Cambodian youth and political engagement via social media

Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto A Research Project Cambodian Youth and Political Engagement via Social Media By Kim Oan UNG “This Dissertation is submitted in part of requirement for the Degree of M.A.” M.A. in Multimedia Specialist in Culture and Arts Supervisor: Helena Lima 27th July 2014 © Kim Oan UNG, 2014 Research Project Approval Cambodian Youth and Political Engagement via Social Media By Kim Oan UNG Recommended for Acceptance in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of M.A. of Culture and Arts in Multimedia By The Oral examination committee: Chair: _____________________ _____________________ External Examiner: _____________________ _____________________ Supervisor: Helena Laura Dias de Lima (PhD) _____________________ 1 1. Abstract Social media in the new technology age enables individual to be a citizen journalist. The number of worldwide Social Network Sites (SNSs) users –including the developing country in Southeast Asia like Cambodia– is increasing significantly. What makes Facebook so attractive and effective is that a large number of people are able to share information, knowledge, opinions, ideas and experiences through this new platform with their family, friends and colleagues over the interesting topics in seconds globally. For political communication process, social media is a new mean for predication and democracy, which bring voice from the public to the government directly. Social media consists of internet forums, blog, wikis, podcast, Google Groups, online news, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter, podcast, webcast, and even the short messaging system (SMS). Political decision-makers and citizens could air their message to discuss and debate with each other through those means interactively with faster, cheaper potencies that could make a global reach. It is obvious that new media helps to eliminate barriers to free flow of information in this new technology age among users worldwide and Cambodia is no exception to this trend. 2 Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my family, friends and professors who always give me encouragement, supports, and motivation. 3 Acknowledgement I must give remarkable thanks to a number of people, without whom this dissertation might not have been completed, and to whom I am truly grateful. I would like to acknowledge and thank my school division for approving my thesis topic and allowing me to conduct this research study with great support. I would also like to express my profound thanks to my supervisor Dr. Helena Laura Dias de Lima who has spent her priceless time to guide, read and assist me throughout the process of my research. I am grateful to my family; especially, my beloved parents, Ong Ung and Yi Sor, who always encourage and stay by my side mentally from Cambodia. My brother, BunY Ung, who has never left me in any difficulties and always taught me that things are hard but can be accomplished by never giving up and keeping doing my best. My sister, Meng Yean Ung, who always gives me alert, ―You will make it.‖ I wish to thank Mr. Sopheaktra Kim, who always reminds me to accomplish my thesis over half a year. He has been a source of encouragement and inspiration; and a special thanks to him for guiding and teaching me some computer skills throughout the entire process. He is very special motivator. I am also indebted to some friends including Rui Almeida, Socheath Heng, Rosa Hout, Sovannaroith Ouk and S. Nara Chân, who have supported and been there for me every time I feel down. They always cheer me up and refresh my feeling of courage to fulfill my writing. Moreover, I would like to give my sincere thanks to another friend of mine, Marie Ros, who spent out of her very busy time to help proofreading. I also wish to acknowledge and to thank those 26 participants who volunteered to be my interviewees. They have spent their countless and precious time to contribute to this thesis. Finally, I must thank my colleagues and librarians staff of University of Porto who assisted and provided the documents relevant to my research and writing process. A special thanks to the members of staff of the department of Multi-Media for their updated news and supports. Kim Oan UNG 4 Table of Contents: Page 1. Abstract .................................................................................................................... 1 Dedication ................................................................................................................ 2 Acknowledgement .................................................................................................... 3 Abbreviation ............................................................................................................. 6 2. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 7 2.1 Mobile Technology Enhances Youth Political Participation ............................ 8 2.2 Social Media, Social Network and Mobile Internet.......................................... 9 2.3 New Media‘s Popularity and Increased Internet Access .................................. 10 3. Research Question and Hypothesis ............................................................................ 11 4. Bibliographic Review ................................................................................................. 12 4.1 Motivation Associated With the Use of Facebook ........................................... 12 4.2 Youth and Political Participation ...................................................................... 13 4.3 Traditional Media vs New Media ..................................................................... 15 4.3.1 Cambodian Press and Situation ................................................................. 16 4.3.2 Transformation Nowadays with Technology............................................. 18 4.4 Social Media Networking and Political Engagement ....................................... 19 4.4.1 Facebook and Youth Political Participation ............................................. 21 4.4.2 Political Actors Use Online Campaign to Nominate Voter ...................... 23 4.5 Facebook has impact on Cambodian Politics .................................................. 27 5. Research Methodology ............................................................................................... 28 5.1. Sample ............................................................................................................ 28 5.2 Procedures ....................................................................................................... 28 6. Findings and Discussion ............................................................................................. 29 6.1 Facebook User and Their Motivation .............................................................. 29 5 6.2 Facebook Enables Youth to Use For Free Expression .................................... 30 6.2.1 Facebook Use for Informational Motivation ........................................... 32 6.3 Youth and Their Facebook Use in Political Context ....................................... 34 6.3.1 External Factor Use via Facebook for Political Participation .................. 35 6.3.2 Internal Factor Use via Facebook for Political Participation ................... 36 6.4 Facebook‘s Growing Influence on Cambodian Politics .................................. 38 6.4.1 Mindset Change Leads Change to Political Result .................................. 39 6.4.2 Opposition Party Use Facebook to Attract Voters ................................... 40 6.4.3 Voter Choice & Election Result Effect via Facebook Campaign ............ 42 7. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 45 References ...................................................................................................................... 49 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................ 54 Appendix A ........................................................................................................... 54 Appendix B ............................................................................................................ 56 Appendix C ............................................................................................................ 