Trends in News Coverage: Content Analysis of a Malaysian Newspaper
Deng Ruolan1.
This paper describes a content analysis of the most English newspaper in Malaysia
– the Star on the continued two days. It has found that the hard news occupies most space of
the newspaper than soft news. Among them, the categories of sports, business, and social
problems appear most often. Generally, the headlines and sentences are concise and simple.
It spends about half of the space to cover the advertisements. The result also shows that the
top prevailing ads are property, automobile, public service products, and education. And the
advertisers prefer colour ads than black and white ads. An essentially significant finding is
that positive news of the government and intriguing reports of the opposition party are the
common phenomenon on the Star newspaper. These findings can suggest the current practical
norms and principles in the newspaper organization, which will give news practitioners
warning if possible. These findings could also indicate the independence of newspaper
organizations from other sources’ interference in Malaysia.
Affiliation:
- Xiamen University Malaysia, Malaysia
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