Philippine E-Journals

‘Bite Your Tongue Sometimes’: A Study of Relationship Advice Columns in Online Women’s Magazines in Malaysia

Sharifah Nurul Huda Alkaff | Reem Adib Lulu

 

Abstract:

Women’s magazines have increasingly become the object of scrutiny among scholars as they are perceived as playing a very important role in shaping how women view themselves as well as how society views them. However, few studies, especially in the Asian context, focus on relationship advice articles which are often a staple in these publications. In this study, the problem-solution discourse schema categories of Machin and van Leeuwen was referred to in order to explore the kinds of problems and solutions that appear in the relationship advice articles in two home-grown English language women’s magazines in Malaysia. Both content analysis and discourse analysis were utilized to analyze the data. The findings reveal that although many of the categories of the original study were found in the Malaysian articles, some new categories were also present, thus suggesting that the choice of topics that are highlighted reflects global contemporary issues which are often ‘tempered’ for local consumption