Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities
Pertanika Journal Home Facebook
Pertanika · Universiti Putra Malaysia Press

Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities

Official journal of Universiti Putra Malaysia for scholarly work across the social sciences, humanities and related interdisciplinary fields.

e-ISSN 2231-8534 ISSN 0128-7702
Browse latest issue Author guidelines Submit Here
Research article

Covid-19 and Collective Memory Among Malaysians: Does Generation Matter?

Hasrina Mustafa, Sharifah Nadiah Syed Mukhiar, Shariffah Suraya Syed Jamaludin and Norhani Mohd Jais

Volume 29, Issue 4 December 2021 Published 13 December 2021
https://doi.org/10.47836/pjssh.29.4.15
KeywordsCollective memory, Covid-19, Critical Years Hypothesis, generational cohort
Article content

Abstract

The present study aims to understand the impact of Covid-19 on the collective memory among Malaysian generational cohorts. Our research draws on a nationwide survey conducted from July-September 2020 during the second pandemic wave in Malaysia. Respondents were asked to report “the national or world events or changes over the past 60 years” that seemed to them especially important and explain the reasons for their choices. As expected, the result indicated Covid-19 as the most frequently mentioned event. Despite the primacy and recency of the event, we found significant cohort effects on the collective memory of Covid-19, with lower recall recorded among the older generation as compared to the younger generation, which provided stronger support to the Critical Years Hypothesis. Interesting cohort experiences emerge in the meaning attached to Covid-19 across different generational cohorts through open-ended follow-up questions.
Supporting literature

