ALS 703

Research Methodology

The Visual Rhetoric in Social Media Propaganda

Towards Malaysia Perception and Behaviour

Iman Aishah Binti Shahrul Nizam 2021900747

The Visual Rhetoric in Social Media Propaganda
Towards Malaysia Perception and Behaviour

Chapter 1: Introduction

Globally, social media has been one of the major platforms of communication today.
(Belicove, 2011; Goldstein, 2009; Rose, 2012; Seo & Kinsey, 2012). This includes Malaysia as
many sectors make use of the opportunity to expand their networking and businesses (Hua,
Ramayah, Ping, and Jun-Hwa, 2017; Kaur, 2015; Lim, Agostinho, Harper and Chicharo, 2014).

Given the situation, many parties also use social media as a way to gain influence, share
ideologies and raise awareness. To illustrate, as stated by Lim et al (2017), the usage of social
media influencers is an effective strategy in online advertising. This is because there is an effect
in source attractiveness, product match-up and meaning transfer between the social media
influencers and consumers. Not only that, Lim et al also mentions that there is a shift in trust of
the consumers, between celebrity endorsements and social media influencer endorsements.
This is because social media influencers are seen as more credible, trustworthy and
knowledgeable than celebrities since most social media influencers gain rapport through being
spontaneous as well as the different nature of the platform used in gaining that rapport. This
shows that the social media realm has now replaced media platforms such as TV and printed
media and more people are switching to social media influencers as the new age celebrities.

In a way, it could be said that divers mobilisation is effective due to the flexibility of
personalised expressions which commonly involves social media since it allows individuals to
activate and expand their social networking. Aside from social media influencers, another sector
impacted by this era of personalisation has been the rise of political participation aimed at
different targets in a way to engage with companies, organisations, and transnational policy
forums. Having said that, there is a notable trend that can be seen in the rise of more
personalised political strategies. However, personalised politics has actually long existed,
through techniques of uprising populist as well charismatic leaders creating emotional bonds.
The difference in today’s landscape of participation is that majority social dispersal has induced
individualisation as the average social conditioning in post-industrial democracies, especially
among the younger generations of society (Beck, 2006; Bennett, 1998; Giddens, 1991).
Problem Statement

Propaganda

Propaganda is a way of communicating that ultimately expands influence on society as

well as to further agendas and ideologies. The goal of using propaganda may not be objective
and is selected to present facts in order to encourage particular perceptions among the people
in society. This is through the usage of loaded languages which is primarily used to create
certain emotions rather than focusing on the rational response for the information that is
presented (Smith, 2016). Given that social media is a platform to share messages, the platform
is not exempted from being a space for individuals and organisations to share propagandas.

According to the Oxford dictionary, propaganda is actually a modern latin word which is
derived from the word propagare. The meaning of the word is to propagate or cultivate. This is
usually done by governments, activist groups, companies, the media and individuals through the
usage of materials like posters, videos and articles sharing as a means to expand and further
their influence and agendas to the society (Diggs-Brown, 2011).

Propaganda and Information Manipulation

As mentioned before, politicians are making use of social media as a platform to garner
support and expand influence on the public thus the easiest way to see how propagandas are
used is through the sharing of propagandas made and shared by political parties especially
during elections. This includes the sharing of information by the government, which is the
country’s ruling political party. It is worthy to note that propagandas and manipulation of
information is not the same thing yet many researchers relate the two elements as there are
many politicians who use information manipulation in their techniques of sharing ideologies.

Several explanations have been proposed by scholars in explaining reasons

governments attempt to manipulate information for society. To explain, manipulation can occur
because the government is able to do so which would then influence society to less likely take
anti-government actions (Simpser, 2013; Huang, 2015; Gehlbach and Sonin, 2014; Shadmehr
and Bernhardt, 2015; Gehlbach and Simpser, 2015). According to Holmstrom (1999), even
though some members of society realise the manipulation, yet in order to maintain their
credibility and influence, governments still manipulate information as a means to keep up with
expectations and to avoid negative perceptions from the society. Echoed by Little (2012, 2015).

From previous studies on economic, political science and psychology, it was found out
that the majority of people do not fully notice information manipulation even though standard
solution strategies indicate that they would. (Little, 2017). Previous results of lab experiments
consistently found that people tend to coerce with what others say even if the person sharing
the information has transparent incentives (Cai and Wang, 2006; Patty and Weber, 2007; Wang
et al, 2010). This shows that people do not see information manipulations in propagandas.

Propaganda and manipulation of information can impact a large influence on the beliefs
and perception as well as attitude and behavior of targeted society (e.g., Enikolopov et al, 2011;
Yanagizawa-Drott, 2014; Adena et al, 2015). This is the root of the problems since it is known
that propagandas contain manipulation of information, coercement of information and false
information and that people easily trust information when majority people share the information.
Into the bargain is the design of social media itself when the method of sharing information is as
easy as a click of a button which makes resharing of the messages much easier too.

Thus, this research must be conducted to understand the layers of how propaganda
impacts people's general perception and behaviour as a way to initiate future studies on impacts
of the relationship between propagandas and information manipulation on mass society.

Elements of Persuasive Propaganda

Propagandas were originally a neutral term for the circulation of information among
people in favor of any given cause. There were no negative connotations of the term during that
time. The term acquired a negative meaning during the 20th century, usually representing the
intentional dispersal of false yet compelling claims to support or justify actions and ideologies.
During the time of war, many propagandas were printed in visual forms (Laswell, 1928).

Visual Rhetoric in Propaganda

Visual rhetoric in propaganda is not a new concept. Adolf Hitler had established the
Ministry of Propaganda and Popular Enlightenment in 1933, under the direction of Dr Goebbels.
This was unprecedented as no countries had ever elevated the conduct of propaganda in the
ministry level. The Nazi had garnered much support through the usage of newspaper,
exhibitions and posters. Hitler established the Propaganda Ministry as he had believed
propaganda was vital in securing and maintaining power. He referred in his book Mein Kampf
that the first goal of propaganda is to “win men for the coming organisation”, he then continued
with the second goal which is to agitate the balance of the status quo, through the use of
takeover and subjugation ideologies in the propaganda to generate the success of their ideology
(Margolin, 1979). This shows that visual rhetoric is an important part of how individuals and
organisations implement contents with visual rhetoric as an effective tool to share propagandas.

Nazi Propaganda: National Socialist German Workers' Party

For the National Socialism movement in Germany.

Malaysia

Propaganda in Malaysia

Just the same as Germany, propagandas have entered Malaysia even during the time
Malaysia was still called Tanah Melayu. This was especially prominent during the time of wars.
However, the difference is that in Germany, the propagandas was an internal practice among
the Nazis whereas Tanah Melayu was bombarded by external propagandas made by other
countries such as Japan, Britain, Turkey and Germany using posters and radio broadcasts. One
other way of how the propagandas are being shared is through scattering of posters from
airplanes to the targeted population. Not only that, there were also prints on postcards and
matchboxes (Van and Cody, 2009). This shows that propaganda had long existed in Malaysia.

Propaganda in Tanah Melayu during World War I - (Azmi and Samsudin, 2018)

In 1914, The British had established war on Turkey which led to the country announcing
the fatwa of Jihad against the British. The ruling became one of the obligations that must be
followed by all Muslims and whoever is opposed to Turkey are said to be sinful. The
propagandas were sent through leaflets and documentations that contained the fatwa and
ruling. The Germans noted that the use of the fatwa as propaganda was important in securing
support from the Muslims towards Turkey and its allies. The documentations also contained
anti-British sentiments that was included by the Germans as it was also in war with British.

The propaganda was feared by the British as it could invoke unity among the global
Muslims population. This turned true when Islamic Indian army called Indian 5th Light Infantry
used the propaganda to spread anti-British influence in an occurance which was known as
Singapore Mutiny 1915. The regiment united to rebel against the British where they attacked
British administrative offices as well as killed British civilians in Singapore. The establishment of
war between Britain and Turkey was the key factor to the rebelion since Turkey was known and
identified as a leader in the Muslim world and majority Muslim population. The campaign to
bring down the British eventually was received and accepted by the Muslims in Kelantan
following the Singapore Mutiny 1915 incident. The rise of rebelling against Britain in Kelantan
was called the Peasants Revolt. The group used the contents of British defeat in the Singapore
Mutiny 1915 as well as British left Tanah Melayu to war in Europe in their propagandas.

