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

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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

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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)?

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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