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Malaysians’ Reaction to Provocative News Content
Moniza Waheed & Ezhar Tamam
Universiti Putra Malaysia
MCMC Research Symposium: Malaysia on the Cusp of Hyper-Connectivity
21 November 2019
Putrajaya Mariott Hotel
1
Highlights on Social Media Use
For News For All
2017 2018 2017 2018
Facebook 54% 64% 74% 82%
WhatsApp 51% 54% 77% 82%
YouTube 26% 33% 63% 72%
Instagram 13% 17% 37% 45%
FB messenger 13% 12% 29% 36%Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / Digital News Report 2018
2
3
Research Objective
How do Malaysians react to emotion-elicit provocative news which touches on religion, cultural sensitivity and government performance on social media (Facebook and WhatsApp)?
4
Provocative news ….
•News which attracts attention of the masses, touches on issues that are sensitive or deviates from cultural norms, elicit negative emotion, and could possibly instigate social disharmony and/or uncertainty.
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Stimulus
Stimulus 1 (news event) Stimulus 2 (news announcement)
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Questionnaire
• Frequency of getting & posting news
• Scale items
• Stimulus
• (either Stimulus 1 or 2)
• Cognitive response (write all the thought had while reading the news)
• Behavioral response (indicate likeliest course of action)
• Questions to check effectiveness of the Stimulus
• News salience
• Frequency of using news verification methods
• Sociodemographic questions (Age, gender, race, education level, occupational group, political interest, political talk & political party affliction)
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Behavioral Response (Intention)
• How would you react to the news-related post you just read?
[Select ONE that best indicates your likeliest course of action]• “Shame” the act of sharing the post
• Forward without comments
• Share with comments expressing support
• Share with comments expressing disagreement
• Respond by flagging the post out of concern of its harm
• Get more information about the news
• Read comments by others about the post
• Ignore, do nothing
• Share with comments expressing skepticism8
Demographic InformationVariable % (N= 564)
Gender
Male
Female
43.6
56.4
Age
Mean
Range
SD
31.25
18-60
9.472
Ethnic group
Malay
Chinese
Indian
Others
44.7
29.8
21.3
10.3
Education Diploma and
lower
Bachelor
Masters/PhD
39.1
51.6
10.3
Occupational sector Government
sector
Private sector
Self-employed
Student
Others
26.1
31.2
7.1
27.7
8.0
Political interest Not at all
interested
Slightly interested
Moderately interested
Very interested
10.3
21.3
41.3
27.2
Political participation
Not supporting any political party
Support a particular political party
47.3
53.7 9
Most Malaysians usually get news on WhatsApp and Facebook. When it comes to posting news, they are quite reserve. Twitter is catching up as a source of news.
10
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Facebook WhatsApp Twitter
% Always Reads News on Social Media (N=564)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Facebook WhatsApp Twitter
% Always Post News on Social Media (N=564)
Many Malaysian news consumers are incidental news consumers
11
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Active (Social media as useful ways ofgetting news)
Incidental (See news when on socialmedia for other reasons)
% Types of News Consumers (N= 564)
Active news consumers always get their news on Facebook
12
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Active n= 239 Incidental n= 173
% News consumers who always get their news on Facebook (N=564)
WhatsApp is an important source of news for both active & incidental news consumers
13
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
Active n= 238 Incidental n= 162
% News consumers who always get their news on Whatsapp (N=564)
Malaysians hardly discriminate their news selection mechanisms
14
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Editors/journalists Algorithm Friends
% News Selection Mechanisms (N=564)
Exposure to provocative news on social media is a common state
15
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Never/rarely Sometimes Often Always
% Exposure to Provocative News (N= 564)
News Consumers choose to seek for more information on provocative news reporting on an event
16
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Ignore. Donothing
Read commentsby others
Get moreinformation about
the news
Share with friendsin social media
Flagging the postout of concern of
its harm
% Reaction to Provocative News
Active n= 166 Incidental n= 111
News consumers choose to seek for more information on provocative news announcements
17
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Ignore. Donothing
Read commentsby others
Get moreinformation
about the news
Share withfriends in social
media
Flagging the postout of concern of
its harm
% Reaction to Provocative News Announcements
Active n= 168 Incidental n= 106
Why do people react the way they do? There are five common motives of the different reactions to provocative news.
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Reaction to provocative news
Most common reason (%)
No
t in
tere
sted
, do
no
t w
ant
to
get
invo
lved
wit
h s
uch
po
litic
al
issu
e
Infl
uen
cin
g p
ub
lic o
pin
ion
to
pro
mo
te a
par
ticu
lar
po
int
of
view
To in
form
pe
op
le o
n w
hat
is
hap
pe
nin
g
To le
arn
mo
re a
bo
ut
the
rep
ort
issu
e
See
k en
joym
ent
in t
he
dis
cuss
ion
on
th
e n
ews
Ignore, do nothing n=84 89.3
Read comments by others n=138 44.2
Get more information about the news n=
21770.5
Share/Forward n=51 68.6
Flagging the post n= 61 42.6
Malaysians dependent, yet reserved on social media
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Social media news experience Percentage (N= 564)
(Agree/Strongly agree)
I hear about major news events on Facebook/WhatsApp/Twitter before I
hear or read about them from tv/newspaper/radio.79.5
I feel out of touch when I have not logged onto
Facebook/WhatsApp/Twitter for a while54.7
I am interested in creating/reposting news on social media 24.6
I feel comfortable debating about current events with anyone on social
media21.7
Malaysians verify the news on social media more often than not
20
Frequency of use (%) (N=564)
Methods of verifying news in the social
mediaNever/Rarely Sometimes Often Always
Look at the sources of the news to
verify the news or post.6.0 25.9 46.3 21.8
Cross verify with trustworthy new
website(s) to make sure if the news is
real or fake.
10.7 27.5 42.4 19.5
Check the tone and characteristics of
the message (i.e., see if it’s deliberately
misleading or false to arouse
emotions).
17.2 30.1 35.3 15.4
Question the “motivation” of the
person publishing the news.23.9 25.5 36.3 14.2
Seek verification from others in my
social sphere.30.4 32.4 31.9 5.3
Closing Remarks
• Results are preliminary in nature.
• Conclusions on Malaysians’ ability to critically consume news and their display of civic behavior when confronted with provocative news warrants further investigations.
Thank you.
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