57 6 Abbreviations: 1. CCHR Cambodian Center for Human Right 2. CNRP The Cambodian National Rescue Party 3. COMFREL The Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia 4. CPP Cambodian People‘s Party 5. EU European Union 6. ICTs Information and Communication Technologies 7. ITU International Telecommunication Union 8. MPT The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication 9. NEC Cambodia‘s National Election Committee 10. RFI Radio Free Asia 11. SMS Short messaging system 12. SNSs Social network sites 13. UDHR Universal Declaration on Human Rights 14. UNDP United Nations Development Programme 15. VOA Voice of America 16. VOD The Voice of Democracy 13 The study predicted that youth used Facebook.com because they want to (1) Self-expression, (2) Media Drenching and Performance (as they check if photo/video albums update regularly ; and for the expectation from the people who liked adding new photos, (3) Passing Time, (4) Information Seeking,(5) Personal Status, (6) Relation Maintenance, and (7) Entertainment. The result revealed that 4 predictions of the study went opposite to the literature review and only (6) Relation Maintenance, and (7) Entertainment are the main purpose of the use of Facebook (Dogruer and Eyyam 2011). T. Macafee also explored the use of Social media networking for Political engagement and site Facebook continued to be a place for individuals, especially the young ones, to engage politically. Social media users‘ motivations for using these sites were related around society, information, entertainment, and self-presentation. In addition, the study suggested that ―The motivations and relationships between information seeking and political attitudes and behavior may be different and may illustrate a different ‗‗type‘‘ of political Facebook user‖ (Macafee 2013). In connection with this, a recent 2013-study by Pi, Chou, and Liao (2013) also raised the purpose of knowledge sharing as it is an open environment that people could use to express their opinions as well share their knowledge widely all over the world. 4.2 Youth and Political Participation The political participation of youth is a field of study that has gained its popularity in the Social Sciences. The subject is better informed when one takes an interdisciplinary approach to the matter, such as the fields of sociology, psychology, cultural studies and mass communications (Vadrevu and Ramli 2012). The number of youth in Cambodia is more than one-third of the whole population. Youth is the main force who can build strong national movement. They are the future nation builders and their participation in politics is very essential for the process of country development. Moreover, they are considered the main social force that sparked the revolution and bring change in the society. Based on a study by Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Singapore in 2012, one can participate by being active in political parties or in events organized by political parties. Moreover, it stated that political participation must be seen in a broader manner. Citizens have various spaces to participate in the age of advanced technology, increased civil awareness and 14 the blurring of public-private boundaries. The study also indicates that ―Both Malaysian and Indonesian youth do show concerns for the political development in their respective country. Both indicate that a strong democratic system does require the existence of a good opposition; however, the level of political participation in both countries is rather limited. An area of concern is the fact that both Malaysian and Indonesian youth are willing to have Hudud Law implemented in the country‖ (Vadrevu and Ramli 2012). ―Young people move more directly into action, or participate in political and policy processes or in social movements (whether at a local, regional or global level) a broader set of change theories can impinge, which have implications for the kind of strategies and skills necessary to advance progressive change,‖ according to the report by Eoin Collins and Heléne Clark in 2013. The report also defined the theory of change that could maintain youth to create positive, equitable and sustainable change by their participation in politics, community or society together with leadership skill to work at local or global levels (Collins and Clark 2013). Figure2: A theory of change underpinning a number of strategic approaches in this respect is that developed by TakingITGlobal, an organization that focuses on facilitating global education, social entrepreneurship and civic engagement for young people worldwide (Collins and Clark 2013). It is perceived that youth in Cambodia are more actively participate in the politics. For instance, during the National election on July 28, 2013, there are approximately 3.5 million out of 9.5 million voters who registered that are between the ages of 18 and 30, this is according to the National Election Committee. The statistics surely shows the participation of Cambodian youth during the election (Cambodia‘s National Election Committee 2013). 15 According to Voice of America (VOA) in 2013, youth integrate themselves more in political engagement as the election approached, ―in the past few months, an unprecedented number of Cambodians under the age of 30 have begun participating in the political process, holding rallies, volunteering and posting on social media during election campaign‖. This could lead to positive social change in the country (Khoun 2014). A month before Cambodia's general election, Cambodian government announced a directive banning local radio stations from airing foreign programmes, including RFI and VOA's Khmer-language services, during the campaign and the election period. So this forced the public back stronger into social network, Facebook, to get access to information they wanted about the political activities of the political parties. It is said that both social media and internet is the main movement to change the dynamics of the election politics worldwide and Cambodian is one of those countries with youth engagement (Soeung 2013). Young Cambodians are actively participating and show their courage for this purpose of changing the better society. Internet as well as the introduction of social media, users clearly have greater chance to show their ideas and concerns related to politics for electoral campaign involvement. Facebook and other new media applications widely used by young people have been realized as a potential vehicle to re-engage youth in political debate. Technology and networks offer them the ability to communicate straight with candidates and partiesfrom contributing to party and making comments in blogs to posting article about politics on websites (Oates 2008). According to Cambodia Communication reviews (2011), young people in Cambodia have access to new media and they really need it in everyday life. The report also revealed that like it or not, people who use new media especially young people are changing both the way they think and behave toward what they see in real society like romance, education, work, belief, identity. Moreover, people access the internet to read news online because it easier for them in so many ways and to catch with the new trend (PEOU 2011). 4.3 Traditional Media vs New Media Traditional or old media refers to means of communication and expression that have existed since before the arrival of the Internet. These traditional media includes television, radio, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and other print publications. Social or new media 16 are the terms used to describe the new generation of digital, computerized, or networked information and communication technologies. These can take many different forms, including internet forums, blog, wikis, podcast-, picture-, musicand video sharing. Google Groups, online news, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter, podcast, webcast, and even the short messaging system (SMS), are all new media. Social media has derived from day to day a very common and proficient way of getting informed (Mangold and Faulds 2009). New media in this recently developed age enables an immediate, informative, intelligent, interactive platform for discussion and debate. With the presence of the new platform, everybody is allowed to become a citizen journalist at free of cost with global reach that they could not get this kind of great offer from the old media. It allows people to participate in events and interact with communities over long distance and that is the reason why it is considered a crucial role in connecting people all over the world. It has the potential to reach individuals widely and at unbelievable speed (PEOU 2011). The emergence of this new media attracted the younger generation by its laidback means of getting information with internet-based technology accessed, smart/hand phones, tablet, ipad or computer which provides them information of their choices at anytime, anywhere while traditional media such as newspaper, magazine, radio and television bring the outside world into audience‘s home with set schedule which is more limited. They need to wait to read news or watch any broadcasting program they want to. Whereas, with new media, they could re-read or watch anything they want at any time as long as it is availed. This has taken traditional media to a challenge and it is changing the participation habits of the users (Qi 2011). 