'Watching the Watchdog' Malaysian Media Coverage of GE13

Preliminary Results – Release 2

26/04/13

Dr Tessa J. Houghton School of Modern Languages and Cultures Director of the Centre for the Study of Communications and Culture University of Nottingham Malaysian Campus

in collaboration with

Comments and feedback welcomed at:

[email protected] 010 523 4575

or

Masjaliza Hamzah Executive Officer Centre for Independent Journalism [email protected] 016 338 6603

The work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Table of Contents Watching the Watchdog Release 2: Malaysian voters deprived of fair and objective information about politicians in GE13...... 3 Section 1: Media Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures...... 4 1.1 Volume of Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures...... 4 Figure 1: Volume of Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures...... 4 Figure 2: Volume of Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures: Government vs. vs. Independent/Other...... 5 Figures 3-6: Volume of Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures: Government vs. Opposition vs. Independent/Other - vs. Newspapers vs. Television vs. Online News...... 5 1.2 Volume of the Use of Politicians & Political Figures as Sources...... 8 Figure 7: Volume of the Use of Politicians & Political Figures as Sources...... 8 Figure 8: Volume of the Use of Politicians & Political Figures As Sources: Government vs. Opposition vs. Independent/Other...... 9 Figures 9-12: Volume of the Use of Politicians & Political Figures as Sources: Government vs. Opposition vs. Independent/Other - Bernama vs. Newspapers vs. Television vs. Online News...9 1.3 Tone of Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures...... 12 Figure 13: Negative Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures...... 12 Figure 14: Positive Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures...... 13 Figure 15: Tone of Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures: Government vs. Opposition vs. Independent/Other...... 14 1.4 Tone of the Use of Politicians & Political Figures As Sources: 'Attack Politics' or Negative Campaigning...... 15 Figure 16: Attack Politics: Which Politicians and Political Figures Employ 'Attack Politics' Most Often?...... 15 Figure 17: Attack Politics: Which Coalition Employs Attack Politics Most Often?...... 16 Section 2: A Brief Methodology...... 17 Section 3: Appendix 1 – Tables...... 19 Section 4: Appendix 2 – Coding Scheme...... 24

2 Watching the Watchdog Release 21: Malaysian voters deprived of fair and objective information about politicians in GE13

In scrutinising the GE13 coverage provided by the most popular and influential Malaysian media, the Watching the Watchdog media monitoring project2 found that citizens of are being deprived of fair and objective information about the individual politicians who are taking part in the elections. What follows are our key results:

Who is talked about the most? And how are they talked about? • The volume of mention-level coverage given to politicians from both coalitions is relatively equitable overall, but some interesting variations are present at the medium-specific and politician-specific levels. ◦ is the politician given the single most mentions overall – i.e. he is the political figure discussed the most, by a significant margin. ◦ Bernama talk about opposition politicians much more than they talk about BN politicians. ◦ In contrast, the television news broadcasts talk about BN politicians the most. ◦ The online media discuss independent political figures more than any of the other three mediums. • BN politicians are given the most positive coverage by a significant margin, while PR politicians are given the most negative coverage and attacked the most by significant margins.

Who is used as a source the most? And who engages in attack politics the most? • Of all the politicians and political figures tracked, Najib Razak, , and are most commonly used as sources by the media overall, with their combined use as sources (46.9%) larger than that of the rest of the top 10 sources combined, and representing almost half of all source usage tracked. ◦ Due in large part to the dominance of this trio, BN politicians are used much more often as sources overall than PR politicians, who are used as sources roughly the same amount as independent political figures. • Again, notable medium-specific variations are present: ◦ Bernama and the television news broadcasts barely use PR politicians as sources, instead devoting most source use to BN followed by independent political figures. • Muhyiddin Yassin is the source carrying out the highest proportion of all 'attack politics', followed by Najib Razak and Mahathir Mohamad. Together, these three BN politicians are responsible for 64.5% of all political attacks made overall. ◦ This is only partially attributable to their high source use.

1 Release 2 is focused on politicians and political figures only. It is based on data collected over seven days (7/4/13 – 15/04/13) for 26 media/publications. 2 Watching the Watchdog project monitors coverage from 29 media – newspapers, television news broadcasts, online news sites as well as the national press agency, in four languages (English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, and Tamil); in and as well as in Peninsular Malaysia, during the month spanning April 7th to May 7th 2013. It is a collaboration between the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus and the Centre for Independent Journalism.

