The Asian Conference on Media & Mass Communication 2015

The Asian Conference on Media & Mass Communication 2015

The Asian Conference on Media & Mass Communication 2015

Natural disasters, which strike without warning and leaves limited scope of
preparedness, is a potentially traumatic event that is collectively experienced with
severe consequences. With its high news values, natural disasters gain attention of the
media, and therefore is given foremost and extensive coverage, particularly on news
sites which allow readers to access to the updates anytime anywhere. Natural disaster
coverage is always of great concern for people as it involves massive deaths, human
suffering and brings huge impact to the aftermath life of the victims. Debates were
going on that media depicted natural disaster from different perspectives, especially
between the Asian media and the Western media, due to the geographical, cultural,
political interest and ideological divergences. Therefore, by taking Typhoon Haiyan
news coverage as case study, this research aims to investigate the differences of news
frame featured in the Asian local media, Philippine Inquirer and Western media, The
Wall Street Journal news sites. The findings indicated the news framing of Typhoon
Haiyan disaster showed resemblance in primary news source and theme coded for
both Philippine Inquirer and The Wall Street Journal. Both local and international
news media “mediatised” disaster which has gone beyond national spectrum of
interest. The proliferation of new media, irrespective of Western or Asian media, has
transformed the world of disaster into a global context.

Lim Lai Hoon
Ngoi Kok Shen
Tan Ching Mei