4.3.1 Cambodian Press and Situation The situation of Cambodian press has improved and there is still restriction, selfcensorship and harassments. Most of broadcast and print media in the country is affiliated with political actors. News or information on old media platform including newspaper, radio, and television are mostly protocol, without balance and has trend to pro the government. More notably, it is generally known that Cambodian media mostly owned by state/government, individuals who has a good relationship with the government and a joint by private company with those who allied with politician (UNG 2011). 17 There is an obvious example that the run government used its power to ban local radio stations from airing international broadcaster in Khmer language including the RFI and VOA during the campaign period just one month before the election date on July 28, 2013 (Licadho 2014). This is just a short ban but it affected to people as they are likely to trust news in programs broadcasted by these western broadcaster more than the local ones that controlled by the government. As a result, people has used Facebook as the main source of news and air their voice and criticism then (Soeung 2013). All the Khmer-language newspapers are in full controlled and all their publication are for the sake of the ruling party and politician not for the public. That reflected the media situation press is still limited and the freedom of expression is a concern because it is different from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) which stated that ―Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the right to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers‖ (Eldis 2005). Based on a book published by Institute of Asian Studies in Singapore articulated that during the national assembly in 1988, TV and radio-- considered as the main platform of news and information source—covers on the state-run party CPP up to 446 times while featured other parties only 27 times of the first two-week of July. CPP use its power to control media and even dominate the National Election Committee, according to UN report (Heng 2002). Recently, 02 May 2014, a reporter from The Voice of Democracy (VOD) was beaten by a group of 10 Daun Penh district security guards in Phnom Penh Capital City while he was covering news and taking photograph about the election march near Freedom Park. He was seriously injured included a broken cheekbone and was sent to get treatment at Bangkok‘s Bumrungrad Hospital that cost him $ 15,000 for the complicated and expensive surgery. Though VOD filed a complaint over this attack against the Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong and the two Daun Penh district officials, up to now there is no solutions from those officers still (ODOM 2014). However, the arrival of new media with more widely internet accessed together with smartphone, tablet, ipad make people‘s usage broader and more interactive between people. Cambodians are more likely to use social media networking; especially, Facebook as a crucial and free place to inform, educate, and be influential among themselves. Individuals see Facebook as an independent media that they could access to various kinds of news, videos, 18 pictures and other messages. This new emergence of social media mean has helped boosting citizen engagement into the political predication as they could directly communicate and send their messages to the political actors in the country as Facebook acts like a bridge (PEOU 2011). As a result, it is no wonder to say that freedom of press through new media is faster and easier compare to the traditional media. Number of people using social networking site Facebook keep gaining and it is a trend which caused concern to old media such as television and radio. Many local and international media agencies created their own pages on social network, Facebook, so people do not need to go to the original programs or websites. It means that they could access to various websites or pages of other institutions through Facebook. 4.3.2 Transformation Nowadays with Technology There is a study by Shobha Vadrevu in 2012 indicated that in the future political parties and civil societies must engage youth into political participation. ―First, internet allows for the advancement of democratic values such as openness, consent and accountability. Second, it helps to build citizenship skills by providing youth with political information leading toward better political problem solving. Third, the internet can lead toward political mobilization–as examples in both the Korean and Japanese elections. Finally, it can help to force a more liberal or progressive politics.‖ This study indicates that ICTs offer a space for the development of a participatory culture in politics (Vadrevu and Hofmeister 2012). In addition to the study on ―Youth, Politics and Social Media in Southeast Asia: Trends, Events and Implications‖ by Vadrevu and Lim (2012) also revealed that in Southeast Asian, Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia there are higher internet penetration rates. Though Cambodian has lower rate compare to other countries in the region but the increase of internet usage is highly. In 2012, the internet usage increased around 60 percent, which raised up from 1.7 million users to 2.7 million with 742,220 Facebook subscribers (Internet World Stats 2012). The statistic points out a sign of the relationship between politics and social media such as Facebook as a mobilizing force and a tool for political engagement. 19 Figure 3: Internet and Facebook penetration in Southeast Asia as at 2011 done by Internet World Stats In the study by ITU in 2013, Brahima Sanou Director Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) ITU stated that young people are the most active users of ICTs compare to others in the world. He also added that ―Over 250 million people came online over the last year, and almost 40 per cent of the world‘s population will be using internet by end of 2013. Mobile technology and services continue to be the key driver of the information society, and the number of mobile broadband subscriptions is close to 2 billion. Mobile-broadband network allows more people to connect to high speed networks and benefit from a growing number of applications and services. While both fixedand mobile-broadband speeds continue to increase, the price of services is falling and ICTs are becoming more affordable: in the space of four years, fixed-broadband prices have dropped by an impressive 82 per cent‖ (Susan Teltscher and Esperanza Magpantay 2013). Likewise, according to the Cambodia Center for Independent Media, one of the popular websites which could read until 10,000 visitors per day in Cambodia (VOD: www.vodhotnews.com), articulated that youth show their engagement in politics and spend time reading online news every day via smart phone. It means that in Cambodia youth is also the most active users of ICTs and one main reason that pushed this movement is the fact that internet is easy to access in the country together with affordable tools such as smart-phone, laptop, and tablet (Voice of Democracy). 