Comparison of News Literacy, Media Consumption, and Trust Between Indonesia and Malaysia

Asian Journal of Media and Communication E-ISSN: 2579-6119, P-ISSN: 2579-6100 Volume 7, Number 2, 2023 DOI: 10.20885/asjmc.vol7.iss2.art2 Comparison of News Literacy, Media Consumption, and Trust between Indonesia and Malaysia Matthew Facciania, Ika Idrisb, Tim Weningera a University of Notre Dame, Indiana, United States b Monash University, Indonesia Abstract. News literacy and trust are essential factors to consider in how individuals navigate their media environments. However, studies on news literacy and trust have focused primarily on Western and English-speaking populations. The current study evaluates and compares news literacy, media consumption, and trust among Indonesian and Malaysian samples. Our data was collected in July 2021 via a telephone survey. We did not find any significant differences in self-reported news literacy between countries, but we found that participants lower in age, college education, and living in an urban area score higher on news literacy across both populations. We also found that our Malaysian participants reported spending more time on social media, but Indonesian participants spent more time watching television. We did not find any significant differences between countries for trust in institutional media, but Indonesian participants reported higher trust in online media. These findings highlight the importance of considering cultural differences in designing and evaluating media literacy interventions. Article History Submitted: September 25, 2023 Accepted: December 29, 2023 Published: December 31, 2023 Keywords: news literacy; media literacy; media consumption; trust. 1. Introduction Media literacy skills are crucial for successfully navigating rapidly evolving online information ecosystems (UNESCO, 2023). While digital technologies such as the internet and mobile phones provide many benefits, they also facilitate the spread of misinformation, hate speech, and extremist ideologies. Additionally, the internet provides an accessible avenue to intentionally spread false or misleading information (disinformation) around the globe. Disinformation campaigns have been tracked in various countries from Chinese and Russian campaigns polluting the discourse surrounding COVID-19 (Barnes & Sanger, 2020; Molter & DiResta, 2020), Russian propaganda about Ukraine (Idris, 2023; Greenberg, 2023), to government attacking progressive and activist groups in the Philippines (Hapal & Serafica, 2021), Uganda (Okot, 2023), and across Asia (Amnesty International, 2020). Disinformation campaigns aimed at sowing doubt in the electoral process can undermine the credibility of democracy itself (Moore & Colley, 2022). Copyright © 2023 Authors. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-sa/4.0/) 83 Volume 7, Number 2, 2023, 79-100 Information and media literacy skills can protect individuals against the sea of online misinformation and disinformation (Austin et al., 2021; Jones-Jang, Mortensen & Liu, 2021). Current research in media literacy mainly focuses on English-speaking, Western countries (Blair et al., 2023) that also tend to have wider internet access and score high on democracy ratings and civil liberties (Democracy Index, 2022). In developing countries, especially those that have issues with fair and free elections, media literacy is even more crucial. In order to develop effective media literacy strategies for developing countries in the Global South, it is important to consider the idiosyncrasies of their media environments and how their citizens interact with their media environments. To investigate media literacy in the Global South, we conducted this study in two of the largest countries in Southeast Asia that are in close proximity to each other: Indonesia and Malaysia. Despite the geographic proximity, Indonesia and Malaysia differ significantly in their economic development, education levels, political stability, internet penetration, and media environments. It is unclear how these differences between the two countries impact their citizen’s media behaviors. Indonesia is the world’s largest social media user after China, India, and the United States (Ruby, 2023). According to the World Bank Index (2022), Indonesia is behind in its digital development compared to other large countries. In early 2023, it was estimated that 77% of Indonesians had access to the Internet compared to 96.8% of Malaysians (DataReportal, 2023). In economic terms, Malaysia’s GDP per capita in 2021 was $11,371 and Indonesia’s GDP was only $4,292. This places Malaysia as one of the strongest economies in the region (Adilla, 2023) and categorizes Indonesia as a developing country (The World Bank, 2022). Finally, the 2021 United Nations’ Human Development Index ranked Malaysia 62nd worldwide and Indonesia ranked 114th (UNDP, 2022). The spread of disinformation and misinformation in both countries has led to sociopolitical divisions and mass protests. Both Malaysia and Indonesia have state-sponsored media contributing to information ecosystems (Hopkins, 2014; Jalli & Idris, 2019; Idris, 2022). For example, Indonesia and Malaysia have ‘cybertroopers’ that post pro-government information on social media (Hopkins, 2014; Jalli & Idris, 2019). These actions may influence the trust of online citizens in each country. Fact-checking websites and media literacy programs have been implemented in both countries, but have yielded mixed results. For example, Indonesia’s most extensive digital literacy program was initiated by their national government but had serious limitations, and may have even strengthened the state’s power (Idris, 2022). Thus, not only do Western countries have greater access to online media compared to the Global South, but political influences and media landscapes may differ substantially. Malaysia and Indonesia have different levels of internet penetration and education, varying socio-political dynamics, and different media environments. It is unclear if such differences contribute to a divergence in news literacy and media habits between these two Southeast countries. Applying the theory of planned behavior can provide guidelines for how differences between the two countries may impact media literacy levels. According to the theory of planned behavior, behavioral intentions are influenced by attitudes towards the behavior, social norms, and perceived behavioral control regarding the behavior (Ajzen, 1991: Ajzen, 2011). Because Malaysia and Indonesia have significant differences in their education systems and digital access, this may influence changes in the social norms surrounding how they evaluate information online. News literacy could be viewed as a civic social norm, which inspires individuals to be more news literate (Vraga et al., 2021). However, it is unclear if country level differences of education and digita (...truncated)