An exploratory media framing of the extradition of a serial rapist: a corpus assessed study in the Malaysian English newspapers

Language, Discourse & SocietyJune 2025

Sharon Wilson [1], Lim Shiang Shiang [2]

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15762027

[1] Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, ORCID: 0000-0002-9030-386X, sharon@utar.edu.my
 
 
[2] Han Chiang University College of Communication, shiang2lim@gmail.com
 
 

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of media framing in shaping public perceptions of crime and criminal behaviour through the analysis of the case of Selva Kumar Subbiah, a serial rapist from Malaysia who targeted young women in Canada, was charged, served time, and extradited to the country of origin. Employing a corpus and computer-assisted textual analysismethodological approach and framing theory, this study examines the discourses in news articles from two national English newspapers (n=27) of the case in 2017 focusing on news sources and used frames. The study also explored the pertinent issues discussed on the Facebook page of the news portals about the news articles using thematic analysis based on 2738 posted comments. The study highlights the importance of understanding media framing and shaping public perception. The analysis suggested that the media framed the extradition through the focus on criminal offender, public safety, legal and law, family, police monitoring, and the victim. The study highlights the importance of understanding media framing in shaping public perceptions of crime and calls for further research to explore the implications of media representations of crime and criminal behaviour. By exploring how the media portrayed Subbiah’s story, this paper seeks to shed light on the complex relationship between media representations of sexual violence and public perception.

Keywords: national, framing, offender, discourse, comparative

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