Social Media Contribution Towards Ethnocentrism

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 65 (2012) 517 – 522

International Congress on Interdisciplinary Business and Social Science 2012 (ICIBSoS 2012)

Social Media Contribution Towards Ethnocentrism Abdul Rauf Ridzuan*, Jusang Bolong #, Siti Zobidah Omar #, Mohd Nizam Osman#, Rozman Yusof* and Siti Faidul Maisarah Abdullah% * Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, Universiti Teknologi Mara, 74000 Melaka, Malaysia # Faculty of Modern Language and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Selangor, Malaysia %Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi Mara, 74000 Melaka, Malaysia

Abstract

Malaysia is a multiracial country consisting of three main ethnics, namely Malay, Chinese and Indians. National unity among the ethnics is very important to ensure national harmony. Rapid growth and development in a country does not bring anything if people were not united. This can be seen when research done by Jusang Bolong (2008) showed that people like to communicate only with their own ethnic and many Malaysian are indifferent to racial integration which allowing ethnocentrism (Ismail Abdullah, 2009). Social media can be seen as a factor to create solidarity but at the same time encourage ethnocentrism. Therefore, this study is conducted to determine the level of public exposure to social media, the level of ethnocentrism in Malaysia and to identify the relationship between public exposures to social media with ethnocentrism. Researcher will be using survey method in collecting data while Mixed Effect Model will be used as a guide for this research. 2012Published Publishedbyby Elsevier © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of JIBES University, Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of JIBES University, Jakarta Jakarta Keywords: Social Media; Ethnocentrism; Mixed Effect Model

1.Introduction Today, with the new global era, many people have become media literate. According to Park (2012), in the digital media environment, it is not only necessary for people to be able to find the relevant content and understand the meaning within context, but also to create and communicate messages. Majority of people use social media to interact and seek information. According to Holloman (2012), social media is all about what people do with the technology, the software, the tools and the channels: sharing pictures

1877-0428 © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of JIBES University, Jakarta doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.11.158

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Abdul Rauf Ridzuan et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 65 (2012) 517 – 522

and videos, writing product reviews, collecting content, connecting with old friends, sharing with new friends, collaborating in the workplace. People in Malaysia now are easy to interact as they have easy access. Thanks to social media, there has been a growth and support groups and social networks that allow people to build relationships, and share problems and best practice (Leach,2011). What makes Malaysia unique is the diversity of people. Malaysian government goal is to preserve and enhance this unity in diversity which has always been Malaysian strength and remains its best hope for the future. According to Jusang Bolong et al. (2008), internet has become preferably use by people in making relationship. However, the research also shows that the respondents prefer to communicate with their own ethnic. Furthermore, The Star newspaper argues that many of Malaysian who are indifferent to racial integration. The outlook indicates that only as many as 52 percent of adolcents who had a friend of a different ethnic (Ismail Abdullah, 2009). This will lead ethnocentrism becomes stronger among ethnics. Lawman (2004) defined ethnocentrism as an attitude that one s own culture, society or group is inherently superior to all others. It also means an inability to appreciate others whose culture may different which can lead to hostility to out groups. In Malaysia also, there are some people who still hang out in groups, and the difference between the majority and the minority still exists (Mohd Hamzatul Akmar Md Zakaria, 2012). Research done by Zahara Aziz, Amla Salleh & Jainabee Kassim (2011) has proved that the relationship between ethnic in Malaysia deteriorate due to the attitude of the community members who are still concerned with ethnic. As for the conclusion, social media can be a tool and will be helpful for ethnic to make relationship and create solidarity among multiethnic in Malaysia. As discussed by Ravin Ponniah (2006), by promoting interaction between ethnics, it may increase solidarity. But, at the same time, it also can lead to hostility to out-groups as social media exposure also seems to be contributor to ethnocentrism. 2.Ethnocentrism Among Ethnics in Malaysia The disunity among ethnics in Malaysia also caused by ethnocentrism. (Moha Zamani Fatimi Ismal & Hanai, 2008). Research done by Jusang Bolong (2008) shown that people in Malaysia like to communicate in internet with their own ethnic rather than communicating with people from other ethnics. This can make the ethnocentrism becomes stronger. Moreover, research done by Arasaratnam and Banerjee (2007) also supported that ethnocentrism weakens the motivation to interact with people from other cultures and may even hinder high sensation seekers from forming intercultural friendships. Ethnocentrism also acts as a dampening factor in the pursuit of intercultural friendships. Syed Husin Ali (2008) also stated that as ethnics differences in Malaysia exist, which often manifest in stereotypes, discriminations, tensions and conflict that complicate the process of building solidarity. According to Chandra Muzaffar (2010), it would be more accurate to describe Malaysia as an ethnocentric society rather than racist. When each community becomes overly ethnocentric, inter-ethnic harmony is threatened. It leads to a situation where the influential segment of a particular community is unwilling to, or incapable of, seeing the other community s point of view. Ethnocentrism can degenerate into communalism. Communalism describes attitudes and actions which are negative, even antagonistic towards the ethnic other. Sometimes, ethnocentrism can give rise to chauvinism, which is adulation of the greatness of one s own community often at the expense of the other. Although ethnocentrism is closely related to racism, it can be distinguished from racism because it does not involve necessarily a negative vision toward other races. Any culturally distinct outsider group (whether the distinction involves language, religion, colour, or descent) can be targeted by ethnocentric attitudes. Ethnocentrism leads to in-group favoritisms with regard to contact and cooperation, and accompanies outsider-group hostility, sometimes even leading to intergroup conflict, violence, or support for discriminatory behavior (Hooghe,


