Media and Public Relation - Research Paper Example

Media and Public Relation Table of Contents Introduction and Background of the Research 3 Design of the Content Analysis 3 Content Analysis 4 Advantages of Content Analysis 4 Limitations of Content Analysis 5 Evaluation of the Selected News Topic 5 Results and Findings 8 Reflective Statement of the Research 9 Conclusion 10 References 11 Bibliography 13 Introduction and Background of the Research The research study brings out a clear representation of the few major news articles retrieved from global news agencies and organisations regarding the issue of disappeared Malaysian Airliner MH370 in March 2014. In order to address the situation or crisis that faced by MH370, the research study focuses determining a major set of findings through conducting a content analysis of the articles represented by the international newspaper agencies and organisations. The content analysis is carried out in the study by considering articles that had been published by the newspaper agencies during 8th to 10th March 2014. Finally, the study also summarises the content analysis by outlining its major benefits and drawbacks to explore the articles regarding the issue of disappeared MH370. Design of the Content Analysis The content analysis designed in this study covers few of the major news articles that were being represented by the globally renowned news agencies with a perception regarding the key focus on the event of missing MH370. In this process, a clear representation of the primary causes of the missing jet along with portraying the reaction of the family members of the passengers and the airline service providers to the mass media was apparent. In addition, the key people such as airline officials, families and government have also been undertaken in the discussion of the proposed content analysis regarding the topic of missing MH370 airliner. Finally, the analysis also provides a clear illustration of the actions that were being undertaken by the airline authorities and governmental agencies or organisations relating to the disappearance of the missing jet MH370. Content Analysis The concept of content analysis can be defined as a well-structured research approach, which is mainly used to undertake a major study by evaluating broad range of texts from different transcripts. The use of content analysis has been recognised as fastest-growing methodology in the mass communication research field. The transcripts that are undertaken in the content analysis generally include discussions in social and political researches, interviews along with editorial and advertising content published in the newspapers and/or research articles (Macnamara, 2011). Advantages of Content Analysis The use of content analysis helps researchers to directly enter into the central issue regarding any type of social interaction as the approach is more likely to make communication through texts or transcripts published in newspapers or articles. The analysis is also permissible to be used in both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies due to its characteristics of evaluating texts in the newspapers. In addition, the content analysis is also found to be effective for the research studies in terms of obtaining wider information regarding the cultural and historical aspects related to any particular social or clinical issues. The analysis is further considered to include unobtrusive means of practices while analysing information published in the transcripts (Macnamara, 2011). Limitations of Content Analysis Although the integration of content analysis provide a wider insight to evaluate transcript results, the approach further include a time consuming aspect that can reduce the capability of the researchers to deliver research findings within a stipulated time frame. Nevertheless, a higher chance of flaws in the interpretation works can also be considered as a major limitation in content analysis. In this regard, the content research approach often includes a rational analysis, which is undertaken to obtain a higher level of interpretations of the transcripts. Therefore, the probability of flaws may also rise which can substantially reduce the credibility and accountability of the research. Evaluation of the Selected News Topic In relation to the proposed research study, the content analysis significantly outlines detailed information, revealed since the disappearance of Malaysian Airliner MH370 from different global news agencies or organisations. The research question addressed in this particular study is “How was the disappearance of Malaysian Airliner MH370 in March 2014 represented in international newspapers?” In order to address the question, the study undertakes few of the valuable international newspapers in terms of evaluating the information of the missing MH370 that were being published during 8th to 10th of March 2014. As published by the New York Times, Malaysia Airliner MH370 was departed International Airport of Kuala Lumpur on March 8th at 16:41 GMT and was due arriving to Beijing at 22:30 GMT. However, the airliner MH370 lost its contact less than an hour of its take-off from the International Airport of Kuala Lumpur. According to the news report, MH370 was recorded to mark its ACARS transmission after its 01:07 hours of take-off from the base. The Malaysian air traffic control also revealed that the airliner has made its last communication after 12minutes of its ACRS transmission i.e. 01:19 hours of its departure time. Additionally, the new article has revealed that the airliner MH370 also failed to make its check in as per the schedule with Ho Chi Minh City air traffic control base. The military radar of Malaysia has also claimed that the last location of MH370 was at south of Phuket island in the Strait of Malacca. The location was also confirmed by the radar logs of Thai military. According to the radar logs report of the Thai military, it has also been revealed that MH370 took turn towards the west then again to the north over the Andaman Sea (Fuller, 2014). According to the post published in New York Times, the article revealed numerous questions about such type of disappearance of the Malaysian Airliner MH370 after less than an hour of its departure from the Kuala Lumpur international airport. According to the articles of the New York Times newspaper agency, it has been revealed strong rumours regarding the various factors such as social unrests or threats of terrorism, communication equipment of the plane along with cruising operations of the air traffic control process of the airline service providers. In addition, a reflection on the political rumours regarding the disappearance of MH370 has also been witnessed from the news articles. Nevertheless, the article has also revealed numerous criticisms relating to the searching process of debris after the disappearance of the aircraft almost an hour of its departure (Fuller, 2014). According to the articles published during the period of the incident from 8th to 10th of March 2014 in The New Straits Times of Malaysia, the rumours made by the families of those 239 people on board of the MH370 has also been inflamed the security and surveillance system of the Malaysian Airline’s freight services. According to the news article, it has been revealed that the family members were utterly disappointed with the measures that were undertaken by the