The Influence of Anime on The Moral Value among Arts and Design Students: A Pilot Study in Uitm Shah Alam

Abstract

Students and the issue of moral decline has become a hot topic for the past centuries. It raises much concern, since students are the asset to the formation of human capital in the future. The sophisticated life that we have today has left an impact to their personality. The expansion of the technology at the fingertips expedites this impact. This is when the influence of the media often leaves an impact to the students. Anime is a popular Japanese animation among teenagers or specifically students. It is part of the mass media broadcasting with an increasing number of fans all over the world. With different moral values, manners and cultures, it is feared that one of the factors for moral decline among students lies in the destructive elements of violence, sex, imagination and superstition found in anime. Thus, this study is conducted to see the influence of anime from both the positive and negative perspectives on the morality of students in Design Arts course at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). The pilot study was conducted on 55 design arts course students as they are very attached to anime in terms of their background education and interest. This study adopts the quantitative method where questionnaires have been distributed. From the finding, it can be concluded that positive attitude formed from anime influence has given a significant impact to the mahmudah moral values, while the negative attitude leaves quite a big impact to the students’ mazmumah moral values. The finding of this study can serve as reference to the Ministry of Communication and Multimedia Malaysia to increase the quality of the broadcasting material guideline for students or teenagers in general, so that the content would be more appropriate for Malaysian practice, religious belief and lifestyle. The finding will also be helpful for local broadcasting companies as they will be more sensitive and can better screen adverse elements in anime that can be demoralizing and are feared to push them further into various issues of morality.