LOCAL researchers looking to delve into the minds of Malaysian youth now have a new resource to base their research on. In a bid to reach out to young people, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar) has started a year-long series of online opinon polls which focus on youth issues.
Officially launched in July, the initiative is the brainchild of Utar vice-president (R&D and commercialisation) Prof Lee Sze Wei.
“The point is to gather raw data for researchers who are looking into certain aspects of society, and being a non-commercial enterprise, we will share our findings with participants and interested parties.
“Ultimately, we want to reach out to other members of society as well; right now we want to build up a base of followers first,” he said.
He added that for the purposes of the polls, the definition of youth would generally be those below the age of 30. While conceding that online polls have their weaknesses, Prof Lee said that the benefits outweigh the shortcomings.
From left: Prof Lee, Dr Wu, Datuk Ng Poh Tip, Utar Centre for Media and Creative Communication chairperson and Chin Yee Mun (standing) its Faculty of Creative Industries lecturer, during an interview on the varsity’s online polls initiative.“It’s a very cost-effective process, and this platform makes sense if we want to engage young people since using the Internet is second nature to them.
“Also I don’t think there will be much room for fraudulent responses, as the registration process requires a fair amount of time and personal details which can be verified,” he said.
To entice young people to spare a few minutes to participate in the polls, Utar has teamed up with KFC and Pizza Hut to offer rewards to respondents.
Not only will the first 1,000 respondents of each poll receive discount vouchers at the fast-food outlets, but those who chalk up the most number of referrals each quarter, stand to receive a grand prize of meal vouchers worth up to RM2,000.
“This is to give the respondents a value-added experience so that they will continuously participate in the initiative,” said Centre for Social Change and Trends chairperson Dr Wu Ming Chu.
“We’re in the process of sourcing out more sponsors to offer even more prizes for future polls.”
The first poll in the series started on July 1, and deals with young adults’ lifestyles and how they spend their study, work and leisure time.
As of July 28, a total of 2151 respondents had taken part in the survey, mostly university students and young working adults.
At the time of print, a full analysis of the data had yet to be completed; but the team has drawn some conclusions on the information gathered so far.
For instance, it appears that most young people rate surfing the Internet (49% of students and 34% of working adults) and watching TV (12% of students and 18% of working adults) as the top ways to spend their leisure time. This is something that Prof Lee is concerned about.
“Although the working adult group seem to socialise more compared to students, it is a bit worrying to see that activities that involve real human interaction rank quite low.
“I wonder if this has any correlation to fresh graduates encountering problems in the workplace because they lack proper communication skills,” he said.
The issues to be tackled by upcoming polls include political awareness, health and hygiene, and familial relationships, but Prof Lee shared that the team is open to more suggestions.
“Anyone can approach us with their ideas, be it researchers, non-governmental organisations or government agencies - we’ve even teamed up with The Star to run a special poll on youth views of sex,” he said.
“In fact, the August poll is driven by specific research needs, where we will touch on gambling.
“Our current hypothesis is that young people will have a generally negative view on sports betting and gambling, but who knows, maybe their responses will surprise us.”
Titled ‘Youth and Gambling’, this month’s poll goes live today and will run until August 31.
To be part of the Utar opinion polls, log on to http://
poll.utar.edu.my.
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