coverage of deaths in malaysian daily newspapers

COVERAGE OF DEATHS

IN MALAYSIAN DAILY

NEWSPAPERS:

THE STAR AND NEW STRAITS TIMES

GROUP MEMBERS

KAIYISAH NURUL SYAKUR BT YUSOF 1216428

NURFATIHAH BT ABD. MUTEK 1227136

RAHIBAH BT MOHAMAD 1225230

RAMLAH BT ABU BAKAR 1318046

INTRODUCTIONThe Star and News Straits Times is one of the most significant in

Malaysian news agency which has a wide subscribers among the Malaysian itself.

In this research, a news item been collected for a twenty – four days basically from the two news agency of Malaysian daily newspaper.

The collected news will be narrowed down to a news which involve only about death in order to see the pattern of the news agency in reporting and associating the death issues.

OBJECTIVES

TO ANALYZE THE REPORTING STYLE OF THE NEWSPAPER.TO IDENTIFY THE TYPE OF DEATH THAT USUALLY COVER ON NEWSPAPERS. TO KNOW THE AWARENESS ON DEATH REPORTS AMONG NEWSPAPER READERS.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

TO MAKE PEOPLE CONSCIOUS AND AWARE ABOUT THE COVERAGE OF DEATH IN THE DAILY NEWSPAPERS.TO ENHANCE OUR UNDERSTANDING ABOUT THE ETHICS OF REPORTING NEWS.

LITERATURE REVIEW

•DEATH IN GENERAL

Prior to the 20th century, deaths typically occurred in infancy,

childhood, or young adulthood, due primarily to short-term

contagious illnesses, crises, or violence (carr, 2009).

• Type of Death In systematic way, as mentioned by Kastenbaum (2004), death by violence is

begin with murder and followed with war, terrorism, disaster, and accident.

Carr (2009), claimed deaths that are deemed ‘‘unjust,’’ especially deaths at the

hands of others (i.e., homicide, murder) are particularly distressing.

Corr, Nabe, & Corr (2009), stated that in their book homicide were currently the

second leading cause of death which exceed only by accidents and followed by

suicide.

According to the statistics, accidents have always been a major

cause of death (Kastenbaum, 2004).

Abdul Kareem (2003) said that road accident is one of the major

causes of death and injuries in Malaysia.

Terrorism according to Kastenbaum, (2004) is a violence or threat

to violence that cause of death of the people is one consider as one

of the type of death.

Death and Journalism Durkin (2003) reports that death and dying are common in daily newspapers. The deaths of

ordinary people are usually reported only in brief obituaries, unless a person has died in

some sensational fashion.

In general, newspapers tend to overemphasize catastrophic causes of death (Combs and

Slovic 1979) and the violent death is a ubiquitous theme in popular fiction (Fulton and

Owen 1987).

In reporting the news as stated by Gordon and Kittross (1935), journalism focusing on a

story of significance to readers or viewers, rather than merely conducting a dragnet for

gossip with which slander unwitting subject or titillate some reader as viewer.

Confidentiality of journalist as defined by Engelhard and Barney

(2002) is a journalist who promise to protect the source of their

information should accept the moral obligation to keep the promise.

Engelhard and Barney (2002) mentioned that as a journalist, the

naming of information of sources and their credentials is a mark of

respect for audience as audience have a right to know who is making

the statement and their ability to access information.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGYCONTENT ANALYSISGathered the news reports and articles from only two source of Malaysian daily newspaper

which are The Star and New Straits Times.

The duration twenty – four days we used to collect news from a printed newspaper.

From 15th September 2015 until 12 October 2015.

Carefully opted for content analysis as a method of research for this paper as it more qualitative and more systematic.

According to Krippendorf (1989) content analysis is a method of studying and analyzing communication in a systematic, objective, and quantitative manner for the purpose of measuring variables.

Coding the content according to Wimmer & Dominick (2011) is a standardized sheets that are usually used to ease coding. This sheets allow coders to classify the data by placing check marks or slashes in predetermined spaces.

BACKGROUND OF NEWSPAPERS NEW STRAITS TIMES

NSTP was converted into a private limited company.

The oldest newspaper in Malaysia traces its roots back to a weekly journal printed in 1845.

Then The Straits Times, it has gone through several transformations.

The name change to New Straits Times and downsize from a broadsheet to a compact version.

THE STARThe first published of the star was on sept 9, 1971 as regional

newspaper that was founded in George Town, Penang.

The star also was the first tabloid and the first English language daily newspaper.

The office was set up at Kuala Lumpur and it went national on Jan 3, 1976.

Star publication was being listed on the main board of the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange.

IN- DEPTH INTERVIEW

In- depth interview is essentially a hybrid of the one-on-one interview approach as mentioned Wimmer & Dominick (2011).

Besides that, it allow lengthy observation of respondents’ nonverbal responses and it can be customized to individual respondents (Wimmer & Dominick, 2011).

8 respondents, four females and four males respondents.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

KAIYISAH NURULSYAKUR BINTI YUSOF1216428

110 NUMBER OF NEWS RELATED TO DEATH WERE FOUND

CONTENT ANALYSIS

The Star•48 articles

New Straits Times

•62 articles

TABLE 1: NO. OF PUBLICATIONS & ARTICLESIssue

NumberDate Newspaper No. of Articles

September 15/9/2015 The Star 0New Straits Times 1

16/9/2015 The Star 0New Straits Times 4




20/9/2015 Sunday Star -New Sunday Times -







27/9/2015 Sunday Star -New Sunday Times -




Issue Number Date Newspaper No. of ArticlesOctober 1/10/2015 The Star 2

New Straits Times 42/10/2015 The Star 3


New Straits Times 44/10/2015 Sunday Star -

New Sunday Times -5/10/2015 The Star 4






New Straits Times 211/10/2015 Sunday Star -

New Sunday Times -12/10/2015 The Star 9

New Straits Times 0

•Inconsistent pattern of coverage of death.

•It shows that news about death is being reported almost every day.

CHART 2: COVERAGE OF DEATH ACCORDING TO NEWSPAPER

Murder Accident Natural Disaster Suicide Diseases Sudden Death War Others0

5

10

15

20

25

13

17

01

24

1

10

20

14

43

4

1

9

The Star New Straits Times

CHART: STYLE OF NEWS REPORTING IN NEW STRAITS TIMES AND THE STAR

88%

2%10%

Style of News Reporting:The Star

Ethical

Unethical

Undecided

89%

2%10%

Style of News Reporting: News Straits Times

Ethical

Unethical

Undecided

INTERVIEWTABLE 4: RESPONDENTS IN THE STUDY

No. Organization/ Person Gender (Male/Female)1. Doctor Female2. Lecturer of Journalism Male3. Journalist of Malaysian Insider Male4. Former Executive Editor of Bernama Male5. Newsreader Respondent 1 Female6. Newsreader Respondent 2 Male7. Newsreader Respondent 3 Female8. Newsreader Respondent 4 Female

FIGURE 1: MAIN THEMES OF THE INTERVIEW

Deaths

Type

Awareness

Code of ethics in Journalis

m

CONCLUSION

•We are focused on coverage of death and based on our data collection, we found that both newspapers have different total type of reporting on death in a day.

•We can conclude that most of the respondent in the interview were firmly says that news is something new, benefits to the reader and have reliable sources before reporting the news.

•The respondent also added that to be a journalist, he or she should be able to fulfill the quality to be a journalist. Curiosity, accuracy, courage and able to publish the news in flare writing.

coverage of deaths in malaysian daily newspapers

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