Vaccine narratives on social media in Malaysia
September 2021
Introduction
The infodemic's earlier days were marked with false information about community spread of Covid-19, actions being taken by authorities, and even the origins of the novel coronavirus. Today, we know that it has expanded to include false information on the vaccines and vaccination process. Yet, what exactly is being discussed, in what way, and how frequent does anti-vaccine content appear remains uncertain.
Our research aims to shed light on this.
Key findings
- The “supply and access”, “safety and efficacy” and “public health” topics collectively made up 76% of all posts analysed
- The top three topics with the highest average engagement on Facebook are “liberty and freedom”, “morality and religion” and “development”, while on Twitter it is “public health”, “politicisation” and “safety and efficacy”
- Sentiment of posts analysed were almost equally split, with 35% being positive, 33% neutral, and 31% negative
- A mere 67 posts (3%) of the 2,000 posts analysed were coded as being “against” vaccines. Yet, concerns remain over how one in ten posts “against” vaccines are under the “safety and efficacy” topic, meaning more must be done to assure the people that the vaccines are safe and efficacious"
Learn more about our methodology
Topic of posts
Coding for topic allows us to gauge the share of conversations by topic surrounding vaccines in Malaysia. The nine topics, adapted from FirstDraft’s earlier work, are: (1) development; (2) supply and access; (3) safety and efficacy; (4) public health; (5) politicisation; (6) economics; (7) conspiracy theory; (8) liberty and freedom; and (9) morality and religion.
Hover to view detailsClick to view detailsThe top three topics are “supply and access”, “safety and efficacy” and “public health”. Collectively making up 76% of the 2,000 posts analysed, these three topics made up the largest share of the conversations surrounding vaccines. The remaining six topics were less represented suggesting that posts on these topics were engaged less frequently.
In a cross-platform analysis, there is little differentiation between Facebook and Twitter posts with the exception of the “development” topic, present 3.1 times more in former. Results of a cross-language analysis is similar, with exceptions being the “morality and religion” and “conspiracy theory” topics represented 2.5 and 2 times more in Malay posts than English.
Number of posts by selected topics and month
From April to May, the top four topics saw increases between 316% and 672%. Contributing factors for the increase in “supply and access” posts include May 2021 being the start of Phase 3 of the NCIP which saw everyone age 18 and above becoming eligible for vaccines, and the two AstraZeneca opt-in vaccination programmes. The latter had also contributed to the increase in “safety and efficacy” posts due to the remote concerns over blood clots. “Public health” posts increased when recipients recommended others to get vaccinated after receiving their first doses, while “politicisation” posts increased on the back of the public questioning the government’s decision to set up the first-come, first-served opt-in registration for AstraZeneca vaccines.
Contextually, eight of the nine topics peaked in May with the exception of “development”, suggesting that as more people become eligible to receive the vaccines, the more they were engaging with vaccine-related posts.
Moving forward, we expect vaccine-related conversations to continue to change in tandem with wider developments on the vaccines and vaccine-related matters. As the country loosens MCO SOP for fully vaccinated individuals, we believe that the conversations will shift towards the topic of “liberty and freedom”, specifically how vaccination can be a gateway to future freedoms.
Engagement of posts
Looking at the engagement of posts gives us insight into what topics resonate the most among Malaysians on social media. For Facebook engagement, we had calculated the sum of reactions, comments, and shares, while for Twitter engagement, it is the sum of comments, retweets, and likes. To note is that due to the inherent differences between both platforms, the engagement rates are not directly comparable with each other.
Average engagement by topic and platform
 (1)-2d0626ca6ec9cd76bb946483ca4a98ba.svg)
 (1)-031dc2b8be8167814e2d9c3b4348d242.svg)
Sentiment of posts
The sentiment of the posts acts as a proxy for how the post creator is feeling and/or reacting vis-à-vis the post being analysed. This adds another layer of analysis insofar that we are better able to determine how people are reacting to that particular vaccine-related topic.
-ce207308b9489f13d91db7b665d9ab3d.svg)
-0b1f8b9b6e4b8c454ba749c74ce83f43.svg)
-308147f314387710741b059e779e0b87.svg)
-7d06ef95d695a4833c19dbc06e585202.svg)
-ccbec28be44639b5089d9b09868e38c4.svg)
-4ca949a3ff66f441f0a278b63bbad799.svg)
The sentiments of the posts in our full dataset are almost equally split between “positive”, “neutral” and “negative”. Cross-language, the English dataset skews in favour of “neutral”, while the Malay dataset skews towards both “positive” and “negative”. Cross-platform, Facebook contains more positive posts (39%) compared to Twitter (32%), while Twitter contains more negative posts (35%) than Facebook (27%).
Attitude towards vaccines
We analysed posts for its attitude towards vaccines and vaccinations to gauge the number of posts recommending for and against it, and also the type of narratives present (more on this in the next section). We determine this based on whether the post had included explicit, or strongly suggestive content to indicate the creator’s attitude towards vaccines.