Propaganda in Tanah Melayu during World War II - (Van and Cody, 2009)

The Japanese used propagandas in order to recruit Tanah Melayu’s support in the time
of war. Not only that, the propagandas’ goals are also keen on replacing the language and
culture of the people in Tanah Melayu to the prospective native languages and culture of Japan.
This is because most of the content in the propagandas depicts motivations and instructions
about these two elements, for instance, on choice of schools, choice of language and using
national anthems as a means of training Malays into being loyal and faithful to their country.
 However, Japan had a strong contender which was the British. The difference between
the two countries is that Japan uses propaganda towards the Malay, by persuading Malays to
support them with justifications of Asians should support Asians whereas British use
propagandas internally, which means that the propagandas are more for the British than the
Malays such as by using posters that contains the words, “Your country needs you” or “Daddy,
what did you do in the war?” as a means of establishing emotional impact towards the British
people. Otherwise, they also share posters that dehumanise the Japanese and portray Japan
as a weak country. Not only that, The British also shared posters that contained reasons as to
why enemies had lost to Britain in previous war and battles as a way of motivating British army
and instilling fear for people who opposed. The two propagandas challenge each other.

There were two types of propaganda found to be used during World War II, white
propaganda and black propaganda in Tanah Melayu. According to Zbyněk Zeman (1978),
propaganda was described as either being white, grey or black. White propaganda would
openly disclose its intent in the content. On the other hand, grey propaganda would have an
ambiguous type of message or non-disclosed source or intent. Lastly black propagandas are
purports published by enemies or other organisations aside from actual origins. Some samples
of what propagandas in Tanah Melayu looked like are given below. The posters function as a
way to differentiate type of design, different elements and the target audience of propagandas.
Picture one which shows the British poster focuses on motivating the army in the time of war by
depicting illustrations of family members who approve of their loved ones going to war. The
second picture is an illustration of a character who was announcing the birthday of Japan's
Emperor. The character is surrounded by Japanese and Tanah Melayu’s cultural memorabilia.

Figure: Comparison of British and Japanese propaganda poster

Visual Rhetoric in Social Media Propaganda

Returning to the discussion of social media being the main medium of communication,
interactions now are almost usually done in a matter of seconds since technology creates a fast
paced environment for social media users. Consequently, individuals and organisations must
adapt to the setting. The ripple effect of that is there is a shorter span of time for them to grab
consumers’ attention in sharing their messages, ideologies and businesses. An ideal strategy
that could be implemented is the usage of visual contents for social media propagandas.

Samples: Different types and designs of social media propagandas

Seeing that propagandas are used to persuade the audience, this should include the
usage of visual rhetorics as the persuasive strategy in propagandas. Before going into the
issues of propaganda, there should be some explanation on visual rhetoric. Owl Purdue
describes visual rhetoric as any means of communication that is related to using images or texts
and typography in justifying claims or making arguments of any issue. This shows that using
visual rhetorics could be beneficial in grabbing consumer’s attention given the limited time.

While the term could be widely interpreted yet some issues that are commonly discussed
are the text elements of a page which includes font choice, the usage of visuals in the content
such as illustrations, photographs, or charts and graphs as well as the role of overall framing
and design in composing rhetoric visuals. The term visual rhetoric is put under visual literacy.
Usually, visual literacy is split into three categories which are visual thinking, visual learning as
well as visual communication. Essentially, the core of visual rhetorics are the use of images as
arguments, arrangement of elements in content, the choice of fonts and format of content and
the process of analysing images and visuals involved. This can be seen in the samples above.
The first picture focuses on the size of the font and the usage of photographs. The second
picture uses illustration, whereas picture three uses text and human character.

Issues of Social Media Propaganda Contents

According to Bjola (2017), there has been an influx of state-sponsored propaganda in

social media. From the congressional testimony of social media representatives of Facebook,
Twitter and Google, they have exposed the members of their social media platforms to a
campaign of misinformation in Rusian based campaign to influence the 2016 United States
presidential election. To illustrate, there was a decrease of viewers in the evening news
broadcasts like ABS, NBS, CBS and Fox stations in 2016 due to mistrust and influence from the
Rusian disinformation campaign (Lang, 2017). This shows that propaganda is still being used in
this technological age through modern means. The only difference is the sharing platform.

By taking advantage of algorithmic dissemination of social media content and avoid

traditional media filters with the use of factors such as influence of public opinion, it makes
misinformed messages spread faster, achieve more depth, emotionally fueled and at the core of
it becomes resilient because of the echo like nature of social media that forms. Digital
propaganda has become a phenomenon due to the broad geopolitical perspectives and is an
effective non-military strategy of achieving strategic political goals. (MacFarquhar, 2016). Bjola
further commented that the sharing of information in digital propagandas as weapons has been
seen by some states as an ideal instrument of power of their identity in global standing.

The issue of propaganda does not only happen in the political domain but also other domains.

For example, Nielsen (2015) and Skovhus (2015) reported that there was an increase of
fake profiles on Facebook that falsely shared information about Muslims in Denmark. The
aggressive and hostile languages used in the fake Facebook pages and profiles became a
heated debate between the Danish communities, particularly between Danish and the Muslim
and migrant communities. Facebook did took precautions by shutting down any Islamist pages
and profiles that has been reported since the pages and profiles itself did break the company’s
terms and regulations yet it did not resolve the issue as new pages and profiles are still
continuously created. The fake Islamist Facebook pages and profiles imbeded into the media
discourse has constructed a division between ethnic Danes and Muslims (Andreassen, 2007;
Hervik, 2011). Thus, showing that issues of propagandas are serious and could lead to the
downfall of society, in this case being the conflict between Danish and Muslim communities.

Other issues that are caused by the circulation of false information in the digital media
are in terms of the audience perception on the reliability of journalists’ social media methods
and practices, for example in the case of the Boston Marathon bombing (Mortensen, 2015). Not
only that, there is also issue in the reliability of health information that is shared in the social
media (Adams, 2010; Mager, 2009), the spread of conspiracy theories by variety parties in
sharing certain ideologies such as in the reportings post the 9/11 incident (Stempel et al, 2007),
propaganda of authoritarian regimes (Christensen, 2011; Morozov, 2011), disguised social
media accounts in cyberterrorism and war (Warf and Fekete, 2015), and the use of rumours to
spread counter-information and speculative politics (Rojecki and Meraz, 2016; Shin et al, 2016).

There are also theoretical challenges which are caused by the lack of knowledge and
data in relation to the identities of authors that utilise cloaked social media contents. Jessie
Daniels (2009) addresses some of the challenges through the concept of cloaked social media
contents which are digital propaganda tactics that deliberately conceal authorship in a way to
disguise political agendas. Cloaked social media content creates uncertainty on the originators
(Schou and Farkas, 2016). The cloaking process and techniques have evolved over time and
are progressively adapted to the current social media environment which is characterised by
less static and more user-driven content production. Other factors include networked
architecture and social media logic in which the cloaked social media content is embedded.This
shows that there are real issues pertaining to the use of propaganda in social media, especially
in terms of sharing false and manipulated information in order to imprint targeted ideologies.

All of the above examples justifies that propagandas are still being used and shared
today, especially in social media just the same as how the Nazis had used propagandas which
are to “win men for the coming organisation” and to create emotional impact towards the
existing condition (Margolin, 1979). Sometimes the outcome is positive. Such as propaganda of
the Boston Marathon Bombing which changed and paved ways for better journalism practices to
be carried out. This is because during the reporting of the bombing, the website Reddit which
garnered much attention as the source to get information about the bombing, had falsely
accused one of the victims of the bombing as the bomber. The victim was then found dead after
police investigations and the authorities had also revealed information about the real suspects.
This may show the public that credibility of sources must be taken into consideration before
trusting an information, even if the information comes from the general public (Brogen, 2015).
However, most of the time, the outcome is negative such as the disrupt between the Danish and
the Muslim, the provocations of Islamphobic theories post 9/11, cyberterorism and cyberwar.
Having said that, these are some reasons to believe that this issue happens globally thus a
study must be conducted in Malaysia to know whether propagandas are employed here.

