The Internet and Political Education

The Internet and Political Education

(A version of this was published in theSun, on 2nd November 2012)

At a forum on the Internet and citizenship recently held at the Perdana Leadership Foundation, I had the privilege of speaking with Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah to an estimated 180 public and private university students. The Internet has transformed the way in which politics is managed today, but there are opposing views as to whether this increased exposure or tools such as social media have genuinely increased the political education of Malaysians or not.

Malaysia has 17.5 million Internet users, roughly reaching 60% of the population. It has the second highest social network penetration in Southeast Asia, at an estimated 91%. Social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter, for example, account for about a third of all Malaysian Internet traffic. With half of the country’s population on Facebook (in terms of the numbers of accounts), Facebook has grown over the last six months to reach more than 13 million users. (Sources: socialbakers, forbes.com)

The social media landscape might seem foreign ground and incomprehensible to those accustomed to reading mainstream media alone. The intensity and speed with which news items are posted online can be a cause of stress for politicians who are forced to respond almost immediately in today’s political climate. Contrast this to the past where politicians would only be required to issue a press release within the day, in time for the following day’s news run.

Has this led to the ideal world where there is perfect access to all sides of a story, a utopia of limitless information in a society that was considered shielded in the past? One might imagine so, since alternative media websites such as Malaysiakini and the Malaysian Insider are freely accessible online. In one sense, it is true that a wide range of news reports, opinion pieces, videos and announcements are made readily available to the public.

However, on the other hand, social media has also changed the way in which news is channelled and read. These news items are now user-driven, no longer centred on the publisher of the website or blog per se. It is customary for the social media generation to scan through their live feeds of either Facebook or Twitter and pick out the most interesting stories that are being shared by their own friends. Hence, the hottest pieces (on issues such as sex and political scandals) would be the most virally shared and read, whilst the less popular items (poverty or underprivileged refugees) would not be as widely distributed.

In this “peer-driven” environment, what sorts of messages are being filtered out of society’s consciousness? When political news is shared, would only the most controversial piece generate interest, to the exclusion of others? Although there may be greater knowledge on the latest political hype, it is not necessarily the case that political education is being deepened as a result of this. Would, for example, Malaysians have a greater knowledge of the Federal Constitution’s contents, or the manner in which the judiciary does – or does not – work?

A good illustration of this is a map generated by an online group, Politweet.org, which does excellent research on the landscape and activity of Malaysian politicians on Twitter. The map displays nodes that represent both the Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat politicians and the numbers of followers they respectively have. The results showed that Barisan politicians had 2.8 times more followers than did Pakatan politicians (at the time of their analysis). However, interestingly, Pakatan has less exclusive followers at 48.3% than their Barisan counterparts, at 82.1%. This means that Pakatan followers are more likely to engage with Barisan politicians, whereas Barisan followers would less likely read Tweets by Pakatan politicians.

The danger of self-directed social media networks is therefore that the flow of information increasingly becomes more directed to those within one’s own personal networks, and there is no grasp of the larger universe of news or opinions if those in your self-selected circles are not sharing it. This creates a distortion of what issue is popular or of a greater concern, amongst what is perceived to be representative of the general public, when in fact these items are being shared to a more limited group.

Although it is necessary to be aware of these when conducting analysis of social media networks and their corresponding impact, I believe there has been a nett positive effect of the Internet and social media in contributing to Malaysians’ exposure to political news. Of course, a comprehensive survey would need to be conducted amongst Malaysian youth to explore how this has specifically encouraged their understanding of politics and government in the country. Second, whether or not this exposure has spurred them on to desire to participate in the process of local democracy, and finally, take action in the number of available ways.

As the 13th General Elections draw near, young netizens will surely rely on the Internet – and their social media networks – to build their understanding of both political coalitions on their policy positions, including education, the economy, housing, religion, crime, public transport and so on, to equip them with the knowledge necessary for their voting decision.

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