Religious online information behaviour among the Malays in the digital era

Abstract

Seeking knowledge is among the most important virtuein Islam. The Internet era offers more sources and new ways in gaining and producing information including religious information. However, the perception that the religious information behaviour among the Malays is not yet being studied empirically. A framework has been developed based on theories, previous related studies and interviews with Internet users. Three main aspects of behaviour being studied: usage, information seeking and verification. Data is collected using printed and electronic questionnaires. There are 616 usable data successfully gathered and analyzed through SPSS. Related to usage, the result shows that the Malays have adapted well with the Internet medium for searching the religious information. The results also show that there are changes on the technical aspect of information acquisition and delivery via the new media. However from the procedural aspect, the information behaviour among Malays are still traditional in nature based on their seeking information methods. The results suggest that the religious offline behaviour continues online, demonstrating their conservative nature. Analyzing the beahviour against the users’ background suggests that there is a statically relationship between them. A high percentage of users claimed that the verify online religious information, even though they differ on this in practice. This paper ends with recommendations to improve the information behaviour among the masses.