Social Media Propaganda in Malaysia

ISIL - Jihadist Propaganda

Having talked about the issue of jihadist propaganda, the issue remains relevent in the
current times. To justify, Moir (2017) noted that ISIL is a threat to Bangladesh, Malaysia,
Philippines and Indonesia as the group is able to metastasise these countries. The abbreviation
ISIL means Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or it is also known as Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria (ISIS) which is a militant group that is influenced by Salafi Jihadist doctrine. While a formal
caliphate does not currently exist in Southeast Asia, efforts to extend its reach through proxy
organizations persist. This is because the group persistently goes to areas where opportunities
exist. According to Moir’s research, ISIL makes use of social platforms such as Telegram and
Whatsapp as their medium of distributing their propagandas, since these applications provide
end to end encrypted communications. In the case of Southeast Asia, space and material
support provided by organizations such as ASG and others who assimilate ISIL ideology
through local conditioning also help ISIL maintain existence and pose a potential security threat.

The U.S department of State Country reported that there are 72 Malaysians who are ISIL
members. In regards to the recruitment target population of the ISIL, the Malaysians who
attempt to join or had already joined the group are from diverse backgrounds which includes
highly educated individuals, unemployed members of society and those who are seeking
purpose, not to mention drug addicts. Religious ideologies remain as an important element in
the content of the propaganda as well as the motivations for the Malaysians in supporting ISIL’s
operations, ideologies and agendas. Using the basis of prophesied Al-Sham and historic
caliphates, the group uses the technique as a means of recruiting members in Indonesia,
Malaysia and Philippines and with this technique, they successfully govern territories and
expand their influence. With the ongoing events in Syria and Iraq, the dynamic of the situation
changes at a fast pace. ISIL strategies focus its efforts on provocation, a trend likely to continue.
Having said that, it is seen that jihadist propagandas do exist in Malaysia, though not explicit yet
the fact should not be discounted, especially when some Malaysians did join the militant group.

GE14- Fake profiles and Spambots

Moving on to the political aspect of propagandas used in social media. One of the events
that demonstrates how propagandas is wrongly used is during the 14th Malaysia General
Election. Jalli and Idris (2019) found out that there were strategic plans of spreading
misinformation in Malaysia’s Twitter platform. From their results, there were issues of getting
attention on the politicians by the usage of fake profiles which then lead to utilising groups of
fake accounts to spread low credible political messages as well as the practice of employing
bots in order to get their messages to be viral in Twitter. The reason for the political parties in
using these strategies is so that the bots or cyber armies would retweet the messages and
amplify it which would portray their political parties as having a lot of supporters and followers.

Not only that, it was also found that the most prominent depiction of the issue is in
regards with the hashtag #inikalilah. The hashtag became famous in social media platforms as
many messages were posted in Twitter which focused on the planning of changing the current
ruling political party to a new one. The catchphrase itself garnered much support and influence,
especially among the younger generations which are avid users of social media platforms. The
catchphrase was even made into a featured film published by Netflix which described the
Malaysian civil rights movement during the 14th Malaysia General Election. This illustrates that
propagandas have the potential of exponentially growing into bigger and greater movements.
Influencing media, movies and television and overall the people of Malaysia even though it
initially started from the usage of fake profiles and bots in boosting their messages and
agendas. Thus, showing that propagandas have a long term and wide effect on society.

Positive prospect of Propaganda

To shed light on the different angles of propaganda, in scaling between the negative and
positive aspects, propagandas could actually be utilised in non-criminal causes in contrast with
the examples mentioned above. Movements and principles like #IsraelPalestine and
#BlackLivesMatter repurpose propagandas align with common social ethics of society. These
types of propagandas are regarded or counted as credible and worthy since the foundation of
the movement itself is based on humanity. To recall, propaganda is a communication strategy
among communicators with the intent of spreading influence and further ideologies. Bearing that
in mind, whilst also eliminating the information manipulation element, propaganda is simply a
strategy that communicators use in asserting power, authority or beliefs on listeners. Therefore,
the strategy should not be disregarded altogether since there are some positive qualities and
outcomes that society could benefit from utilising propagandas. Thus justifying the need to look
into social rights and civil propagandas on the positive impact it has on humanitarian issues.

Health Related Campaigns

Various individuals, organisations, companies and government agencies have

capitalised in propagating health related campaigns. Ayub, Manickam, Hamzah, Suanda and
Yusoff (2012) indicated that the social media bandwagon is an effective tool in sharing
information and issues of healthcare. Social media platforms like Facebook, Youtube, Instagram
and Twitter are some of the top choices by users thus information shared on the platforms aid
in health related propagandas since it resonates with public preferences when seeking
information. In Malaysia, the Ministry of Health is the official governmental department that is
responsible to provide and regulate current health information to the public.

Otherwise, Non-governmental organisations like Mercy and Makna have well been
received in the general public as trusted agencies to provide credible information on health
subjects. This is due to the flexibility, speed, mass reachability and low cost for both sides of
communicators. Social media campaigns are inexpensive and have potential in reaching wide
populations extensively which then creates a high value add to individuals, organisations,
government bodies and companies (Ruth, Parasuraman, Hoefnagels, Migchels, Kadabayi,
Gruber, Loureiro and Sornet, 2013). This illustrates that both formal and informal organisations
make use of health propagandas in helping people get correct health related information.

Public health campaigns in planning and designing virtual communication based

programmes that aim at initiating and sustaining changes in knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of
target audience members that relate with positive health behaviours. Campaigns must be aimed
at a particular target audience for maximal impact (Holly and Zena, 2013; Wesner and Miller,
2008). Ayub et al also mentions that social media platforms have been one of the main
instruments used in sharing health related propagandas as it is a suitable medium for the
organisations to reach out to society especially youths in Malaysia, this is because youths are
the majority demographic of the social media users. Youths are indicators of the future and are
also a reflection of the society thus having this demographic as the target audience would
benefit the country as a whole. Prominently in regards to health related issues which is a basic
need for humanity. Accordingly, it justifies that health campaign propagandas is needed.

Environmental Awareness

Hamid, Ijab, Sulaiman, Anwar and Norman (2017) noted that one concept that has
frequently appeared in literature about environmental sustainability is on better quality of life.
Some of the most prominent themes on better quality is the impact of individuals not caring
about natural environment results in the reduce on overall quality of life (Chenoweth et al,
2007); Alshuwaikhat and Abubakar, 2008; Ben-Zvi-Assaraf and Ayal, 2010; Chua & Oh, 2011;
Abdul Aziz et al, 2012). The impacts on the environment includes drought, floods, pollution, fog
and haze, not to mention outbreaks of pandemic like malaria, dengue, SARS and Covid19.
Impacts could be reduced if society has a higher value in terms of environmental awareness.

In Hamid et al research, it was concluded that there was a lack of evidence to show the
role of social media in aiding the improvement in the quality of life in terms of raising
environmental awareness. However they did note that there is a need to use social media
platforms as a new method in creating environmental sustainability awareness among people of
society, in their case being the role of higher education institutions to use the new platform. They
justified that the various social media spaces provide options for higher education institutions to
choose the best tool and method in conveying better quality life messages. This is because they
found out that the sharing of information is vital in creating awareness on environmental issues
to the targeted audience such as staff, students or even to the extent of the general public
(AlKuhaimi & AlMogait, 2012; Alwi et al., 2012; Sulaiman & Abdul Rahman, 2013).

This shows that there is a need to investigate whether environmental propagandas

would help in raising more awareness for this cause. Particularly when many researches
indicated and hypothesized that there is a relationship between green practices adopted by
higher education institutions in creating more awareness (Bergea et al, 2006; Eden and
Eshet-Alkalai, 2013; Efthymiou et al, 2013; Figueredo and Tsarenko, 2013; Zhang et al, 2011)
and its impact on the change of behaviour, attitude, and value system of the individual, group,
and society (Md. Zain et al, 2011; Md. Zain et al, 2013; Sidiropoulos, 2013; Vicente-Molina et al,
2013). In addition, engagement with internal and external parties, is also vital to create more
awareness and environmental citizenship (Stefanovic, 2008; Maffia et al., 2011) which also
correlates with the goals of strategic propagandas which is to spread the belief of a quality life.

