Authors : Latifah Amin, Nurul Ilyana Rezali , Mus Chairil Samani and Noor Ayuni Ahmad Azlan
Abstract: Modern biotechnology has expanded rapidly around the world and it has been considered as a very important industry in helping Malaysia to achieve its goal of becoming a highly industrialized nation by 2020. Thus, assessment of people’s awareness on biotechnology is very important and according to a theory on decision making, people only form attitudes about technologies when they have acquired relevant information. The purpose of this study is to study the awareness level of the Malaysia public in the Klang valley region to analyze the coverage of biotechnology issues in four mainstream Malaysian newspapers and to relate the media coverage with Malaysian public awareness. A survey was carried out in the Klang valley region to 434 respondents stratified according to stakeholder’s groups. Results of the survey showed that the overall mean score for awareness on modern biotechnology were moderate with a mean score of just slightly above the mid-point value. Content analysis was carried out on four Malaysian mainstream newspapers Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian, New Straits Times and The Star. The level of media coverage on the real content of biotechnology issues were considered to be low. This explains the moderate level of awareness by the respondents.
Latifah Amin, Nurul Ilyana Rezali , Mus Chairil Samani and Noor Ayuni Ahmad Azlan , 2011. Awareness of Modern Biotechnology and Media Coverage. Research Journal of Applied Sciences, 6: 421-426.