The roles of citizen journalists in Malaysia’s political landscape / Mohd Shahnawi Muhmad Pirus and Nor Nabilah Abdullatif

The term “citizen journalism” refers to a phenomenon in which citizens participated actively in the process of news-gathering and reporting. The advent of social media and blogging had caused the roles of citizen journalists to be more valuable than ever. This phenomenon provides invaluable information that can democratise media, as well as nations. This research aimed to understand the roles of citizen journalists in Malaysia’s political landscape, to ascertain the contributory factors to the rise of citizen journalists and to explore the effects of citizen journalism in Malaysia’s political landscape. The research adopted qualitative approach and the sample of this study involved Malaysians, both male and female, between 23 and 40 years old who are actively using social media. NVivo 12 was used in the process of coding. The outcome of this study revealed there were two roles of citizen journalists in Malaysia’s political landscape; (i) the spread of fake news, and (ii) the breach of privacy. The emergence of social media, and bias reporting on mainstream media were the contributory factors to the rise of citizen journalists. The effects of citizen journalism on Malaysia’s political landscape which were disclosed in the study were in terms of the accessibility of political news and the use of cybertroopers.