3 Section 1: Media Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures

1.1 Volume of Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures

Figure 1: Volume of Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures

Taib Mahmud 0.76 0.9 0.95 Karpal Singh 1.19 Nurul Izzah 1.26 Azmin Ali 1.3 Ambiga Sreenevasan 1.42 1.5 Ibrahim Ali 1.77 Tian Chua 2.27 Hadi Awang 2.44 2.54 Muhyiddin Yassin 3.01 Nik Aziz 3.69 4.92 Mahathir Mohamad 5.98 6.05 9.46 12.63 Najib Razak 30.43 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Coverage Volume

• Only the top 20 most mentioned name-tracked politicians and political figures are shown on this graph. • Of all name-tracked politicians and political figures, Najib Razak receives the most mentions by a significant proportion (30.4%), followed by Anwar Ibrahim (12.63%) and Lim Kit Siang (9.5%). • Refer to Table 1 for full figures.

4 Figure 2: Volume of Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures: Government vs. Opposition vs. Independent/Other

3.81

BN

PR 50.67 45.52 Independent/ Other

• When the mentions of individual politicians and political figures are combined and merged into their respective coalitions, the collective mentions given to each major coalition's constituent politicians across all media types are fairly equitable i.e. similar volumes of coverage are given at the individual level to each coalition. • Refer to Table 2 for figures.

Figures 3-6: Volume of Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures: Government vs. Opposition vs. Independent/Other - Bernama vs. Newspapers vs. Television vs. Online News

Bernama

BN PR Independent/Other

• Interestingly, Bernama appear to mention opposition politicians most often. Our hypothesis (based on their very low use of PR politicians as sources and high use of BN politicians and independent figures as sources – see Figure 9) is that this stems from a high proportion of discussion about opposition politicians being carried by Bernama, rather than using them as

5 sources. • Refer to Table 3 for figures.

Newspapers

BN PR Independent/ Other

• The newspapers give relatively equitable volumes of mention-level coverage to politicians from both coalitions. • Refer to Table 3 for figures.

Television

BN PR Independent/ Other

• The television news gives over three-quarters of their mention-level coverage to individual politicians and political figures from BN, and devotes very little coverage to PR politicians. • Refer to Table 3 for figures.

6 Online

BN PR Independent/ Other

• The online media devote more of their mention-level coverage of politicians and political figures to those from BN as opposed to those from PR. • Of all mediums, they devote the largest proportion of their mention-level coverage of politicians and political figures to those not aligned with either coalition, i.e. independents and others. • Refer to Table 3 for figures.

7 1.2 Volume of the Use of Politicians & Political Figures as Sources

Figure 7: Volume of the Use of Politicians & Political Figures as Sources

Ambiga Sreenevasan 1.58

Hadi Awang 2.51

Lim Guan Eng 3.16

Anwar Ibrahim 5.74

Lim Kit Siang 6.28

Chua Soi Lek 6.31

Election Commission Spokesperson 6.93

Mahathir Mohamad 8.11

Muhyiddin Yassin 11.83

Najib Razak 27.05

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Source Usage Volume

• Of the politicians and political figures tracked, Najib Razak, Muhyiddin Yassin, and Mahathir Mohamad are most commonly used as sources by the media. • Their combined use as sources (46.9%) is larger than that of the rest of the top 10 sources combined, and represents almost half of all source usage tracked. • This dominance is apparent in the next graph which shows combined source use from each coalition across all politicians tracked. • Election Commission Spokespeople are used as sources more often than any PR politicians. • NB: Source usage/access is important as it represents the extent to which politicians are given access/the ability to speak to the public through the media, as opposed to merely being spoken about in the media. • Refer to Table 4 for figures.

8 Figure 8: Volume of the Use of Politicians & Political Figures As Sources: Government vs. Opposition vs. Independent/Other

23.89

BN PR Independent/ 55.4 Other

20.71

• Across all media, politicians from BN are used as sources much more often (55.4%) than politicians from PR (20.7%) or independent political figures (23.9%). • Refer to Table 4 for figures.