-b3d8bc7281f99c31f938052cf7c815d9.svg)
-74c583874fb875272e256570efdcaab0.svg)
-3e97a9b20cbd347ed5695dceeb5002b0.svg)
-20fb86813d8bbc71991661ff1be835f3.svg)
-0b6c83370c9c5dad4a9e815d9aa87403.svg)
-92bccf6caf113db716ddeac8538f3b10.svg)
As a whole, 45% of all posts that we analysed had included some form of explicit public service content recommending friends and followers to get vaccinated. A mere 3% of posts indicated that they were against the vaccines. Broken down by platform and language, the Twitter English and Malay datasets contain a higher number of posts recommending vaccines than the Facebook English and Malay datasets.
Post recommending and against vaccines by platform and language
Facebook Malay
Facebook English
Twitter Malay
Twitter English
Posts recommending vaccines
Posts against vaccines
The largest share of posts recommending against vaccines were from the “safety and efficacy” topic (73%). Contextually, one in ten of all “safety and efficacy” posts were coded as being against vaccines. The rest of the topics, however, contained between one and three posts coded as being against. This highlights quite clearly how narratives against vaccinations, in our dataset at least, are generally centred on the topic of “safety and efficacy”.
Selected narratives against vaccinations
This section highlights selected narratives against vaccinations in our dataset and from our stakeholder interviews. By matching these with an explanation of why and how it is either false or misleading, we hope to help build social media users’ resilience towards these problematic narratives.
Narrative 1
Covid-19 is similar to the common flu and only the elderly or those with comorbidities are at risk, thus it is not necessary for everyone to get vaccinated.
ExplanationNarrative 2
Covid-19 vaccines are not “real vaccines” as they do not cure the person from nor prevent the transmission of the novel coronavirus.
Narrative 3
Vaccinations are ineffective as even with the NCIP rolling out nationwide, the number of cases in the country is steadily rising.
Narrative 4
The vaccines were developed too quickly so we cannot be too sure of its safety.
Policy proposals
There is no one single solution, or a silver bullet, to the infodemic. There are many policy options, however, to help address this multifaceted, multisource problem. For this report, we focus on communication strategies to inform the public’s decision to get vaccinated. For a comprehensive framework to address vaccine-related false information, see here.
For government
Two-way communication channels for those with lingering questions and doubts about the vaccines
For government
Targeted digital and in-person messaging based on localities with low registration rates
For government
The NPRA needs to engage with the public directly on what it is doing to ensure vaccine safety
For government
Tracking developing news about the vaccines and vaccination process
For whole-of-society
Diversify the sources of pro-vaccine messaging to include groups with higher trust and credibility levels
For whole-of-society
Breaking down scientific concepts, such as vaccine efficacy
General strategy
Incorporating nudging tactics to get people vaccinated
General strategy
Addressing the imbalance between false but simply understood messaging and authoritative science-based messaging
General strategy
Highlighting the difference between medical consensus and opinion of individuals in the medical profession
For government
Two-way communication channels for those with lingering questions and doubts about the vaccines
For government
Targeted digital and in-person messaging based on localities with low registration rates
For government
The NPRA needs to engage with the public directly on what it is doing to ensure vaccine safety
For government
Tracking developing news about the vaccines and vaccination process
For whole-of-society
Diversify the sources of pro-vaccine messaging to include groups with higher trust and credibility levels
For whole-of-society
Breaking down scientific concepts, such as vaccine efficacy
General strategy
Incorporating nudging tactics to get people vaccinated
General strategy
Addressing the imbalance between false but simply understood messaging and authoritative science-based messaging
General strategy
Highlighting the difference between medical consensus and opinion of individuals in the medical profession
Conclusion
Our research paints a more positive picture of the information environment surrounding vaccines than initially expected. Yet, two concerns remain: (1) 73% of all posts coded as being “against” vaccines is under the “safety and efficacy” topic, meaning more must be done to assure the people that the vaccines are safe and efficacious; and (2) the posts span from October 2020 to May 2021, and narratives surrounding vaccines and the vaccination process could have changed as a response to wider developments on the topic. These are, but a few, areas we hope to look into in the coming months.
For now, no effort must be spared in reaching out, engaging, and convincing those who have yet to register for the vaccines to do so immediately. Not only does the success of the NCIP hinge on this, but also any subsequent recovery of lives and livelihoods. We hope that our work helps in getting us there.
Produced by
This report was prepared by Harris Zainul, Farlina Said, Nazran Johari and Izzah Ibrahim. Herizal Hazri and Alizan Mahadi provided overall guidance for the report. Joann Saw, Wan-Peng Tan and Mohd Farouf Sahal provided editorial and design support. This report benefitted from extensive stakeholder engagement with numerous scholars, media practitioners and fact-checkers who work on and around the Covid-19 infodemic. Discussions and interviews with them contributed immensely to this report. All authors are contactable via email as listed on the ISIS Malaysia website.
Microsite developed by
RedSquare is a software studio solving business challenges with modern technologies. This project with ISIS Malaysia involved presenting and visualising their 50-plus page report in an interactive manner for the public.