Dr Maria Brown and Dr Vincent Marmarà published findings of a study that investigated links between the Maltese electorate's consumption of various media channels and their voting behaviour and political views.
Findings of this study are now published as part of a research paper titled “‘Media-Ted’ Electoral Campaigns: Europeanisation and Postcolonial Dynamics of Voters’ Use of Media Platforms in Malta” and included in the special issue of the peer-reviewed journal “Postcolonial Directions in Education”, (Vol. 11, Issue 1). This special issue of the journal is informed by outcomes of the broader COST Action RECAST CA16211.
Research involved a quantitative study of media platforms followed by voters in Malta to source news in the run-up to the 2017 general elections and the 2019 elections of members of the European Parliament (MEP) and the local councils (LC).
The study also investigated voters’ engagement with aspects of national politics in 2021, a few months before a yet-to-be announced general election.
These aspects included the value voters attribute to Maltese politics; their consideration of party position when forming opinions; and their past and prospective voting trends.
The main findings of this study are:
- Use of television prevailed (76.0% in 2017, 62.5% in 2019) - particularly among older, female and less educated cohorts;
- Use of online sources prevailed, with statistically significant evidence, among younger and more educated cohorts;
- Younger cohorts prevailed among those considering voting for a different political party (50.3% among those aged 16-25, 42.0% among those aged 26-35);
- Older cohorts prevailed among the 83% who reported always voting for the same party.
- The identified trends are rooted in Malta’s long-standing partisan duopoly;
- There is evidence of increasing critical engagement with partisan politics, but also of extremist partisan engagement associated with (potential) radicalisation;
- The findings flag risks of polarisation and radicalisation, particularly in the light of research on echo chamber collaterals associated with relying (solely or uncritically) on social media to source news. More so, when considering social media users' attention and content consumption is a purchasable commodity that works via sophisticated, increasingly indiscernible (for some more than others), algorithm-based dynamics.
- Development of tools that quality assure the validity of published news across various media channels that are sensitive to the specific historical and cultural context;
- Increased investment in research, policy and practices targeting lifelong media literacy and citizenship education to counter uncritical consumption of sensationalised or fake news and radicalising agendas.
Those who wish to read further into the study can do so by accessing the peer-reviewed journal online.