4.4 Social Media Networking and Political Engagement There is a strong increase number of social media users and it keeps on growing. J. 20 Brenner and A. Smith reported that by May 2013, the number of online U.S. adults who use social networking sites increased up from 67% in the late 2012 to almost three quarters and equal to 72%, while there was only 8% of online adult used social media platforms in February 2005. The number of online adult using Facebook is more than Twitter‘s, though the number is growing. There is 18% of user as of May 2013, which increased more than twice from 8% of online adults used Twitter in November 2010 though it was just a stand-alone platform in February 2005 (Brenner and Smith 2013). Social media is seen as social interaction through technology, it consist of websites that everyone uses to communicate, where users interact by tagging websites and searching through websites bookmarked by other people; The social news websites, where user interact by voting for articles and commenting on them. The Social Networking Websites; where users interact by adding friends, commenting on profiles, joining groups and having discussions. This is based on the study of International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM) in 2011. This study points out that social media websites are potentially effective on revolution in Egypt in 2011 and Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are the most effective websites during the revolution (Chebib and Sohail 2011). Social media is a new paradigm for communications that is making surprising changes to the political and social landscape of the world. Social media has become a potential for Korea‘s government in making effective and transparency policy with a fast and low cost way to disseminate policy information, attain public feedback and communicate with citizens. Moreover, it offers stronger connectivity between users as it is easier to share information faster to a lot of audiences while it is seen that people in Korea can express their sight to politicians and others on networks such as Facebook and Twitter (PARK, CHOI, and PARK 2011). It is not different; Facebook and Twitter have become the main social network platforms of social and political forces in South Africa with the emergence of mobilization. With mobile technology and social networks, youth political participation is by engaging them through various mediums of interaction and more importantly, present decision makers must be cognizant of the fact that youth today have greater aspirations than their parents, more information that can be factored into their own decision making process. They find their voices, and use their voices through the internet (Hyde-Clarke 2012). 21 Based on a research study by PEOU (2010), Cambodian students have rapid growth to internet access in the country and the purpose of using the internet is information seeking. There are three groups among internet users. First of all, ―Comfort‖ indicates the group that feel comfortable in using internet without any worries or nervous mood. Second, ―Optimism‖ refers to those who have positive ideas about the internet on themselves, other people and society. Last, ―Enthusiasm‖ specifies those who are excited in using internet and want to challenge themselves in order to learn more about the development of the internet. So it is truly worth studying a new trend that happens to youth interactive engagement in politic through social networking sites in the developing country like Cambodia since up to now most of the traditional media including newspaper/magazine, radio and television are owned and controlled by the government (CARLSON 2014). 4.4.1 Facebook and Youth Political Participation Among hundreds of social network sites, millions of users daily access and update their pages. It is a great change that people turn to spend more time for online and mostly with one of the most popular social network site, Facebook.com. Socialization is the key point, which is dragged the users to enter on the social site. Creating an account, adding friends, accepting friends, commenting on friends‘ page, chatting, and updating status are the initiative concepts to keep and maintain the relationship in social network. Facebook is a popular social media website which was launched in February 2004, exclusively for Harvard student and the interaction between users started from adding friends or following, or sending request. These will encourage the users to communicate amongst themselves in social network. In social network, users select many topics to discuss which depends on the favor of users (Facebook 2014). Facebook site is created to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. It enables users to create individual profile or personal page which allow them to communicate among each other with global reach. They enable people to post updates about what is on their mind or what they are doing and also keeping track of the activities of their friends and family. In general, the interactive communication between users via SNS is processed through variety of tools including chatting, sending private message (Grabowicz 2014). People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what‘s going on around them and all over the world. Registered by 829 million daily active users on average in June 2014 and there is approximately 81.7% of our daily active users are outside the U.S. and Canada though it is originally from U.S (Facebook 2014). 22 So far there is also an article saying that people couldn‘t even live without Facebook for 10 reasons as it has a big influence on their lives (Team 2014): (1) When you approve of something, even offline, you have a strange compulsion to click an invisible 'Like' button. (2) You get the news on Facebook. (3) You plan for or get invited to events through Facebook. (4) You message people on Facebook instead of texting, emailing, or calling them. (5) You rely on Facebook to communicate with distant family and old friends. (6) You aren't really friends with someone until you've added them on Facebook. (7) When something important happens to you, sharing it on Facebook is automatic. (8) When applying for a job, it matters what your public Facebook timeline looks like. (9) When your romantic relationship changes, it needs to be changed on Facebook, too. (10) Abstaining from Facebook makes you feel deprived and in the dark. A study covers on the U.S. presidential election in 2008 found out that the young undergraduate students in the Midwestern United States tend to participate much in politics on Facebook. Furthermore, it was notably exploded even the way they think of political activity, as well as their political engagement on Facebook and witness in the site. During the election, ― social network sites such as Facebook allowed users to share their political beliefs, support specific candidates, and interact with others on political issues‖ (Vitak et al. 2011). Facebook site is one of the most popular social media means that enhance a great interactive communication truly worldwide. This platform is also a strong tool to enhance direct communication between the public and political actors (Newton 2006). Facebook is the most popular social networking site among users in Cambodia though Cambodia has just connected to internet in 1997, social media has exploded its popularity so fast during these past few years. Moreover, we can see that during and after the parliamentary election in Cambodia in July 28, 2013 the movement of youth on the political topic on social network, Facebook, is in blast. According to a report by Cambodian Center for Human Right (CCHR) stated that Facebook is most popular platform of social media compare to other platforms and it has 508,820 users in Cambodia but this statistic does not show the actual number because some users have many profiles. Also, some groups, organizations, companies and also have their own profile and sometimes more than one on Facebook account or page. The report also indicates that there are three main purposes of using Facebook; it is for fun, socializing and making new friend but some institution also take advantage of Facebook to share and spread information about their work (Cambodian Center for Human Rights 2012). 