The study analyzes the reporting of death in Malaysian newspapers, focusing on The Star and New Straits Times over a 24-day period. It aims to understand the reporting styles, types of deaths covered, and audience awareness regarding death news. Findings indicate inconsistent coverage patterns and emphasize the ethical obligations of journalists in reporting.

2. INTRODUCTION
The Star and News Straits Times is one of the most significant in Malaysian news
agency which has a wide subscribers among the Malaysian itself.
In this research, a news item been collected for a twenty – four days basically
from the two news agency of Malaysian daily newspaper.
The collected news will be narrowed down to a news which involve only about
death in order to see the pattern of the news agency in reporting and associating
the death issues.

3. OBJECTIVES
TO ANALYZE THE REPORTING STYLE OF THE NEWSPAPER.
TO IDENTIFY THE TYPE OF DEATH THAT USUALLY COVER ON
NEWSPAPERS.
TO KNOW THE AWARENESS ON DEATH REPORTS AMONG
NEWSPAPER READERS.

4. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
TO MAKE PEOPLE CONSCIOUS AND AWARE ABOUT THE
COVERAGE OF DEATH IN THE DAILY NEWSPAPERS.
TO ENHANCE OUR UNDERSTANDING ABOUT THE ETHICS OF
REPORTING NEWS.

5. LITERATURE REVIEW
•DEATH IN GENERAL
Prior to the 20th century, deaths typically occurred in infancy,
childhood, or young adulthood, due primarily to short-term
contagious illnesses, crises, or violence (carr, 2009).

6. • Type of Death
 In systematic way, as mentioned by Kastenbaum (2004), death by violence is
begin with murder and followed with war, terrorism, disaster, and accident.
 Carr (2009), claimed deaths that are deemed ‘‘unjust,’’ especially deaths at the
hands of others (i.e., homicide, murder) are particularly distressing.
 Corr, Nabe, & Corr (2009), stated that in their book homicide were currently the
second leading cause of death which exceed only by accidents and followed by
suicide.

7.  According to the statistics, accidents have always been a major
cause of death (Kastenbaum, 2004).
 Abdul Kareem (2003) said that road accident is one of the major
causes of death and injuries in Malaysia.
 Terrorism according to Kastenbaum, (2004) is a violence or threat
to violence that cause of death of the people is one consider as one
of the type of death.

8. Death and Journalism
 Durkin (2003) reports that death and dying are common in daily newspapers. The deaths of
ordinary people are usually reported only in brief obituaries, unless a person has died in
some sensational fashion.
 In general, newspapers tend to overemphasize catastrophic causes of death (Combs and
Slovic 1979) and the violent death is a ubiquitous theme in popular fiction (Fulton and
Owen 1987).
 In reporting the news as stated by Gordon and Kittross (1935), journalism focusing on a
story of significance to readers or viewers, rather than merely conducting a dragnet for
gossip with which slander unwitting subject or titillate some reader as viewer.

9.  Confidentiality of journalist as defined by Engelhard and Barney
(2002) is a journalist who promise to protect the source of their
information should accept the moral obligation to keep the promise.
 Engelhard and Barney (2002) mentioned that as a journalist, the
naming of information of sources and their credentials is a mark of
respect for audience as audience have a right to know who is making
the statement and their ability to access information.

10. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
CONTENT ANALYSIS
Gathered the news reports and articles from only two source of Malaysian daily newspaper
which are The Star and New Straits Times.
The duration twenty – four days we used to collect news from a printed newspaper.
From 15th September 2015 until 12 October 2015.
Carefully opted for content analysis as a method of research for this paper as it more qualitative
and more systematic.

11. According to Krippendorf (1989) content analysis is a method of
studying and analyzing communication in a systematic, objective, and
quantitative manner for the purpose of measuring variables.
Coding the content according to Wimmer & Dominick (2011) is a
standardized sheets that are usually used to ease coding. This sheets
allow coders to classify the data by placing check marks or slashes in
predetermined spaces.

12. BACKGROUND OF NEWSPAPERS
NEW STRAITS TIMES
NSTP was converted into a private limited company.
The oldest newspaper in Malaysia traces its roots back to a weekly
journal printed in 1845.
Then The Straits Times, it has gone through several transformations.
The name change to New Straits Times and downsize from a
broadsheet to a compact version.

