KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 — Malaysia is becoming increasingly divided with the emergence of news portals and social media as Malaysians are consuming only news that align with their political beliefs, Merdeka Center said today.
Director of the independent pollster Ibrahim Suffian also pointed out that only 37 per cent of Malaysians trusted the media during the 13th general election, with those who did not back the ruling party distrusting the mainstream press, especially television news.
“People who are right-wing oriented get 80 per cent of news related to that subject, and people on the left get news related to their own interest. It leads to a more polarised society,” Ibrahim told the Journalism Now forum here organised by the Institute of Journalists Malaysia, the Foreign Correspondents Club and the European Union.
“People of a certain political persuasion only consume certain information that pertain to their interest. There’s a kind of marketing engine at the back of all these portals. You notice that when you’re Googling something about London, for example hotels, you get a lot of postings related to that,” he added.
Ibrahim said Merdeka Center’s survey during the Teluk Intan by-election found that 92 per cent of voters aged below 40 have internet access and read online news.
“Two thirds with access to the internet are getting news not through online portals, but from friends sharing on Facebook. The nature of the public is changing,” said the pollster.
He pointed out that in 1997, for example, Malaysians relied on the papers and television for news, but the market is now fragmented with the emergence of news portals, blogs, Facebook and Twitter.
“You have micro markets of people who consume different types of news. It’s a semi independent autonomous sphere,” said Ibrahim.
