Watching the Watchdog 2.0 Malay Mail

Section 1: Coverage of Political Parties and Coalitions 1.1 Volume of Coverage of Parties & Coalitions Figure 1: Volume of Coverage of Political Parties & Coalitions

USNO 0.00 0.13 SUPP 0.13 0.13 PDP 0.13 0.13 PCM 0.19 0.26 SAPP 0.32 0.32 PBB 0.39 0.39 PBRS 0.51 0.58 PSM 0.77 0.90 Gerakan 1.22 1.29 Other 1.42 1.99 PPBM 2.90 3.09 MCA 3.47 6.44 DAP 7.79 8.82 PAS 12.87 14.67 BN 21.49 0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00

• BN received the most coverage (21.49%), followed by PH (14.67%) and PAS (12.87%).

Figure 2: Volume of Coverage of Political Parties & Coalitions: Government vs. Opposition vs. Independent/Other

GS 13.15

Independent 15.44

PH 27.53

BN 43.87

0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00 35.00 40.00 45.00 50.00

• Once parties/coalitions’ coverage volumes are combined, PH received the highest level of coverage (42.99%), followed by BN (40.31%) and GS (14.66%).

1.2 Tone of Coverage of Political Parties & Coalitions Figure 3: Raw Tonal Coverage Volume of Political Parties & Coalitions Attacked Positive 1% 6% Negative 7%

Neutral 86% • The Neutral tone was used the most (86%), followed by Negative (7%) and Positive (6%).

Figure 4.1: Attacked Political Party & Coalition Coverage

STAR 0.00 USNO 0.00 Warisan 0.00 LDP 0.00 AMANAH 0.00 UPKO 0.00 UMNO 0.00 SUPP 0.00 SAPP 0.00 PRM 0.00 PRS 0.00 PPBM 0.00 PKR 0.00 PDP 0.00 PCM 0.00 PBS 0.00 PBRS 0.00 PBB 0.00 MIC 0.00 IKATAN 0.00 Gerakan 0.00 Gagasan Sejahtera 0.00 PSM 3.23 Other 6.45 PAS 6.45 PH 9.68 MCA 9.68 BN 12.90 DAP 22.58 0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00

• DAP received the most Attacked coverage (22.58%), followed by BN (12.90%). • MCA and PH both received equal amounts of Attacked coverage (9.68%).

Figure 4.2: Negative Political Party & Coalition Coverage

STAR 0.00 USNO 0.00 Warisan 0.00 Other 0.00 UPKO 0.00 SUPP 0.00 SAPP 0.00 PSM 0.00 PRM 0.00 PRS 0.00 PDP 0.00 PCM 0.00 PBRS 0.00 IKATAN 0.00 Gerakan 0.00 Gagasan Sejahtera 0.00 LDP 1.67 AMANAH 1.67 PBB 1.67 MIC 1.67 PBS 2.50 MCA 2.50 DAP 2.50 PPBM 3.33 The Opposition 4.17 The Government 4.17 PKR 4.17 UMNO 5.00 PH 10.00 BN 22.50 PAS 32.50 0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00 35.00

• PAS received the most Negative coverage (32.50%), followed by BN (22.50%) and PH (10.00%).

Figure 5.1: Positive Political Party & Coalition Coverage

STAR 0.00 USNO 0.00 Warisan 0.00 LDP 0.00 Other 0.00 UPKO 0.00 SUPP 0.00 SAPP 0.00 PSM 0.00 PRM 0.00 PRS 0.00 PCM 0.00 PBS 0.00 PBRS 0.00 PBB 0.00 MIC 0.00 IKATAN 0.00 Gerakan 0.00 Gagasan Sejahtera 0.00 DAP 0.00 The Government 2.13 UMNO 2.13 PDP 2.13 The Opposition 4.26 AMANAH 4.26 MCA 5.32 PPBM 6.38 PKR 6.38 PAS 13.83 BN 23.40 PH 29.79 0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00 35.00

• PH received the most positive coverage (29.79%), followed by BN (23.40%) and PAS (13.83%).