Making School A Safer Place

The hashtag #MakeSchoolSafe has been recently used in the Malaysian Twitter site.
The hashtag went viral because of an issue pertaining a female student and the problems of
sex related jokes and uncivil practices of some teachers in the Malaysian schooling system. The
issue was brought up when the student recorded a video on her Tiktok account about an
incident where her physical educations teacher had made a joke about rape. The joke was that
since there was a law to protect minors in rape cases then the students should opt to rape
women who are above eighteen. The video prompted other students who shared their own
experiences and agreement of the matter. Not only that, the issue also brought up the uncivil
practice of checking students undergarments in proving they are menstruating. This is since
some school makes Islamic prayers mandatory for all Muslim students during school hours.

Civil society organisations commented on the issue by saying “abuse in schools has long
been endured by Malaysian students; with complaints that range from physical and verbal
harassment to invasive menstrual spot checks” (StraitsTimes, 2021). This brought about the
propagandas of eliminating these negative elements in the schooling system so that all students
are treated correctly, equally and fairly which is echoed by many students who faced the issue.

Propagandas in Social Media

Having said that, there is a presence of propagandas in the Malaysian social media
platforms. Not only that, these said propagandas also have followers which means that the
strategy to use propaganda as persuasive messages is effective. Given that aspect, it justifies
the need to investigate the rhetoric visuals used in social media propagandas and the
correlating impacts it have on Malaysians perception and behaviour regarding any issues.
The research aim to answer the following research questions:

Research Questions

Research Question 1
What is the perception of Malaysian public towards the usage of visual rhetoric in the
transformational approach of social media propaganda?

Research Question 2
What was the impact and response evoked in the audience in relation to visual rhetoric on the
persuasive function of social media propaganda?

Research Question 3
What is the effect on audience behaviour from the visual rhetoric of social media propaganda?

With the research question, the aims of the research are:

Research Objectives

Objective 1
To investigate the perception of Malaysians on the visual rhetoric as a transformational
approach in social media propagandas.

Objective 2
To understand the impact and responses of Malaysians in relation to visual rhetoric on the
persuasive function of social media propagandas.

Objective 3
To correlate the visual rhetoric in social media propagandas on Malaysians’ behaviour.
Significance of Study

#IsraelPalestine - (Seo, 2014)

Seo (2014) investigated the contents of Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas’s Alqassam
Brigades Twitter accounts during the 2012 Gaza conflict. Themes, human characters as well as
production formats and design were analysed in understanding the connection between visuals
used for delivering messages in propagandas. The research provided important findings that
offer the implications of the propagandas on academic and policy. This is mainly in respect to
visual communication and international communication. There were major differences in terms
of how Israel Defense Forces and Hamas’s Alqassam Brigades posted propagandas in social
media. The difference can be seen in terms of the themes chosen in the visuals that they posted
on respective Twitter accounts. This leads to different kinds of emotions evoked in audiences.
The theme most used by the Israeli is resistance whereas the theme most used for Palestinians
was casualties of civilians which was posted by Hamas showing they have different strategies.

Figure: Comparison of Israel and Palestine visual Twitter shares

(Left: Israel, Right: Palestine)

For example, after Ahmad al-Jabari, the head military wing of Hamas, was killed in an
Israeli airstrike, the Israeli Defense Forces tweeted a visual Twitter post featuring an image of
him with a stamp written eliminated acros it. In comparison, most of the visuals on Alqassam
Brigades' Twitter by Hamas’s Alqassam Brigades focused on deaths, injuries, and suffering of
innocent civilians. Majority of the civilians in the visuals are babies and children. Hamas uses
the images to describe Israeli leaders as being cold-blooded killers.Not only that, it was also
discovered that both parties utilised calls to action such as the phrase “share this” in the images
in the effort to spread their messages and beliefs beyond Twitter. Seo mentions that this is
actually a propaganda tactic used during the digital media age where sharing information is
often just a click away. Seo’s findings suggest that the fast evolving digital media environment
has made organisations employ new propaganda tactics whilst continuing existing agendas.

#BlackLivesMatter - Ray, Brown, Fraistat and Summers (2017)

Ray, Brown, Fraistat and Summers (2017) investigated the use of the hashtag
#BlackLivesMatter on Twitter following the killing of Michael Brown by police officer Darren
Wilson. On 9 August 2014, the officer had encountered the victim yet just minutes later, the
victim was shot dead with seven gunshot wounds. According to the county prosecutor, the
victim’s body was only removed a few hours after the incident. In the case, the officer was not
prosecuted for the killing even though the defendant did not have proof that a crime occured.
The verdict is the cause to protest against racism and police brutality in the United States, which
was fueled even more after another unarmed man, George Floyd, died under police custody.

In Ray et al research, they argue about the functions of the hashtags which served as
collective identities and opinions on race and policies in The United States. From the analysis,
further insights on themes of the #BlackLivesMatter movement were found, which also
subsequently compared to #TCOT and its counter narrative. The abbreviation TCOT in this
context means Top Conservatives of Twitter. Whereas #BlackLivesMatter posts revolved around
themes focusing on issues of police brutality, community solidarity, and activism, the hashtag
#TCOT focused on validating justifiable homicides, the cases of white victims by black
criminality, and portraying #BlackLivesMatter protesters as radical terrorists.

Figure: Left, Call to action. Right, protest campaign.

Twitter users utilise the hashtags to promote their own standings and opinion on the
issue which conflicts with each other. #TCOT is not promoted by the mainstream media yet it is
still prominent among conservatives. It is also more established than #BlackLivesMatter since
the goal of the hashtag builds upon existing stereotypes and employs fears about the effects of
racially diverse America. To conclude, social media serves as a function of complex
multi-organisational arenas (Benford and Snow, 2000) which are influenced by factors of
culture, politics, and racial social contexts. Social media provides a space in combining theories
of identity formation and collective actions with methodologies in the era of technology to
investigate the sustainability and effects of social movements as they are happening.

Scope of Study

#BenderaHitam

The current issue that is widely discussed on social media is the #BenderaHitam
movement. The Straits Time (July 6, 2021) reported that this movement is a sign of solidarity
against poor governance. The justification of the movement is that the government has failed to
contain the Covid19 Pandemic and because of that many lives were sacrificed. According to
Refsa Organisation, a non-government body, the protest is in order to address the civilians’
demands of the resignation of the current Prime Minister, Mahiaddin Yassin, the immediate
reconvenning of the parliament as well as to end the emergency ordinance. The organisation
also makes mention of the wide support from the people, with over 200,000 mentions on Twitter.

Not only that, Straits Time who covered the issue also makes mention of Malaysians
who are now putting up black flags in front of their houses in showing the protest. These
demands come from frustration and anger towards the government in relation to the uncertainty
of standard of procedures during the pandemic, prolonged lockdowns yet affected cases are still
rising as well as the one way communication by the government. Refsa Organisation noted, the
movement is important in the Malaysian political discourse since it could prompt the parliament
to make decisions in preventing the collapse of the healthcare system, allowing civilians to carry
on their livelihood through cheaper alternatives, reopening of businesses and supporting those
in need. As well as noting that the protest will not stop until the government listens to them.

Even though the activism movement is in support of rights for civilians yet if seen in
another angle, it is also an anti-government behaviour. These issues being demanded is difficult
to curtail since it involves the uncertainty of the affected cases as well. All decisions to be made
are impacted by that factor and each decision must be planned and strategies for the lowest risk
of having clustered affected cases. With the rising of covid cases and death toll daily, the
government must be careful in regulating the rules and conditions so that the pandemic can be
contained and controlled effectively. Furthermore, the #BenderaHitam movement had also
initiated a rally in Dataran Merdeka in signs of protest with replicas of dead bodies, black flags
and signs that said “the government has failed”, “get out and fight” and “the people’s anger”. The
rally was organised by Sekretariat Solidariti Rakyat. (Utusan, 2021) This contradicts their goal of
wanting the affection cases to be reduced since it is known that mass gathering could start up
clustered cases which would also would subsequently lead to the closing of more sectors and
businesses, additional time for lockdowns and death cases. The movement is still undergoing.

