Framing Analysis of ASEAN Online News Media Coverage of South China Sea Dispute between China and the Philippines

Abstract

Media plays a vital role in manifesting the strong relationship among the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). This was particularly reflected when the online news media coverage of Brunei (The Brunei Times), Indonesia (The Jakarta Post), Malaysia (The Borneo Post), The Philippines (Philippine Daily Inquirer), Singapore (The Straits Times), Thailand (The Nation), and Vietnam (Thanh Nien Daily) favored the Philippines over China in their dispute over the West Philippine Sea. This was the result of the analysis using the lenses of the Transnational Comparative Framing Model (TCFM), an emerging approach in Framing Theory. Moreover, as guided by the Peace and War Journalism of Johan Galtung (1970), online news media in ASEAN particularly that of the Philippines and Vietnam, two vocal claimants against China in sea rows, used war journalism frames as the most dominant frame indicators over peace. These indicators were elite-orientations, partisan, one-party-orientations and differences-orientations.

Keywords

Framing, Peace and War Journalism, South China Sea dispute, China, Philippines, UNCLOS, ASEAN, Online News Media

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