Figures 9-12: Volume of the Use of Politicians & Political Figures as Sources: Government vs. Opposition vs. Independent/Other - Bernama vs. Newspapers vs. Television vs. Online News

Bernama

43.51

51.3 BN PR Independent/Other

5.19

• Bernama use sources from BN (51.3%) very much more often than sources from PR (5.19%). • Bernama also use independent sources (43.5%) much more often than sources from PR. • Refer to Table 11 for figures.

9 20.67

Newspapers

BN PR 58.2 21.13 Independent/Other

• The newspapers also use BN politicians as sources most often, and then give relatively equal source usage to PR and independent politicians and political figures. • Refer to Table 5 for figures.

Television

40.26

55.79 BN PR Independent/Other

3.95

• Similar to Bernama, television news uses BN politicians the most as sources, and gives much more source usage to independent politicians and political figures to politicians from PR. • When viewed in combination with the data in Figure 5, we can say that at the individual political figure or politician level, the television news is comprised largely of BN politicians being used as sources and being spoken about (by themselves, or by others). • Refer to Table 5 for figures.

10 27.4 Online

44.45

BN

PR

Independent/Other 28.15

• The online media also use BN politicians as sources the most often, but are the most equitable overall in terms of who they use as sources compared to the other mediums. • Refer to Table 5 for figures.

11 1.3 Tone of Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures

Figure 13: Negative Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures

Ibrahim Ali Elizabeth Wong Nizar Jamaluddin G. Palanivel Alfred Jabu Khalid Ibrahim Muhyiddin Yassin Taib Mahmud Hadi Awang Nurul Izzah Karpal Singh Azmin Ali Ambiga Sreenevasan Tian Chua Lim Guan Eng Chua Soi Lek Najib Razak Mahathir Mohamad Nik Aziz Lim Kit Siang Anwar Ibrahim

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 Coverage Volume Attacked Negative

• In terms of the tone of mentions of named politicians and political figures, Anwar Ibrahim receives the highest proportion of negative mentions (17%) and the highest proportion of attacks (25%). • Lim Kit Siang and Niz Aziz are the next most negatively mentioned/attacked (16.6% / 7.2% and 13.1% / 7.7% respectively). • Mahathir Mohamad and Najib Razak come in at fourth and fifth most negatively mentioned/attacked (8.3% / 10.6% and 8.3% / 10% respectively). • Refer to Table 6 for full figures.

12 Figure 14: Positive Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures

Hishamuddin Hussein Baru Bian Taib Mahmud Azmin Ali Nik Aziz Liow Tiong Lai Ambiga Sreenevasan Ng Yen Yen Ibrahim Ali Tian Chua Hadi Awang Nurul Izzah Khalid Ibrahim Chua Soi Lek Muhyiddin Yassin Anwar Ibrahim Lim Kit Siang Lim Guan Eng Mahathir Mohamad Najib Razak 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Coverage Volume

Neutral Positive

• In terms of the tone of mentions of named politicians and political figures, Najib Razak received the highest proportions of both positive (58.1%) and neutral mentions (31%) by very significant margins. • Mahathir Mohamed received the second most positive mentions (6.9%), then Lim Guan Eng (3.9%), Lim Kit Siang (8.3%), and Anwar Ibrahim (3.2%). • Refer to Table 7 for figures.

13 Figure 15: Tone of Coverage of Politicians & Political Figures: Government vs. Opposition vs. Independent/Other

Positive 2.54 Neutral 3.86 Independent/Other Negative 7.02 Attacked 2.65 Positive 20.2 Neutral 45.04 PR Negative 60.64 Attacked 71.5 Positive 77.26 Neutral 51.11 BN Negative 32.34 Attacked 25.84 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Coverage Volume

• Overall, BN politicians are given the highest proportion of positive mentions by a very significant margin (77.26% as opposed to PR's 20.2%). • Overall, PR politicians are given the highest proportion of negative mentions by a significant margin (60.65% as opposed to BN's 32.34%). • Overall, PR politicians receive the highest proportion of attacks by a significant margin (71.5% as opposed to BN's 25.84%). • Refer to Table 8 for figures.

14 1.4 Tone of the Use of Politicians & Political Figures As Sources: 'Attack Politics' or Negative Campaigning

Figure 16: Attack Politics: Which Politicians and Political Figures Employ 'Attack Politics' Most Often?