government or the respective airline service provider in the nation. According to the evaluation of the articles, it has been found that many of the family members of the passenger on board of MH370 have continued seeking adequate measure of searching the disappeared aircraft. The rumours were further led the family members to call for various types of allegations against the airline service providers, government along with security and surveillance system of the organisations (Weaver & McCarthy, 2014). Results and Findings The content analysis revealed rich understanding about the way the disappearance of Malaysian Airliner MH370 in March 2014 represented in international newspapers. The different newspaper agencies presented different articles about its disappearance. In this regard, the analysis demonstrated that some newspaper agencies reported the incident of disappearance as a mystery while other related the incident with conspiracy theories. Nevertheless, every newspaper agencies covering the news tried to justify their position to convince the audiences about the disappearance. The newspaper agencies such as, “The New York Times” (USA) presented the tragedy in more political manner while other like “The Guardian” (UK) raised question on the future of Malaysia Airlines. In contrast, “The New Straits Times” (Malaysia) related the incident with terrorist activities urging the need for tightening the security. Clearly, the newspaper of three different countries presented their own views and projections about the disappearance of Malaysian Airliner MH370 (Broomhall & Ticher, 2014). However, none of the newspapers agencies were witnessed to provide any valid justification for the disappearance. Thus to an extent, it would be fair to say that the coverage of the tragedy was burdened with biasness, which was clearly visible through the differences in the presentation of the incident in their articles. The primary reason behind the differences in the coverage of the news can be attributed to several factors such as political factors, lack of access to appropriate information and inability of the newspaper agencies to penetrate deep into the incident. Besides, the differences were also apparent in term of columns and features. Notably, the newspaper columns in “The New York Times” (USA) and “The Guardian” (UK) mainly covered about the views of political personalities and featured their images while on the other hand the columns in the The New Straits Times (Malaysia) mainly provided information about the aspects surrounding the investigation accompanied with images of Malaysian citizens revealing their dissatisfaction over the effort made towards solving the issue (Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Co., 2014). The host country newspaper agency focused on conveying the voice of local citizens to senior authorities while the international newspaper such as “The New York Times” (USA) and “The Guardian’ (UK)”structured it politically. It can be concluded that these three newspaper agencies were biased to a certain extent in terms of presenting the news to the masses and can be recognised to be far from demonstrating the true picture of the tragedy (Fuller, 2014). Reflective Statement of the Research The issue of disappearance of Malaysian Airliner Mh370 is one of the major tragedy that faced by the global airline service industry throughout the decades. According to a clear understanding of the issue, the integration of content analysis has provided a major insight in evaluating the transcripts published by the global news agencies and organisations. With due regard to the issue of MH370, the content analysis has enabled to obtain various criticisms and rumours that are developed due to an uncertain disappearance of MH370 almost after an hour of its departure from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport base. The analysis methodology has also provided a major insight in terms of exploring information that occurred since the take-off time of the aircraft from its disappearance. Additionally, it has also revealed the interrogations that are made due to the failure of searching missing MH370 along with political interruptions in the searching activities of the aircraft. The outburst of the family member of the on board passenger in MH370 has also been considered as a major insight of the content analysis (Halliday & Safi, 2014). Conclusion The overall discussion made in this essay briefly summarises the incident of missing MH370 by evaluating transcripts and news articles published in three major news agencies such as “The Guardian” (UK), “The New York Times” (USA), or “The New Straits Times” (Malaysia). In order to bring a clear illustration of the findings revealed in the articles, the content analysis has provided a major insight in the study to critically explore the causes and remedies behind the issues associated with the missing MH370. With regard to the findings of the analysis, the content approach helps to reveal that the disappearance of the missing aircraft has created large number of allegations against the airline service of the company along with government and other security and surveillance systems. Moreover, the approach also helped to determine relevant political issues along with allegations made by the family members of the on board passengers in MH370. References Broomhall, K. & Ticher, M., 2014. Oil Slicks Spotted in Search for Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane – Live. The Guardian. [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/08/malaysian-airlines-plane-live [Accessed January 08, 2015]. Fuller, T. 2014. Search for Jet Compounds the Mystery. Asia Pacific. [Online] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-flight.html [Accessed January 08, 2015]. Halliday, J. & Safi, M., 2014. Malaysia Airlines: Object Found by Vietnam Navy thought to be Part of Missing Plane – Live. Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/09/malaysia-airlines-missing-plane-investigation-widens-live [Accessed January 08, 2015]. Macnamara, J., 2011. Media Content Analysis: Its Uses; Benefits and Best Practice Methodology. Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 001-34. Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Co., 2014. Missing Malaysia Airlines plane: Pilot Contacted Mh370 Just before it went Missing. The Straits Times. [Online] Available at: http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/missing-mas-plane/story/missing-malaysia-airlines-plane-pilot-contacted-mh370-just-it- [Accessed January 08, 2015]. Weaver, M. & McCarthy, T., 2014. Malaysia Airlines flight MH370: Officials Widen Search Area. The Guardian. [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/blog/2014/mar/10/malaysia-airlines-flight-370-search-continues-live-updates [Accessed January 08, 2014]. Bibliography Elo, S. & Kyngas, H., 2007. The Qualitative Content Analysis Process. Journal of Advanced Nursing, Vol. 62, No. 1, pp. 107-115. Malaysian Airlines, 2014. Office of the Chief Inspector of Air Accidents Ministry of Transport Malaysia. MH 370 Preliminary Report. [Online] Available at: http://www.dca.gov.my/MH370/Preliminary%20Report.pdf [Accessed January 08, 2015]. Schreier, M., 2012. Qualitative Content Analysis in Practice. SAGE. White, M. D. & Marsh, E. E., 2006. Content Analysis: A Flexible Methodology. Library Trends, Vol. 55, No. 1, pp. 22-45. Read More