CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

The purpose of this study is to find out the awareness and perception of general
public about political tweets in Twitter. Second, this research also analyzes the language
used in political tweets. Moreover, the factors that promote the use of political tweets is
also identify. Questionnaire is designed to identify the awareness and perceptions of
university students and working adults about politician tweets in Twitter. Discourse
analysis focus on the language features use in political tweets. Finally, interview with
politicians is conduct to know the factors that promotes the use of political tweets.

3.1

Research Design/Method
This study uses mixed method design which is qualitative data and quantitative

data. The qualitative data in the research is using questionnaire method. Questionnaire
survey involved both students and lecturers in Faculty Modern Language and
Communication (FBMK), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). The quantitative data is the
critical discourse analysis on the selected Malaysian politicians tweets and the interview
method to identify the factors that promotes the political tweets.
The reason that this study uses mixed method design is to provide a better
understanding of the relationship between the awareness and the language uses in
political tweets than either quantitative or qualitative by itself.
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3.2

Location of the Study

The location of the study is Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) that is situated in

Serdang, Selangor. UPM Serdang is the main campus, where as UPM Bintulu is the
branch campus. Faculty Modern Language and Communication (FBMK) in UPM is the
main location of this study.
3.3

Population and Sampling

The term population refers to an aggregate of all elements sharing some common

set of characteristics defined to selection of the sample that comprises the universe for the
purpose of research problem (Malhotra, 2004). As for the sampling frame, it is a
representation of elements of the target population that consist of the students and the
lecturers in Faculty Modern Language and Communication.
The population is limited to undergraduate students in the Faculty Modern
Language and Communication (FBMK), UPM which are final year students and the
lecturers who are majoring in the four departments as the targeted population. The
students and lecturers range from a variety of courses, ethnicity, age, gender and
hometown. The simple random sampling technique is used where a group of final year
students from the department in the faculty were selected. From the prepared list of
students, the sample is determined. This technique is use as it has the bias and offers most
generalization (Malhotra, 2004). The name list of the final year students and lecturers is
request from the office to identify the specific sample for this study.

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Discourse analysis is an illustration of Internet research. Supply research, employs

some form of content analysis to determine the structure and content of twitter. Demand
research typically employs survey data. In order to assess the language features to which
this use contributes to the creation on a virtual community, two politicians, which is
Malaysia Prime Minister, Dato' Sri Haji Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak and
Former Democratic Action (DAP) Leader, Lim Kit Siangs Twitter accounts are selected
as the sample to analyze the linguistics features use in political tweets. More to the point,
the selected politicians is also the target on the research objective of this study, which is
to identify the factors that influence them to tweets, interview method is choose to
identify the factors.
3.4

Research Instrument
The research instrument and major source of information used for this study is

through questionnaires which provide primary data. The questionnaires distribute to 60

students and 60 lecturers. The questions are designed to meet the objective of this study,
which is the awareness of the university students and working adults in political tweets.
The language used in the questionnaire is English. The questionnaires are designed into
three parts. In section A, the respondent is asked for the individual profile, like race,
occupation, and the social network account. Section B required them to answer the
questions about their perception in political tweets. In section C, the designed questions
are to identify how the language used in political tweets affects to followers in Twitter,
yes or no answers is needed.

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Furthermore, another analysis is an illustration of supply Internet research,

which is critical discourse analysis on political tweets. Therefore, in order to assess how
Malaysian politicians tweet and the language features to which is use contributes to the
creation on a virtual community, a content analysis on the Twitter accounts of politicians
was conducted in 2011 January. Twitter accounts are located using both the internal
Twitter search engine and Google. Critical discourse analysis on political tweets includes
not only a description and interpretation of discourse, but also offers an explanation of
why and how discourse in political tweets work.
Besides, this study also takes interviewing method for evaluation. Two selected
politician is been asked qualitative questions individually. The data tabulation base on
open-ended interview survey, that is, the respondents provide a response by their own
words. Interviews are particularly useful for getting the story behind a participants
experiences. The interviewer can pursue in-depth information around the topic.
Interviews may be useful as follow-up to certain respondents to questionnaires, e.g., to
further investigate their responses (McNamara, 1999). The interview would be done by
phone call, the contact numbers are located using the official website of the parties, and
the dialogue of interview will be recorded.

3.5

Research Procedure
The data collections of questionnaire will be conduct in the semester 2011-2012.

The questionnaires are distributed to students via printed paper. The survey is conduct at
the faculty, the students are given 10 to 15 minutes to answer the following questions. In
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order to make the respondents clearer, the explanations in filing in the questionnaires are
given. For the questionnaire for lecturers, this study intended to collect the data by two
ways, which is using electronic mailing which is e-mail and the hard copy of
questionnaire will be given face-to-face if the e-mail does not reply in a week. Only the
lecturers in FBMK are selected and the information of lecturers such as name and e-mail
address was obtained through the faculty website which is available for everyone. In
order to ensure higher rate of return from the lecturers, the researcher will be keep in
touch and remind them about the questionnaire. The fillings up session of the
questionnaire are administered. Next, the questionnaires are collected for keeping in
order to process. The respondents information given will be keep confidential to make
sure the privacy of the respondents would not be known by irresponsible people.
The linguistic features in political tweets of Malaysian politicians are observes by
Internet. Twitter account is set up on November 2010 for this study. The researcher had
selected two politicians to follow for the survey. The selected political tweets will be
followed and the critical discourse analysis on the tweets will be start from April to July
2011.
The interview method initialized by the process of searching the contact number
of related politicians. Politicians contact number obtained through their official website
and non-official website such as Facebook. After that, phone call to politician will be
made before July 2011 in order to get their opinion on the factors that promote them to
use political tweets.
3.6

Data Analysis
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Data collections are conducted throughout the semester 2010-2011. The data
analysis of questionnaire is descriptive analysis. The analysis aims to provide an
overview of the respondents and an insight into their behavioral patterns. An analysis of
the differences between students and lecturer is also included. The researcher assumed
that the working adults awareness on political tweets will be higher than university
students according their age and the university students most probably will follow
popular star like Lady Gaga.
The discourse in political tweets will be analyzed. Critical discourse analysis in
this study examines the use of discourse in relation to masses and politicians and
identifies why the discourse is used in Twitter and what the implication are of this kind of
use. The researcher of this study assumed that the politician tweets more to attack other
politicians in order to gain more power.
The main task in interviewing is to understand the meaning of what the
interviewees say (Kvale, 1996). The interview method chooses to know the
affects for political tweets, and the interview will be recorded. The researcher of
this study deduced the affects the politician to tweet is they want to communicate
and get closer with the masses directly without the media.

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