Hassan Ali 0.32 Baru Bian 0.32 Taib Mahmud 0.8 Nazri Aziz 0.8 Musa Aman 0.8 Chua Soi Lek 0.8 Hadi Awang 0.96 Ambiga Sreenevasan 1.59 Nik Aziz 3.03 Anwar Ibrahim 4.3 Lim Guan Eng 4.46 Lim Kit Siang 13.85 Mahathir Mohamad 18.47 Najib Razak 21.34 Muhyiddin Yassin 24.68

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Attack Volume

• Muhyiddin Yassin (24.7%) is the tracked source carrying out the highest proportion of all 'attack politics', followed by Najib Razak (21.3%) and Mahathir Mohamad (18.5%). Together, these three BN politicians are responsible for 64.5% of all political attacks made. • Of the opposition figures used/tracked as sources, Lim Kit Siang is responsible for the highest proportion of all political attacks (13.9%), followed by Lim Guan Eng (4.5%) and Anwar Ibrahim (4.3%). • Refer to Table 9 for figures.

15 Figure 17: Attack Politics: Which Coalition Employs Attack Politics Most Often?

5.25

27.07

BN

PR

Independent/Other 67.68

• Overall, BN coalition politicians are responsible for the highest proportion of attack politics carried by the media (67.68%), with the vast bulk of this overall coalition proportion stemming from the three BN/UMNO figures identified in the previous graph. • Refer to Table 9 for figures.

16 Section 2: A Brief Methodology

Media/Publications Analysed (n = 29 – 3* = 26):

Media Types/ Television Newspapers Online Media News Wire/Agency Languages Broadcasts

New Straits Times TV2 English News English Bernama English English (Sabah) NTV7 Malaysian Insider Borneo Post Edition 7 English (Sarawak) Utusan TV1 Berita Malaysiakini Sinar Harian Nasional Bahasa Malaysia Bernama Bahasa Bahasa Harian Metro Malaysia Malaysia Utusan Borneo (7/4/13 – (Sabah) TV3 Buletin Malaysia Insider 10/4/13 only) Utusan Borneo Utama Bahasa Malaysia (Sarawak) Sin Chew Jit Poh TV2 Berita Oriental Daily Mandarin *Data for these publications is not included within this report China Press Mandarin due to resourcing issues, but will be See Hua Daily (Sabah) included in later iterations. 8TV Mandarin See Hua Daily News (Sarawak) Makkal Osai Tamil Malaysian Nanban*

Number of data points/references identified and analysed: n = 79015 Number of articles identified and analysed: n = 15791

Data Collection Our data collection is done by 70 monitors who were trained using the methodology below under the supervision of 8 team leaders. The coders – many of whom are university students – are based in Klang Valley, , , and . The team leaders are made up of academics, researchers and students.

The data was collected or 'coded' using sentence-level content analysis.

Stories 'coded' were selected according to the following criteria: • They were within the Malaysian news section/s of the newspapers including the front page, or were the paper's editorial (if they run one).

17 • They were from pre-defined 'Malaysian News' areas of the news websites monitored, with 'snapshots' taken at 8pm daily. • They were from within the TV news broadcasts. • They were more than 1/3 about the election, and were news stories as opposed to columns, opinions pieces, letters, etc (with the exception of the paper's own editorial, if present).

Within each story, category/operator references were identified and coded at the sentence level (from period to period). The 21 categories identified and their sub-categories or 'operators' are outlined in Appendix 2. These 21 categories form the 'unit of analysis' for this study. Tone (positive, negative, neutral, attacking, or attacked) was determined based on matching each reference to a media frame or frames, supportable via emotive/descriptive/subjective language/vocabulary utilised by the either the news personnel or the source being quoted/paraphrased. As such, tone is not based upon coder opinion but on linguistic data. Coders were instructed to 'code as neutral' whenever there was a lack of linguistic data to support a positive/negative/attacking/attacked frame, or whenever they were unsure/conflicted.

Data Analysis The data was analysed using the open source software package GNU Octave (a multi-disciplinary mathematical data analysis programme capable of SPSS/NVIVO-level statistical analysis, as well as much higher-level mathematical analysis). Scripts were composed to count occurrences of key data- codes, as specified by the project's finite code-listing set (see Appendix 2), for every row of coded data (i.e. every reference). Where appropriate, code-count occurrences have been normalised to provide the percentage of these key-code occurrences.

