Political discourse in Malaysian blogs / Zanariah Jano, Siti Rohana Omar dan Norun Najjah Ahmat

This study is intended to examine political discourse in a sample of Malaysian Blogs,
which operate largely outside the system of close government supervision and monitoring
of media content. This paper analyzes blogs quantitatively in terms of freedom of
expression, propaganda and compares blog content to analogous samples of content
from mainstream newspapers in Malaysia in the midst of 2008 election. The study has
revealed that blogging has developed new arena for political discussion, given voice to
more criticism of policies, and weakened state control over political discourse.