The influence of social media and traditional media on youth’s political participation: a case study In Kota Samarahan, Sarawak / Muhamad Amsyar Muaz Muhamad Kasim and Nur Yuhanis Azahar

This article examines on how young people are inclined to participate in politics through the use of traditional media and social media. Social media is regarded as a new medium which can connect users in a global scale and the information is spread like wildfire. The information delivered sometimes losing its genuineness since social media can alter the message contents before it’s reaching the audiences. Therefore, the effectiveness of social media in attracting young people’s political participation always caught scholars’ interest. Besides, this study will test the relationship between both traditional media and social media and which of these two medium are the strongest predictor to attract youth to participate politically. This research used a sample size of 303 respondents within the aged of 19 until 25 years from three different locations which are Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Kota Samarahan and also Institut Pendidikan Guru (IPG) Kampus Tun Abdul Razak, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak. As people specifically youth in today’s generation has spent their entire live in the digital environment, it is important to know whether the social media has entirely replaced the traditional media as an important medium and predictor in affecting youth’s political behaviour or whether there’s still a significant relationship that exists between these two media.