SIMILAR BUT NOT ALIKE: THE FRAMING OF COVID-19 IN INDONESIAN AND MALAYSIAN NEWSPAPERS

Haekal Adha Al Giffari; Shafizan Mohamed

doi:10.20527/mc.v6i2.11106

SIMILAR BUT NOT ALIKE: THE FRAMING OF COVID-19 IN INDONESIAN AND MALAYSIAN NEWSPAPERS

Haekal Adha Al Giffari, Shafizan Mohamed

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly caused havoc all over the world. Governments, healthcare personnel, and the general public are all struggling to survive the health crisis. In such calamity, the media plays an important role as it is able to impact public attitude and response towards the pandemic. Malaysia and Indonesia are two neighbouring countries that are equally affected by the pandemic. These countries share the same language and geographic location, but they have distinct populations, government systems, and ethnic identities. This study compares the news framing of Covid-19 in Malaysian and Indonesian newspapers to understand how socio-political and cultural similarities and differences affect how the health crisis is framed and presented. The Star (Malaysia) and Detik (Indonesia) were chosen to be studied in this paper, with a total of 369 news pieces obtained between 60 days after the first local COVID-19 case was discovered in the respective country. The findings suggest that the framing of Malaysian online newspapers was action-oriented, whereas the framing of Indonesian online newspapers was uncertainty-oriented. In addition, Malaysian and Indonesian internet newspapers were quick to report on the Covid-19 news. Both cited the government as their primary source and addressed risk bearers as their primary focus. This shows that despite their geographical proximities, the two countries had distinct ways of covering the pandemic.

Keywords

COVID-19, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pandemic, Framing, Media Coverage

Full Text:

PDF

References

Adekunle, A. L., & Adnan, H. M. (2016). Communicating health: Media framing of ebola outbreak in Nigerian newspapers. Jurnal Komunikasi: Malaysian Journal of Communication, 32(2), 362–380. https://doi.org/10.17576/jkmjc-2016-3202-19.

Ambardi, K. K., Parahita, G., Lindawati, L., Sukarno, A., & Aprilia, N. (2014). Mapping digital media: Indonesia. Open Society Foundations, 1–92. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/mapping-digital-media-indonesia

Batoebara, M. U. (2020). Corona, komunikasi pemerintah jadi kacau. Jurnal Network Media, 3(1), 88-94. https://doi.org/10.46576/jnm.v3i1.869

Berry, T. R., Wharf-Higgins, J., & Naylor, P. J. (2007). SARS wars: An examination of the quantity and construction of health information in the news media. Health Communication, 21(1), 35–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410230701283322

Chong, J. W. (2012). “Mine, Yours or Ours?”: The Indonesia-Malaysia disputes over shared cultural heritage. Sojourn, 27(1), 1–53. https://doi.org/10.1355/sj27-1a

Chyi, H. I., & McCombs, M. (2004). Media salience and the process of framing: Coverage of the Columbine school shootings. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 81(1), 22–35. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769900408100103

Detik.com Analytics - Market Share Data & Ranking | SimilarWeb. (n.d.). Retrieved December 27, 2020, from https://www.similarweb.com/website/detik.com/#overview

Elejalde, E., Ferres, L., & Schifanella, R. (2019). Understanding news outlets’ audience-targeting patterns. EPJ Data Science, 8(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-019-0194-8

Eriksson, C. I., Åkesson, M., Svensson, J., & Fredberg, T. (2007). Introducing the E-newspaper: Identifying initial target groups. Journal of Media Business Studies, 4(3), 41-62. https://doi.org/10.1080/16522354.2007.11073455

Garfin, D. R., Silver, R. C., & Holman, E. A. (2020). The novel coronavirus (COVID-2019) outbreak: Amplification of public health consequences by media exposure. Health Psychology, 39(5), 355-357. https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000875

Ghani, Y., & Haidzir, N. A. (2014). Understanding media exposure among the ethnic Malay in Malaysia for the purpose of communicating road safety messages. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 155, 63–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.10.257

Ghazali, W. N. W. M., Mohamed, S., Nasir, N. S. M., & Yusoh, M. H. (2020). The Coverage Of Vaccination In The Malay Newspapers: An Exploratory Study. Asian Journal Of Applied Communication (Ajac), 9(1).

Govender, S. (2017). Mistakes, muddles, and mixed messages - How disjointed health reporting is confusing the issues and costing lives. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford, August.

