THE ROLE OF POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION ON FACEBOOK AMONG MALAYSIAN CHINESE

Abstract

The Barisan Nasional (BN), Malaysia's dominant coalition party that has ruled since 1957, lost the 14th general election. Various analyses were conducted, and many discussions centred on Chinese voters who had switched to opposition, Pakatan Harapan, and rejected BN entirely. This situation raises an interesting discussion about what prompted Chinese voters to make drastic changes in this ethnic-based country's politics. This study, therefore, focuses on whether political socialization in social media will build a political opportunity for Malaysian Chinese. In investigating how social media propaganda can provide Malaysian Chinese a political viewpoint, these studies argue that the internet and social media have led to unparalleled complexity in Malaysia's political socialization process. A bottom-up, constructivist approach is used to decide how social media played their position as Malaysian political socializers.