29 interviewed by Skype and Facebook through both voice and video call and 16 of them are living in Cambodia and the other four are students, studying abroad included France, Spain, and Thailand. During the time of the data collection, this network consisted of author‘s former and current classmates, acquaintances, professionals at both private and public sectors and at NGOs. The interviews were fully conducted in April, May and July 2014 and it based on an interview guide focusing on their Facebook use and online behavior, main purpose of use, and their concepts on political change affected by social networking site Facebook and other follow up question that is importantly related to the research study. This also figures out the impact of new media toward Cambodian citizen and political environment in the country whether it is a good or bad trend in the country. Moreover, it is done to see how Facebook more are likely to be used by most youth who is more active, brave and understand more about new technology and new media use for political communication process. New media is consider as a two-way and even many-may way communication, it enables individuals to share knowledge, experiences, opinions and ideas among each other. In political purpose, it also could improve the participation and democracy towards the citizen, and sometimes it can be an enabler for the main political debate or battle field. Each interview took about one hour and 45 minutes and all recorded with the interviewee‘s permission and then complied for analysis. 6. Finding and Discussion 6.1 Facebook User and Their Motivation According to the analysis on motivation of Facebook users in Cambodia, there are four main reasons behinds and those are: Seeking information (Macafee 2013), socializing and friendship maintaining (Dogruer and Eyyam 2011), seeking entertainment (Dogruer and Eyyam 2011) and studying purpose (Pi, Chou, and Liao 2013). 1. Seeking information: getting access to all kind of news both national and international new. ―Keep up with news‖ via SNS is a positive and significant of political participatory behaviors under democracy mean in the country as individuals couldn‘t find balance and truth stories via old media in the country as news published in traditional media is bias and affiliated with the government. One more thing, social media use for informational purpose is to keep themselves informed by accessing to 30 know what is happening in the country and also all around the world as new media is an interactive and intelligent platform which provides a faster news and information. 2. Socializing and friendship: keeping in touch and track with friends. They keep updating what are their friends doing and finding both old and new friends. Moreover, communication through Facebook is more interactive and it is for both work and fun. 3. Entertainment: telling friends with is on their mind, posting photos, sharing news or video in the purpose of getting mutual comment or debating, and chatting for fun. The answer from all the despondences indicated that there are two types of engagement that youth use to participate in politics. 4. Study purpose: keep updating assignments and discuss things among the study group on Facebook and learning other thing including new technology, economic and looking for scholarship programs. 6.2 Facebook Enables Youth to Use For Free Expression Freedom of expression in Cambodia has not improved a lot, most of the media outlets are affiliated with the ruling political party CPP in the country which is known by the majority. Most of the covered news is all about government and its achievement. It is seen that even the peaceful protests and feature related to the any oppositions to the government could never been seen and watched publicly (CARLSON 2014). Since most of media are censored and citizen could not access to all kinds of news together with balance and reliable information, the emergence of new media, making social networking platforms especially Facebook becomes a growth popular space for individuals to uncensored information. New media even has become a well-known platform for Cambodian youth to share, debate and discuss the political issue and other topic related to their concerns. Facebook is the most popular networking sites in political context comparing to other platforms such as --Twitter, YouTube, Myspace, Google+, Line, Viber and online blog -- and it is the most used by individuals in Cambodia because there are more people using it and it has friendly use that implies to the study by Vitak et al. (2011) social network that describes that Facebook allowed users to share their political beliefs, support specific candidates, and interact with others on political issues. One-third of the users interviewed said since the press freedom is not fully free in the country, they could only see social media site like Facebook as the a free and safe mean to air their voice over the long distance with a faster, interactive and cheap way. They criticism over rapid a tight grip on the country‘s media which considered as 31 an importance source made by the government. They have no fear to post, comment, or share any information/image/video related to politics as those content is balance. One more reason, the internet and social media has not been censored yet. The reason that so far the ruling party uncensored those means is may be like that the people in the rural areas truth could access widely only to those media (radio, television, newspaper) rather than the internet and new media because internet access that allow them to use social media is not provide enough in the country. As of the July election season, Khieu Kanharith, Cambodian Minister of Information said that Cambodian government does not have any plans to shut down Facebook, but it warned ―improper‖ content that people used to post and share a lot on this platform. However, recently there was a leak of a draft of cybercrime law which initially drafted silently behind closed doors, without the input of civil society in 2012. This showed the serious threats to freedoms by making certain speech and other actions online punishable by fine and prison time. 15% of the respondent in this study said if this cybercrime law is passed they would be more cautious with their political expression to avoid the defamation or any abuses any high ranking officials of the Cambodian ruling party and their alliances. This new Cambodian‘s drafted law would also be undermining the process of E-expression or Edemocracy. Regarding this matter, one of the users said Facebook is still a safe enabler to the people to raise their concerns and condemn the government freely as they could create fake account and their identity would not be discovered. (Facebook user 15) ―There is no a big deal or concern regarding the new cybercrime law, I still could use fake account to express my idea, opinion on Facebook so it is still a safe place for expression. No one would accuse me of any fine or detain me by the lawsuit if they do not know my real identity‖ (Facebook user 12). One more thing, people tend to use Facebook more than other social media platforms such as Twitter because it has friendly look, which provided users with a way to set up a personal page or profile to which they could post and updates on what they were doing with a longer words permitted together with other features (like, comment, tag, send, options, frictionless share), and enable users to tag people, time, location, file and emotion with privacy setting tool. It also allows them to keep track of the activities of friends, colleagues, politician and family. On the one hand, Cambodian users are more using Facebook than other platforms that made the uses interviewed back Facebook more. On the other hand, users can display and follow up everything through new-feeds that alert on their home pages including news/information, photos, videos, music. Moreover, Facebook, in 2001, has also other new 32 features ―subscribe‖ that provide individuals to ―Follow‖ other postings and they do not need to be friends with those people who belongs to those postings. Another new feature that was introduced in 2013 is embedded page, that make people could edit/fix posts that others made to their own page (Grabowicz 2014). 