SPOTLIGHT ON LGBT IN MALAYSIAN ONLINE NEWSPAPERS: INSIGHTS FROM TEXTUAL ANALYTICS

ABSTRACT

The study examined aspects that were spotlighted in news articles on LGBT in Malaysian online newspapers using textual analytic approach. The specific objectives of the study were to (1) determine the aspects of LGBT highlighted in news articles based on the frequency of top ranked words; and (2) analyse the positive and negative coverage of LGBT in the four online newspapers. The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software was used to extract high frequency content words in four online newspapers (The Star Online, Free Malaysia Today, MalaysiaKini, and Astro Awani Online). The analysis revealed controversy surrounding LGBT. The aspects of LGBT highlighted in news articles were largely negativity and non-permissiveness towards LGBT, the association of LGBT with Malay and Muslim, and the quotation of government and ministerial sources to comment on LGBT. The prominence of government-linked sources drowned out the voice of activists and advocates of LGBT rights. The textual analytic software analysis also revealed that Astro Awani was markedly different from the other three newspapers in its event-focused reporting on LGBT, mainly because it is a news portal affiliated to a television channel. Astro Awani’s news articles on LGBT were mostly negative, but the other three newspapers attempted to balance positive and negative coverage on LGBT. The study showed that data mining of news articles using textual analytic software can reveal salient aspects of the LGBT issue that is given attention by the newspapers, and may indicate how media shapes readers’ attitudes towards LGBT.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The research is funded by Ministry of Education Malaysia under the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme, Grant Number F09/FRGS/1874/2019 and FRGS/l/2019/SS09/UNIMAS/02/1.

Notes on contributors

Su-Hie Ting

Su-Hie Ting teaches research methodology at the Faculty of Language and Communication, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. She graduated from University of Queensland with a Ph.D in Applied Linguistics in 2001. Her research interests include language choice and identity, academic writing, communication strategies and health communication.

Kee-Man Chuah

Kee-Man Chuah is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Language and Communication. His research interests are in educational technology, computational linguistics, learning analytics and instructional design.

Collin Jerome

Collin Jerome is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Language and Communication, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia. His areas of expertise are literary studies and LGBT studies. He holds a Ph.D in English literature from the University of Sussex.

Audrea Johnson

Audrea Johnson holds a Bachelor of Linguistics (Honours) from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and her research interest is in newspaper portrayal of LGBT.