UTILISATION OF DAP LEADERS‘ BLOGS AND DAP‘S OFFICIAL WEBSITE IN CREATING POLITICAL AWARENESS YAP SING YEONG MASTER OF COMMUNICATION FACULTY OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN APRIL 2013 ABSTRACT UTILISATION OF DAP LEADERS’ BLOGS AND DAP’S OFFICIAL WEBSITE IN CREATING POLITICAL AWARENESS Yap Sing Yeong Political parties have constantly found strategies and tactics to affect voters and create political awareness. This is evident during election campaigns. The study questions and identifies the different strategies that the DAP‘s (Democratic Action Party) leaders used in their blogs during the 2008 election campaign period, and investigates the different strategies that the DAP used in its party‘s website during the 2008 election campaign period. Data was collected using content analysis, thematic content analysis, and in-depth interviews research methods. Findings revealed through the analysis of the DAP leaders‘ blogs, DAP‘s website, and interviews with DAP leaders that DAP leaders did not fully utilise their blogs. In other words, new media was not an effective means for DAP in creating political awareness during the last general election. Findings also revealed that the traditional ways of campaigning, for instances, door-to-door visits and public talk, were still the main choices in the rural area where the Internet access was still not available. It was also revealed that lesser number of politicians blogged after the 2008 general election. It cannot be denied that social media may overtake blogs in creating political awareness. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In completing this research, the researcher is most grateful to Miss Sharon Wilson, Dr. M. Jaganathan and Miss Pauline Leong for their constructive suggestions, valuable comments, and supervision. The researcher is perpetually indebted to Yap Kam Fui, Hardip S. Rekhraj, and Chow Yu Hui, who contributed their views on the coding sheet and interview questions. Gratitude is also expressed to the DAP leaders cum bloggers who agreed to be interviewed as respondents in this study - Tony Pua Kiam Wee, Liew Chin Tong, Jenice Lee Yin Ha, and Lim Lip Eng. The researcher would also like to express gratitude to Jun-E Tan and Professor Zawawi Ibrahim for their generosity in granting permission to use the interview questions in the thesis. iii APPROVAL SHEET This thesis entitled “UTILISATION OF DAP LEADERS’ BLOGS AND DAP’S OFFICIAL WEBSITE IN CREATING POLITICAL AWARENESS” was prepared by Yap Sing Yeong and submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Communication at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. Approved by: ___________________________ (Ms. Sharon Wilson) Date:………………….. Supervisor Department of Mass Communication Faculty of Creative Industries Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman iv FACULTY OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN Date: August 2012 SUBMISSION OF THESIS It is hereby certified that YAP SING YEONG (ID No: 09UJM09075) has completed this thesis entitled ―UTILISATION OF DAP LEADERS‘ BLOGS AND DAP‘S OFFICIAL WEBSITE IN CREATING POLITICAL AWARENESS‖ under the supervision of Ms. Sharon Wilson (Supervisor) from the Department of Mass Communication, Faculty of Creative Industries, and Dr M. Jaganathan (Co-Supervisor) from the Department of General Studies, Faculty of Creative Industries. I understand that the University will upload softcopy of my thesis in pdf format into UTAR Institutional Repository, which may be made accessible to UTAR community and public. Yours truly __________________ (YAP SING YEONG) v DECLARATION I hereby declare that the thesis is based on my original work except for quotations and citations which have been duly acknowledged. I also declare that it has not been previously or concurrently submitted for any other degree at UTAR or other institutions. __________________ (YAP SING YEONG) Date August 2013 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1.1 Summary of chapter one 22 3.1 Units of analysis on five DAP leaders‘ blogs and 86 DAP‘s official website 3.2 List of Interviewees 94 4.1 Identifying blogs articles from study data 103 4.2 Number of articles on five DAP leaders‘ blogs 104 4.3 Total frequency of four units of analysis on five DAP 105 leaders‘ blogs 4.4 Presence of election campaign information on blogs 105 4.5 Total frequency of four units of analysis on DAP‘s 121 official website 4.6 Overlapping of articles on DAP leaders‘ blogs and 121 DAP‘s official website 6.1 DAP leaders who stopped blogging 136 6.2 DAP leaders who have blogs and Facebook 137 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BN Barisan Nasional DAP Democratic Action Party HINDRAF Hindu Rights Action Force ICT Information and Communication Technology IT Information Technology MIMOS Malaysian Institute of Microelectronic Systems MSC Multimedia Super Corridor