Local media's income problem: Those who trust and share news tend to be high-earners, survey suggests

Local media's income problem: Those who trust and share news tend to be high-earners, survey suggests

According to a report, there is just above average trust in the media among Malaysians mainly from the high-income group. — Picture by Farhan Najib

Friday, 14 Jun 2024 1:07 PM MYT

• High-income earners tend to trust the media more, and share news regularly in social media or among family members
• The Malays also describe themselves as being media literate, while Chinese respondents either don't feel that way or don't find misinformation an issue.

SUBANG JAYA, June 14 — There is just above average trust in the media among Malaysians mainly from the high-income group, a recent report by Taylor's University, analytical consulting firm Chasseur Group and Canadian-based think tank Digital Public Square revealed.

The report titled “Trust in Media and the Government: An Analysis of Superpower Influence” ranked trust in media with a 5.6 score out of 10, while only 40 per cent of respondents were interested in news and politics.


“In terms of trust in news and journalism, again, you notice high income is one of the things that is consistent throughout all of these things,” said Benjamin YH Loh, the director for Taylor's University's Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions Impact Lab while presenting the report earlier this week.

Ranked out of 10, trust in local news were rated at 6.0, followed by news from social media (5.2) and international news (5.6)


Other findings included:

• Right-leaning, high-income women tend to trust local news
• High-income Malays tend to trust news from social media
• High-income ethnic Chinese tend to trust international news
• High-income and older Malaysians tend to be interested in news and politics — especially Malays. Low-education and low-income Chinese is the opposite.

The survey classified those of high income as earning above RM5,000 a month.

The result mirrored Malaysia's score in the annual Trust Index by global communications firm Edelman, where only 58 per cent of respondents in 2023 said they trusted the media.

When it comes to sharing news, high-income and younger people, particularly young Malay men, identified with those who share news on social media or with their family.

This was the opposite of low-income or older Chinese women.

It said the Malay community described itself as being quite media literate, as opposed to the Chinese community who said that it is either not media literate or did not consider misinformation as an issue.





The report also found little consumption in Western news outlets such as British state broadcaster BBC (only 28 per cent of respondents consume it) and the American network CNN (33 per cent).

While ethnic Indians tend to consume them, the Malays were not inclined.

As for local news, sites such as Malaysiakini was preferred by younger respondents, while older one and those with high education gravitated towards legacy titles The Star and New Straits Times.

A survey was commissioned by Digital Public Square and was conducted in November last year by data and insights company TGM Research. A total of 1,537 respondents were reported, broken down to Malays (953), ethnic Chinese (353) and ethnic Indians (72).

The result of the survey was then analysed by Taylor's University and Chasseur Group, resulting in the report.