-ISSN: 2289-1528 https://doi.org/10.17576/JKMJC-2019-3502-23 Doing Emotional Labour in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR): Is Religious Television a Humanised Workplace?

Abstract

This article examines the quality of work life in Islam-based television by focusing on the emotional wellbeing of television production workers. It identifies the extent of religious television a humanised workplace at the turn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). The study draws upon literature from media sociology and cultural studies approaches to creative labour in two folds by addressing the implications of 4IR for 1) human (television production workers), including such concepts as human emotional and spiritual intelligence, and emotional labour, and 2) for the quality of work life in television production, through the discourses of human-robot interaction (HRI) and humanised workplace. The analyses of an ethnographic data gathered from television stations in London and Kuala Lumpur indicate that television production work demands a different degree of emotional labour, depending on their professional roles, tasks, and the genre that they produced. The study concludes that doing emotional labour in the 4IR requires television production workers to renegotiate their professional roles not only with other humans, but also with robots/machines as robots/machines have increasingly taken over their production tasks. Such forms of negotiation and the rise of robots/machines resulting from the 4IR do affect the quality of work life in religious television.

Factors Pressuring Worker’s Personal Wellbeing At Media Workplace Environment

“…Sociocultural, religiopolitical and technological factors have changed the working life in creative industries (Karim & Ahmad, 2018). The Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0) has not only also affected the health but also the emotional wellbeing of media production workers (Karim, 2019). To identify the problems relating to the wellbeing of creative media workers, we have drawn on the literature from media production and management studies that elaborate on factors that affect the wellbeing of creative media workers.…”

“…Not only these media workers had to deal with new technologies brought about by IR 4.0, but also need to manage their emotion. Despite assisting media organisation manage the information, stories and news, IR 4.0 also has several implications for media workers, which affect the emotional wellbeing of these workers (Karim, 2019).…”

“…A combination of these traditions offers a better understanding of the working life and dynamics of power in the creative industries (Hesmondhalgh, 2013) and factors that shape the creative decisions in media workplace (Karim, 2015;Karim & Ahmad, 2018). Moreover, it also suggests how technological challenge affect creative labour (Karim, 2019). By drawing on a combination of media sociology and cultural studies traditions, the next section addresses the challenge facing the Malaysian creative industries, which subsequently, shape the wellbeing of media workers.…”

Developing A Model Of Human Management For Muslims In Creative Media Industries

“…Scholars of media production studies, for instance, have discovered the poor quality of working lives of creative media workers can impact the quality of the content of media products (Born, 2004;Banks, 2017;Caldwell;2008;Hesmondhalgh & Baker, 2011). Scholars of creative industries found that creative media workers are vulnerable to exploitation and self-exploitation (Banks, 2007;Banks, 2017;Karim, 2019;Ursell, 2000). Such professional experiences consequently affect the quality of media content and employees' emotional well-being.…”

“…These attitudes embodied by the Prophet Mohammed's teaching such as siddiq (speak the truth), amanah (trustworthy), tabligh (to spread the truth) and fatonah (intelligence) (Muchtar et al, 2017, p. 559). Other attitudes include 'adl (do justice), haqq (revealing the truth), nasihah (giving good advice), i'tidal (balanced), hisbah (prevention of evil attitude), and wasatiyyah (respecting and valuing moderation) (Karim, 2019;Muchtar et al, 2017;Pintak, 2014).…”