6.2.1 Facebook Use for Informational Motivation ―Facebook may be a better mean in terms of achieving a true public sphere than anything that has come before it. There is no other online community that connects members of real-world communities (geographic, ideological, or otherwise) in such an effective way‖ (Westling 2007) Almost of all the Facebook users said this social networking site has been a great platform for generating discussion and conversation among each other about news inform or any stories both social and entertainment news. They could be getting informed more widely over the long distance as news organizations have their own pages on social media through a fan page program on Facebook. When those news organizations published, uploaded or posted stories they would be receiving the new alert to important news articles. Fan page also enable to comment, like and share over news posted. Two of Facebook users in their study also shared their experiences that social network like Facebook is also help them a lot in their career as a journalist. They said beside keeping them informed and connecting with friends, Facebook, is a main source of mean that help them finding news angles to write for their news instigations. ―Many people are using Facebook. News on Facebook is fast compare to the traditional media. People can just post or upload any stories when they can access to internet. I sometimes get new idea to cover news from what posted by individuals around some interests or specific topics‖ (Facebook user 18). Using Facebook has become part of their everyday life. A total of all respondents used Facebook more than once a day and the majority them used site Facebook.com between one to three hours a day, while the majority used it around 10 to 15 minutes. Moreover, some of the participant interviewed used Facebook between 30 to 50 minutes per their each log in. Most of the participants used Facebook more than one between one to three hours a day because their work related to social media and it is the fact that internet access is widely received together with acceptable price and affordable tool like smart phone (Im 2013). Mostly they used this social networking site at home, workplace and internet café and used it more than once a day because it is easier to access to ICTs for the consumers as internet is increasing provided in the country together with affordable tools such as hand-phone, ipad, 33 laptop, and tablet. It means that wherever they are free and no matter of time they will use Facebook (Im 2013). Before the arrival and the growth popularity of social media platform Facebook, people checked their e-mail frequently but now users checked Facebook before e-mail and one-third of them even check Facebook first after they got up every morning before doing anything else. All of the users interviewed first introduced to Facebook by their friends and their first purpose to use this site is to communicate with friends and learn new technology that they have never known it before. Most of the participants stated using Facebook between 2008-2009 - when they started to enter universities in Phnom Penh capital city where internet is easy to access (Soeung 2013). The number of Facebook user keep increasing up to now (Cyberprotest: New Media, Citizens and Social Movements 2004). Mobile phone and other application such as ipad, tablet and laptop enable youth to use Facebook as those young people are attracted to the easy means of getting information with internet based admissions which provide them information of their choice anytime, anywhere. (Im (2013)) They need not have to wait for any broadcasting schedule to be connected to get the information. The modern revolution enables individual to become a journalist or people call ―citizen journalist.‖ Citizens are widely access to whatever information they want, apart from airing their views online via social media sites at little cost, faster speed, cheaper price with a long distant reach. Nothing like this has ever been possible before in the country that is the main reason that the push of Facebook weakening the grip of government-owned media, including newspaper, radio and television, which they have shown no more truth in those media outlet and feature a big criticism on the famous social platform that has been a massive growth of use and continue growing the number of usage and support. ―No one can hide the truth forever‖ and here with social media site Facebook we can find out everything. In Cambodia some secrets was successfully hidden before the presents of new media as most media outlets is tightly controlled by the government to hide its scandal from the public. Yet via uncensored platform Facebook, the government could no longer hide what it wants any more as there is boundary or limitation of user accessed. Everyone can find out social injustice, poor social security, and other unusual activities post updated and they could spread those information to other people, especially, among young interest group to determine the fact that has been happening in the country that couldn‘t be seen on television (Facebook User 15). 34 Almost all of respondents reveled that their lives would be difficult without Facebook as this site has become integrated into Cambodian Internet users‘ daily activities. They keep connecting with friends, family, and colleagues through Facebook as many of their networks are using Facebook. As of this digital age, they keep up with news through social media as it provides immediate information worldwide. ―My life will be very difficult without Facebook…using this new media is very effective compare to other means because it keep me up fast news publish by many media organizations, especially, over political issues that keep posting and updating by a joined Cambodian Facebook youth group which I follow to get new update regarding political context in the society‖ (Facebook user 7). Drawing from that matter above, one of the respondents in this research study answered that without Facebook; it feels like losing connection from the world especially political stories. She added that television feature only one-sided news that intends always to pro the ruling party so it could not compare to Facebook which provides news from many sides with an immediate way. ―If there is no Facebook I will not die but my life will be in difficulty interim communication and information access. It is a part of my life so I will be disconnecting from people that may make my life inconveniences. Individuals can be a citizen journalist via Facebook, there is citizen journalist more than professional journalist and there is more political news such as peaceful demonstration or gathering on this site‖ (Facebook user 5). 6.3 Youth and Their Facebook Use in Political Context Not every user is that much interested and courageous in political engagement and they attempt to take part in political context in different ways. There are two types of Facebook differentiation according to their aspects for political participation through welldeveloped social network Facebook: ―external‖ and ―internal‖ factor. More than half of users are in type of ―external‖ or ―visible‖ factor which they intended to use direct channel of communication via the most popular social network site Facebook by posting, chatting, sending private message, leaving public comments, linking to outside content and sharing photos and videos through individual profile or page of users (Cohen et al.). For instance, through sharing, disseminating, and exchanging personal ideas, social information and political issue to their friends, users can directly discuss and debate among each other over the long distance and immediate mean. The other type of factor according to the content is ―Internal or Invisible‖ factor followed by 9 users in the study. It refers to silent participation that individuals keep up with news about politics but they do not directly post, share, like or comment on political issue. They want to know about what matter in the society – analysis 35 news to know politician behavior– from many sources, they have read or seen through Facebook. 6.3.1 External Factor use via Facebook for Political Participation In the Internet age, social media is very attracted to young people due to its power of connecting people and allowing ones to share their ideas among larger interest group. Ones can use platforms like Facebook in the purpose of fun, education, connection and politics. One of the respondents who is well-known political blogger and is actively using Facebook for political content, revealed that Facebook used to use Twitter but turned to use Facebook because in Cambodia there is very few people are using Twitter and there is less than 10 actively user among nearly 100 ones. ―Cambodian citizen are using Facebook more, there is very less twitter users compare to Facebook users so if I do not use Facebook I will be isolated from other people. To me Facebook is not a source of news but is where to know about youth behaviors and trend of society, what matter to them that they like to talk and discuss among each other. 