scholarly journals The Ongoing Debate on Chinese Primary Education: A Framing Analysis of Malaysian Newspapers

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-27
Author(s):  
Ong Sheau Wen ◽  
Ihediwa Samuel Chibundu ◽  
Siah Poh Chua
Keyword(s):  
Primary Education ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Framing Analysis ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Human Interest ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
Official Sources

In Malaysia, Chinese vernacular education has been a highly contested and much debated political issue in the mass media. This study examines how Malaysian newspapers framed Chinese primary education for a 3-year period (2015–2017) which is before the 2018 election. Findings showed that, the proximity of election has led to a surge in news reporting about Chinese primary education. Political considerations remain central in mainstream newspapers’ reporting in which official sources are dominant in shaping public understanding of the issue. Alternative newspapers serve as a counter-establishment platform through active participation of readers in public debate. A responsibility frame dominates the news coverage of Chinese primary education in both types of newspapers. Nevertheless, the alternative newspapers tend to focus on the conflict aspect of the issue by foregrounding discord between ruling and opposition politicians as well as intra- Barisan Nasional (BN) disputes. Through human interest frame, the mainstream newspapers emotionalize the issue to obtain readers’ attention. This study concludes that varying reporting strategies adopted by Malaysian newspapers can impact readers’ evaluation of education policy issues. The implications of the findings and the limitations of the study are also discussed.

scholarly journals Impartiality, statistical tit-for-tats and the construction of balance: UK television news reporting of the 2016 EU referendum campaign

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Cushion ◽  
Justin Lewis
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Television News ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Strict Adherence ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
Independent Expert

There has been greater news industry recognition in recent years that impartiality should not be translated into simply balancing the competing sides of a debate or issue. The binary nature of a referendum campaign represents a unique moment to consider whether broadcasters have put this into practice beyond routine political reporting. This study examines how impartiality was editorially interpreted in television news coverage during the United Kingdom’s 2016 European Union referendum. We carried out a systematic content analysis of the United Kingdom’s main evening bulletins over the 10-week campaign, examining the issues and sources shaping coverage, as well as all the statistical claims made by campaign actors. Our aim was to critically examine how notions of impartiality were constructed and interpreted, exploring any operational limits and political consequences. Overall, we found that news bulletins maintained a fairly strict adherence to a central binary balance between issues and actors during the campaign. But this binary was politically inflected, with a significant imbalance in party political perspectives, presenting us with a right-wing rather than a left-wing case for European Union membership. We also found that independent expert analysis and testimony was sucked into the partisan binary between leave and remain campaigners, while journalists were reluctant to challenge or contextualise claims and counter-claims. Journalists were, in this sense, constrained by the operational definition of impartiality adopted by broadcasters. We argue for a more evidence-driven approach to impartiality, where journalists independently explore the veracity of campaign claims and have the editorial freedom to challenge them. We also suggest that the reliance on claims and counter-claims by leading Conservative politicians did little to advance public understanding of the European Union, and helped perpetuate a series of long-standing negative associations the British media have been reporting for many decades.

scholarly journals The Nine Cancer Frames: A Tool to Facilitate Critical Reading of Cancer-Related Information

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Murray ◽  
Nina von Possel ◽  
Hanne C. Lie ◽  
Jarle Breivik
Keyword(s):  
Health Communication ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Factual Knowledge ◽  
Critical Reading ◽  
Framing Analysis ◽  
Cancer Communication ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Cancer Literacy

AbstractPeople’s ability to critically assess cancer-related information is essential from a preventional and therapeutic, as well as a general democratic perspective. Such cancer literacy is not just about acquiring factual knowledge. It also involves the ability to analyze how the information is contextualized—how cancer is framed. Previous research concerning the framing of cancer in public discourse is voluminous and penetrating but also fragmented and inaccessible to non-experts. In this study, we have developed an integrated and applicable tool for analyzing cancer discourse by systematically classifying distinctive ways of framing of the concept of cancer. Building on previous research and an inductive framing analysis of a broad range of public cancer discourse, systematically selected from British and Norwegian newspapers, we have characterized nine cancer frames: the biomedical, the environmental, the epidemiological, the personal, the sociopolitical, the economic, the antagonistic, the alternative, and the symbolic frame. This framing scheme may be applied to analyze cancer-related discourse across a plurality of themes and contexts. We also show how different frames combine to produce more complex messages, thereby revealing underlying patterns, strategies, and conflicts in cancer communication. In conclusion, this analytical tool enables critical reading of cancer-related information and may be especially useful in educational initiatives to advance health communication and public understanding of cancer.

