POLITICAL PARTICIPANT THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA AMONG YOUTH IN SARAWAK

This article aims to examine the use of social media on youth participation in the political process in Kuching, Sarawak. The study relies on data obtained from 500 randomly selected youths and they have provided feedbacks through the study questionnaires. The study results show that Facebook, Twitter, Instagrams, and online news portals are the main social media used by the youth as a source of information on political news. However, few of them wrote about politics in their Facebook timeline, less than 40 percent of the respondents tweet on politics, and only 34.5 percent wrote about politics in their Instagram, and a small number of respondents responded to news in the online news portals. Among the popular online news portals for youth to obtain political news are Malaysiakini, Malaysia Today, Sarawakvoice and Sarawakiana. The findings also show that the use of social media for political activities is influenced by factors such as political efficacy, knowledge of politics and their direct participation in the political arena.

Keywords: Social Media, Political Efficacy, Political Knowledge and Youth Direct Political Participation.

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