18 Section 3: Appendix 1 – Tables

TABLE 1 Percentage (men- Politician/Political Figure tion) 0.12614 Alfred Jabu 0.22425 Ambiga Sreenevasan 1.4156 Anwar Ibrahim 12.628 Azmin Ali 1.3034 Baru Bian 0.30834 Bernard Dompok 0.16819 Chong Chieng Jen 0.39243 Chua Soi Lek 6.0547 0.1822 Elizabeth Wong 0.042046 G. Palanivel 0.42046 Hadi Awang 2.4387 Hassan Ali 0.16819 Hishamuddin Hussein 0.23826 Ibrahim Ali 1.7659 James Masing 0.070077 0.43448 Karpal Singh 1.1913 Khalid Ibrahim 2.5368 Khalid Samad 0.16819 Lim Guan Eng 4.9194 Lim Kit Siang 9.4604 Liow Tiong Lai 0.89699 Mahathir Mohamad 5.9846 0.028031 Mohamad 'Mat' Sabu 0.44849 Muhyiddin Yassin 3.0133 Musa Aman 0.63069 Najib Razak 30.427 Ng Yen Yen 1.4996 Nik Aziz 3.6861 Nizar Jamaluddin 0.30834 Nurul Izzah 1.2614 Rafizi Ramli 0.95305 Rosmah Mansur 0.25228 0.014015 Taib Mahmud 0.75683 0.25228 Tian Chua 2.2705 0.12614 William Mawan 0.12614 0.19622 0 Yong Teck Lee 0.21023

19 TABLE 2 Politician/Political Figure Party etc. Percentage Coalition Percentage Chua Soi Lek Liow Tiong Lai MCA 8.45129 Ng Yen Yen G. Palanivel MIC 0.42046 Alfred Jabu PBB 0.98108 Taib Mahmud Maximus Ongkili PBS 0.028031 James Masing PRS 0.070077 William Mawan SPDP 0.12614 BN 50.665258 Wong Soon Koh SUPP 0 Abdul Rahman Dahlan Hishamuddin Hussein Mahathir Mohamad UMNO 40.41999 Muhyiddin Yassin Musa Aman Najib Razak Bernard Dompok UPKO 0.16819 Chong Chieng Jen Karpal Singh Lim Guan Eng Lim Kit Siang DAP 16.53817 Teresa Kok Tony Pua Wong Ho Leng Dzulkefly Ahmad Hadi Awang Khalid Samad Mohamad 'Mat' Sabu PAS 7.246035 Nik Aziz PR 45.522221 Nizar Jamaluddin Siti Mariah Mahmud Anwar Ibrahim Azmin Ali Baru Bian Elizabeth Wong Jeffrey Kitingan PKR 21.738016 Khalid Ibrahim Nurul Izzah Rafizi Ramli Tian Chua Ambiga Sreenevasan 1.4156 Hassan Ali Independent 0.16819 Ibrahim Ali Perkasa 1.7659 Independent 3.8122 Rosmah Mansur '1st lady' 0.25228 Yong Teck Lee SAPP 0.21023

20 TABLE 3 BN 32.54394 Bernama PR 44.97022 Independent 2.36682 BN 48.580057 Newspapers PR 39.238054 Independent 2.36682 BN 74.05982 Television PR 17.10519 Independent 2.25564 BN 52.358844 Online PR 30.619457 Independent 7.215564

TABLE 4 Percentage Politician/Political Figure Coalition Percentage (source) Chua Soi Lek 6.306 Mahathir Mohamad 8.1139 Muhyiddin Yassin 11.829 Musa Aman 1.1388 BN 55.40167 Najib Razak 27.046 Nazri Aziz 0.22776 Taib Mahmud 0.74021 Anwar Ibrahim 5.7367 Baru Bian 0.44128 Hadi Awang 2.5053 Jeffrey Kitingan 0.31317 PR 20.71172 Khalid Ibrahim 1.3523 Lim Guan Eng 3.1601 Lim Kit Siang 6.2776 Nik Aziz 0.92527 Ambiga Sreenevasan 1.5801 Hassan Ali 0.46975 Vox Pop Male 6.8754 Independent 23.88615 Vox Pop Female 2.9039 Public Opinion/Vox Pop General 5.1246 Election Commission Spokesperson 6.9324