Graneheim, U. H., Lindgren, B., & Lundman, B. (2017). Today methodological challenges in qualitative content analysis : A discussion paper. Nurse Education Today, 56, 29–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2017.06.002

Heath, R. L., & O’Hair, H. D. (2010). Handbook of risk and crisis communication. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203891629

Indonesia - The World Factbook. (n.d.). Retrieved January 5, 2021, from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/indonesia/

Jerit, J., Zhao, Y., Tan, M., & Wheeler, M. (2019). Differences between national and local media in news coverage of the Zika Virus. Health Communication, 34(14), 1816–1823. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2018.1536949

Kampai, J. (2020, March 16). Penumpang dari Kuala Lumpur yang Punya Gejala Corona Meninggal di Padang. Detiknews. https://news.detik.com/berita/d-4941847/penumpang-dari-kuala-lumpur-yang-punya-gejala-corona-meninggal-di-padang?_ga=2.247418244.1828962958.1614089972-1450464903.1612190172

Larkin, E. F., & Grotta, G. L. (1979). A market segmentation approach to daily newspaper audience studies. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 56(1), 31–133. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769907905600105

Malaysia - The World Factbook. (n.d.). Retrieved January 5, 2021, from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/malaysia/

McCauley, M., Minsky, S., & Viswanath, K. (2013). The H1N1 pandemic: Media frames, stigmatization and coping. BMC Public Health, 13(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-1116

Moi, L. C. (2011). A study of comparison media coverage between mainstream news website The Star and alternative news website The Malaysian Insider on indigenous group issue in 2010 (Unpublished assignment submitted for a research project). Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman.

Movements to be restricted. (2020, February 13). The Star. https://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2020/02/13/movements-to-be-restricted

Mutua, S. N., & Ong’ong’a, D. O. (2020). Online news media framing of COVID-19 pandemic: Probing the initial phases of the disease outbreak in international media. European Journal of Interactive Multimedia and Education, 1(2), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.30935/ejimed/8402

Onwe, E. C., Chukwu, J., Nwamini, S. C., Nwankwo, S. U., Elem, S., Ogbaeja, N. I., Nwasum, C. J., Nwakpu, E. S., & Ogbodo, J. N. (2020). Analysis of online newspapers’ framing patterns of COVID-19 in Nigeria. European Scientific Journal, 16(22), 217-237. https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2020.v16n22p217

Sani, M. A. M., & Hara, A. B. E. (2014). Deliberative democracy in Malaysia and Indonesia: A comparison. Faculty of International Studies, June 2010, 1–21.

Sell, T. K., Watson, C., Meyer, D., Kronk, M., Ravi, S., Pechta, L. E., Lubell, K. M., & Rose, D. A. (2018). Frequency of risk-related news media messages in 2016 coverage of Zika Virus. Risk Analysis, 38(12), 2514–2524. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12961

Shih, T. J., Wijaya, R., & Brossard, D. (2008). Media coverage of public health epidemics: Linking framing and issue attention cycle toward an integrated theory of print news coverage of epidemics. Mass Communication and Society, 11(2), 141–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205430701668121

Smith, M., & Tietaah, G. (2017). Online media surveillance: Coverage of meningitis outbreaks in Ghana. Athens Journal of Health, 4(4), 303–320. https://doi.org/10.30958/ajh.4-4-2

Tham, J. S., & Zanuddin, H. (2015). Religion and media: A case study of Utusan Malaysia’s response to HIV/AIDS. Continuum, 29(1), 121–133. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2014.964176

Thomas, T., Wilson, A., Tonkin, E., Miller, E. R., & Ward, P. R. (2020). How the media places responsibility for the COVID-19 Pandemic—An Australian media analysis. Frontiers in Public Health, 8, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00483

Wok, S., & Mohamed, S. (2017). Internet and social media in Malaysia: Development, challenges and potentials. In The evolution of media communication. IntechOpen.

Zelizer, B. (2015). Terms of choice: Uncertainty, journalism, and crisis. Journal of Communication, 65(5), 888–908. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12157

Yakim, M. M., Mohamed, S., & Abdul Manan, K. (2019). Agenda setting by the Malay online newspapers during the Semenyih By-Election. International Journal of Law, Government and Communication, 4(17), 121–131. https://doi.org/10.35631/ijlgc.4170012

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20527/mc.v6i2.11106

Article Metrics

Abstract view : 624 times
PDF - 242 times

Refbacks

There are currently no refbacks.

MetaCommunication: Journal of Communication Studies is published by the Department of Communication, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Universitas Lambung Mangkurat.

Address: Jl. Brig Jend. Hasan Basri, Pangeran, Banjarmasin Utara, Kota Banjarmasin, Kalimantan Selatan 70123, Indonesia.

Email: [email protected]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License