SOURCES OF INFORMATION AND POLITICAL DYNAMICS OF THE SOCIETY IN SUNGAI BAKAP STATE CONSTITUENCY, PENANG

The political dynamics of each constituency are decisive for the pattern of results in an election. The political culture of the community in an area forms the configuration of the political culture according to ethnicity and local social status. Thus, studies related to the political tendencies and dynamics of the community in each by-election in particular can provide a true picture of the configuration of political culture according to regional differences and changes in sentiment on current issues. This study involved a total of 444 respondents from the community in Sungai Bakap. The respondents of this study consisted of ethnic Malays, Chinese and Indians. Stratified sampling and convenience sampling are used in determining the study sample. The results of the study found that the majority of respondents use Tiktok, Facebook, and WhatsApp as their medium of political information sources. In terms of political dynamics, the results of the study obtained by the majority cast votes based on candidate factors. As for candidate criteria, the average respondent chose the candidate criteria of being responsible to the people, not corrupt and taking care of religion as the three (3) main criteria. As for the criteria of the political party chosen by the respondents, it is a party that is responsible to the people, the party leader is not involved in corruption and a party that can protect religion. For this reason, political parties that successfully build sentimental narratives based on these criteria are more favoured by voters in the Sungai Bakap state constituency.