TABLE 5 Publication Type Coalition Percentages BN 51.2993 Bernama PR 5.19478 Independent 43.5062 BN 58.19836 Newspapers PR 21.1346 Independent 20.66671 BN 55.78996 Television PR 3.94738 Independent 40.26336 BN 44.4535 Online PR 28.145611 Independent 27.400681

21 TABLE 6 TABLE 7 Politician/Political Figure Attacked Negative Politician/Political Figure Neutral Positive Abdul Rahman Dahlan 0 0.21277 Abdul Rahman Dahlan 0.11862 0.25413 Alfred Jabu 0.35398 0.42553 Alfred Jabu 0.098853 0.12706 Ambiga Sreenevasan 2.4779 1.4894 Ambiga Sreenevasan 1.4433 0.88945 Anwar Ibrahim 24.956 17.021 Anwar Ibrahim 12.297 3.1766 Azmin Ali 2.3009 3.1915 Azmin Ali 1.206 0.38119 Baru Bian 0.17699 0.6383 Baru Bian 0.29656 0.38119 Bernard Dompok 0 0 Bernard Dompok 0.19771 0.25413 Chong Chieng Jen 0 0.85106 Chong Chieng Jen 0.39541 0.50826 Chua Soi Lek 6.5487 3.4043 Chua Soi Lek 6.9395 3.0496 Dzulkefly Ahmad 0 0.21277 Dzulkefly Ahmad 0.21748 0 Elizabeth Wong 0.17699 0 Elizabeth Wong 0.039541 0 G. Palanivel 0.35398 0.6383 G. Palanivel 0.45473 0.25413 Hadi Awang 1.0619 0.42553 Hadi Awang 3.0447 1.1436 Hassan Ali 0 0.42553 Hassan Ali 0.11862 0.25413 Hishamuddin Hussein 0 0.42553 Hishamuddin Hussein 0.23725 0.38119 Ibrahim Ali 0.17699 4.6809 Ibrahim Ali 1.7596 1.1436 James Masing 0 0 James Masing 0.039541 0 Jeffrey Kitingan 0 1.0638 Jeffrey Kitingan 0.49427 0.12706 Karpal Singh 1.2389 0.85106 Karpal Singh 1.4037 0.25413 Khalid Ibrahim 0.53097 6.5957 Khalid Ibrahim 2.412 3.0496 Khalid Samad 0 0.21277 Khalid Samad 0.17794 0.25413 Lim Guan Eng 5.4867 4.4681 Lim Guan Eng 4.9229 3.939 Lim Kit Siang 16.637 7.234 Lim Kit Siang 9.7074 3.3037 Liow Tiong Lai 0.17699 0.42553 Liow Tiong Lai 1.0083 0.88945 Mahathir Mohamad 8.3186 10.638 Mahathir Mohamad 4.9031 6.8615 Maximus Ongkili 0 0 Maximus Ongkili 0.019771 0.12706 Mohamad 'Mat' Sabu 0 0.21277 Mohamad 'Mat' Sabu 0.59312 0.12706 Muhyiddin Yassin 0.70796 2.3404 Muhyiddin Yassin 2.9458 3.1766 Musa Aman 0 0 Musa Aman 0.53381 2.2872 Najib Razak 8.3186 10 Najib Razak 30.961 58.069 Ng Yen Yen 0.17699 1.4894 Ng Yen Yen 1.8189 0.88945 Nik Aziz 13.097 7.6596 Nik Aziz 2.4713 0.76239 Nizar Jamaluddin 0.35398 0.6383 Nizar Jamaluddin 0.3361 0 Nurul Izzah 1.2389 2.1277 Nurul Izzah 1.206 1.2706 Rafizi Ramli 0.17699 0.85106 Rafizi Ramli 1.1467 0.12706 Rosmah Mansur 0 0 Rosmah Mansur 0.3361 0.12706 Siti Mariah Mahmud 0 0 Siti Mariah Mahmud 0.019771 0 Taib Mahmud 0.88496 2.1277 Taib Mahmud 0.71174 0.38119 Teresa Kok 0 0.21277 Teresa Kok 0.29656 0.12706 Tian Chua 3.8938 6.1702 Tian Chua 1.9573 1.1436 Tony Pua 0 0 Tony Pua 0.17794 0 William Mawan 0 0.21277 William Mawan 0.11862 0.25413 Wong Ho Leng 0.17699 0 Wong Ho Leng 0.21748 0.12706 Wong Soon Koh 0 0 Wong Soon Koh 0 0 Yong Teck Lee 0 0.42553 Yong Teck Lee 0.19771 0.12706

