SHAHRILL please THINK! Haha!

 

Priyadarshini and I. Our 2nd runner up Miss India Malaysia and a philantrophist! I like her visions and doing good to the world. She has been to Nepal, Sri Lanka and many more to do volunteering! Amazing!

I, Priya and Rozisham – who happened to be my sister’s colleague! 

Anyway, as I am jotting this at UPM Graduate Wing after my KOM 6117 class (my Ph.D class), I am feeling quite worn-off. This class is good but it makes me feel so dwarved that I realized that I need to READ MORE to enrich myself with all the epistemological, ontological and axiological parts of theories. I need to make habit that reading Communication Books are my “favourite past times” so that I can easily quote scholars to deny any defiance thrown to me and my research. Doing Ph.D while working; that is what I am doing. If I can pull this off, surely it is another credit and feather on my hat because most people do this full time. Insya ALLAH. Always have faith in myself.

I thought it was sentimental for Kakak to put this collage. Initially it was to remind how that our faces are ballooning just within 3 months! Apparently, travelling will shrink you. Well, running chasing the trains with 3 extra baggage, no? Hahaha! During Kakak’s convocation at Leeds and mine at UPM.

Abang Zam, Kakak and Raess Nafiz! (,”)

“Tiada yang mustahil di dunia. Segalanya mampu ditawan. Sejauh manakah kemahuan? Demi ke sana?” – My Master’s Degree anthem “Lebih Indah” by Siti Nurhaliza. Well, for my Ph.D; “Wings” by Delta Goodrem is the anthem!

I had memorable journey of Master in Corporate Communication in UPM. And now I am embarking my Ph.D in Human Communication in UPM as well. Ya ALLAH, I hope I can persevere this. Amin!

The convocation video shared from Kelwin’s Facebook page. Check me out at 2:08. Haha!

KOM 6117 : Designing The Research Questions (Positivism Vs. Post-Positivism) @ My Own Fear-Alleviation Exigence.

This week should be the 6th week of my Ph.D 1st semester. I just finished the class KOM 6117 Research Design this evening from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. I pushed off straight from my school circa 12.00 p.m. (already asked for the permission of the school management and covered my whole classes via “buy-and-sell trading” with my colleague).

Damn, I am nervous! Well, writing blog is a therapy for me to counter that! LMAO!

At this point, I am quite nervous and worry. Which is a good sign – that I am actually realizing the reality. KOM 6117 is a good class to guide all of us the Ph.D candidates on how to plan our research. This week, a coursemate explained about how to integrate theory and research which was written by Salwen. She elaborated good points such as :-

• How to ask Good Questions?;
• Refining Operational Definitions;
• The Importance of Research Questions.

Dr. Hamisah, who happened to teach me Integrated Marketing Communication during my Master’s Degree programme (REFER to https://undomiel84.wordpress.com/2014/11/29/integrated-marketing-communication-kom-5325-presentation-nikes-dilemma-the-tiger-woods-sex-scandal/) is teaching us in KOM 6117. I concurred with what she said in the class just now – Ph.D is a different game and it’s not merely a nice-sugarcoating write up. It is about challenging and adding to the betterment of the existing knowledge.

Katherine Miller, the “Mother Hub of Communication” as per what Dr. Hamisah described.

We talked about Salwen at class just now. 

AND that what makes me so cold feet! I feel like I am so left out from the other Ph.D candidates. They all seemed so empowered with their background reading and prior knowledge. Evidently, they have been doing a lot of homework! I can’t deny that I am feeling the pressure tonight (that’s why I am siphoning this in my blog; which has been DEAD for months!) but I take this as positive enlightenment; albeit in sharper ways.

Based from my tete-a-tete with Prof. Muati. He asked me to look into “exigence” and its significance in rhetoric.

I like what Dr. Hamisah probed in the class. Work on my Research Questions! Asking the “WHY & HOW”s and plan the whole flow of the research. Since I intend to do Qualitative on rhetoric, I should decipher more in these questions. By writing these in my blog, I am recapping what she said and hopefully would seep into my head (because when you rewrite your notes, they are bound to etch in your memory) – among other things that she highlighted are :-

• Seek the difference between Positivist and Post-Positivist;
• Qualitative deals with mostly themes and coding;
• Conceptualization is segregated into TWO (literature definition & Operational definition) – for Qualitative, the former ought to be prioritized;

The 5 Classic Rhetorical Canons – popularized by Aristotle, the Godfather of Rhetoric.