Frames as Boundaries: Rhetorical Framing Analysis and the Confines of Public Discourse in Online News Coverage of Vegan Parenting

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-170
Author(s):  
Ryan J. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Online News ◽  
Framing Analysis ◽  
Public Issues ◽  
Boundary Properties ◽  
Blind Spots

This article examines the boundary work of frames and the methodological significance of understanding this work when conducting rhetorical framing analysis. While the boundary properties of frames have been theorized by scholars, there remains a lack of clear engagement with how to effectively address these discursive boundaries methodically. I argue that agenda-dismissal, which makes use of both prolepses and blind spots, ought to be addressed in addition to agenda-setting and agenda-extension when conducting rhetorical framing analysis. A case study is provided in which the rhetorical framing of vegan parenting in online news media is analyzed and critiqued for confining the issue within a dominant health-based frame. Strategies for dismantling discursive boundaries and reframing public issues are also considered within the context of the case study.

scholarly journals When frames collide: ‘Ethnic war’ and ‘genocide’

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 434-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Hammond
Keyword(s):  
News Coverage ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Framing Analysis ◽  
News Frames ◽  
Bosnian War ◽  
War And Conflict ◽  
Ethnic War ◽  
The Relationship

This article examines the problem of how to interpret competing, clashing or contradictory news frames in coverage of war and conflict, focusing on the reporting of the 1992–1995 Bosnian war. ‘Ethnic war’ and ‘genocide’ featured as competing news frames in news coverage of Bosnia and several subsequent conflicts, and are often understood to be contradictory in terms of their implied explanations, moral evaluations and policy prescriptions. The author questions the assumptions that many journalists and academics have made about these frames and the relationship between them. He asks how we can make sense of clashing or contradictory scholarly analyses of these competing frames and considers a number of broader issues for framing analysis: the significance of historical context for understanding the meaning of particular framing devices, the importance of quantification in framing analysis and the role of influential sources in prompting journalists to adopt particular frames.

scholarly journals Aggression and Older Adults: News Media Coverage across Care Settings and Relationships

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura M. Funk ◽  
Rachel V. Herron ◽  
Dale Spencer ◽  
Starr Lee Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
English Language ◽  
Frame Analysis ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
Policy Responses

ABSTRACT Systematic, in-depth exploration of news media coverage of aggression and older adults remains sparse, with little attention to how and why particular frames manifest in coverage across differing settings and relationships. Frame analysis was used to analyze 141 English-language Canadian news media articles published between 2008 and 2019. Existing coverage tended towards stigmatizing, fear-inducing, and biomedical framings of aggression, yet also reflected and reinforced ambiguity, most notably around key differences between settings and relations of care. Mainstream news coverage reflects tensions in public understandings of aggression and older adults (e.g., as a medical or criminal issue), reinforced in particular ways because of the nature of news reporting. More nuanced coverage would advance understanding of differences among settings, relationships, and types of actions, and of the need for multifaceted prevention and policy responses based on these differences.

Of Horse Race and Policy Issues: A Study of Gender in Coverage of a Gubernatorial Election by two Major Metropolitan Newspapers

1998 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shirley A. Serini ◽  
Angela A. Powers ◽  
Susan Johnson
Keyword(s):  
News Coverage ◽  
Horse Race ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Advertising Strategy ◽  
Gubernatorial Election ◽  
Selection Of

This study of news coverage of a gubernatorial race suggests (1) gender may be a larger factor in selection of policy stories than in selection of horse race stories; (2) coverage of the horse race, particularly news coverage of advertising strategy, appears to have greater impact on the outcome of the election than coverage of policy issues; (3) a woman will be more successful in a political race if she presents herself as a man.

scholarly journals Caught between sympathy and suspicion: journalistic perceptions and practices of telling asylum seekers’ personal stories

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 1031-1047 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mervi Pantti ◽  
Markus Ojala
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Personal Stories

Personal stories in news reports serve multiple purposes, but at their core lie efforts at illustrating and authenticating a social or political issue through human experience, an illustration that is compelling in its affective appeal. Telling the personal stories of people belonging to minority groups may work as a potent journalistic vehicle in countering negative stereotypes and prejudices against them. This article examines how Finnish journalists incorporate the personal stories of asylum seekers into their coverage of the so-called ‘European refugee crisis’ of 2015–2016. Drawing on qualitative interviews, we inquire into how journalists understand the meaning and purpose of asylum seekers’ personal stories in their news reporting and reflect on the professional values and ethical dilemmas when telling them. Our findings reveal that while journalists tend to sympathise with the vulnerable and see it as important to combat xenophobia and racism, their relationship with asylum seekers becomes increasingly informed and constrained by socio-political and discursive structures that foster a culture of suspicion towards asylum seekers.

Editorial and Commentary Coverage of Foreign News Issues in Malaysian Newspapers: Variation and Consistency

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huck Ying Ch’ng
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Framing Analysis ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
National Media ◽  
Foreign News ◽  
The Government ◽  
Media And Identity ◽  
Chinese And English

This is a comparative framing analysis of editorial and commentary pieces on foreign news issues in three major Malaysian newspapers—in Malay, Chinese and English languages. The multicultural and multiethnic mix of Malaysian society and its media as well as the long-standing connection between the mainstream media and the ruling coalition government in Malaysia provides a valuable context for such a study. The results reveal significant variation in the framing of foreign news issues across the three newspapers, corresponding to their respective target audiences, while a consistency in alignment with the government policy is also evident in all three. The study challenges the idea of a ‘national’ media and identity in international and foreign news studies (i.e. the idea that there is such a thing as a single, e.g. ‘Malaysian’ media or associated world view). It demonstrates how an analysis of foreign news coverage in a country such as Malaysia needs to account for the multifaceted ethnic, linguistic, political and cultural demographic influences on its newspapers.

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