Health is wealth: a corpus-driven analysis of the portrayal of mental health in Malaysian English online newspapers

In view of the increase mental health cases in Malaysia, it is timely to examine how Malaysian newspapers portray mental health issues. A corpus-driven approach was employed to identify the adjective collocates for the node word mental health, determine the semantic grouping of the collocates...

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Main Authors: Nor Fariza Mohd Nor,, Novelia Bernice Jeffree,, Hilwa Abdullah@Mohd Nor,
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2021
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17255/1/47167-156854-2-PB.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17255/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1397
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spelling my-ukm.journal.172552021-08-03T05:59:57Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17255/ Health is wealth: a corpus-driven analysis of the portrayal of mental health in Malaysian English online newspapers Nor Fariza Mohd Nor, Novelia Bernice Jeffree, Hilwa Abdullah@Mohd Nor, In view of the increase mental health cases in Malaysia, it is timely to examine how Malaysian newspapers portray mental health issues. A corpus-driven approach was employed to identify the adjective collocates for the node word mental health, determine the semantic grouping of the collocates and investigate the portrayal of mental health issues in two newspapers. A total of 585 news articles, from January 2020 to December 2020 were collected from the New Straits Times and The Star Online. The Antconc 3.5.8 software was used to generate the collocates and a discourse analysis approach was employed to examine how mental health issues were portrayed. 22 adjective collocates were identified in the New Straits Times, while 34 adjective collocates were extracted from The Star Online. 13 similar adjective collocates were found and based on the 13 adjective collocates, four semantic group of adjectives (emotive, miscellaneous, size and evaluative) were identified. A discourse analysis on the portrayal of mental health issues in the two newspapers seemed positive because the reports concentrated on the initiatives taken by the government and NGOs to handle mental health situations in Malaysia, with the aim of educating the public and raising their awareness about mental health. The present study has contributed significantly to research on mental health in the Asian context, since the review of literature revealed that research on mental health were mostly from the West. Furthermore, a corpus-driven approach which is systematic and rigorous allows for the comparison of the language across large datasets. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2021-05 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17255/1/47167-156854-2-PB.pdf Nor Fariza Mohd Nor, and Novelia Bernice Jeffree, and Hilwa Abdullah@Mohd Nor, (2021) Health is wealth: a corpus-driven analysis of the portrayal of mental health in Malaysian English online newspapers. GEMA ; Online Journal of Language Studies, 21 (2). pp. 46-71. ISSN 1675-8021 https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1397
institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
building Tun Sri Lanang Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
content_source UKM Journal Article Repository
url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/
language English
description In view of the increase mental health cases in Malaysia, it is timely to examine how Malaysian newspapers portray mental health issues. A corpus-driven approach was employed to identify the adjective collocates for the node word mental health, determine the semantic grouping of the collocates and investigate the portrayal of mental health issues in two newspapers. A total of 585 news articles, from January 2020 to December 2020 were collected from the New Straits Times and The Star Online. The Antconc 3.5.8 software was used to generate the collocates and a discourse analysis approach was employed to examine how mental health issues were portrayed. 22 adjective collocates were identified in the New Straits Times, while 34 adjective collocates were extracted from The Star Online. 13 similar adjective collocates were found and based on the 13 adjective collocates, four semantic group of adjectives (emotive, miscellaneous, size and evaluative) were identified. A discourse analysis on the portrayal of mental health issues in the two newspapers seemed positive because the reports concentrated on the initiatives taken by the government and NGOs to handle mental health situations in Malaysia, with the aim of educating the public and raising their awareness about mental health. The present study has contributed significantly to research on mental health in the Asian context, since the review of literature revealed that research on mental health were mostly from the West. Furthermore, a corpus-driven approach which is systematic and rigorous allows for the comparison of the language across large datasets.
format Article
author Nor Fariza Mohd Nor,
Novelia Bernice Jeffree,
Hilwa Abdullah@Mohd Nor,
spellingShingle Nor Fariza Mohd Nor,
Novelia Bernice Jeffree,
Hilwa Abdullah@Mohd Nor,
Health is wealth: a corpus-driven analysis of the portrayal of mental health in Malaysian English online newspapers
author_facet Nor Fariza Mohd Nor,
Novelia Bernice Jeffree,
Hilwa Abdullah@Mohd Nor,
author_sort Nor Fariza Mohd Nor,
title Health is wealth: a corpus-driven analysis of the portrayal of mental health in Malaysian English online newspapers
title_short Health is wealth: a corpus-driven analysis of the portrayal of mental health in Malaysian English online newspapers
title_full Health is wealth: a corpus-driven analysis of the portrayal of mental health in Malaysian English online newspapers
title_fullStr Health is wealth: a corpus-driven analysis of the portrayal of mental health in Malaysian English online newspapers
title_full_unstemmed Health is wealth: a corpus-driven analysis of the portrayal of mental health in Malaysian English online newspapers
title_sort health is wealth: a corpus-driven analysis of the portrayal of mental health in malaysian english online newspapers
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2021
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17255/1/47167-156854-2-PB.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17255/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1397
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score 13.211869