When seeing how this propaganda is shared on social media, the main method used is
by using illustrations, photographs or texts that include an image of a black flag. This can be
seen as the use of visual rhetoric as a means of amplifying persuasive messages in the
propagandas. Some of the images contain texts like “kerajaan gagal” and “lawan” across the
images as the main goal of the movement is to eliminate the current government. Some
phrases were also call to action messages like, “keluar dan lawan”, “share this post” and “raise
black flags outside your home and on your car”. Given that the issue is pertaining to the
Malaysian government then it could be said that the target audience are Malaysians and the
sought after outcome is for them to stand up against the government and fight for social justice.

#BenderaPutih

On the other side of the coin is the #BenderaPutih movement. Just the same as the
#BenderaHitam movement, both are due to the Covid19 Pandemic. However, the
#BenderaPutih movement aims to help those who are infected by the pandemic such as
donations of food, water, essential needs and funds in aiding them to continue their livelihood.
News Straits Times (June 29, 2021) reported that the Malaysian social media platforms have
been flooded with postings about the movement which calls to those who need help to raise
white flags outside of their homes so that individuals or organisations can make notice of the
sign and send the help that they need. The movement could help both parties, the person that
needs help and the person who wants to help, to acknowledge each other in times of crisis.

Not only that, many other methods have been initiated because of the movement. For
example, a group of Malaysian students have built a mobile application which helps people to
find food banks in their area. The inspiration behind the application is because of the
#BenderaPutih movement (Malay Mail, July 6). In the newspaper, it was mentioned that the
movement has garnered much support and appreciation among social media users. The
movement reflects Malaysians' unity and willingness to help each other embracing the kita jaga
kita tagline that has been used widely since the coming of Pandemic Covid19. The propaganda
was brought up as many Malaysians had lost their financial income, loose family members and
friends, the rise of suicide cases and disrupt their mental wellbeing (Tatler Asia, 2021).

Visual rhetorics were also used as the main strategy in sharing the posts about
#BenderaPutih campaign. Many individuals, organisations and companies made their own
rendition of the campaign posters which contains images of white flags as its focus. Most of the
images also contain words of encouragement for those who are in need of help like “there is no
need to plead or to be embarrassed” and “it’s okay to ask for help”. The visuals also has calls to
action messages such as “raise white flags if you need help”, “reshare this post” and “pledge to
help”. Since the campaign is more on helping people who are in need, the target audience could
also include other citizens aside from Malaysians. The main goal of the propaganda is for
everyone to get the help that they need and to create unity among communities of Malaysia.

Limitation

The main limitation of the study is time. If given more time, a more extensive research
could be done in relation to propagandas use in Malaysia as well as the presence of social
media propagandas in the Malaysian context. Otherwise, there was also limited literature on the
implication of social media propagandas toward the audience's perception and behaviour.

Definition of Terms

Rhetoric : Persuasive communication

Chapter Summary

This chapter summarises the problem statement, research questions, research

objectives and the scope of the study. Not only that, it also contains the factors, impacts and
justifications of the issue being discussed which are propagandas and rhetoric visuals.
Chapter 2: Literature Review

Visual Rhetoric

Visual rhetoric is the generating of effective communication through visuals such as

images, texts and typography. Visual rhetoric is bound to the skill of using visuals and the ability
to analyse images for their form and meaning. It is widely used as printed media and e-media.

Malaysia Social Media Propaganda

Terrorism and Information Manipulation

Radicalization, recruitment, and social media operations in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the
Philippines. ISIL uses social media to share propagandas and recruit agents in Asian countries.
They do this by radicalising Muslims and their specific targets through the use of encrypted
communication containing their ideologies and manipulative information, in order to garner
support and expand influence for their cause. The use of propaganda is astonishing as previous
depiction towards history has shown that propaganda works through government bodies or
special militant groups. On the other hand, there has been the usage of political accounts,
blogs, forums, chats, social networks and other softwares including the use of bots in the
sharing of political ideologies, messages and support towards the political figures. Primarily, this
can be seen during the times of elections. Particularly, Malaysia’s 14th General Election.

Visual Rhetoric in Malaysia Social Media Propaganda

Religion based Propagandas

In reference the visual rhetorics used by ISIL in garnering support from Malaysians are
through the use of content related to factors such as unemployment thus the content is aligned
with the needs and wants of their target audience while still having a strong baseline towards
religion and ideologies. The visual rhetoric here is in regards to content such as documentaries
and written text including their fatwa or teachings. These visuals are used to gain the support
and attract the attention of their targeted audience in order for them to be recruited. Potential
members that are recruited include highly educated secular-oriented individuals, but also
unemployed members of society, drug addicts, and thrill seekers. For this population, ignorance
and poorly formed understandings of Islam, especially as it pertains to the purpose of jihad,
often lead to the easy manipulation of recruits. The group uses jihadist concept as propaganda.

Political Based Propagandas

The use of the visual images with the phrase #inikalilah. A movement in Malaysia during
Malaysia 14th General Election. The manifesto was a strategic propaganda used by the
opposition party during the time in order to garner support of Malaysians and their votes. The
main goal of the propaganda was to eliminate the previous governing political party which they
had actually succeeded in doing. The phrase received mass attention and was even turned into
a film in representing the social rights movement that happened during the lobbying phase of
the election year. Not only that, there was also the usage of spambots and fake profiles in social
media as a strategy to outreach the mass population as well as to portray massive support.

Awareness Based Propaganda

The rise in the usage of hashtags as means of supporting certain movements or

agendas. Current issues include the #MakeSchoolSafe, #BenderaPutih and #BenderaHitam
movements which all centralised on human rights. More Malaysians are using social media as
the main medium of communication, especially among the youths therefore these types of
social media propagandas are spreading fast and have an echo chamber effect. Given that
there was a success for the Malaysian social media platforms in relation to health related
propagandas therefore a similar outcome could be assumed for messages shared on
awareness about social rights and humanitarian works. As technology advances so does the
realisation for better treatments and practices of society in terms of justice and equality.

Chapter Summary

This chapter talks about the presence of propagandas in the Malaysian context. Not only
that, it also illustrates how propagandas is used in social media as a way to expand influence,
garner support and propose ideologies. The types of rhetoric visuals used in the social media
propagandas are also discussed to see the strategy used in framing and designing of contents.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology

Introduction

In designing the research methodology, the problem statement should be revisited. The
problem statement was on how social media propagandas are widely used in the social media
platforms and framing and design of the propagandas which makes it effective. The research
questions should also be answered. This research focuses on the quantitative method.

Not only that, there is a focus on using the #BenederaHitam and #BenderaPutih
movement as the central research materials. The reason being that the two propagandas are
the different sides of the same coin, in terms of their goal that they want to reach.
#BenderaHitam being a protest against the government upon the Covid19 Pandemic situation
whereas #BenderaPutih being a platform to help people impacted during the pandemic. Not
only that, it is also because of the commonalities of both campaigns in the using visual rhetoric
of flags as the central element of their propaganda. Choice of colour being the difference.

Research Questions:
1. What is the perception of Malaysian public towards the usage of visual rhetoric in the
transformational approach of social media propaganda?
2. What was the impact and response evoked in the audience in relation to visual rhetoric
on the persuasive function of social media propaganda?
3. What is the effect on audience behaviour from the visual rhetoric of social media
propaganda?

