Proud to be a Malaysian!-Malaysian Identity in YouTube Comments

Abstract

Social media has become a part and parcel of many online users’ everyday life as it allows the users to share their ideas and comments. One example of social media which is content-based is YouTube. YouTube provides a platform for users to upload video clips, viewable by anyone, and the users can also write comments. Even though Internet users can remain anonymous in the boundless cyberspace many traces of identity of a particular community can still be recognised through the use of language online. Thus, a vast amount of language and computer-mediated discourse can be gathered from social media such as YouTube to aid in the understanding of a particular community’s identity. This current study is interested to investigate how the Malaysian identity is being represented in YouTube comments through its users. The responses and phrases used to comment on Malaysia related YouTube videos were analysed to see whether they yield any interesting linguistic data. Findings revealed that there were a few recurring categories of expressions being mentioned in the YouTube comments that can be used to represent the Malaysian identity such as feelings towards the country and being a Malaysian, the food in Malaysia, languages, race and identity, Malaysian stereotypes or behaviours, as well as the geographical location of Malaysia. Code switching and code mixing were also regarded as part of the Malaysian identity based on the YouTube comments.