Representasi Berita Banjir dalam Akhbar Berita Harian dan Free Malaysia Today (Disember 2021 – Januari 2022)

Abstract

The flood disaster that hit Malaysia for three weeks from mid-December 2021 until early January 2022 was one of the worst floods to hit the country. The role of the media is very important in providing accurate news for public understanding and then helping them make decisions related to this issue. However, the media has its agenda in constructing news for the audience based on ownership, readership and revenues. Understanding the representation of flood news is vital to explore how the media helps the community to make informed decisions when facing flood disasters through its reporting. This study aims to identify the pattern, news sources and theme of flood news reporting from 17 December 2021 to 16 January 2022 by mainstream newspaper, Berita Harian and alternative newspaper, Free Malaysia Today using qualitative content analysis. News samples (N = 210) were collected from both news portals and analyzed descriptively using SPSS software. The study’s findings show that Free Malaysia Today publishes flood news almost seven times more (87.1%) than Berita Harian (12.9%). Both newspapers emphasize the same theme which is assistance to the victims. All 210 news items are published with pictures and videos, most of which show the flood situation. Through the Agenda Setting Theory and Framing Theory, this study concludes that mainstream and alternative newspapers do not show significant differences in terms of ownership agenda and framing because the reporting pattern and theme are almost the same except for the frequency of reporting.