22 TABLE 8 Attacked 25.84076 Negative 32.34023 BN Neutral 51.107245 Positive 77.25582 Attacked 71.50401 Negative 60.63799 PR Neutral 45.037172 Positive 20.20329 Attacked 2.65489 Negative 7.02136 Independent Neutral 3.85533 Positive 2.5413

TABLE 9 Percentage Politician/Political Figure (source + Coalition Percentage attacking) Chua Soi Lek 0.79618 Mahathir Mohamad 18.471 Muhyiddin Yassin 24.682 Musa Aman 0.79618 BN 67.67572 Najib Razak 21.338 Nazri Aziz 0.79618 Taib Mahmud 0.79618 Anwar Ibrahim 4.2994 Baru Bian 0.31847 Hadi Awang 0.95541 Jeffrey Kitingan 0 PR 27.07062 Khalid Ibrahim 0.15924 Lim Guan Eng 4.4586 Lim Kit Siang 13.854 Nik Aziz 3.0255 Ambiga Sreenevasan 1.5924 Hassan Ali 0.31847 Vox Pop Male 1.4331 Vox Pop Female 0.47771 Independent 5.25482 Public Opinion/Vox Pop General 1.2739 Election Commission Spokesperson 0.15924

23 Section 4: Appendix 2 – Coding Scheme

1. Politician or Political Figure (Mentioned) 10. Lim Kit Siang 11. Mahathir Mohamad 1. Abdul Rahman Dalan 12. Muhyiddin Yassin 2. Alfred Jabu 13. Musa Aman 3. Ambiga Sreenevasan 14. Najib Razak 4. Anwar Ibrahim 15. Nazri Aziz 5. Azmin Ali 16. Nik Aziz 6. Baru Bian 17. Taib Mahmud 7. Bernard Dompok 18. Vox Pop Male 8. Chong Chieng Jen 19. Vox Pop Female 9. Chua Soi Lek 20. Public Opinion/Vox Pop General 10. Dzulkefly Ahmad 21. Election Commission Spokesperson 11. Elizabeth Wong 22. Other 12. G. Palanivel 13. Hadi Awang 3. Party or Coalition 14. Hassan Ali 15. Hishamuddin Hussein 1. BN () 16. James Masing 2. DAP () 17. Jeffrey Kitingan 3. Gerakan (Malaysian People's Movement 18. Karpal Singh Party) 19. Khalid Ibrahim 4. MCA ( Association) 20. Khalid Samad 5. MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress) 21. Lim Guan Eng 6. PAS (Pan-) 22. Lim Kit Siang 7. PBB (Parti Besaka Bumputera Bersatu) 23. Liow Tiong Lai 8. PBS (Parti Bersatu Sabah) 24. Mahathir Mohamad 9. PKR (People's Justice Party) 25. Maximus Ongkili 10. PR () 26. Mohamad 'Mat' Sabu 11. PRS (Sarawak People's Party) 27. Muhyiddin Yassin 12. PRM (Parti Rakyat Malaysia) 28. Musa Aman 13. PSM (Parti Sosialis Malaysia) 29. Najib Razak 14. SAPP (Sabah Progressive Party) 30. Ng Yen Yen 15. SPDP (Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party) 31. Nik Aziz 16. SUPP (Sarawak United People's Party) 32. Nizar Jamaluddin 17. UMNO (United Malays National Organisation) 33. Nurul Izzah 18. UPKO (United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun 34. Rafizi Ramli Murut Organisation) 35. Rosmah Mansur 19. Other 36. Siti Mariah Mahmud 37. Taib Mahmud 4. Organisations 38. Teresa Kok 39. Tian Chua 1. Bersih 40. Tony Pua 2. Community-based organisations. 41. William Mawan 3. Democracy- or human rights-oriented 42. Wong Ho Leng organisations (excluding Bersih) 43. Wong Soon Koh 4. Environmentally-oriented organisations 44. Yong Teck Lee 5. Ethnicity-oriented organisations 45. Other 6. JATI 7. Perkasa 2. Politicians or Political Figure (Used as a Source) 8. Professionals organisations 9. Religious organisations. 1. Ambiga Sreenevasan (Bersih) 10. Trade Unions 2. Anwar Ibrahim (PKR) 11. Womens' rights or issues focused organisations. 3. Baru Bian 12. Youth or student focused organisations 4. Chua Soi Lek 13. Election Commission 5. Hadi Awang 14. Other 6. Hassan Ali 7. Jeffrey Kitingan 8. Khalid Ibrahim 9. Lim Guan Eng