2008). Research also has shown the level of unity and ethnic relations in Malaysia in year 2007 has declined. This clearly demonstrates the unity and ethnic relations issues yet to be resolved despite plans by the ministry of unity exercised to improve unity (Zahara Aziz, Amla Salleh & Jainabee Kassim, 2007). 3.Social Media in Malaysia However people see it, social media usage is increasing rapidly and dramatically in all level of society and in more countries around the world. Facebook is the most popular social media sites. In Malaysia, social network such as Facebook has 12 948 320 users which consist of 49.50 percent of population. It is also the most popular social networking Web sites in the world (Blossom, 2009). According to Lenhart & Madden (2007), social networking site is an online location where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects him or her to other users. The statistic also shows that the largest group of users is currently 18 24, followed by the users in the age of 25 34. In term of sex, there are 54 percent male users and 46 percent female users (Malaysia Facebook Statistics, 2012). According to a survey conducted by international firm TNS, Malaysians have the most number of friends on social networking websites like Facebook. Malaysian has an average of 233 friends in their social network. Malaysian also spends the most hours per week on such sites. In terms of hours spent on social sites, Malaysians spent nine hours weekly. The survey also found that rather than using email, people were now spending more time on social networking sites. ( Survey: Malaysian, 2010).

4. Advantages of Social Media on Society Cheong (2011) stated that social media bring numerous benefits associated with increased access and interaction where clergy and congregation can connect in new ways. It is also a tool created for information delivery, and fundamentally the nature of the message and method of conveyance either aid or hamper social development (Moala, 2011). Social media is become an essential part in human life because it can provide what human want by fulfill everything their needs and wants in their life. Social media can be categorized as a magical tools which has connected with everything along globalisation era today s. Taske and Plude (2011) also stated that movement should begin on Facebook that would allow people and other groups to donate to help the poor people in promoting social good. Social media has a constructive role to play for the society. It is the fact that in most of the eras, social media were being given free and fair chances to explore the issues of society more openly than it is being given now. Social media overall is playing very active role for educating, training, guiding and entertaining the people and providing awareness to the general public (Danish Raja, Bahawalpur, n.d). According to Mohd Nizam Osman and Junaidy Abu Bakar (2008), media institutions play very significant roles to deliver the information about government policy to the whole society. The information that is delivered to the society must be cleared and easy to understand by the people especially at rural area. According to Arai (2009), media can be utilized to facilitate communication between divided communities and humanize their relationships. The proposed dialogue process through social media is intended to demonstrate at least one way of activating the peace potential inherent in the contemporary trends toward globalization. Another concept that informs the proposed dialogue process is multi-track diplomacy. It suggests that national unity can be promoted not only by the conventional intergovernmental track, but also by a range of other channels and actors from the media to NGOs to academics to business leaders, all potentially capable of building constructive relationships across nations and communities.

