The Contradictory Effects of Digital Access and Life Satisfaction on Voting Behaviours: a Retrospective Look at the 2008 Malaysian General Election

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between life satisfaction and voting intention by analysing the 2008 General Election in Malaysia. The election was significant because of the high turnout rate since 1964 and the rise of digital media in political communication. The latter leads to the second objective of this paper: to investigate whether the presence of digital media reshapes voting behaviours across different levels of life satisfaction. Using the 6th wave of World Value Survey data of 1198 respondents with the Hierarchical Linear Regression Modelling, we show that unhappier voters are more likely to vote. However, by democratising access to information and lowering barriers to connect with voters via digital media, voting intention is levelled irrespective of the degree of life satisfaction. While happier voters pay more attention to the social economic issues and thus are more likely to react to news disseminated via digital media by voting, it is equally likely that unhappier voters provoked by negative news through digital media have greater intention to voice out by casting a vote too.