FROM THE CHIEF EDITOR We are now living in a borderless world. Since the inception of the internet, communication has become unprecedented and very much unpredictable. Today, many terms emerge and redefine what communication is. Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and automation have become our recent vocabularies, although many are still vague of what they actually are. We are now in a world full of uncertainties and hope that we have some ideas of what the future has to offer. Despite such uncertainties, we have seen various emerging communication technologies that have changed communication and the way we communicate. Social media and abundance of user-generated content provide diverse news to audience, but they also offer other forms of uncertainties such as fake news and hoax. This brings us to a very important question of ethics—how ethical we should be in navigating communication today and in the future? Pondering this might need us to go back to history, come back to the teachings of religion and start to campaign for good causes. Religion for instance, can be one of the important elements to produce films. Social media, in addition, can be a tool for effectively spreading da’wah and enhancing Muslims’ understanding about Islam. These are some discussions we bring in the first edition of Offstone. We hope by bringing such topics which are written in the form of semi academic and popular writing into the debate, will provide a platform for academics and readers of this magazine to not merely understand the current uncertainties we are facing, but also to extend the studies into deeper investigations and producing impactful and meaningful findings for the society. Although we are not sure what is next for the future, we have to make the first move today! Thank you Dr Siti Suriani Othman Chief Editor of Offstone
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