MEDIATIZATION OF POLITICS IN DEVELOPING NATION: AN ANALYSIS OF YOUTUBE POLITICAL REPORTING IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

This paper aims to understand mediatization of politics in the context of a developing nation by looking into content of Malaysia’s Youtube local news channels, KiniNews and Media Rakyat. Three objectives of this paper are, i) to describe the media content of the two Youtube channels to understand the dominance of media logic and political logic in the content, ii) to contribute to operationalizing a measurement of mediatization that can be applied on online media, and iii) to compare the level of mediatization between the two most subscribed Youtube local political news channels, Media Rakyat and KiniNews. Quantitative content analysis was applied to study 118 video clips posted by both channels for the month of December 2014. The findings indicate a process of negotiation between political logic and media logic by both channels with balanced framing making up more than 20% of the overall dominant frame. Political logic however remains the dominant frame for both channels in comparison to media logic. The researchers are optimistic that measurement of mediatization from the traditional broadcast media can be applied on Youtube channels to ensure that the theory of mediatization remains relevant with the current media technologies development.