Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia Vol. 18, No. 2: 68-89
DOI: 10.17477/jcea.2019.18.2.068
Harmful Disinformation in Southeast Asia: “Negative Campaigning”, “Information
Operations” and “Racist Propaganda” – Three Forms of Manipulative Political
Communication in Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand
Melanie Radue 1
When comparing media freedom in Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand, so-called “fake news”
appears as threats to a deliberative (online) public sphere in these three diverse contexts. However,
“racist propaganda”, “information operations” and “negative campaigning” might be more
accurate terms that explain these forms of systematic manipulative political communication. The
three cases show forms of disinformation in under-researched contexts and thereby expand the
often Western focused discourses on hate speech and fake news. Additionally, the analysis shows
that harmful disinformation disseminated online originates from differing contextual trajectories
and is not an “online phenomenon”.
Drawing on an analysis of connotative context factors, this explorative comparative study enables
an understanding of different forms of harmful disinformation in Malaysia, Myanmar, and
Thailand. The connotative context factors were inductively inferred from 32 expert interviews
providing explanations for the formation of political communication (control) mechanisms.
Keywords: disinformation, hate speech, qualitative comparative contextualization, media freedom,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand
1 Ph.D., Research Assistant, Department of Mass Communication, Friedrich-Alexander-University ErlangenNuremberg
©2019
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