Research Design and Strategy

Given that this research focuses on rhetoric visuals then the elements of visual rhetorics
should be restated. Elements of visual rhetorics include font choice, visual contents and the
overall framing and design of the image. To map the design, in terms of the framing and design
of the propagandas, #BenderaHitam and #BenderaPutih would be the manipulated variable and
other campaigns; #PulangMengundi, #BlackLivesMatter, #AustralianForestFire and
#IsraelPalestine would be the constant variable. Different images of #BenderaHitam and
#BenderaPutih would be used whereas only a single image of other causes of propagandas.
 Cluster 1: Flag image, minimal wording, theme not mentioned

Cluster 2: Flag image, theme mentioned, call to action

Cluster 3: Photographs, raise flag, real life scenario

The design could also answer the most preferred theme by the public in terms of
persuasive messages in the propagandas. Theme is the central ideology and value of the
propaganda. Having said that, the different themes of the samples should be explained.
 Themes:

1. #BenderaHitam - activism on unsatisfactory government practices, frustrations and

anger, social unity against oppression
2. #BenderaPutih - activism on helping less fortunate in the midst of Covid19,platform for
those seeking help and wanting to assist, community philanthropy
3. #PulangMengundi - community, help each other, nationalism
4. #Blacklivesmatter - racism, death due to racism, social injustice
5. #AustraliaForestFire - death and extinction of animals, pollution, environmental
6. #IsraelPalestine - bombings, victims, religious factor, humanitarian injustice

Research Strategy

Survey

A survey of about 40 to 50 participants will be done to seek the perception and

behaviour change among Malaysians in terms of using visual rhetoric in social media
propagandas. The main focus of the survey is in terms of comparison between #BenderaHitam
and #BenderaPutih campaigns, other campaigns include the #PulangMengundi,
#BlackLivesmatter, #AustraliaForestFire and #IsraelPalestine as these campaigns have reached
nationwide and global audiences and have been effective in spreading their propagandas.

Data analysis

The data from the survey will be noted and analysed according to the theme as well as
the framing and design of the visual rhetorics in social media propagandas. The focus of the
analysis will be the opinions, emotion evoke and changes of behaviour among Malaysian social
media users in terms of using visual rhetorics as persuasive strategy in social media
propagandas. This would subsequently answer the research questions and research objectives.

Content analysis

Some answers would be of short sentences thus the content would be analysed and
categorised as according to respective themes which is suitable based on overall answers.
Setting and Sample

The target participants are Malaysians who are above eighteen years of age. This is
because the issues discussed are pertaining governmental and humanitarian elements thus this
set of demographics would have a better understanding of the issues and their perception and
behaviour would reflect the overall population of Malaysians. Not only that, the participants must
also be social media users since the propagandas are shared and used on these platforms. The
types of questions to be asked are going to be answered in three types of forms which are
multiple choice questions, short sentences and likert scales. The questions are:

Short sentences
1. Name
2. Age (18 above)
3. Level of Education
4. Current Occupation
5. Number of years using Social Media
6. What are the propagandas in social media that you have noticed recently?
7. What is the use of social media propaganda in your opinion?
8. What are visual elements in social media propagandas that stood out to you?

Likert scale
1. What is the impact of visuals in social media propaganda on your perception?
2. What was the emotional impact that these social media propagandas have left on you?
3. What was the degree of change in attitude from before you have seen the social media
propagandas to after seeing them?

Multiple choice questions

1. Have you ever taken steps or actions after seeing the social media propagandas?
2. What actions did you take after seeing the social media propagandas?
Comparison of current Malaysian social media campaigns,
Bendera Hitam and Bendera Putih
3. Do you think the visuals in the social media propagandas impact your behaviour on
social media?
Instrument and Materials

The instrument for the survey is Google Form as it is free and user friendly. The data and
response from the survey would then be analysed using IBM SPSS software. All materials
would be based on visual rhetoric elements which includes theme and design of propagandas.
Secondary resources would also be used to understand underlying theories and framework.
Images from other campaigns would also be used in order to understand propaganda themes.

Samples of images for other campaigns

Data Collection and Analysis

The survey would be distributed through Whatsapp as the target participants must be
Malaysian and above eighteen years of age. Using Whatsapp as a platform of sharing the
survey would give a wide demographic of participants since it is one of the most popular
messenger applications. The data from Google Form will be converted as Excel format then
transferred into IBM SPSS to analyse the relationship and comparison of all the variables.

Reliability and Validity

Cronbach’s alpha

Reliabilit
y
Statistics
Cronbach's
Alpha Based
on
Cronbach's Standardized N of
Alpha Items Items
.840 .841 6

The Cronbach’s Alpha test showed that the survey value is at .84 which means that the
survey has a good reliability scale. Each question is underlying the research question.

Participants’ personal information.

Each participant is required to provide full name, age, education level and current
occupation. Any survey answer that does not follow the terms and regulation will be terminated.

Chapter Summary

This chapter informs how research is designed and the process of answering the
research questions. All tools, materials and methods are also disclosed here as a means of
understanding more about the central idea and key themes of visual rhetoric in propagandas.
Chapter 4: Findings

Introduction

After the survey was collected, data were analysed to answer the research objectives.

Public Opinions on Propagandas and Visual Rhetorics

According to the result, participants’ personal information was collected, there were 60
participants overall. 7 surveys were terminated since they did not follow the instructions stated
in the survey. Out of the 60 participants, age varies between 18 years old to 60 years old
Malaysians who have used social media for more than 4 years. The age table is as below:

Age Class Number of Participants

18-25 18

26-31 25

34-41 11

42-60 6

Participants’ Level of Education

 Perception on Propagandas

For the question propagandas, short answers were asked from the participants.
“What are the propagandas in social media that you have noticed recently?”

From the response of the participants, politics was mentioned 19 times, #BenderaHitam
campaign was mentioned 13 times, there was also mentioned of Covid19 8 times and
#BenderaPutih movement appeared 4 times. Among other answers were about olympics,
#IsraelPalestine and personal opinions. This justifies the assumption that propagandas and
politics go hand in hand just as what previous researchers have stated. As for the definition and
use of propaganda, in the introduction, it was stated that propagandas are mostly used to
garner support, expand influence and further ideologies and agendas. Thus, the second
question was asked which was related to the public’s opinion on the definition of propaganda.

The question that was asked was

“What is the use of social media propaganda in your opinion?”

The direct use of the word support appeared 4 times, the word influence popped up 10
times, the word ideology was mentioned once whereas the word agenda was mentioned twice.
Since the format of the question was for the participants to answer short answers, thus each
opinion differed but different themes were found under the elements of support, influence,
ideology and agenda. Some samples of the answers are given below.

Answer Underlying Theme

The use of social media propaganda is -Support

mostly used because of easily gathering -Influence
engagement and attracting attention of young
people and easily spreading around
information

To attract people to a certain idea or -Influence

movement, while using social media as the -Ideology
main medium
 Bring up right or wrong message to public -Ideology
and create mutual agreement toward -Support
organization or person

If used right, these social media propaganda -Influence

are often presumed as "social media -Ideology
influencers" whereby starting trends and -Agenda
persuading the general public to live the
lifestyle they are living ; based on what I feel.

To change people’s mindset and helps the - Ideology

world change - Agenda

From the 60 participants, incidental themes were also found which are the use of
propaganda to spread awareness and give information. This correlates with previous discussion
on the positive prospect of propaganda in relation to having propagandas as a method to
spread awareness and information about health, environmental and social issues. The word
awareness was found 8 times on the data whereas the word information appeared 5 times.

Moving on to the element of visual rhetoric in propagandas, the elements would be of the
following categories; word, typography, illustration, photograph and overall design of the
propagandas. The question asked asked to the participants was
What are visual elements in social media propagandas that stood out to you?

In this section, there were diverse answers that were retrieved from the data hence data
was random and appropriate themes were not able to be hypothesised. However, some sample
answers are given in order to understand the public's general perception about visual rhetorics.

Answers Theme

Their pictures of people gathering in a rally -Photograph

supporting their propaganda

Strong graphics and imagery, bold and -Illustrations

striking colours, human-centric stories -Typography
-Overall design

Satires -Illustrations

The Title -Word

news highlight -Word

 Typography

From the table above, we can say that there are similarities about the elements of visual
rhetoric and the elements that were described by Owl Purdue in previous chapters.

Visuals that provoke emotional responses from the audience.

Coming back to the emotional response that could evoke emotions towards the
audience. Rhetoric visuals like the sharing of imagery regarding cases of people’s suffering like
the elderly, the poor and the disabled to justify their ideologies and causes in the Bendera Hitam
Campaign. Other campaigns include Palestine in the sharings of visuals on victims of
oppression such as refugees of war, depiction of deceased individuals, starving children.

