Representation of autism in Vietnamese digital news media: a computational corpus and framing analysis

Abstract

This paper examines news media coverage on autism, a public health issue in Vietnam. Computational corpus analysis and framing analysis of Vietnamese digital news media of over 580,000 words are deemed useful methods for big data analysis. The language patterns, extracted by WordSmith software, suggest autism is framed primarily as a medical problem and a family issue, not a matter of social policy or an aspect of human diversity. Noticeably, individuals with autism are expected to integrate to fit in with the community, not the other way around, where the society acts as an agent to accommodate autism diversity within an inclusive environment. The study finds the under-represented voices of individuals with autism and family actors, and the dominant voices of healthcare, education, and other professionals, along with the absence of government authorities in the media corpus.