Media Monitors held an all-media analysis seminar in December where we presented our first ever integrated analysis of mainstream and social media coverage on the Malaysian Budget 2012 announcement, with Brandtology (a Media Monitors’ company). The Media Analysis Seminar, held at Putrajaya Marriott Hotel on December 14, 2011 was supplemented by a presentation on a social media case study by Mark Cheng, Social Media Consultant of Brandtology.
This integrated report brought together the CARMA media content analysis methodology and Brandtology’s sentiment analysis to measure news and opinion across print, broadcast and internet news as well as those from social media platforms. The combined analysis allowed for a direct comparison on media trends, conversations and the public’s response around the Budget 2012 announcement.
The theme of the Malaysian Budget 2012 was ‘National Transformation Policy: Welfare for the Rakyat, Well-Being of the Nation’. As such, the Budget was anticipated to be inclusive, people-centric and aimed at accelerating economic transformation efforts. Question was, did the Budget 2012 deliver?
Our media analysis revealed that the answer to that question is ‘not quite’. Public opinion was hugely polarised with a far more critical response to the Budget in social media forums than in mainstream media coverage.
Diagram 1. Volume & Favourability of News Media Reports on the Malaysian Budget 2012 by Main Focus of Coverage
Diagram 2. Volume & Net sentiment of Social Media Buzz on the Malaysian Budget 2012 by Main Focus of Coverage
The two charts above demonstrate that the rakyat (citizens) was the main subject in both news and social media. In news media, the Malaysian Budget was broadly labelled as the ‘people’s budget’ with nearly half of the analysed coverage focused on the rakyat. There was often detailed discussion of possible impacts on the citizens of various policy announcements which included government’s cash handouts for specific segments of the society particularly those of the lower-income households, students and retirees. As a result, the overall coverage was predominantly favourable.
By contrast, the net sentiment of social media discussion on the Budget was negative, particularly in the context of the overall economy and the private sector. This was largely due to criticisms of ‘excessive’ cash handouts from the government, with suggestions that this was aimed only at fishing for electoral votes rather than at boosting economic growth.
Diagram 3. Leading messages in print, broadcast and internet news media
In view of an upcoming election, many predicted that the 2012 Budget was going to be a people-friendly one and sure enough, the spending was somewhat heavily skewed towards the welfare of the people (especially the lower income group and rural areas). Therefore, it was not surprising that the most prominent message conveyed in the news media was that “the Budget is in favour of the Rakyat”.
Overall, most of the leading messages in the analysed news media were favourable, except for one: “the Budget does not promote sustainable development”. This message was typically conveyed in media discussion of the overall economic outlook, as well as sustainability of government spending in the long run. Despite the Prime Minister’s frequent mentions of the Budget being a transformational one, this message did not come across strongly in the analysed coverage. Instead, we observed many opposite opinions describing the Budget as “lacking reform”, “no surprise” and “having neutral impact to the stock market”.
Diagram 4. Leading messages in blogs
While the leading messages in news media were largely favourable, the opposite was true in our analysis of 50 sampled blogposts, where most of the leading messages were unfavourable. The two most prominent messages were that "the Budget does not promote sustainability" and "is not inclusive". These messages were mainly communicated by members of the middle-class citizens who were unsatisfied with the lack of benefits for them, as well as opposition leaders and their supporters who often criticised the government's poor accountability in controlling their spending and in meeting its budget deficit target.
Overall, the parallel between social and news media was in criticisms of the Budget in two main areas - the overall economy and the private sector, these were more pronounced in social media.
Opposition leaders were relatively successful in using social media as a communication tool to reach out to the public given the high visibility of their blogs, whereas there was still a lack of government officials' presence in the social media space. The government is well aware of this as during the launch of the 1Malaysia Social Media Convention, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak acknowledged pro-government bloggers and social media users as Barisan Nasional's (BN) "new army" (The Malaysian Insider, 20 Nov 2011). Najib also urged party members during the recent UMNO assembly, to embrace new media which could either level up the playing field or provide an advantage over the opponent (The Star Online, 1 Dec 2011).
Many commented that BN lost the 'social media war' during the 2008 election. With the next elections imminent, it would be interesting to see how BN and the opposition parties utilise social media to their advantage. For us at Media Monitors, we will continue to be the media eye (both on mainstream and social media) for any developments in the local and regional media landscape.
To request for the full report of the All-Media Analysis of Coverage on Malaysian Budget 2012, kindly email your details (Name, Designation, Company, Email Address, Tel/HP No) to pohlin.lim@asiamediamonitors.com
Rachel Raj & Yee Chin, Heng
Media Analysts
Rachel Raj and Yee Chin, Heng are Media Analysts based in the Kuala Lumpur office. They jointly led the CARMA analysis portion of the integrated analysis with Brandtology (a Media Monitors company).