Suffering as a Frame: A Comparative Critical Discourse Analysis of International and Filipino Online News Media, The Case of Haiyan

Caloyloy, B.S. & Chico, Q.E. (2018). Suffering as a Frame: A Comparative Critical Discourse Analysis of International and Filipino Online News Media, The Case of Haiyan. Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.

This study examines the international and Filipino online news media’s depiction of suffering through the case of Super Typhoon Haiyan. The literature on news flow and mediated suffering shows on how international news agencies from developed countries provide undue and unbalanced coverage of developing countries. This study extends the literature by investigating representations by news organizations in their coverage of Typhoon Haiyan. Guided by Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 1995) and the Theory of Mediated Suffering (Chouliaraki, 2006), this study uses a three-pronged approach to unveil the social contexts embedded in the news representations of suffering. A sample of 400 news articles published for November 2013 to November 2016 across two international (BBC and CNN) and local (Inquirer and Rappler) online news sites was analyzed. Findings show that international, more than local, news sites offer a much closer coverage of the distant sufferer. International news sites humanize sufferers by maximizing the use of picture and video clips, while local news sites focus on state actors and sources instead of the sufferers.

Keywords: Mediated Suffering, Critical Discourse Analysis, Super Typhoon Haiyan, Media Studies

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