The Coverage of Crises News in the Malaysian and Nigerian Newspapers between 2007 and 2009

Abstract

Abstract—The reporting of crisis anywhere in the world has certain elements in common with the reporting of other events. In this paper, it is used as a definer for political, economic, health and environmental crises. Crisis reporting could be defined as the reporting of information about the state of affairs in which a decisive change for the worse is about to, or has occurred. Newspapers have a unique and exceptionally important role to play in covering national crises. Accurate and appropriate information about a crisis is an expectation that is required if the government wants to remove fears from the public. This is because modern democracy depends on a vibrant news media to keep the public informed. Newspaper has had a long history of information dissemination, particularly in its in-depth reporting of events. This task becomes more demanding in this age of the internet, which has brought with it so much competition for the printed copy. This is a comparative study on how Malaysian and Nigerian newspapers reported some of the crises the two countries experienced between 2007 and 2009. Through content analysis, the study compared the coverage of crises by newspapers in the two countries. This is aimed at determining how newspapers in the two countries differed in their reporting. The research relied on the framing theory. One of the findings is that Nigerian newspapers have significantly reported more political, economic and environmental crises while Malaysian newspapers have reported more health crisis.