Understanding the Malaysian localisation of global format TV: an audience analysis of Akademi Fantasia

Akademi Fantasia (AF), a reality television format show, first aired in Malaysia in 2003 and reached its ninth season in 2011. Originally adapted from a Mexican program, AF has been acclaimed as a cultural phenomenon in the country, attracting unprecedented audiences, generating new trends in viewing and participation practices, and garnering overwhelming public interest, including political comment. <br><br>The process of global format adaptation, however, is always potentially difficult in the Malaysian context due to the potential clash of imported cultural norms with local values. Despite attracting some significant criticisms from government leaders in its early seasons, AF has remained a firm audience favourite. How do audiences derive pleasure from AF? How do they negotiate the question of its perceived local and/or global characteristics and values? How do audiences engage with the show?<br><br>To answer these questions the thesis first maps the socio-cultural, industrial and aesthetic contexts within which AF is situated. This involves highlighting the broader social context of a modernising Malaysian economy, its refiguring within the broader shifts of globalisation, and the transnational cultural flows that have become a key aspect of media economies worldwide. It also necessitates an examination of the rise of the genre of the reality show worldwide and its usage by local producers as an adaptable format applicable within the cultural imagination of contemporary Malays. Finally, the textual content of AF is considered, highlighting its hybridisation of different genres (ranging from game show to soap opera) and their narrative conventions, as well as its central theme of the transformation of ordinary people into celebrities. <br>Having established this background, the second part of the thesis provides an analysis of ethnographic audience research gathered through thirteen focus group discussions with Malay audiences, totalling sixty-three participants. Interpretation of the ensuing qualitative data has resulted in three key findings: <br><br>i) Viewers’ responses suggest that they derive pleasure from the complexity of the juxtaposition of multiple spectator positions as well as the complex melodramatic mechanisms that structure the narrative’s hybrid blend of genre conventions. <br>ii) Audiences do not perceive hybrid global-local shows such as AF as a significant threat to Malaysian cultural identity, but they nevertheless voiced the need for such shows to negotiate their local context and display suitable cultural values. <br>iii) The show’s audience is itself diverse in its constitution and type of engagement with the program. While scholarly categorisations such as ‘fan’ and ‘followers’ (Tulloch and Jenkins, 1995) are useful for understanding some differences among audiences, the line is often murky. The role of ‘interactive’ or participatory technologies - such as the show’s voting system, as well as its transmedia production - has further blurred the fan/follower distinction.<br>