Senior research
fellow Tan Tarn How presenting the findings of the key study at the
IPS session on Tuesday. (Yahoo! photo/Jeanette Tan)
While this year's General Election was often touted as an "Internet
election", findings from a recent study show that new media may not
have been as decisive a factor in the polls.
A study by the Institute of Policy
Studies (IPS) found that 70 per cent
of respondents relied on the
mainstream media news coverage for election-related information
during the campaign period.
Of the remaining 30 per cent, most also read traditional mainstream
media, online and/or offline, alongside political blogs, such
as The Online
Citizen and Yawning Bread,
and Facebookposts.
The study surveyed 2,000 Singaporeans representative of the
country’s population by phone over three months following the
conclusion of the parliamentary polls in
May.
Researchers also found that the time respondents spent on
traditional media was significantly higher than that spent online,
from 12 minutes spent listening to the radio each day to about 32
minutes spent watching television, compared to between 3 and nearly
8 minutes spent online.
Even when online, about 33 per cent of respondents said they turned
to traditional media websites compared to just over 20 per cent of
respondents who said they read Facebook and/or blogs.
Yet, the study's researchers -- IPS deputy director Arun Mahizhnan, senior
research fellow Tan Tarn How and
director of the Singapore Internet Research
Centre at Nanyang Technological
University(NTU) Ang Peng Hwa --
stressed that while findings showed the GE was not an "Internet
election", it does not mean policymakers and politicians should
ignore citizens who obtain their news from the internet.
Tan said, “I think (the internet) had an impact, and the impact
leading up to the election was very deep. It changed the way people
think about issues, and opened up new possibilities in
communicating about them.”
The study showed that readership for alternative news online is on
the rise, with a growth of about four per cent between October 2010
and March 2011.
Those who read alternative sources of online news -- three in
10 of the respondents -- were also found to be younger, more
educated, and were from households with higher
incomes.
And while they were more likely to disagree on politics and found
traditional mainstream media less trustworthy, they were also less
cynical of Singapore politicians compared to the 70 per cent of the
respondents who relied on the mainstream media.
“30 per cent is quite a hefty percentage,” said IPS
director Janadas Devan. “And it
will be a growing portion. It will grow because the profile is
younger and better educated; that segment will grow."
“This impression we have that the Internet is what shifted this
election, I don’t think that’s the conclusion,” noted Devan. “But
whether it had an effect on the margin, I’m sure it did. It was
significant, but it was not decisive.”
The findings, released on Tuesday, was part of a series of 11
studies led by IPS together with a dozen researchers from several
other institutions including the National University of
Singapore, NTU andSIM
University.