24 5. Policy Issues 6. Other

1. Vision Policies or Programmes 7. Oppressive Legislation 1. 1Malaysia 1. ISA (Internal Security Act) 2. GTP (Government Transformation 2. AUKU/UUCA (Universities and University Programme) Colleges Act 1971) 3. ETP (Economic Transformation Programme) 3. Sedition Act 4. NKRA (National Key Results Areas) 4. PPPA (Printing Presses and Publication Act) 5. NEP/'Bumiputeraism' 5. PAA (Peaceful Assembly Act 2012) 6. PAS's Welfare State 6. SOSMA (Security Offences (Special 7. PKR's Buku Jingga Measures) Act 2012) 8. NEM (New Economic Model) 7. Other 9. 'Transformasi' 10. BN Manifesto 8. Health 11. PR Manifesto 1. 1Care 12. Other 2. Other

2. Environment 9. Religion 1. Deforestation/Land Rights 1. 2. Recycling 2. Islamic State 3. Lynas 3. Hudud 4. Polluting Industries (non-Lynas) 4. Conversion (into Islam) 5. Damming Projects 5. 'Allah' issue 6. Other 6. Other

3. Economy/Development 6. Non-Policy Issues 1. Recession 2. Welfare 1. Ethnicity 3. Unemployment 1. Malaysia 4. Poverty 2. Chinese 5. Privatisation 3. Indian/South Asian 6. Growth/FDI 4. Orang Asli 7. FTA/Globalisation 5. Orang Asal, Sabah & Sarawak 8. Inflation/Price Rises 6. Thai 9. Infrastructure 7. Portuguese/Eurasian 10. Housing 8. Malay Rights 11. Other 9. Other

4. Education 2. Religion 1. Vernacular Schools 1. Islam 2. Access 2. Buddhism/Taoism 3. PPSMI 3. Hinduism 4. Academic Freedom 4. Christianity 5. System 5. Sikhism 6. PTPTN 6. Religious Freedom (non-apostasy related) 7. Other 7. Interfaith Dialogue/Unity 8. Interfaith Friction 5. Foreign Policy 9. Other 1. Western World 2. Singapore (Mentions of) 3. Democracy & Human Rights 3. Singapore (Comparison with) 1. General Corruption 4. China 2. Electoral Corruption 5. India 3. Media Freedom 6. Islamic World 4. Electoral Reform 7. Israel/Palestine 5. Electoral Legislation 8. Indonesia 6. 2-Party System 9. Other 7. Protest/Rallies 8. Other 6. Domestic Policy, Crime, & National Security 1. Immigration 4. Socioeconomic Sectors 2. Illegals/Refugees 1. Middle Class/Professionals 3. Terrorism (not Lahad Datu) 2. Working Class 4. Crime 3. Aristocracy/Monarchy 5. Lahad Datu Incident 4. Civil Service

25 5. Military and Police 7. Arms Deals 6. FELDA 8. Psy/CNY Concert 7. Plantation/Estate Workers 9. Project IC 8. Chine New Villagers 10. Taib Mahmud and Logging Expose 9. Senior Citizens/Retirees 11. Other 10. RELA/Wataniah 11. Urban 7. Gender 12. Rural 1. Sexuality 13. Cost of Living 2. Women in politics 14. Other 3. Personal/Private life 4. Womens' Issues 5. Territory 5. LGBT/Q 1. 6. Appearance 2. 7. Sexism 3. 8. Other 4. 5. 8. Electioneering 6. 1. Event-specific Gifts 7. 2. Handouts 8. 3. Timely Developments 9. 4. Election Promises 10. 5. Baby-kissing 11. 6. Cybertroopers/Social Media War 12. Penang 7. Other 13. Sabah 14. Sarawak 15. 16. 17. Sarawak Independence 18. Sabah Independence

6. Mudslinging 1. Anwar/Sodomy 2. Altantuya 3. Rosmah 4. Penang CM 5. Selangor CM 6. NFC

26