Siri Wacana KITA Bil. 3/2021: Exploring and understanding Internet bubbles and how they deepen ethnic divides in Malaysia through digital ethnography

The advent of the Internet brought about the promise of a borderless world, free from the trappings and inequalities of the physical world. This did not come to pass as offline structures are replicated in online spaces. Social media brought with it AI-driven algorithms and filter bubbles that further entrench people’s echo chambers. Even as big data appears to be a natural response to analyze these digital frontiers, a more humanistic approach is needed to dissect how people can be misled by algorithms and cultivate warped worldviews. Digital ethnography is the ideal approach where the researcher immerses themselves into these online spaces, to understand the inherent contexts, biases, coded language and behavioural ticks that emerge. Akin to traditional anthropology, the researcher has to exercise self-reflexivity to maintain objectivity, understand alternative perspectives, and to avoid creeping biases. In Malaysia’s fractured online spaces where online discourses are divided by race and language, digital ethnography is an important tool to understand how racial divides extend into the online space, are allowed to fester through troll interference and can entrench and deepen racialized thought. Dr Benjamin Loh will share his experience in studying these online spaces and how they are used as a convenient shadow of “public opinion”.

ATUR CARA TENTATIF

10.00am: Kata-kata aluan oleh Pemudahcara – Dr. Adil Johan (Research Fellow, KITA)
10.15am: Perkongsian oleh pembentang Dr. Benjamin YH Loh (Taylor’s University)
11.00am: Sesi soal-jawab
11.50am: Kata-kata penutup
 

PROFIL PEMBENTANG

DR BENJAMIN YH LOH is a media scholar that employs digital ethnography to study online communities and the digital public sphere in Malaysia and the region. He focuses much of his work on the confluence between technology and society, with a particular focus on minority and marginalized communities. He is the co-editor of “Sabah from the Ground: The 2020 Elections and the Politics of Survival” (SIRD/ISEAS, 2021) and publishes Op-Eds with Malaysiakini, SCMP and Nikkei Asia Review. He is currently a senior lecturer at the School of Media and Communication at Taylor’s University and an Associate with the Asia Centre.

E-mel: benjaminyewhoong.loh@taylors.edu.my

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