UKM News Official Portal

By Abdul Ghani Nasir

BANGI, 22 June 2010 – Researchers at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia  found  that  the freedom existed in cyber space was used extensively  by bloggers  to channel political information not normally found in the mainstream media.

This was amply showed in the 12th General Elections which was held in 2008, where majority of  political bloggers used the cybersphere to campaign to ensure the victory of the opposition parties’ candidates.

This was the finding of a research on  “Main Issues Before, Current and After the 12th General Elections: An Analysis of the Contents of Selected Malaysian  Political Blogs” carried out by a group of researchers at UKM.

However, majority of the bloggers did not reveal their identity. Of  the193 political bloggers analysed, 171 did not reveal their political affiliations or were not affiliated or aligned to any political party.  The research also found that  118 out of the193 analysed used psuedonyms with only 75 identifying themselves.

It also showed that more bloggers supported the opposition than BN. Of those who identified themselves, 15  were supporters of opposition parties either  PKR, DAP or Pas compared to only seven identifying themselves to be with the BN.

The fact that a majority of them do not identify themselves as being affiliated to any political group is an important indication that most of the silent majority in Malaysia use the alternative media to be involved in the sosio-political scene on line.

Among those who identified themselves,  59 are Malays with 28 of the bloggers Chinese,  eight  Indians and another three being Bumiputeras from Sabah and Sarawak.

The researchers also found  that  in the 2008  General Elections, the opposition’s strategy of attacking the Barisan Nasional over a number of issues was a major factor that helped them to secure more seats in Parliament and in a number of State Assemblies

The opposition parties would  taunt  the BN by raising various issues that angered the voters. The criticisms became apparent in cybersphere through a majority of blogs that are very critical of the goverment.

The research found the highest number of postings at  523 were in March, the most important time for Malaysian voters to decide who to vote for and who will form the goverment for the next five years.

The period before the 8 March elections had also given the bloggers the opportunity to campaign for those whom they supported by making relentless attacks against the BN government.

“The freedom that existed in cyber space was used extensively  by them to channel political information not normally found in the mainstream media,” said the researchers.

The researchers found that political blogs in Malaysia are more in the form of personal narratives with the bloggers having total freedom to share ideas, thoughts and to discuss current issues among the cyber community.

This type of blogs is more attactive among the cyber community since what was written are more personal experiences and views that are not academic in nature. The style of writing which is very simple and emotional makes these blogs more attractive.

Readers loved this type of blogs which is considered to be more independent minded and more open.

They also do not give other personal details with 144 did not even reveal their ages in their profiles. Nonetheless of those who gives their ages, the researchers found that young bloggers dominated the cyber world with14 of them in the 26-30 age group. There were also 11 who are 51 and above.

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Bloggers used pseudonym to criticize goverment, UKM researchers found