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5. Social Media Exposure and Ethnocentrism Today, more people are exposed to social media. Social media are said to be a general name for websites that permit users to share content, media, photographs etc. The common ones are the famous networking sites like Myspace, Friendster, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flicker, etc. Ultimately, all social media tools allow for some degree of sharing. Without it such a thing would not be social (Green, 2011). Moreover, the usage of new communication technology such as social media can enable people to socialize, changing opinion, sharing problem and interest and etc (Al-Hawamdeh and Hart, 2002). However, when they are too many involvements of social media users, it will develop a likeness among them in the way they relate to each other, in their language, in their values and other areas. In a nutshell, social interaction gives rise to ethnocentrism (Charon, 2007). The flow of information is important for the development of communities and the media facilitates this. Without a wide array of information, people s opinions and views would be limited and their impressions and conclusions of the world around them stunted. Research done by Fenton (2007) stated that new media have the potential to mediate solidarity, but that in order for a political project to emerge from a collective identity, a collaborative and collective understanding of an end point is necessary. The population relies on the news media as the main source of information and the basis on which they form their opinions and voting decisions. Unfortunately, as mentioned by Chandra Muzaffar (2010), the term racist or ethnocentric is used frequently in the media these days and it is rife in Malaysia as it will cause ethnics tension. 6.Mixed Effects Model Theory Predicts that sometimes media will have powerful effect, sometimes minimal effects, and sometimes depending on a complex variety of contingencies. (Rodman, 2008). The purpose of this research is to determine the level of ethnocentrism of social media users gain when people get expose to social media. 7.Conceptual Framework

Social Media (IV)

Unity (DV)

Ethnocentrism (CV)

From the framework, social media will be independent variable and social solidarity will be dependent variable as the unity will be effected based from the social network exposure. However, ethnocentrism in the framework is under control variable as it can interupt the unity which it creates obstacles to communication with those who are culturally different. 8.Methodology The descriptive research design type is applied for this research study. Data collection methods are both from the primary and secondary. The primary data are collected based from the questionnaires that will be distributed to 384 respondents in Malaysia. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows Version 16.0 is used as the main tool of data analysis. The factor analysis and Cronbach s alpha is used to compute to establish the validity and reliability of data. Lastly, data will be analysed using the descriptive statistics, Person correlation and Linear Regression analysis to get the result and interpret the data.


9.Conclusion As conclusion, the consequences of social media in deliver a message are a big impact to a society. Through social media, it can build confidence and faith among the society and indirectly will change the society behaviors. To realistic the dream of 1Malaysia is totally can be promoted by social media where it can lead and influence the society towards the goals of the governments to unite all ethnics in Malaysia. However, the contribution of social media also brings impacts that effect changes and encourage more on ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is not a healthy way as many people look at it negatively. As time goes by, media will still be the best choice of medium in delivered a message to people and are the helpful tools to spread information that will create and form an information society.

Acknowledgements I am deeply grateful and indebted to Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) given by government and my team members who helped me a lot to complete this research. Thanks also to my beloved wife and son for giving inspiration to finish this research. References Al-Hawamdeh, S. & Hart, T.L. (2002). Information and Knowledge Society. Singapore: McGraw Hill. Arai, T. (2009). Give Peace a Channer. Media Development, 56(3), 39-43. Arasaratnam A. L. & Banerjee, C. S. (2007). Ethnocentrism and Sensation Seeking as Variables that Influnce Intercultural Contact Seeking Behaviour: A Path Analysis. Communication Research Reports, 24(4), 303-310. Chandra Muzaffar. (2010, October 22). Malaysia Kini. Retrieved from www.malaysiakini.com Charon, J.M. (2007). Ten Question: A Sociological Perspectives. Belmont: Thomson. Cheong, H.C. (2011). Religion and Social Media: Got Web? Media Development, 58 (1), 23-26. Danish Raja & Bahawalpur (n.d) Importance of Media. Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/11067926/Importance-Of-Media Fenton, N. (2007). Contesting Global Capital, New Media, Solidarity, and the Role of a Social Imahinary. Reclaiming the Media: Communication Rights & Democratic Media Roles, 3, 225-242 Green, E. (2011). Pushing the Social Media Buttons. Media Development, 58 (1), 12-15. Holloman, C. (2012). The Social Media MBA. United Kingdom: A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication. Hooghe, M. (2008). Ethnocentrism. Retrieved from www.kuleuven.ve/citizenship/_data/etho_iess.pdf Ismail Abdullah (2009). Seni Budaya Media dan Konflik Jati Diri. Kuala Lumpur: DBP.

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