These visuals have the ability to evoke anger, sympathy and frustration of the audience
and this leads to them being more active participants towards the issue on hand. This is since
the visuals itself most usually contains messages of call to action which is in support of the
cause, organisation or individuals. The images used were of #BenderaHitam and
#BenderaPutih campaigns. With three clusters of how the propagandas are designed.

In this section, the relationship between the two is discussed through the analysis of the
data on the three clusters that have different types of framing and design which are based on
previously stated elements of the visual rhetorics in the propaganda samples of the campaigns.
Likert scale was used in getting the response from the participants. The participants use the
likert scale which ranges from neutral, poor, fair, moderately affected and heavily affected.

Cluster 1

Cluster 1 consisted of images of #BenderaHitam and #BenderaPutih campaign posters.

Both of the posters share the same element of having a raised flag, minimal wordings and the
cause of the campaigns were not disclosed. The results for both posters were recorded.
 Cluster 1: #BenderaHitam

For the #BenderaHitam poster in the first cluster. The bar graph does not have a bell
shape, instead it has a bimodal shape. The histogram is seen to have two peaks which
concludes that the opinion is between moderately affected and heavily affected or neutral on the
framing of the propaganda. However, it does not conclude that the rhetoric visual is the direct
impact of the result. This is because there are differences between the results for
#BenderaHitam and #BenderaPutih in cluster even though they have similar visual rhetorics.

Cluster 1: #BenderaPutih

As stated, for the #BenderaPutih campaign poster, the result shows a different shape for
the histogram. The bar is seen as skewed left. This is because the histogram shows a skewed
distribution to the left as seen above which is said to be negatively skewed. This means that the
distribution of responses has a large number of occurrences on the upper value of cells. This
shows that majority participants were highly affected by the visual rhetoric of the poster. Based
on the previous answers of the participants, some participants did note that the current
propagandas that are available in the social media realm is the #BenderaHitam and
#BenderaPutih movements, thus an assumption that could be made is that even without having
the cause printed on the posters, the public would have knowledge about the propagandas
through the circulation of the two campaigns in social media and news coverages.

Cluster 2

For cluster 2, the visual rhetoric elements shared by both #BenderaHitam and
#BenderaPutih campaigns are the use of flags, with different colours; black and white as central
design of the posters, Call to Action messages and the cause is mentioned directly. This is done
so in seeing the different response that the participants’ have on the different types of framing
and design of the propagandas even though the issue being discussed is still the same as
cluster 1. Not only that, it is also to see the effectiveness of having Call to Action messages on
the propagandas in creating a higher emotional evocation on the participants’ perceptions.

Cluster 2: #BenderaHitam

For cluster 2, there can be seen that there is a significant difference in the
response of the participants when compared to the propaganda of #BenderaHitam from Cluster
1. A presumption that can be made is that the Call to Action message does impact the emotions
of the participants since both results for cluster 2 are impacted with both histograms are skewed
left. To simplify, more participants' answers distribution became more focused to the upper value
cell, in this case being moderately affected and highly affected. Since it was said previously that
the availability of the cause as visual rhetorics of the propagandas may not affect the
participants’ emotion since the participants already have prior knowledge of the issue given the
wide covering of the campaigns on social media therefore the main focus on this result is the
Call to Action messages on the propagandas as elements of persuasive technique.Thus, it can
conclude that call to action messages are a vital factor in effectively persuading audience.

Cluster 2: #BenderaPutih

Cluster 3

For cluster 3, the images share the same overall design which are real scenarios of
people participating in the campaigns as well as the image of a raised flag is used as the main
focus of the photographs. The images do not contain any words or typography, only the
photograph as the main persuasion method in the usage of visual rhetorics in the propagandas.

Cluster 3: #BenderaHitam
 The result for #BenderaHitam shows that there is a decline in the emotional
response of the participants compared to image in cluster 2. Majority of the votes is still on the
highest value of cell which is highly affected, however, the histogram is no longer skewed to the
left but shows distribution to other cell value which are neutral (8 participants), poorly affected (6
participants), fairly affected (10 participants) and moderately affected (15 participants). This also
justifies the effectiveness of Call to Action messages which is absent in this particular image.

Cluster 3: #BenderaPutih

However, the result for #BenderaPutih remains the same as Cluster 2, strongly skewed
left since the comparison between participants being highly affected and other cell values are
significantly different. The majority of the participants answered that they were highly affected by
the rhetoric visual in the propaganda. Not only that, after seeing all the results for
#BenderaPutih response for all in all three clusters, it is safe to assume that majority Malaysians
are more inclined to support movements with community, unity and humanitarian effort as the
centralised theme of the propagandas. In simple terms, Malaysians prefer to help those in need.

The impact of visual rhetorics in generating response and impact

Visual Rhetoric as persuasive method in Social Media Propaganda

 In justifying that visual rhetorics are effective in persuading and gaining attention from
the audience, the above question was asked , “Do you think the visuals in social media impact
your behaviour on social media?”. Only 58 participants answered this question. Majority of the
participants answered yes with 58.6%, 22.4% participants answered no and 19% participants
were on the fence by answering maybe. More evidence should be explored on this issue.

In understanding the impact that visual rhetoric has on the audience, the goals of social
media propaganda should first be restated, which are to gain support, expand influence and to
suggest certain ideologies or agendas. Having said that, the method being used is by having
visual rhetorics as the argument or persuasive strategy. Previously, the framing and design of
the propagandas were discussed. In this section, the cause or theme of the propagandas are
observed and asked in the survey to understand its relationship with Malaysians’ perception.

Underlying themes and concept

In the survey, participants were asked about other established campaigns, which are
#PulangMengundi, #BlackLivesMatter, #AustraliaForestFire and #IsraelPalestine, in knowing
which theme leaves the most impact on the participants emotion. As previously stated, one of
the strategies of creating effective propagandas is to create certain emotions in the audience.
Thus, this section tries to find out if there is a relationship between the theme of the
propagandas and its impact on audience emotion and perception. This is especially since the
prior result does show a connection between the theme and the response of the participants.
Before going through the data, below is the theme for each campaign of the samples.

1. #PulangMengundi - community, help each other

2. #Blacklivesmatter - racism, death due to racism, social injustice
3. #AustraliaForestFire - death and extinction of animals, pollution
4. #IsraelPalestine - bombings, victims, religious factor, humanitarian injustice

The section of the survey is on virtual rhetorics pertaining established campaigns without
having any context, explanation or call to action messages on the poster. Therefore, the
question is in understanding the effect of the themes of the established campaign as the central
idea of the social media propaganda. The format of the question was likert scale with ranges
between neutral, poor, fair, moderately affected and heavily affected. The results as follow,

(Left top: #PulangMengundi, Right top: #BlackLivesMatter

Left bottom: #AustraliaForestFire, Bottom right: #IsraelPalestine)

When comparing the different campaigns, the response varies. However, it is worthy to
note that even without context, explanation or call to action in the propagandas yet majority
participants were heavily affected by all four campaigns. The campaign with the highest number
of participant that was highly affected is #IsraelPalestine. The campaign with the lowest people
who is highly affected is #PulangMengundi. This could show that the more established the
campaign is the higher is the impact of the social media propaganda has on the audience since
#IsraelPalestine is a global issue whereas #PulangMengundi only covered nationwide attention.
Concrete evidence could not be given in terms of acknowledging which theme is most favoured
since all the campaigns results show that highly affected is the majority response. Nonetheless,
it still further the claim that visual rhetorics do impact audience emotion, especially in regards to
established campaigns, globally and nationwide. Even if no context and explanation is given.

