Winston Lim Teng Liang
Abstract:
The brain drain phenomenon, otherwise known as human capital flight or human capital outflow, is an issue widely covered by both the mainstream and the alternative media. A 2011 World Bank report stated that Malaysians residing overseas are likely to have reached one million in 2010, a third of this figure (approximately 335,000) estimated as a result of the brain drain. This paper compares the reporting style of The Star Online, a mainstream English language online news portal with that of Malaysiakini, an alternative news portal using content analysis. This study employed framing as a theoretical framework to observe how the two news portals potrayed the brain drain phenomenon and related issues as well as the most prominent frames used in their news reporting.
Keywords: brain drain, framing analysis, human capital outflow, emigration, online media