TPPA: The News Framing Pattern of Alternative Media and the Effect towards Public in Malaysia

News reporting can be viewed from various perspectives and can be interpreted with different deliberations by the public. For example Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) issue has been highlighted positively and negatively in the Malaysian news media and was being used by the opposition parties as an element to condemn the Government initiative. The resistances to the TPPA include some of the largest numbers of people converging in protests and at rallies. Besides the TPPA issue was not reported and published thoroughly in Malaysia’s news medium. This study outlines the general idea of the study of the news framing pattern in online news portal of alternative media; Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider (TMI) and determining how their presence in providing news effect the public opinion through the comments section. The objectives of the research are to identify the news framing pattern used, to analyse the effect of framing and to illustrate the relationship between framing pattern and public opinion in Malaysiakini and TMI online news portal in shaping public opinions. Malaysiakini and TMI online news report are shaped in such a way that conforms to frame pattern, as news agencies and portals are essentially mechanisms of informing the public and shaping public opinion. The qualitative content analysis approach was the methodology used in order to observe this phenomenon. Malaysiakini’s and TMI articles and coverage regarding Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement (TPPA), was chosen as a base for this study that was carried out from 29th September 2015 until 3rd October 2015. By using framing as the theoretical framework and content analysis as the research methods, this study found that both media outlets framed the issue differently, affecting and influencing the public opinion the most when the frame introduced in the article is dominant. Frames can be used to emphasis the societal perspectives of any issue that could help distinguish public understanding and outline priorities as they are influential shaping elements.