UNIVERSITI Sains Malaysia (USM) has signed a three-year memorandum of agreement (MoA) with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission’s (MCMC) Content Forum to develop and support research activities, educational programmes and training.
The MoA will enable USM to incorporate the latter’s Content Code into its programmes and training, while Content Forum will be advising USM on the rules, guidelines and the best practices pertaining to Malaysia’s content governance, as well as providing training and awareness programmes which are tailored accordingly to the university’s needs.
The MoA was signed in response to the growing importance of content creation in the digital era as online content is able to reach a larger audience. With this, self-regulation is also crucial in cultivating a healthy content ecosystem.
Multimedia content industry players and stakeholders have an important role in facilitating the creation and good practises in the industry and drive professional standards.
According to the Content Forum ED Mediha Mahmood, not many are aware or have been exposed to the importance of creating and self-regulating content, even the ones who are in industries such advertising, broadcasting and journalism.
She said it is important to empower future industry leaders through collaborations with institutions of higher learning, while they actively engage present industry players.
“The School of Communication at USM has a noble mission to empower future talents to lead and serve the creative industry and communities.
“This is very much aligned with our own vision to help cultivate a future-proof next-generation of responsible content generators,” she said in a statement.
Mediha added that Content Forum wants to encourage responsibility and ethical content creation and consumption among students who will be pursuing jobs in the content creation industry.
Hence, she said Content Forum is excited to embark on this collaboration with USM and educate the importance of content self-regulation from the ground up.
She added that students would also need to be familiarised with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Content Code,
which is a set of guidelines that have been formed by the forum on the best practices and ethical standards for content creation and consumption across all platforms.
“This collaboration is the first of many to come as we aim to have more of such strategic alliances with other universities in the country.
“We hope to work together and build a better content talent pipeline for Malaysia by providing access to learning tools and resources via the Content Forum,” Mediha added.
USM VC Prof Datuk Dr Faisal Rafiq Mahamd Adikan said the mission is to empower students to become the future leaders of their industries through different partnerships.
“I believe that this partnership will be very beneficial not just for our students but also for the industry as a whole,” he said.