Representation of Migrant Workers in Malaysian Online News Media

Alam, Erin Ishika (2023) Representation of Migrant Workers in Malaysian Online News Media. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

This paper is a qualitative analysis of the representation of migrant workers in four main widely distributed Malaysian newspapers in English namely, The Star Online, New Strait Times, Malaymail, and Malaysiakini. In covid-19 period, Malaysia witnessed media rendering migrant workers issues that emphasized different aspects of migrant workers’ condition in Malaysia. Media covered migrant issues from different perspectives of bodies involved in this system. The sample of articles is selected between the years 2020 and 2021. This paper aims to examine (1) how media construct news articles regarding the migrant-related issue (2) to identify the media’s contribution to public attitude towards migrant workers and (3) identify the media’s framing and agenda-setting role in affecting the migrant community. This study will benefit to justify how Media framing and Agenda setting role of the media approach can have a minor or major impact on public opinion. This study reveals that Malaysian media has changed its approach to representing migrant workers and are depicted more as ‘victims’ in Malaysian online newspapers. Mainstream media representation of a specific group of people at an unsuitable time can outbreak more problems. Thus, the media may have a very minor role in changing the public attitude toward migrant workers