An Active and Popular Facebook Page Equals Better Chances of Winning an Election? The 2013 Malaysian General Election Case

  • Authors

    • Mohammad Adib Khairuddin
    • Mohd Rizal Mohd Isa
    • Kamaruzaman Maskat
    • Mohd ‘Afizi Mohd Shukran
    • Mohd Nazri Ismail
    • Mohd Fahmi Mohamad Amran
    • Muhammad Naim Abdullah
    • . .
    2018-11-26
    https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i4.29.27401
  • election campaigning, 2013 Malaysian General Election, social media, Facebook Page, interactions

  • Social media is becoming a significant platform for election campaigning allowing for both communication and interaction between candidates and the public. However, most research points to social media being used mainly for broadcasting of information, and there is a need to test whether the interactive features are being used and are influencing election results. With the ability of researchers to download and collect masses of raw data from various social media such as Twitter and Facebook, the research into social media is now becoming more quantitative. With traditional media completely owned and controlled by the government, while the internet is free and uncensored, the use of social media in Malaysia has exploded over the past few years, with a corresponding use of this medium in campaigning, leading to researches attributing this to the rise of a viable opposition. In this paper we study passive interaction using data captured directly from the 2013 Malaysian General Election candidates’ Facebook Pages (FP), and show that the success of a candidate who is active and popular on Facebook rises to 77% when compared to the 38% general success rate of all candidates.

     

    Keywords: 

    Social media is becoming a significant platform for election campaigning allowing for both communication and interaction between candidates and the public. However, most research points to social media being used mainly for broadcasting of information, and there is a need to test whether the interactive features are being used and are influencing election results. With the ability of researchers to download and collect masses of raw data from various social media such as Twitter and Facebook, the research into social media is now becoming more quantitative. With traditional media completely owned and controlled by the government, while the internet is free and uncensored, the use of social media in Malaysia has exploded over the past few years, with a corresponding use of this medium in campaigning, leading to researches attributing this to the rise of a viable opposition. In this paper we study passive interaction using data captured directly from the 2013 Malaysian General Election candidates’ Facebook Pages (FP), and show that the success of a candidate who is active and popular on Facebook rises to 77% when compared to the 38% general success rate of all candidates.

     

     

  • References

    1. [1] T. L. Towner, “All political participation is socially networked? New media and the 2012 election,†Social Science Computer Review, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 527–541, Oct. 2013.

      [2] K. A. Foot and S. M. Schneider, Web campaigning. MIT press Cambridge, MA, 2006.

      [3] G. S. Enli and E. Skogerbø, “PERSONALIZED CAMPAIGNS IN PARTY-CENTRED POLITICS: Twitter and Facebook as arenas for political communication,†Information, Communication & Society, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 757–774, 2013.

      [4] T. Graham, M. Broersma, K. Hazelhoff, and G. van’t Haar, “Between broadcasting political messages and interacting with voters: The use of Twitter during the 2010 UK general election campaign,†Information, Communication & Society, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 692–716, 2013.

      [5] J. Abbott, “Introduction: Assessing the Social and Political Impact of the Internet and New Social Media in Asia,†Journal of Contemporary Asia, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 579–590, Apr. 2013.

      [6] C. George, “The internet’s political impact and the penetration/participation paradox in Malaysia and Singapore,†Media, Culture & Society, vol. 27, pp. 903–920, 2005.

      [7] MSC Malaysia, “MSC Malaysia Bill of Guarantees,†MSC Malaysia Bill of Guarantees, 1997. [Online]. Available: http://www.mscmalaysia.my/bogs. [Accessed: 11-Feb-2014].

      [8] J. A. Surin, “Occupying the internet: Responding to the shifting power balance,†The Round Table, vol. 99, no. 407, pp. 195–209, 2010.

      [9] L. Willnat, W. J. Wong, E. Tamam, and A. Aw, “Online Media and Political Participation: The Case of Malaysia,†Mass Communication and Society, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 557–585, 2013.

      [10] I. Ndoma and M. Tumin, “Virtual Civil Society: Malaysia’s 2008 General Elections Revisited,†Global Journal of Human-Social Science Research, vol. 11, no. 8, 2011.

      [11] J. C. Liow, “Malaysia’s March 2008 general election: understanding the new media factor,†The Pacific Review, vol. 25, pp. 293–315, 2012.

      [12] P. P. M. SMPKE Unit, “Pilihan Raya Umum Malaysia,†Pilihan Raya Umum Malaysia, 09-May-2013. [Online]. Available: http://www2.pmo.gov.my/election/index.asp. [Accessed: 18-Aug-2015].