Figure 5.2: Neutral Political Party & Coalition Coverage

USNO 0.00 LDP 0.00 PDP 0.00 SUPP 0.08 PRS 0.15 PCM 0.15 IKATAN 0.15 PBB 0.23 UPKO 0.30 SAPP 0.38 PRM 0.38 Gagasan Sejahtera 0.45 PBRS 0.61 STAR 0.68 PSM 0.83 MIC 0.91 PBS 1.36 Gerakan 1.44 Other 1.59 Warisan 2.35 PPBM 2.81 The Government 2.88 AMANAH 3.34 MCA 3.41 The Opposition 3.94 UMNO 6.90 DAP 8.26 PKR 9.70 PAS 11.30 PH 14.18 BN 21.23 0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00

• BN received the most Neutral coverage (21.23%), followed by PH (14.18%) and PAS (11.30%).

Figure 6: Tone of Coverage of Political Parties & Coalitions: Government vs. Opposition vs. Independent/Other

13.00 14.77 GS 35.45 38.89

2.24 0.00 Independent 0.00 27.78

44.37 50.00 PH 23.64 0.00

40.40 35.23 BN 40.91 33.33

0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00

Neutral Positive Negative Attacked

• PH received the most Neutral and Positive coverage, while BN received the most Negative coverage.

Section 2: Coverage of Politicians and Political Figures 2.1 Volume of Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures Figure 7: Volume of Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures

Shafie Apdal 1.75

Liow Tiong Lai 2.25

Tian Chua 3.51

Najib Razak 4.51

Mahathir Mohamad 12.94

0.00 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 12.00 14.00

• Only the top 5 most mentioned politicians are shown on this graph. • Out of these 5, Mahathir Mohamad received the most mentions by a significant proportion (12.94%), followed by Najib Razak (4.51%).

Figure 8: Volume of Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures: Government vs. Opposition vs. Independent/Other BN 11%

PH 26%

Others 62%

GS 1%

• When the mentions of individual politicians and political figures are combined and merged into their respective coalitions, we can see that coverage of figures from both major coalitions is skewed towards Independent/ Others (62%).

2.2 Volume of the Use of Politicians & Political Figures as Sources Figure 9: Volume of the Use of Politicians & Political Figures as Sources

Khairy Jamaluddin 1.27

Tian Chua 1.44

Lim Guan Eng 1.52

Hadi Awang 1.52

Najib Razak 4.39

0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00

• Only the top 5 most mentioned politicians are shown on this graph. • Out of these 5, Najib Razak received the most mentions by majority (4.39%), followed by both Hadi Awang and Lim Guan Eng (1.52%).

Figure 10: Volume of the Use of Politicians & Political Figures As Sources: Government vs. Opposition vs. Independent/Other BN 12%

PH 9%

GS 2%

Others 77%

2.3 Tone of Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures Figure 11: Raw Tonal Coverage Volume of Politicians & Political Figures Attacked Positive Negative 1% 8% 3%

Neutral 88% • Of all the tonal categories used in the coverage of politicians and political figures, the neutral category was used the most often (88%), followed by the positive category (8%).

Figure 12.1: Negative Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures

Wee Ka Siong 3.45

Anwar Ibrahim 3.45

Azmin Ali 3.45

Najib Razak 3.45

Shafie Apdal 3.45

Abang Johari Tun Openg 6.90

Liow Tiong Lai 6.90

Mahathir Mohamad 6.90

0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00

• In terms of the tone of mentions of politicians and political figures, 3 politicians received an equally high shares of negative coverage: Mahathir Mohamad, Liow Tiong Lai, and Abang Johari Tun Openg (6.90%).

Figure 12.2: Attacked Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures

Shafie Apdal 7.69

Mahathir Mohamad 76.92

0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 80.00 90.00

• Mahathir Mohamad received the most attacked coverage (76.92%), followed by Shafie Apdal (7.69%).

Figure 13.1: Positive Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures

Liow Tiong Lai 2.13

Azmin Ali 2.13

Lim Guan Eng 2.13

Anwar Ibrahim 6.38

Mahathir Mohamad 46.81

0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00 35.00 40.00 45.00 50.00

• In terms of the tone of mentions of politicians and political figures, Mahathir Mohamad received the most positive coverage (46.81%), followed by Anwar Ibrahim (6.38%).

Figure 13.2: Neutral Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures

Shafie Apdal 1.73

Liow Tiong Lai 2.21

Tian Chua 3.94

Najib Razak 4.90

Mahathir Mohamad 8.84

0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00 10.00

• Mahathir Mohamad received the highest neutral coverage (8.84%), followed by Najib Razak (4.90%).

