Elections made in the digital realm?

As we all know, the past elections in Malaysia have left many shocked at the results. The elections left the dominant Barisan Nasional weakened while their challengers had succeeded in winning four states. According to Koh (2008), even the most optimistic watchers did not expect such a magnitude of victory for the opposition and a devastating defeat for the ruling coalition. Factors resulting to the defect such as economic worries, rising prices, more co-operation among opposition parties, ethnic distress and dissatisfaction with the administration were brought up (Koh, 2008).

Source: The Confessions of a Hedonese

However, this time another factor served as an underlying cause to this defeat; Malaysia’s digital media. With media blackout imposed on the opposition parties, and mainstream media controlled by the ruling party, opposition voices were mainly spread through the internet and other alternative media (Low, 2008). The internet was largely used through alternative news sites (Malaysia Today and Malaysiakini), email forwarding and also blogs which gave the public news on political talks of Opposition parties. Furthermore, video publishing sites; YouTube and Google Video supplied videos of talks and other opposition news to the masses.

Discussions held on Facebook
Source: Beneath the Red Hood

Another medium that was greatly used and perhaps is quite an interesting factor is called ‘Viral SMS’. ‘Viral SMS’ is the activity of forwarding SMS texts to a large number of people. Unlike Philippines which is commonly known as the texting capital of the world, Malaysians are probably more conservative (Low, 2008). However, the power of ‘fwd’ seem to work its ways into encouraging people to forward these SMSes to 10 or more people, encouraging an Opposition vote (Low, 2008).

An example of "Viral Sms"
Source: Beneath the Red Hood

Hence it is no doubt that, the Internet and the mobile phone has been a big influence in this General Election. The Internet and the mobile phone media are powerful tools being that they can reach wide range of audiences across geographical areas and are cost efficient. According to Lusoli (2005), evidence suggests that more likely voters can be reached online (pp.155). He also adds that political Web sites have added value through their speed and interactivity (pp.155).

More importantly, this new media establishes a relationship between voter and candidate as voters can easily give their feedback and comments to the candidates. Furthermore, new media improves voter information. Now, citizens can be better informed about the political situation in their country and be encouraged to vote.

Therefore, the development and advances of technology, continues to change the way we communicate and disseminate information. As many new media are emerging, organizations need to understand their importance and use it to their benefits as seen in this election.

References:

Koh, L. C., 2008. ‘Was this the election made on the Internet?’ The New Straits Times. Malaysia Today, viewed 12 November 2008, <http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/4209/84/>

Low, B., 2008. ‘Malaysia's digital revolution--the death knell for The Star, and the rise of the e-news portal?’ CNET Asia, viewed 12 November 2008, <http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/teteatech/post.htm?id=63002611>

Lusoli, W., 2005. The Internet and the European Parliament elections: Theoretical perspectives, empirical investigations and proposals for research. IOS Press, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.