NEM New Economic Model NITC National Information Technology Council PAP People‘s Action Party PAS Parti Islam Semalaysia PC Personal Computer PKR Parti Keadilan Rakyat PR Pakatan Rakyat UMNO United Malays National Organisation US United States viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii APPROVAL SHEET iv SUBMISSION SHEET v DECLARATION vi LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background of the Research 1 1.2 Research Objectives 4 1.3 Significance of Study 5 1.4 Problem Statement 7 1.5 Research Questions 11 1.6 Literature Review 12 1.7 Methodology 13 1.7.1 Content Analysis 14 1.7.2 In-depth Interviews 15 1.8 Scope of Study 16 1.9 Definition of Terms 17 1.9.1 Political Awareness 17 1.9.2 Corruption 17 1.9.3 Crime 18 1.9.4 Inflation 18 1.9.5 Press Freedom 18 1.10 Conclusion 19 1.11 Summary of Chapter One 20 ix 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 22 2.1 Introduction 22 2.2 Conceptual Literature Review 26 2.2.1 Uniqueness and Development of the Internet 26 2.2.2 New Media and Political Communication 32 2.2.3 Blogs 36 2.3 Empirical Studies 40 2.3.1 Utilisation of the Internet 40 2.3.2 Role of New Media in the 2008 General Election 42 2.3.3 DAP Leaders‘ Blogs 47 2.3.4 DAP‘s Official Website 50 2.4 Global Examples 50 2.4.1 Singapore 2011 General Election 50 2.4.2 United States 2008 Presidential Election 55 2.5 Theoretical Framework 58 2.5.1 Framing 59 2.6 Conclusion 61 3 METHODOLOGY 63 3.1 Introduction 63 3.2 Quantitative Research 63 3.3 Content Analysis 65 3.3.1 Unit of Analysis and Framing 71 3.3.2 Reliability 75 3.3.3 Validity 77 3.4 Qualitative Research 78 3.4.1 Thematic Content Analysis 79 3.5 In-depth Interviews 81 3.5.1 Preparations and Procedures of Interviews 82 3.5.2 Forms of Questions 81 3.6 Triangulation 88 3.7 Reflexivity 89 3.8 Conclusion 90 x 4 FINDINGS 92 4.1 Introduction 92 4.2 Findings of First Research Question (RQ1) 93 4.2.1 Content Analysis 93 4.2.2 Coding Sheet 94 4.2.3 Reliability 95 4.2.4 Thematic Content Analysis 95 4.2.5 In-depth Interviews 98 4.3 Findings of Second Research Question (RQ2) 111 5 DISCUSSIONS AND ANALYSIS 113 5.1 Discussions and Analysis of First Research Question and 113 First Research Objective 5.1.1 Content Analysis 115 5.1.2 Coding Sheet 116 5.1.3 Thematic Content Analysis 117 5.1.4 In-depth Interviews 117 5.2 Discussions and Analysis of Second Research Question 118 5.3 Conclusion 120 6 CONCLUSION 122 6.1 Introduction 132 6.2 Summary of Findings 123 6.3 Implications of Study 125 6.4 Implications of Framing 130 6.5 Implications of Methodology 131 6.6 Implications to Practitioners 132 6.7 Limitations of Study 133 6.8 Recommendations 134 6.9 Conclusion 135 REFERENCES 138 APPENDIX A TABLES 150 APPENDIX B CODING SHEET 154 APPENDIX C INTERVIEWS QUESTIONS 165 APPENDIX D INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS-TONY PUA 166 APPENDIX E INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS- 169 LIEW CHIN TONG APPENDIX F INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS-JENICE LEE 174 APPENDIX G INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS-LIM LIP ENG 176 xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Research In order to create political awareness among citizens and voters, political parties and politicians need to disseminate their ideologies and spread their political messages and there is no better way to do so than through media. To this extent, political parties need to invest considerable amounts of energy and resources on media. In the past, Malaysians received their daily news and information from traditional media encompassing newspapers, radio and television. With new development in information technology, people can access cyberspace to seek and acquire information from all over the world. Compared with traditional media, new media, including the Internet, forms a two-way communication folder between political parties and the broader public, and allows them to communicate effectively. New media technology allows political parties to easily read and respond to the latter‘s comments, and even adopt some of their suggestions. In other words, new media extends its reach to a wider target audience. Besides, Web technology also provides adequate and fair space for debate, allowing the public to use cyberspace as a place to express and voice their views and concerns. The audience cannot perform this is a kind of interaction in the physical world due to legal or technological restrictions in traditional media. According to Ramanathan (2008), ―In Malaysia, as noted by some scholars, the bi-partisan nature of media, especially print media, the newly- established online media and websites of bloggers, has become more evident since 1999‖ (p. 235). Through the Internet, political parties and leaders are able to present content and disseminate information more effectively, and also in more attractive ways to the public.