I also like the 5 simplified list given by Hanani, my coursemate on how to “kick-off” your research. Ask yourself these 5 questions :-

1. State 2 sentences or in 50 words what issues that make you angry / curious / enthusiastic? (RESEARCH TOPIC);
2. Write “The Purpose of this proposed study is to…..” (PROBLEM STATEMENT);
3. Why is it worth to be studied? (SIGNIFICANCE);
4. How the questions to be solved? (METHODOLOGY).

Prof. Muati also asked me to look for Burke as well as he was said to be improvising the Neo-Aristotelian method with his own modified version called “Burkean”.

I have to say all these gist of discussion seeps inside me as I am now at UPM Library (taking a break from reading a good thesis which I think similar with what I intend to do) and THAT feeling of giddiness stopped me from going back to Batang Kali after the class (Ahh, my favorite “Quantico” is on AXN every Mondays. Well, there is always a repeated airtime, no? Hahah! Priyanka Chopra can wait! Ph.D is MORE IMPORTANT!).

I came across this technique in one of the theses I read which dwell on rhetoric. Apparently, “Monroe’s Motivated Sequence” is wildly used in persuasive speeches! 

In referring to my previous entry on Siti Nurhaliza (REFER to https://undomiel84.wordpress.com/2016/10/05/gggoooodbbyye-sitii-nuurhaliza-the-country-bumpkin-diva-the-ph-d-revolution-new-discussion-new-direction-image-restoration-image-persuasive-rhetorical-communication/) and the possible research topic (1MDB; gasp! too controversial, no?), I am thinking of a new topic. I like what Dr. Hamisah stressed on how all of us Ph.D aspirants are so “sentimental” about certain topics that are close to our hearts and we always want to push that ideas although they are not doable, no? She reminded us TO BE REALISTIC.

5 steps to make people kowtow to you – genuflect, show some respect! Haha!

Which is very valuable advice. Ahhhhh, I am quite in chaotic place now but I can do this. I choose this. And I am here to stay, Insya ALLAH.

Goodbye Siti Nurhaliza, The Country Bumpkin Diva : The Ph.D Revolution – New Discussion, New Direction @ Image Restoration Theory & Persuasive Rhetorical Communication.

So, this week is the 4th week in this 1st semester of my Ph.D journey. I am still in the Sloth zone but I am starting to feel the heat. I just finished a tete-a-tete with my supervisor just now and as expected the whole direction is taking another dimension.

I am totally a sloth! But I am getting the heat NOW!

Initially, I plan to study Siti Nurhaliza’s speech / interviews / press conferences from the point of view of rhetoric (which I never told any soul except for Kakak & Abang Zam! Well, family can always accept your weirdness! Haha!). I sent the first draft to my supervisor circa June-July 2016 before sending Ph.D application (initially, I was interested to do intercultural relationship with focus on the two strata of the Malays – The Progressive & The Conservative; but I later abort the aspiration due to foreseen circumstances! Haha!). It was merely a loose skeleton of the proposal with FRAGILE content and flows. Of course, my supervisor who is the Dean of Faculty of Modern Language and Communication – Prof. Abdul Mua’ti graciously perused the 4-pages proposal (Hahah!) with some notes :-

• Read more about persuasion & previous researches on persuasion;
• Read more about methods besides Neo-Aristotelian;
• The justification to select 4 interview session as the framing of the research;
• Loose Research Questions

 

Malaysia’s sweetheart. From the naive country bumpkin chanteuse to successful entrepreneur.

The marriage to Datuk K in 2006 was the turning point of Siti Nurhaliza’s communication approach. Prior to the marriage, she was seen as the naive and innocent damsel but after the marriage, you can trace there are more adamant stances in her opinions and albeit the demure persona is still well-intact, her choices of words and tone has become more stern. 

Due to my Europe trip and several appointments postponed due to my supervisor’s conflicting hectic schedule, I finally could meet him today. Very Kiasu; I even enlisted all the inquiries and questions on a paper to assuage my curiosity!