      [13] A. Tumasjan, T. O. Sprenger, P. G. Sandner, and I. M. Welpe, “Election Forecasts With Twitter: How 140 Characters Reflect the Political Landscape,†Social Science Computer Review, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 402–418, 2011.

      [14] J. Borondo, A. Morales, J. Losada, and R. Benito, “Characterizing and modeling an electoral campaign in the context of twitter: 2011 spanish presidential election as a case study,†Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science, vol. 22, pp. 023138-023138-7, 2012.

      [15] F. Giglietto, “If Likes Were Votes: An Empirical Study on the 2011 Italian Administrative Elections.,†in Sixth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, 2012.

      [16] F. P. Barclay, C. Pichandy, A. Venkat, and S. Sudhakaran, “India 2014: Facebook ‘Like’ as a Predictor of Election Outcomes,†Asian Journal of Political Science, pp. 1–27, Mar. 2015.

      [17] Facebook, “Pages Basics,†2013. [Online]. Available: https://www.facebook.com/help/281592001947683/. [Accessed: 06-Jul-2013].

      [18] Facebook, “What does it mean to ‘Like’ something?,†2014. [Online]. Available: https://www.facebook.com/help/110920455663362. [Accessed: 10-Nov-2014].

      [19] M. McGrath, “Technology, media, and political participation,†Nat Civic Rev, vol. 100, no. 3, pp. 41–44, Sep. 2011.

      [20] D. L. Cogburn and F. K. Espinoza-Vasquez, “From Networked Nominee to Networked Nation: Examining the Impact of Web 2.0 and Social Media on Political Participation and Civic Engagement in the 2008 Obama Campaign,†Journal of Political Marketing, vol. 10, no. 1–2, pp. 189–213, 2011.

      [21] T. L. Towner and D. A. Dulio, “New Media and Political Marketing in the United States: 2012 and Beyond,†Journal of Political Marketing, vol. 11, no. 1–2, pp. 95–119, Jan. 2012.

      [22] [22] G. Baxter, R. Marcella, and E. Varfis, “The use of the internet by political parties and candidates in Scotland during the 2010 UK general election campaign,†presented at the Aslib Proceedings, 2011, vol. 63, pp. 464–483.

      [23] H. W. Tang, “The networked electorate: The Internet and the quiet democratic revolution in Malaysia and Singapore,†Journal of Information, Law & Technology, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 135–151, 2009.

      [24] S. Thejll-Moller, “Social media in traditional political party campaigns: is there a winning formula?,†European View, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 33–39, Jun. 2013.

      [25] P. Aragón, K. E. Kappler, A. Kaltenbrunner, D. Laniado, and Y. Volkovich, “Communication dynamics in twitter during political campaigns: The case of the 2011 Spanish national election,†Policy & Internet, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 183–206, Jun. 2013.

      [26] A. O. Larsson, “Online, all the time? A quantitative assessment of the permanent campaign on Facebook,†new media & society, p. 1461444814538798, 2014.

      [27] S. Hong and D. Nadler, “Which candidates do the public discuss online in an election campaign?: The use of social media by 2012 presidential candidates and its impact on candidate salience,†Government Information Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 455–461, Oct. 2012.

      [28] T. B. Pepinsky, “The new media and Malaysian politics in historical perspective,†Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategic Affairs, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 83–103, Apr. 2013.

      [29] S. Smeltzer, “Blogging in Malaysia: Hope for a new democratic technology?,†Journal of International Communication, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 28–45, 2008.

      [30] T. Knirsch and P. Kratzenstein, “Press freedom, New Media and Political Communication in Malaysia–A society in flux,†Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, 6, 2010.

      [31] K. H. Eng, A. Masri, A. Alwi, D. A. Awang Piut, and S. S. Zainol Abidin, “Communications and Multimedia : Selected Facts & Figures, Q4 2008,†Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, Statistical Brief, Aug. 2008.

      [32] J. Gomez, “Social Media Impact on Malaysia’s 13th General Election,†Asia Pacific Media Educator, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 95–105, Jun. 2014.

      [33] M. F. M. Jali, J. A. Besar, R. Fauzi, A. S. Ghazali, and N. Lyndon, “Akses kepada internet dan kesannya terhadap partisipasi politik penduduk di Negeri Johor,†Geografia: Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, vol. 8, no. 6, pp. 76–89, 2012.

