*Mohd Pirdaus Mat Husain, Ali Salman, Mohd Nor Shahizan Ali, Khairunnisa Mohad Khazin

Abstract:

In Malaysia, the 2023 State Election was held on August 12, 2023. This election only involved six states, namely Selangor, Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu, Negeri Sembilan, and Penang. It also had a large number of candidates from different backgrounds. Among them were new candidates nominated by their respective parties. New candidates are also known as a “political newcomers”. These newcomers were of various backgrounds, including artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, and academicians. All of them presented distinctive manifestos and viewpoints that was shared on social media. In this context, this research aims to examine the content uploaded by four different newcomers in their personal social media account, which is TikTok. A total of 173 uploaded contents were analysed utilising descriptive analysis and thematic analysis. Based on the analysis, six different themes emerged reflecting the political newcomers’ background including education, social welfare, economy, health and sports, corruption, and safety/security.

Keywords: Malaysia election, politics, TikTok, social media, political newcomers