HEALTHCARE PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS IN MALAYSIA AND INDONESIA: A MEDIA CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

This study looks at sociocultural construction in advertisements for health care products particulalrly in Malaysian and Indonesian print media. In an advertising sense, elements which make up an advertisement are always capable in determining the cultural identity of a society and its meaning. The purpose of this study is to see which discourses are being exploited or manipulated in selected health care product advertisements by the media in both countries. It also explores the implications for the cultural identity of both Malaysian and Indonesian given that the majority of the population in both countries are Muslim. This study combines Fairclough's critical discourse analysis approach with Thrasher's advertisement semiotic analysis for the purpose of deconstructing the sociocultural advertisements. It is found that the advertisements are characteristically ambivalent. Whilst it may seem to be a capable alternative in consumer health care products, it has also compromised advertising ethics and Asian values despite being conceptualised as the alternative, traditional and Islamic remedy.