Social Networks in the Upin & Ipin Universe: Comparative Analysis of a Series and Movie in Southeast Asian Media

Social network analysis offers a unique perspective into media narratives by examining character interactions. This study explores character prominence and narrative flow in the Upin & Ipin series, including Seasons 1 and 2, and the first Upin & Ipin movie, “Geng: The Adventure Begins”. Speaker-listener identification is applied to generate directed and weighted character networks. Findings reveal that the character networks mimic real-life social patterns, showcasing communal network structures over more egocentric structures commonly observed in Western media. High betweenness centrality characters serve as superspreaders, bridging central and peripheral groups, while antagonists have limited centrality, suggesting minimisation of hazardous behavioural emulation in young audiences. The movie exhibits more intricate web interactions than the series, with deliberate character placements indicating changes in narrative strategies. These results demonstrate the utility of social network analysis in uncovering hidden character dynamics beyond conventional storytelling analysis, in addition to laying the foundation for media comparative studies in Southeast Asia.