The Orang Asli in Malaysian Media: An Approach from Transitivity Perspective

Abstract

The Orang Asli are recognised as the country’s indigenous peoples that are often perceived as a marginalised community in the country. The present study aims to conduct a comparative study by comparing the ways the Orang Asli are being represented by the mainstream (The Star) and alternative media (Malaysiakini) from a CDA perspective. In this study, a total of six news reports were selected from The Star and Malaysiakini respectively and were analysed under Fairclough’s Three-Dimensional Framework (1995) serving as the foundational framework. The framework demonstrates the integration of Halliday and Matthiessen’s (2014) transitivity analysis and van Dijk’s (1998) Theory of Ideology in analysing the transitivity structures as well as the ideological construction of the Orang Asli in the news reports. The findings revealed that Malaysiakini represented the Orang Asli more frequently than The Star. However, the overall findings indicate that the Orang Asli are still portrayed in a stereotypical and pejorative manner. In essence, the study reveals the ideological representation of the Orang Asli by both mainstream and alternative media as illustrated by the transitivity patterns that surfaced from the analysis.