References

  1. Baldwin, R., & Di Mauro, B. W. (2020). Economics in the time of Covid-19. A CEPR Press VoxEU.org eBook. CEPR Press. https://cepr.org/sites/default/files/news/COVID-19.pdf
  2. Blackburn, K. (2009). Recalling war trauma of the Pacific War and the Japanese occupation in the oral history of Malaysia and Singapore. The Oral History Review, 36(2), 231-252. https://doi.org/10.1093/ohr/ohp041
  3. Budiawan (2017). How do Indonesians remember Konfrontasi? Indonesia–Malaysia relations and the popular memory of “Confrontation” after the fall of Suharto. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 18(3), 364-375. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649373.2017.1345349
  4. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). Global disease detection timeline. www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/infographics/global-health-security/global-disease-detection-timeline.html
  5. Chirwa, W. (1997). Collective memory and the process of reconciliation and reconstruction. Development in Practice, 7(4), 479-482. https://doi.org/10.1080/09614529754314
  6. Constantin, S. V. (2013). The post-80s generation in Beijing: Collective memory and generational identity. International Journal of Area Studies, 8(1), 5-36.
  7. Corning, A., & Schuman, H. (2015). Generations and collective memory. University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226282831.001.0001
  8. Department of Statistics Malaysia. (2020). Pockets Stats Quarter 4 2020. https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/cone&menu_id=YlUvckptWm10QlQ5Y0ZRdkErbG53dz09
  9. Douglas, J., Terrence, T., & Barbara, J. (2019, December 17). The deadliest flu: The complete story of the discovery and reconstruction of the 1918 Pandemic Virus. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/reconstruction-1918-virus.html
  10. Embregts, P. J. C., van den Bogaard, K. J. H. M., Frielink, N., Voermans, M. A. C., Thalen, M., & Jahoda, A. (2020). A thematic analysis into the experiences of people with a mild intellectual disability during the COVID-19 lockdown period. International Journal of Developmental Disabilities. https://doi.org/10.1080/20473869.2020.1827214
  11. Erll, A. (2020). Afterword: Memory worlds in times of Corona. Memory Studies, 13(5), 861-874. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698020943014
  12. Ferron, M., & Massa, P. (2011). The Arab Spring wikirevolutions: Wikipedia as a lens for studying the real-time formation of collective memories of revolutions. International Journal of Communication, 5, 1313-1332.
  13. Griffin, L. (2004). Generations and collective memory revisited: Race, region, and memory of civil rights. American Sociological Review, 69(4), 544-557. https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240406900404
  14. Guest, G., MacQueen, K. M., & Namey, E. E. (2019). Introduction to applied thematic analysis. SAGE.
  15. Hair, J. F., Bush, R. P., & Ortinau, D. J. (2009). Marketing research: In a Digital information environment (4th ed.). McGraw-Hill/ Irwin.
  16. Harold, J., & Fong, F. (2017). Mobilizing memory: collective memory schemas and the social boundaries of Jews in Toronto. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 41(2), 343-361. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2017.1344719
  17. Kosciejew, M. (2021). Remembering COVID-19; or, a duty to document the coronavirus pandemic. IFLA Journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/03400352211023786
  18. Lee, F. L. F., & Chan, J. M. (2018). Memory mobilization, generational differences and communication effects on collective memory about Tiananmen in Hong Kong. Asian Journal of Communication, 28(4), 397-415. https://doi.org/10.1080/01292986.2018.1425465
  19. Luo, Y., Cheng, Y., & Sui, M. (2021). The moderating effects of perceived severity on the generational gap in preventive behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. International Journal of Environmental Research in Public Health, 18. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18042011
  20. Luyt, B. (2015). Wikipedia, collective memory, and the Vietnam War. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 67. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23518
  21. Mannheim, K. (1952). The problem of generations. In P. Kecskemeti (Ed.), Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge (pp. 276-320). Routledge and Kegan Paul.
  22. Rampal L., & Liew, B. S. (2021). Malaysia’s third COVID-19 wave – a paradigm shift required. The Medical Journal of Malaysia, 76(1), 1-4.
  23. Roediger, H. L., & Abel, M. (2015). Collective memory: A new arena of cognitive study. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(7), 359-361, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2015.04.003
  24. Roediger, H. L., & DeSoto, K. A. (2014). Forgetting the presidents. Science, 346(6213), 1106-1109. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1259627
  25. Schewe, C. D., & Meredith, G. (2004). Segmenting global markets by generational cohorts: Determining motivations by age. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 4(1), 51-63. https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.157
  26. Schuman H., & Rieger, C. (1992). Collective memory and collective memories. In M. A. Conway, D. C. Rubin, H. Spinnler, W. A. Wagenaar (Eds.), Theoretical perspectives on autobiographical memory. NATO ASI Series (Series D: Behavioural and Social Sciences), vol 65. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7967-4_19
  27. Schuman, H., & Corning, A (2017). The conversion of generational effects into collective memories. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 29(3), 520-532. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edw012
  28. Schuman, H., & Corning, A. (2012). Generational memory and the critical period: Evidence for national and world events. Public Opinion Quarterly, 76(1), 1-31, https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfr037
  29. Schuman, H., & Corning, A. (2013). Collective memory and autobiographical memory: Similar but not the same. Memory Studies, 7(2), 146-160. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1750698013508196
  30. Schuman, H., & Rodgers, W. L. (2004). Cohorts, chronology, and collective memories. Public Opinion Quarterly, 68(2), 217-254. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfh012
  31. Schuman, H., & Scott, J. (1989). Generations and collective memories. American Sociological Review, 54, 359-381. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095611
  32. Scott, J., & Zac, L. (1993). Collective memory in Britain and the United States. Public Opinion Quarterly, 57(3), 315-331. https://doi.org/10.1086/269378
  33. Tay, F. (2015) Making Malaysian Chinese: War, memory, histories and identities [Doctoral dissertation, University of Manchester]. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/files/54574221/FULL_TEXT.PDF
  34. Ting, H., Lim, T.-Y., Run, E. C., Koh, H., & Sahdan, M. (2017). Are we baby boomers, gen X and gen Y? A qualitative inquiry into generation cohorts in Malaysia. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences, 39(1), 109-115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.kjss.2017.06.004
  35. Twyman, M., Keegan, B. C., & Shaw, A. (2017). Black lives matter in Wikipedia: Collaboration and collective memory around online social movements [ACM Press the 2017 ACM Conference - Portland, Oregon, USA (2017.02.25-2017.03.01)] Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing - CSCW ‘17 - Black Lives Matter in Wikipedia, 1400-1412. https://doi.org/10.1145/2998181.2998232
  36. Weldon, M. S. (2000). Remembering as a social process. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 40, 67-120. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-7421(00)80018-3
  37. Wertsch, J. V., & Roediger III, H. L. (2008): Collective memory: Conceptual foundations and theoretical approaches. Memory, 16(3), 318-326. http://doi.org/10.1080/09658210701801434
  38. World Health Organization. (2020). WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19. https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020
  39. Yamane, T. (1967). Statistics, an introductory analysis (2nd ed.). Harper and Row.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .