NEWSPAPERS showed a noticeable slant towards Barisan Nasional while independent news portals were equally critical of both sides, a study showed.

The study, which looked at four daily newspapers, showed that government-linked Berita Harian and Umno-owned Utusan only published 4.7% and 3.5% pro-opposition news.

The study, conducted by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s associate professor Chang Peng Kee and Mohammed Fadel Arandas, said the figures were much lower than those of Nanyang Siang Pau and Sin Chew Daily.

The two Chinese vernacular newspapers published 23.3% and 68.6% pro-opposition news, said Mohammed Fadel at the International Islamic University workshop on GE14 today.

The study compared the reporting of Malay language newspapers Berita Harian and Utusan Malaysia and Chinese vernacular newspapers Nanyang Siang Pau and Sin Chew Daily in the lead up to the general election in May.

The study, however, showed that the pro-BN articles were fairly equal among the four, with Sin Chew highest at 31.6%, BH (29.4%), Utusan (21.6%) and Nanyang (17.5%).

“BH and Utusan also showed that it would quote Umno more compared to the other two. 42% of BH’s stories would be sourced from Umno while 31.9% of Utusan’s came from the party,” Mohammed Fadel.

This was three times higher compared to Nanyang (10.9%) and Sin Chew (15.2%), he added.

But the study also showed that BH had sourced its reports from Bersatu at 60% compared to the others.

The Chinese vernaculars, Nanyang and Sin Chew sourced more from DAP at 38.4% and 50.5% compared to BH (2.6%) and Utusan (8.4%).

Independent portals more critical

By tracking 1,080 political news articles between nomination day (April 28) and polling day  (May 9), IIUM researcher Dr Zeti Azreen Ahmad and Nur Shakira Mohd Nazir found that the portals were more balanced and remained largely non-partisan.

The study, on Malaysiakini.com (MKini) and freemalaysiatoday.com (FMT), tracked political stories concerning government administration, the economy and leadership, said Zeti.

The study found that less than a fifth (17%) of MKini’s stories attacked the government while 23% of its articles attacked the opposition, while FMT had 9% against BN and 17% against the opposition.

Both sites had around 9% of pro-opposition stories with 5% pro government stories, said Zeti.

The site had a critical slant against BN and PH and as such attracted a wide range of readers or voters. – June 28, 2018.