      [34] J. Hopkins, “Cybertroopers and tea parties: government use of the Internet in Malaysia,†Asian Journal of Communication, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 5–24, 2014.

      [35] [35] R. Tapsell, “The Media Freedom Movement in Malaysia and the Electoral Authoritarian Regime,†Journal of Contemporary Asia, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 613–635, 2013.

      [36] M. L. Weiss, “Parsing the power of ‘New Media’ in Malaysia,†Journal of Contemporary Asia, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 591–612, 2013.

      [37] S. Saad and A. Salman, “The Role of Values and Attitudes in Political Participation,†Asian Social Science, vol. 9, no. 8, p. p9, 2013.

      [38] L. Muniandy and B. Muniandy, “The Impact of Social Media in Social and Political Aspects in Malaysia: An Overview,†International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, vol. 3, no. 11, pp. 71–76, Jun. 2013.

      [39] Politweet.org, “Census of Facebook Users in Malaysia, Dec 2012,†Census of Facebook Users in Malaysia, Dec 2012, 16-Jan-2013. .

      [40] N. Mustaffa et al., “Diffusion of Innovations: The Adoption of Facebook among Youth in Malaysia.,†Innovation Journal, vol. 16, no. 3, 2011.

      [41] N. Mustafa, W. A. Wan Mahmud, F. Ahmad, M. Haizan Mahbob, and M. H. Abd. Rahim, “Kebergantungan Internet dan Aktiviti Online Remaja di Lembah Kelang,†Jurnal Komunikasi; Malaysian Journal of Communication, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 199–212, 2013.

      [42] M. A. Hashim, M. Mahpuz, N. A. Khan, and N. M. Daud, “Investigating the use of Social Media Among the Young Urban Middle Class in Malaysian Politics, and its Potential Role in Changing the Nation’s Political Landscape,†Advances in Natural and Applied Sciences, vol. 6, no. 8, pp. 1245–1251, Oct. 2012.

      [43] Politweet.org, “The Rural-Urban Divide in Malaysia’s General Election,†The Rural-Urban Divide in Malaysia’s General Election, 21-May-2013. .

      [44] International IDEA, “Voter turnout data for Malaysia - Parliamentary,†Voter turnout data for Malaysia, 05-Oct-2011. [Online]. Available: http://www.idea.int/vt/countryview.cfm?CountryCode=MY. [Accessed: 25-Aug-2015].

      [45] J. Bronstein, “Like me! Analyzing the 2012 presidential candidates’ Facebook pages,†Online Information Review, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 173–192, 2013.

      [46] Bernama, “Eight ‘hot seats’ identified,†Eight ‘hot seats’ identified, 20-Apr-2013. [Online]. Available: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/04/20/eight-hot-seats-identified/. [Accessed: 06-May-2015].

      [47] M. M. Chu, “[NEW UPDATE] INFOGRAPHIC: Who Won The 13 Hottest Seats?,†20-Apr-2013. [Online]. Available: http://says.com/my/news/13th-general-elections-barisan-nasional-pakatan-rakyat-candidate-list-pru13. [Accessed: 06-May-2015].

      [48] Malaysiakini, “Multi-cornered fights galore in GE13,†20-Apr-2013. [Online]. Available: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/227443. [Accessed: 06-May-2015].

      [49] J. Chin, “So Close and Yet So Far: Strategies in the 13th Malaysian Elections,†The Round Table, vol. 102, no. 6, pp. 533–540, 2013.

      [50] M. Gladwell, The tipping point: How little things can make a big difference. Little, Brown, 2006.

      [51] Politweet.org, “Politicians on Twitter,†Politicians on Twitter. [Online]. Available: http://www.politweet.org/site/politician_dash.php. [Accessed: 14-Aug-2015].

      [52] M. A. Khairuddin and A. Rao, “Significance of likes: Analysing passive interactions on Facebook during campaigning,†PLOS ONE, vol. 12, no. 6, p. e0179435, Jun. 2017.

      [53] Khairuddin, M, "Power of posts: a quantitative analysis of Facebook election campaigning interactions", Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences, RMIT University, 2016.

  • Downloads

  • How to Cite

    Adib Khairuddin, M., Rizal Mohd Isa, M., Maskat, K., ‘Afizi Mohd Shukran, M., Nazri Ismail, M., Fahmi Mohamad Amran, M., Naim Abdullah, M., & ., . (2018). An Active and Popular Facebook Page Equals Better Chances of Winning an Election? The 2013 Malaysian General Election Case. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7(4.29), 260-265. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i4.29.27401