Fed with Fear

The media have been instilling fear ever since the resurgence of the Covid-19 outbreak in April which prompted another Movement Control Order (MCO) which was later refined with stricter measures after the Raya celebrations.

Some of these narratives includes statements from Health director-general, Noor Hisham Abdullah regarding the ICU beds and the hospital capacities.

Even though the cases slowly rose in late April, the narrative on the ICU beds was heavily instilled by the media in May, especially after the cases have surged exponentially.

Other narratives found are hospitals having to start using shipping containers as makeshift morgues which magnifies the rise in the number of deaths related to Covid-19.

Another narration that was also instilled are field hospitals, signifying the severity of the hospital capacity in Malaysia.

Looking at the news title sentiments, it shows that the positive sentiments was significantly lesser as compared to neutral and negative sentiments.

However, although negative sentiments spiked on May 30, it was mainly due to news reports about Perak’s Mufti, Harussani Zakaria, who died after a few days being reported as positive Covid-19.