Framing Media as Social Actors in the MH370 Aviation Crisis Reporting

The media play a critical role in shaping how crises are perceived by the public, especially in the context of aviation disasters. This study explores how the media are framed as social actors in the construction of public narratives during the MH370 aviation crisis. The study was conducted using a corpus-linguistics approach on online news articles from 2014 to 2016 of a local news media outlet in Malaysia. The analysis employed a three-stage social actor identification process to categorise the semantic categories and discursive functions of media as social actors. The findings suggest that media as social actors are represented in the form of individuals in the media, local media, and international media. Malaysian media’s framing of the crisis also emphasised themes of nationalism and tenacity, as well as empathy and international collaboration. These discursive patterns suggest that localised news media actively shaped national sentiments and public understanding of the aviation crisis. The study provides significant implications for crisis and emergency communication, highlighting the strategic role of local news media in influencing public opinion during aviation crises. Future studies could expand this inquiry by analysing the language of attitude across other media platforms and crisis events.