Online Incivility: The Shaping of Online Discussion by MalaysiaKini

This study outlines the general idea of the study of propaganda techniques in online news portal Malaysiakini and determining how Malaysiakini’s presence in providing news and updates in Facebook, is able to excite responses from its audience and visitors through the comments section. Malaysiakini’s updates in Facebook are shaped in such a way that conforms to propaganda techniques, as news agencies and portals are essentially mechanisms of informing the public and shaping public opinion. This in turn can incite responses from its audience and visitors in the form of comments, where the comments may be expression of statements, opinions and emotions of a positive or negative nature. The qualitative content analysis approach was the methodology used in order to observe this phenomenon. Malaysiakini’s articles and coverage regarding hudud, a part of Islamic criminal law other than qisas and takzir was chosen as a base for this study which was conducted from 15th until 24th March 2015. All of the articles were analyzed for the type of propaganda, technique of propaganda utilized for each item, and the corresponding comments that conform to the online incivility. This study found that the propaganda types and techniques employed by Malaysiakini in its articles covering the hudud issue can incite online visitors to make either civil or uncivil comments, and would incite the most negative response if the article is directly about the issue of insulting Islam.