Figure 14: Tone of Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures: Government vs. Opposition vs. Independent/Other

Attacked 20.00 Neutral 65.45

Others Negative 59.38 Positive 37.50 Attacked 0.00 Neutral 0.86 GS Negative 0.00 Positive 0.00 Attacked 80.00 Neutral 21.98 PH Negative 18.75 Positive 59.38 Attacked 0.00 Neutral 11.71

BN Negative 21.88 Positive 3.13

0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 80.00 90.00

Overall, PH received the highest attacked and positive coverage. Independent/ Others parties received the highest neutral coverage and negative coverage.

2.4 Tone of the Use of Politicians & Political Figures As Sources: Attack Politics or Negative Campaigning Figure 15: Attack Politics: Which Politicians and Political Figures Employ 'Attack Politics' Most Often?

Husam Musa 1.69

Lim Guan Eng 1.69

Teng Chang Yeow 3.39

Najib Razak 5.08

Abang Johari Tun Openg 6.78

0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00

• This graph is weighted to show attack politics as a proportion of overall use as source. • Abang Johari Tun Openg was the politicians most likely to engage in attack politics (6.78%), followed by Najib Razak (5.08%).

Figure 16: Attack Politics: Which Coalition Employs Attack Politics Most Often? BN 12%

PH 9%

GS 2%

Others 77%

• This graph is weighted to show attack politics as a proportion of overall use as source. • Overall, Independent/Others parties (77%) coalition politicians engaged in attack politics more often than BN (12%).

Section 3: Coverage of Issues 3.1. Volume of Media Coverage of Policy Issues vs Non-Policy Issues Figure 17: Coverage of Policy vs Non-Policy Issues

Policy Issues 23%

Non-policy Issues 77%

Note: More coverage of non-policy issues than policy issues.

Figure 18: Policy Issues Oppressive Religion Vision Legislation 4% National Security 15% 3% 9% Foreign Policy Environment 4% 5% Education 4%

Economy/Development 56%

Note: Economy/Development was the most covered policy issue, followed by Vision and National Security.

Figure 18.1: Breakdown of Vision/Policy/Programme 1Malaysia 2% PH Welfare 12%

Other 39%

BN Manifesto 32%

GG Manifesto 2% PH Manifesto 13% Note: BN Manifesto received the most coverage, followed by the PH Manifesto and PH Welfare Programmes in Selangor. However, Gagasan Manifesto received very little coverage.

Figure 18.2: Breakdown of Economy/Development Issues 1MDB Recession 1% 6% Welfare 5% Unemployment Other 5% 32% Poverty 4% Privatisation 0%

Growth 20% Housing 5%

Infrastructure Inflation/GST 15% 7%

Note: Growth was the most covered topic, followed by Infrastructure. GST was not a major topic as initially expected.

Figure 19: Non-Policy Issues

Electioneering Ethnicity 18% 20%

Gender 1% Mudslinging 0% Religion 4%

Democracy & Human Rights 5%

Socioeconomic sectors 9% Territory 43%

Note: Territory was the largest, but primarily due to the fact that any news piece that mentioned anyone from any territory was tagged with the “Territory” tag – so there may have been overlap of the data with other categories.

Figure 19.1: Breakdown of Socioeconomic Sectors Middle class/Professionals 6% Working class 11% Other 29% Civil service 4% Military and police FELDA 1% 2% Plantation/estate workers 1% Senior Citizens/Retirees 7% RELA/Wataniah Cost of living Urban 1% 16% 5% Rural 17% Note: Cost of living received the most coverage, followed by Rural and Working-class sectors.

Figure 19.2: Breakdown of Territory Issues

Semenanjung/Sabah/Sarawak 1

Bangsa Johor 0

Sabah Independence 0

Sarawak Independence 0

Terengganu 7

Selangor 74

Sarawak 11

Sabah 77

Penang 72

Perlis 4

Perak 40

Pahang 20

Negeri Sembilan 17

Malacca 7

Kelantan 56

Kedah 53

Johor 65

Putrajaya 14

Labuan 1

Kuala Lumpur 42

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Note: Sabah received the most coverage, followed by Selangor and Penang. Sarawak/Sabah Independence received no coverage at all.