Framing a mystery: Information subsidies and media coverage of Malaysia airlines flight 370

Abstract

This study examines from an information subsidies and framing theory perspective the media coverage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Through a content analysis of Malaysian government information subsidies (N=78), and Malaysian (N=155) and Chinese (N=93) newspaper articles, findings include differences of crisis frames and risk roles, the absence of crisis cause did not detract from attribution of responsibility in regard to risk arbiters’ potential solutions to managing the crisis, among other key findings. Implications include the need for the inclusion of an unknown crisis type to the crisis communication typologies and models and theories, as well as supporting the argument of previous studies in regard to media coverage partially determined by the country’s media system and Palmlund’s (1992, 2010) generic roles of societal evaluations of risk.