13. THE STAR
The first published of the star was on sept 9, 1971 as regional
newspaper that was founded in George Town, Penang.
The star also was the first tabloid and the first English language
daily newspaper.
The office was set up at Kuala Lumpur and it went national on Jan
3, 1976.
Star publication was being listed on the main board of the Kuala
Lumpur stock exchange.

14. IN- DEPTH INTERVIEW
In- depth interview is essentially a hybrid of the one-on-one
interview approach as mentioned Wimmer & Dominick (2011).
Besides that, it allow lengthy observation of respondents’ nonverbal
responses and it can be customized to individual respondents
(Wimmer & Dominick, 2011).
 8 respondents, four females and four males respondents.

16. 110 NUMBER OF NEWS RELATED TO DEATH WERE FOUND
CONTENT ANALYSIS
The Star
•48 articles
New Straits
Times
•62 articles

17. TABLE 1: NO. OF PUBLICATIONS & ARTICLES
Issue Number Date Newspaper No. of Articles
September 15/9/2015 The Star 0
New Straits Times 1
16/9/2015 The Star 0
New Straits Times 4
17/9/2015 The Star 0
New Straits Times 0
18/9/2015 The Star 1
New Straits Times 1
19/9/2015 The Star 0
New Straits Times 0
20/9/2015 Sunday Star -
New Sunday Times -
21/9/2015 The Star 1
New Straits Times 2
22/9/2015 The Star 1
New Straits Times 3
23/9/2015 The Star 1
New Straits Times 2
24/9/2015 The Star 0
New Straits Times 4
25/9/2015 The Star 4
New Straits Times 3
26/9/2015 The Star 1
New Straits Times 3
27/9/2015 Sunday Star -
New Sunday Times -
28/9/2015 The Star 5
New Straits Times 4
29/9/2015 The Star 4
New Straits Times 2
30/9/2015 The Star 2
Issue Number Date Newspaper No. of Articles
October 1/10/2015 The Star 2
New Straits Times 4
2/10/2015 The Star 3
New Straits Times 1
3/10/2015 The Star 3
New Straits Times 4
4/10/2015 Sunday Star -
New Sunday Times -
5/10/2015 The Star 4
New Straits Times 8
6/10/2015 The Star 0
New Straits Times 3
7/10/2015 The Star 0
New Straits Times 3
8/10/2015 The Star 2
New Straits Times 6
9/10/2015 The Star 3
New Straits Times 1
10/10/2015 The Star 2
New Straits Times 2
11/10/2015 Sunday Star -
New Sunday Times -
12/10/2015 The Star 9
New Straits Times 0

18. •Inconsistent pattern of coverage of death.
•It shows that news about death is being reported
almost every day.

19. CHART 2: COVERAGE OF DEATH ACCORDING TO NEWSPAPER
13
17
0 1 2
4
1
10
20
14
4
3
4
1
9
0
5
10
15
20
25
Murder Accident Natural Disaster Suicide Diseases Sudden Death War Others
The Star New Straits Times

20. CHART: STYLE OF NEWS REPORTING IN NEW
STRAITS TIMES AND THE STAR
88%
2%
10%
Style of News Reporting:
The Star
Ethical
Unethical
Undecided
89%
1%
10%
Style of News Reporting:
News Straits Times
Ethical
Unethical
Undecided

21. INTERVIEW
TABLE 4: RESPONDENTS IN THE STUDY
No. Organization/ Person Gender (Male/Female)
1. Doctor Female
2. Lecturer of Journalism Male
3. Journalist of Malaysian Insider Male
4. Former Executive Editor of Bernama Male
5. Newsreader Respondent 1 Female
6. Newsreader Respondent 2 Male
7. Newsreader Respondent 3 Female
8. Newsreader Respondent 4 Female

22. FIGURE 1: MAIN THEMES OF THE INTERVIEW
Deaths
Type
AwarenessCode of
ethics in
Journalism

23. CONCLUSION
•We are focused on coverage of death and based on our data collection, we
found that both newspapers have different total type of reporting on death in a
day.
•We can conclude that most of the respondent in the interview were firmly says
that news is something new, benefits to the reader and have reliable sources
before reporting the news.
•The respondent also added that to be a journalist, he or she should be able to
fulfill the quality to be a journalist. Curiosity, accuracy, courage and able to
publish the news in flare writing.