Varia Ranah - Sorotan Ilmiah Perkhidmatan Awam

523 Varia Ranah: Sorotan Ilmiah Perkhidmatan Awam BACKGROUND The emergence of criticism and negative perception in Social Media that revolves around the public service including ridicule against public policies, public officer’s salary and allowances, as well as government initiatives to overcome crisis have been the centre of attention in current times. Negative sentiments arising from negative perceptions towards the public service is mainly due to the semantic representation that is embedded in the social cognition of the public. Most netizens are often influenced by a myriad of fake news that managed to manipulate their cognition through semantic representation to a certain degree. Hence, instilling negative sentiments. Every department and ministry in the public service has set up either a strategic communications unit or a corporate communications unit in-charge of various activities including dispersing communications regarding news as well as updating public officers across ministries. All of which, holds social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. These social media accounts are set to enable departments and ministries to reach out to the public regarding current information and events held. Most narratives used in these platforms are in descriptive and explanatory forms that are direct and lacks significant semantic representation to engage the public in terms of having insights as well as attracting or having a reciprocal communication with the public. Most netizens are often influenced by a myriad of fake news that managed to manipulate their cognition through semantic representation to a certain degree The public service is seen as lacking the skills to defend itself from criticism or misinformation that has gone viral in the social media which contributes to negative images portrayed against the service