50% of Facebook user from what I know is young people (18-24 year-old),‖ said (Facebook user 1), by adding that ―I first used Facebook just to know new technology but later on more friends come to Facebook then start to use to keep connection with friends and to influence over story related to society and politics . ―Facebook is more interesting in using than reading books as it is a social network provider and it is hard to quit using this website. Many Cambodian people use this platform, especially, youth who are considered as potential game changer over the election so if this user Facebook as a mean to inform, it reaches more audiences.‖ He also said in the past people just read and talk to him when they met him face to face but dare not click ―like‖ and make any ―comments‖ on political information published on social network site Facebook so it means that they observed it. Later on, they start to like and comment on his posted news related to politics. Now there is a big change as they become more actively giving comments on the interest topics because of freedom through this platform.‖ Being able to voice and share their idea, opinion, information, and another Facebook user has moved toward for this purpose to use it more than communication. ―Facebook is a priority platform where people can communicate among each other, one can disseminate information. Facebook is not only a site that we use to comment and like on any posts, but we also could voice our concerns or contact celebrity and politician. I have strong interest in political issue and I mostly share and discuss over this topic with my friends. I spend much time on making comment and discussion among interest group to get new ideas 36 from others on social issue and political problem sometimes around 30 minute during each log in‖ (Facebook user 4). The explosion of Facebook users for political purpose has led to a great interest in the way people dare to post or comment on the interest issues. Young people became brave and active in expressing their political concept openly and widely, they are no more closed door to talk about politics like before (Facebook user 19). Users intends to use the advantage of social mean to take part mediated-communication – share or exchange both social and political contents among interest groups. One user in the study told that from his observation Cambodian people are more interested and brave to air their opinion over the post update on his page. ―When I post news stories related to politics on my page, many users give comment or click like. I noticed that 99% of them always criticize the government. From what I have observed, it is frankly that the many users dare to talk and share their interests or opinions over the social and political issues. Most users are likely to support opposition party than the government party‖ (Facebook user 16). ―I have shared a lot of social and political news including my own articles on platform Facebook to many of nearly of 5,000 friends so this is what I help other users to get informed and have a better analysis over the political landscape and trend in the country‖ (Facebook user 18). ―As a youth I am not afraid to share my idea over political issues. I dare to comment and share my ideas over political information that I think it is not right. We, youth has right to express our idea over politics and it is not a matter if we say something true and it is a reason for a better society change for the country‖ Facebook User (26). Similarly, another user also revealed that, ―I use Facebook to post and share my ideas or any news story I see in society – Facebook is my mass media mean– Before posting anything I think at least half an hour and mostly I try to post social, philosophy and social issue at least one a day. With regard to political sector, I want to bring awareness to my friends and other Cambodian citizens to know and analysis about political decision-makers behaviors via my post. Via Facebook we can tell something to the world, we are not silent anymore and if we don‘t like anything we can inform the concerned persons for a better change‖ (Facebook user 2). 6.3.2 Internal Factor Use via Facebook for Political Participation Getting informed has greatly affected ones‘ idea. What people know used to 37 accomplish in a day can be done in seconds via social media. Whenever we need to look for information, we get it fast and quick. People use new media in multiple factors or purpose and one of reason of social network sites usage is to news-related purpose (Glynn, Huge, and Hoffman 2012). Based on the users interviewed, it is significant that they keep themselves inform about political issue and political decision-makers behaviors. They want to know what is up in the society but they do not want others to know their thought and the party they support. One among users discovered everything is on Facebook so it is a main source of news that we can get variety of information that we rarely find on television. She is a media person so she does not want people to know about her political trend. She keeps up the news and click ―like‖ on both ruling and opposition party to know about their policy (Facebook user 11). ―I have never made any ―comments‖ or ―shares‖ any information related to politics but I keep myself informed. I make use of Facebook just to read news and know what is going on in the political environment and to learn more about political parties. From what I learned through news articles I read I will make a big decision on which party that I am going to vote for to lead the country.‖ Communication and information dissemination among users is made via Facebook thoroughly and widely. This is the reason that everyone can see the true reality that discovered by variety of posts published on this popular site so people learned a lot more about the good and the bad that they did not know of before. Another user said she just kept track on current issue both social and political news but never showed her own interest or opinions over those information and politician. She would never make any direct comment, discussion or criticism because it is not safe on SNSs but she will only talk and discuss about politics with somebody who is much closer to her only (Facebook user 12). ―I do not use a fake account so I have never made any expression via social networking. Facebook is not safe…I used to share my ideas to comment on the ruling party youth activist and later on there were some friends told me to delete my post otherwise I may have problem and it may effect on position at work as I am an activist of the party. To me only people that created fake profile that dare to say or criticize on what they do not like about parties or political activists.‖ It is not different from the all users mentioned above, one respondent interviewed stated that Facebook enables individual; especially, youth who are brave to share their ideas or news information regarding political content more than other type of people. Facebook is 38 democratic space where people could access all kinds of news from variety of source and the last updated news which help the public to learn, consider and analysis more than before (Facebook user 14). In general, the study showed that the rising size of the political engagement through both ―external‖ and ―internal‖ factor –discussing or debating, sharing ideas and making comment as well as keep up news by seeking information –is a positive and significant predictor of people's social and civic and political participatory behaviors, which lead a change in political context in the country. 