News Media Socialisation and Ethnic Tolerance among Malaysian Youth

Strengthening ethnic tolerance among the youth involves educating them about the culturaldifferences and issues of interethnic relations through the mainstream news media. It is predictedthat exposure to public affairs news would sensitize the youth to the complexity and challengesof living in a multiethnic society and accordingly enhance their level of ethnic tolerance. A totalof 2,906 youths aged between 15 to 25 years participated in a survey. The survey observed varyinglevels of ethnic tolerance with many of the respondents in the moderate and high category. Therespondents scored better in the cognitive and attitudinal component compared to the behaviouraldimension of ethnic tolerance. The respondents also vary in their level of exposure to publicaffairs news with six in every ten being in the moderate category. Regression analysis showed thatexposure to public affairs news, cognitive and attitudinal component of ethnic tolerance aresignificant predictors and accounted for 16.5 percent of the variance in the behaviouralcomponent of ethnic tolerance. Cognitive component of ethnic tolerance is a better predictor,followed by attitudinal component, and exposure to public affairs news. This paper discusses theimplication of the findings in relation to nation building.