KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 ― A Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) study has shown that two Malay language dailies had zero coverage of Parti Amanah Negara in the run up to the 14th general election.
In addition, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) became the party most targeted by Berita Harian (BH), while Pakatan Harapan (PH) was the most targeted by Utusan Malaysia.
“We have zero coverage of Amanah in Malay papers,” UKM's Mohammed Fadel Arandas said while presenting its findings in a post-GE14 analysis by the International Islamic University Malaysia Electoral Studies Unit at the latter's campus here.
The study found that Amanah was targeted in 81.8 per cent of reports in BH, and yet nobody from the party was ever quoted by it.
PPBM was also targeted by 85.3 per cent of BH's reports. In comparison, Barisan Nasional (BN) was targeted in 19.6 per cent of its reports.
Similarly, Utusan also did not quote any of Amanah members in its reports, but on the other hand run zero report targeting the party.
The study by UKM's School of Media and Communication Studies Associate Professor Chang Peng Kee reviewed news reports from dailies in three languages over the 12-day period between April 29 and May 10. The general election was on May 9.
For the Malay dailies, the UKM study covered BH and Utusan, and Nanyang Siang Pau and Sin Chew Daily for Chinese vernacular papers.
