Cultural Barriers in the New Media Technology Era: Comparisons of Medical Practices between Malaysia and the United Kingdom.

Abstract

The application of new media in medical world is considered as a positive practice. However, it is still not fully  accepted  by  many  countries  because  it‟s  influenced  by  the  local  culture.  Basically,  culture  is influenced by the religious belief of the people. From this study, we can see a lot of similarities between United  Kingdom  and  Malaysia  in  historical  aspect  but  there  was  a  vast  difference  in  cultural  practice. Although the advancement in technology narrowing the gap between these two countries, the barriers still exist  in  the  form    of  cultural  and  religious  practice  especially  in  certain  areas,  for  example  in  medical field.  Qualitative  approach  was  used  in  this  research  which  was  in-depth  interviews  with  medical practitioners from  both  of these  countries.  From  the interviews,  medical  practitioners  on both  sides  had used technology in day to day running of medical facilities. However, the differences were very clear in certain  areas  of  ethical  concern  such  as  abortion,  infertility  management  for  example  sperm  bank  and surrogate  mother. The findings  of  the  study  clearly  showed  that  technology  was  able to  act  as  a  bridge between any countries and nations but limited by cultural and religious belief of its people.