Siti Nor Amalina Ahmad Tajuddin, Khairul Azam Bahari, Kamaruzzaman Abdul Manan, Dhoni Zustiyantoro
Environmental journalism is least studied in water supply and water resources. Although environmental journalism often focuses on local and tangible issues, such as pollution or deforestation, the issue of water supply disruption transcends geographical boundaries and is both global and intangible in nature. The overarching aim of this study is to investigate what frames are used in the coverage of water supply disruption by the two online English mainstream newspapers and the frames used by people from affected areas towards the water supply disruption in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. Specifically, this study also discovered how different ethnic groups frame the incidence of water disruption in the coverage of mainstream English online news. Methodologically, this study employs a qualitative frame analysis of 130 news articles from mainstream English online newspapers, the New Straits Times and The Star newspapers, both for data collection and data analysis. The two frames were discovered from the analysis: water disruption due to irresponsible parties and water disruption due to agency responsibility. The findings of this study thus contribute to the understanding of environmental journalism from different frames: both news and people frames towards the water supply disruption in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It also provides valuable insights into the complexities and nuances of environmental reporting in a diverse and dynamic socio-cultural context. Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Department of Communication and Media, Faculty of Languages and Communication, Sultan Idris Education University, Perak, Tanjong Malim, Malaysia; School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia; Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia
