TRENDS IN NEWS COVERAGE: CONTENT ANALYSIS OF A MALAYSIAN NEWSPAPER

Abstract

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.