FACTORS AFFECTING THE JOURNALIST IN FRAMING BY-ELECTION NEWS
Media is one of the platforms for delivering information to an audience. The role of media plays in framing issues is very important when it can impact how an audience thinks. Therefore, this article analyses frame construction by focusing on by-election news. The study using semi-structured interviews with journalists was done to explain how the internal and external factors affecting journalists in the newsroom affected the framing of the by-elections news in Malaysia. The informants for this face-to-face interview are Malaysian media practitioners, print journalists (Utusan Malaysia and Daily News) from different backgrounds, roles, and experiences in political journalism. Three informants from Daily News and three informants from Utusan Malaysia. The interviewer is an experienced journalist who reports on the news of a by-election or general election has been interviewed. The results show that there are internal and external factors that influence journalists in the construction of news frames. However, there is a dominant factor affecting the framing of the by-elections in Malaysia, namely journalist education. Journalist education plays an important role in providing insight into delivering news reports to audiences. Specializing in the field of journalism, it has an impact on news writing as well as brings journalist thinking into the selection of themes, news directions, and resources, although internal organizational factors and external factors influence news production.