AN ANALYSIS OF ONLINE CRITICIZING STRATEGIES IN SOCIAL MEDIA FROM AN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The ubiquity of social media has spurred online communication to be as frequent as face-to-face communication. Nonetheless, one of its repercussions that many face today is negative communication which can attack other people’s face. One instance of such communication is criticism, a speech act that threatens a criticized party’s positive face. Hence, the objectives of this study are to investigate the strategies used by Malaysian netizens to criticize others on social media and whether these strategies align with Islamic principles of communication. The data collected for this study consisted of 360 netizens’ comments in Facebook regarding Malaysia's 15th General Election. Two analytical frameworks developed were adapted to analyse the data: criticism realization strategies and six Islamic communication principles based on the Quran. Through this study, the researchers hope to offer insights into the strategies opted by Malaysian netizens to criticize others and educate social media users to communicate appropriately even in expressing criticism.