Exploring the usage of Facebook as a communication channel in politics / Syaida Ismail

In recent years, politicians utilize Facebook as a communication channel to interact with public for their political purposes especially during election such as Obama's case scenario. The purpose of this study was to determine how politicians utilize Facebook as their communication channel in politic by identifying the usage of Facebook among politician. Besides, politicians' opinions, attitudes, and benefits of using Facebook also determined. This research is exploratory in nature and the data collected is qualitative. In order to conduct this research, eight interviews were conducted with eight politicians from two parliaments in Tawau. The findings showed that politicians utilize Facebook as a communication channel to get connected with the public. Public can directly communicate with politicians in giving opinions or make complaints about problems whereas politicians also can straightly give their ideas to the public. This analysed data explain that Facebook facilitate politicians with the information that is beneficial to their marketing strategy in campaign for election to attract more voter. Finding of the research demonstrates that the politicians in Tawau realize about the importance of Facebook usage as their communication channel but they have not yet fully utilize it and they still rely on traditional media for communication and promotion purposes. As a conclusion, Facebook is an effective tool for communication in politics if it is really exploit.