I have to say that the more researches I read on rhetoric and all the “background readings”, the more I found that my intended ‘Siti Nurhaliza” proposal was very loose. What is the significance of the research? Sure, I aspire to study how she could “defy the odds and refused to kowtow to the normalcy of hedonism” and “maintained squeaky-clean persona despite being labeled as home-wrecker and interrogated on fertility issues” (my very own words from the abysmal proposal! LMAO!); – BUT does this symbolizes any knowledge gap?

Last year, whole Malaysia was hysterical when rumors about Siti Nurhaliza’s alleged pregnancy came about. She chose to keep it as secret afraid that the pregnancy won’t last long. As expected, she suffered miscarriage as the pregnancy aged 2 months-old. A harsh comment from holier-than-thou fan sparked Internet frenzy but Siti Nurhaliza managed to handle the crisis professionally WITHOUT any image meltdown. This is another reason why I think I need to abort this intended research. Hehe.

It is no mystery that typical Malays (including me, of course!) respond well to Siti Nurhaliza due to her demure persona BECAUSE we worship icons that REPRESENT OUR SOCIETAL NORMS & VALUES! And when I perused her interviews clips in You-Tube, Siti Nurhaliza has always been very composed and safeguards herself well – except for the one time when Galaksi reporter asked her provocatively on her alleged secret visit to a hospital for fertility treatment in 2010; Siti Nurhaliza’s voice turned icy and defiant. Though still maintaining that demure persona, she snapped back at the reporter saying :-

“Ohh, bagi saya itu soalan yang begitu, peribadi dan saya rasa yang taknak cakap tidak atau pun iya… Harap-harap orang akan tanya soalan yang lebih cerdik dari soalan yang ada sekarang.” (Ohh, for me that is too personal for me and I won’t disclose whether it is true or not… Hopefully, people will ask me cleverer questions other than the ones being asked to me now.)

Not that vicious but you can trace the iciness in her defiant-yet-demure tone. That is Siti Nurhaliza! Well, Siti Nurhaliza has become subject of academic research in branding marketability (Mazzini et.al, 2013) and also musicology (Barendgret, B., 2006) but none has explore on her persuasive communication or rhetoric! Well, I guess this time around I have to ditch her; perhaps in the future? But I always like her (,”)

Apart from this acidic retaliation (but still disguised under cultured and demure persona), I couldn’t find any vicious remarks by Siti Nurhaliza. Not fair to say but she is really professional when it comes about safeguarding her public image. No faint clues of any image meltdown or communication fracas whatsoever. This makes me ponder; perhaps the idea to study Siti Nurhaliza isn’t that enriching from rhetorical point of view. I cannot let my fanaticism towards her jeopardizing my doctoral degree research, no?

I discussed with Prof Abdul Muati and he said the choice is entirely mine. I recalled that he told me once when I were to pick for a topic, do not simply pick by using the lenses of my own eyes; be critical by using the lenses of other people’s eyes. After much deliberation, I feel I need to ditch my aspiration to study Siti Nurhaliza.

Strategies proposed by Benoit in his Image Restoration Theory. 

What excites me (I am such a geeky and nerdy Kiasu!) is that my supervisor proposed a research that is interesting but using the theory which I already have the basic familiarization as I used it in my Master’s Degree mini thesis “Malaysian Moslems’ Perception Towards Cadbury’s Image Repair & Its Halal Image” (REFER to https://undomiel84.wordpress.com/2015/12/09/my-research-pappepeeeer-presentation-chapter-4-5-bridging-the-knowledge-gaps-of-halal-polemics-in-surburbia-serendah-benoits-image-restoration-theory-malaysian-moslems-perception-towards-ca/) which is “Benoit’s Image Restoration Theory”! It is a controversial issue BUT it is sure interesting see it from the angle of image restoration and rhetoric!

Remember the infamous case where Lewinsky performed a fellatio (what a ‘cultured’ terminology!) to Mr. President? Well, he denied and then…. impeached? But almost 20 years now it all seem as if forgotten and her Mrs is running for presidency! Oops, where is Lewinsky? The power of Image Restoration & Persuasive Communication!

I am excited and when I am excited; I can’t wait to write in my blog and that is what I am doing – despite the blog has become quite deserted these days. But of course, I will not forget to transcribe my Ph.D journey just like what I did for my Master’s Degree journey (REFER to the category https://undomiel84.wordpress.com/category/master-of-mass-comm/) – it is more for my own reflection! God bless! (,”)