Rhetoric Visuals on Participants’ Virtual and Direct Behaviour

From the result, the response of the participants were divided into five categories which
are no action, reshare or repost messages, invite others to raise awareness, share own ideas
about the campaign as well as being physically involved in campaigns. The participants was
asked the question what actions did you take after seeing the #BenderaHitam and
#BenderaPutih campaigns. Only 58 participants answered this question. Results as follow,

#BenderaHitam
Participants’ virtual and direct behaviour

From the response, the majority of the participants answered that they did not take any
action in the campaign with 48.8%, 20.7% answered that they shared and repost the message,
13.8% answered that they have invited other people to raise awareness to the cause, 17.2%
participants have shared their own ideas about the campaign whereas 3.4% answered that they
have physically joined the campaign. From the result of the #BenderaHitam campaign question,
it shows that there is a relationship between the social media propaganda and the virtual
behaviour of the participants. The accumulated response for reshare or repost, inviting others to
raise awareness and share their own idea about the campaign stands at 51.7% which is more
than participants who did not take any action. Subsequently justifying the effectiveness of social
media propagandas in gaining support, expanding influence, spreading ideologies and agendas.
However, it does not support the hypothesis that the direct behaviour of participants were
impacted since there were only two participants who were physically involved in the
#BenderaHitam campaign. Therefore concluding that, propaganda has an impact on behaviour.

#BenderaPutih
Participants’ virtual and direct behaviour

In further justifying the relationship between social media propagandas and impact on
Malaysian behaviour virtually and directly. The result for #BenderaPutih campaign is seen. From
the graph, it can be seen that there were only 10.3% participants who did not take any action,
31% participants answered that have reshared and repost the message of the campaign, 34.5%
have invited others to raise awareness, 19% of the participants were physically involved in the
campaign whereas 5.2% shared their own ideas about the campaign. For this particular
campaign, it can be hypothesised that the social media propaganda is effective in impacting
participants’ virtual as well as direct behaviour since 89.7% of participants responses indicates
that there is a relationship between the campaign and their virtual as well as direct behaviour.
This is furthered justified with the result of the question,
Have you ever taken steps or actions after seeing the social media propaganda?

Problem and Research Design

From the findings it can be said that Malaysian do acknowledge the presence of social
media propagandas. Some of the opinions stated in the survey were in relation to information
manipulation which was noted in the problem statement. Some of the samples are:

Answers Explanation

It can be misleading Misinformation

Bad influence & people easily get trusted Bridge of Trust

Manipulate public opinion Information manipulation

To create fear more than to inform Information misconduct

Information of Participants

The section of the survey for participants’ personal information should be in different
format rather than using short answers as a method since it creates random response from
participants and was a challenge to categorise. Otherwise, there should be more questions in
regard to participants’ opinion and perception on specific campaigns for clearer data analysis.
 Prior Knowledge

The research has failed to take into account the prior knowledge of participants
regarding the campaigns in the samples. However, it did not affect the research objective.

Report Data

Refer Appendices

Conclusion

In conclusion, the findings are to answer the following research questions and objectives.

Research Questions:
1. What is the perception of Malaysian public towards the usage of visual rhetoric in the
transformational approach of social media propaganda?
2. What was the impact and response evoked in the audience in relation to visual rhetoric
on the persuasive function of social media propaganda?
3. What is the effect on audience behaviour from the visual rhetoric of social media
propaganda?

Research Objectives:

Objective 1
To investigate the perception of Malaysians on the visual rhetoric as a transformational
approach in social media propagandas.

Objective 2
To understand the impact and responses of Malaysians in relation to visual rhetoric on the
persuasive function of social media propagandas.

Objective 3
To correlate the visual rhetoric in social media propagandas on Malaysians’ behaviour on social
media.
Chapter Summary

This chapter discusses the findings of the research which relates to answering the
problem statements, the research questions as well as achieving research objectives.

Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion

Introduction

In seeing the overall of the research, the research questions were answered. This
section will provide explanations on the relation between the research questions and the result
of the survey. The chapter would also discuss the implication and recommendation of the study.

Research Overview

For research overview, the design is in terms of finding out the connection between the
usage of rhetoric visuals in social media propagandas. Not only that, it also covers the issue of
the impact of visual rhetoric and the social media propagandas itself on audience perception
and behaviour. The perception of the participants were divided into their perception of the visual
rhetoric used in social media propaganda and the emotion evoked by the usage of visual
rhetoric of social media propaganda. Lastly, the research also discusses the issue of the effect
of social media propagandas on participants’ behaviour, both virtual and direct behaviour.

Discussion

What is the perception of Malaysian public towards the usage of visual rhetoric in
the transformational approach of social media propaganda?

From participants’ opinions and response, the overall perception was there was a
connection between Call-to-Action messages and the participants’ response to the social media
propaganda. The result for the image with Call to Action message is higher than images that do
not contain the message. This correlates with the issues discussed in the significance of the
study. Other than that, more participants were heavily affected in terms of the #BenderaPutih
campaign rather than the #BenderaHitam campaign. Yet, both campaigns were acknowledged
by participants. Themes that are favoured by participants did not have a hypothesis.

What was the impact and response evoked in the audience in relation to visual
rhetoric on the persuasive function of social media propaganda?

From the survey conducted, the results showed that rhetoric visuals does have an
impact on audience emotion. It was also found out that established campaigns still have an
impact on participants’ emotion even without context, explanation or call to action messages in
the social media propagandas. This justifies the effectiveness of visual rhetoric in the
transformational approach of social media propaganda. Another findings that should be looked
on is the difference between the response of participants towards the #BenderaHitam and
#BenderaPutih campaigns as more participants were more affected by the latter. This could be
because of the underlying theme and goal of the campaign which is community, social unity and
humanitarian. To conclude, visual rhetoric in social media propagandas does evoke emotions
among the participants, especially in terms of themes that relate to humanity and social justice.

What is the effect on audience behaviour from the visual rhetoric of social media
propaganda?

In terms of answering this question, there were two types of behaviour that was
investigated. The participants’ virtual behaviour which is how they behave on social media sites
as well as the direct behaviour which is the behaviour of the participants outside of social media,
in other words their physical behaviour. It was found out that both #BenderaHitam and
#BenderaPutih campaigns have managed to impact the participants’ virtual behaviour such as
resharing or reposting the messages, inviting others to raise awareness and sharing about their
own ideas in relation to the campaigns. There was also a difference between their direct
behaviour about the campaigns, more participants were impacted by the #BenderaPutih
campaign which means that they were physically involved in the campaigns and not just online.

Implication of Study

Social media movements

 From the research, it can be seen that there is an increasing number of social media
movements, both globally and in Malaysia. Most of the social media movements are social
justice movements, awareness campaigns and political issues. This can be seen as the ripple
effect of having social media as the main medium of communications. In easier terms, the more
people are in an environment, there will also be an increased number of individuals,
organisations and companies to make use of the situation in order to spread their influence,
ideology and agendas. In this case, by using propagandas as their strategy. Not only that, given
the minute lapse of time for them to get the audience's attention, visual rhetoric can be seen as
an effective strategy to amplify the influence and emotional response it has on the audience.

Rhetoric Visuals in Social Media Propagandas

There were different framing, design and themes that were used by different
individuals,organisations and companies in the usage of visual rhetorics in their social media
propagandas. As previously stated, Israel and Palestine have different themes in the way they
share their messages on Twitter. Israel focused on militaristic imagery whereas Palestine shared
the impacts of war on civilians. The themes were to evoke certain types of emotions in the
audience, in this case being contradictory to each other. Just the same as the difference
between British and Japan sharing their propagandas during World War II. However, this
research did not go in depth about the issue in terms of Malaysian social media propagandas.
Next, the Call to Action method was also described in the #BlackLivesMatter. This was echoed
in the findings of the different types of design of the #BenderaHitam and #BenderaPutih
campaign posters. The ones with the Call to Action messages on the images had higher
response on emotional impact compared to the ones that do not have the message.

Recommendation

Future studies could explore more on the impact of positive and negative prospects of
propagandas on audiences. This is because there is a difference in the response of participants
in terms of the theme of the social media propagandas. Specifically, #BenderaHitam being an
anti-government behaviour whereas #BenderaPutih being a platform to help people. Other
issues that should be looked into is the design and framing of the visual rhetorics in effective
social media propagandas. Last but not least, there should be a study on information
manipulation and social media propagandas in the Malaysian context to regulate the issue.
Chapter Summary

This chapter focuses on concluding the research and explaining the previous research
findings. Not only that, it also discusses future studies and areas implicated by the issue of this
research. The overall research and research design is also discussed in this chapter.
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