Media Representation of Online Maid Hiring System (SMO): A Critical Discourse Analysis

This paper focuses on media representation of Online Maid System (SMO) commonly referred to as direct hiring system in Malaysia. The system was introduced in January 2018. It alters the course of recruitment of foreign domestic helpers from going through recruitment agencies to directly hiring foreign domestic helpers by their employers. The study aims to highlight media representation and to interpret the perspectives and ideologies behind this representation. Several Malaysian newspapers were selected for the analysis of media text for the period between October 2017 - March 2018. To achieve that, the researcher utilizes Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The findings suggest that the Malaysian media represented the new system from the employer's interest perspective as saving cost. This representation was the dominant representation where the financial aspect is foregrounded while the foreign domestic helpers, and their countries of origin's reaction were suppressed. This representation uncovers a wider ideology of prioritizing Self group's convenience which reflects a self-interest representation. Furthermore, the direct hiring system also shows a construction of a new social actor's image of the recruitment agencies. Specifically, they were implicitly represented as cheating employers. In the previous literature, the agents were represented as part of the law and an essential part of it. By examining the rules and regulations between the sending countries and Malaysia in the past decade with regards to foreign domestic helpers, the rules were governed by Memoranda of Understanding between the two governments. These Memoranda of Understanding not only regulate the procedures of recruitments but also serve as a sign of agreement. Yet the new system approached a different path from the past. This could insinuate a more complex future of the bilateral relations between the sending and receiving countries. Accordingly, the media focused on the Malaysian perspective of the issue which marks a major difference to how the previous laws were represented by the media.