Provocative News Content Moniza Waheed & Ezhar Tamam Universiti - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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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Research Obje jective

How do Malaysians react to emotion-elicit provocative news which touches on religion, cultural sensitivity and government performance

• n 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 (I (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 skepticism

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Demographic In Information

Variable % (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

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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.

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5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Facebook WhatsApp Twitter % Always Reads News on Social Media (N=564)

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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10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Active (Social media as useful ways of getting news) Incidental (See news when on social media for other reasons) % Types of News Consumers (N= 564)

Active news consumers always get their news on Facebook

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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

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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

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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

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5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

• Ignore. Do

nothing Read comments by others Get more information about the news Share with friends in social media Flagging the post

• ut 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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5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

• Ignore. Do

nothing Read comments by others Get more information about the news Share with friends in social media Flagging the post

• ut 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 (%) Not interested, do not want to get involved with such political issue Influencing public opinion to promote a particular point of view To inform people on what is happening To learn more about the report issue Seek enjoyment in the discussion on the news Ignore, do nothing n=84 89.3 Read comments by others n=138 44.2 Get more information about the news n= 217 70.5 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 while 54.7 I am interested in creating/reposting news on social media 24.6 I feel comfortable debating about current events with anyone on social media 21.7

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 media Never/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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