Framing approach in the Palestine news in Malaysia media: The Deal of Century

This is a study of the media coverage in Malaysia on the Israel-Palestine issue. The top two Malaysian news brands Astro Awani online and The Star online were chosen to be analyzed. The case study is Trump's controversial action on Palestine, the Deal of the Century (2020) that was officially announced on 28 January 2020. This study aimed to explore if any of Entman's 1993 framing functions were used in the coverage of this issue and to explore whether the tone of Astro Awani online and The Star online coverage were negative, positive, or balanced. The tone was also analyzed from the victimhood narrative that was categorized as a positive tone. To achieve the aims of this study, qualitative content analysis of the Deal of the Century stories from those two news brands has been adopted. The total of news stories was 38, 14 from Astro Awani online and 24 stories from The Star online. The time frame started from 28 January to 22 March 2020. Defining problems was the most prominent of Entman's four framing functions presented in all the articles. The diagnosis causes were included in 23 news stories, the moral judgment function was included in 25 news stories, and suggesting remedies was included in 31 news stories out of 38. The findings revealed that Astro Awani online has reported about Palestine with 83% positive and 17% negative coverage. For Israel/the deal, it has reported 83% negative and 17% positive coverage. Meanwhile, The Star online has reported about Palestine 70% negative, 20% balanced, and only 10 % positive. For Israel/the deal, it has reported 57% negative, 19% positive, and 24% balanced coverage where the victimhood narrative is found in the coverage.