6.4 Facebook’s Growing Influence on Cambodian Politics As the use of social media site has grown and continue growing, social media usage will not fade away. Individuals enjoy using this channel because there is no boundary. The power of Facebook enables a large number of users to be able to be together on the common interest that matter to them in a global reaches. It is seen that Cambodian citizens; especially, the younger generation comes to using sites like Facebook for social change. The impact of social media site like Facebook is strongly noticed and resulted in this study also. The explosion of Facebook usage contributed to better political awareness and change political culture in Cambodia. For instance, the ruling CPP lost its ballots from 90 seats– in 2008 election –to 68 seats out of a total of 123 seats in the National Assembly during the July‘s election last year (Meyn 2013). The CPP dominated media feature of the election, it depended on the mainstream media which it controlled to give information to the electorate while the opposition party CNRP used new media which was faster, cheaper and reached a bigger audience to attract voters. Social network site Facebook has brought a change to Cambodian political culture. It enables users to personalize the web contents about themselves. Drawing from a report by Soeung (2013) there are some political changes in the country and an example of political change is that: ― The two main opposition parties merged into one party, the new Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) under the leadership of Sam Rainsy, who has now returned from self-imposed exile in France to join his deputy, Kem Sokha, also a seasoned politician, for last-minute campaigning.‖ 45 clear proof that this lead to the changes of result in the election but the ones who were asked believed so. 7. Conclusion Cambodian political trend of positive change is the reflection of the impacts of social networking site, Facebook, in Cambodian society. FB is a big challenge to traditional media and it has become the number one social media site among other means in Cambodia. Cambodian citizen, especially youth, have chosen it as a choice of communication, keeping up with news and entertainment. In political process, the power of this popular site is providing an easy way for individuals to share information, get informed and even to express their opinions safely and freely with their peers. As a result, this study has unveiled the influences of Facebook on Cambodian‘s political environment and mindset change resulting in voting decision making. This can be explained mainly by the fact that Cambodian people can have much easier access to more information, self-expression, discussion and debating over social and political issues. Before Facebook was popularly used for "Fun, Friendship and Socialization‖ for Cambodian users ( Saray (2010)). However, its usage now is more than those reasons. People have expanded their use to participate in politics; especially, during the last national election on July 28, 2013. Cambodian citizen; especially, young people became interested in social and political issues. They turned out to be more active and braver in sharing, raising their personal views and observing over news update such as campaign, protest, social conflicts, mass demonstration, land grabbing, and corruption activities. First of all, this research study explored mainly the reasons that make this social networking platform gain its rapid popularity among Cambodian citizens, who then turned to use it for the political participation. Secondly, among many forms of political participation, Facebook has been becoming a preferred mean of youth to make political contribution both for external factor use and internal factor use. Thirdly, I studied the influence of social media usage on Cambodian politics. Social network provides free space for parties or politicians and citizens‘ direct and interactive communication with each other. For example, social media really has a very remarkable influence on the result of the 2008 U.S. presidential election and it is also the case in Cambodia during the last year Cambodia‘s general election on July 28, 2013. 46 In this dissertation paper, the research study found that Facebook has become a main part of online youth social networking user‘s everyday activities because all of the users used Facebook log in and use Facebook more than once a day. There are four crucial purposes of using this outstanding social site which includes (1) Seeking information (2) socializing (3) friendship maintaining, and (4) seeking entertainment and studying purpose. Facebook has a massive growth in the number of users up to now. The reason behind this, the study revealed that, it is because of weakness of traditional media in the country. Old media including newspaper, radio and television are affiliated with the government and those who allied with high ranking official of the Cambodian government. Citizen could not access to balance and only to exaggerate news or information featuring Cambodian People‘s Party (CPP) which has run the country since 1985. Moreover, the paper explored that young people integrated themselves in political participation in two ways. First, external or visible participation—air their voice by posting, sharing political news and making comments or clicking like on messages posted by political actors on the Facebook page. Second, indirect participation—only keep themselves updated and informed of information related to politics. I explored that Facebook is the most popular platform, which is not a state-controlled media which cover only one-sided views like local newspaper, radio and television. The number of Facebook users is huge compare to others because it is an enabler to make the public access the information faster and is user-friendly. More features such as ―like, comment, frictionless share and subscribe‖ have provided the attraction the users who were interviewed in this paper. Regarding social media impacts of Cambodian youth‘s engagement in Politic through social media, the study found out that social media does have influence on the Cambodian politics. The growing social site like Facebook has brought significant changes and opportunities for both individual and governments in term of new digital communication which brings both greater social participation and change in the country. On the one hand, Social networking platform is a two-way communication that enables individuals to get informed from many sources with more informative, interactive and immediate. On the other hand, they could also bring their voices and condemnation to discuss and debate among the users and also with political actors widely that is very different before the emergence of new media in the country. Since Cambodian citizens could access news more freely and from 47 many sides widely, they can consider and analysis things or the real issue over politics content wisely, that made a big change to the result of the national election in 2013. Another important thing, the study showed that young people have shown more courage and are more active to raise their voice and discuss through social networking platform known as Facebook to the government. The Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) opposition leader Sam Rainsy has used Facebook to attract and get support from the young voters during the election campaign. He has more fans over the prime minister‘s Facebook page. Due to this big trend, prime minister Hun Sen turned to see the impact of social media that keep growing as well. Though the state-owned media is still an important source but it is only for the people in the province that are not widely access to internet yet so the prime minister‘s page on Facebook has become more active; especially, respond to the matters that the opposition leader attack to the government including corruption, human rights violations, land grabbing, electoral issues, protests, political gatherings, mass demonstrations. Since Cambodian citizen could keep up more news from many sources, they think more critically and then change their beliefs in choosing political party to run the country. However, the leak of cyber law draft brings a worry that this new media will be censored by the government so users can not use it freely and suavely like before. (Peter (2014)). This is also a threat to user for getting free and fair news from many sources. 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Facebook experiences • How long • How did you know • Why did you start • What skills do you need (English, computer skill?) 2. Online behaviors (where, why you log in, where the most frequently, how much each month?) -How often per week: -How long each time: III. Motivations and Purposes 1. Motivations (why you continue to use, why you expand for other purposes?) 2. Purposes (what purposes: study purpose, entertainment, socialization, politics involvement, everyday needs, no specific purpose, marketing commercial…?) 3. Facebook uses - How often do you use for each purpose per week? -For how long each time? Percentage