Educational Research AY2017/2018

This study examines a news medium, The Straits Times, for newspaper articles published on the topic of plastics in the year 2018. It analyses the articles through a method of coding to get an overview of the kind of topics explored in relation to plastics. Of specific interest is microplastics, which does not seem to have been given adequate attention in the mass media or literature on plastics. Articles related to the keywords “plastics” and “microplastics” were identified and coded accordingly. A total of 30 codes were generated. The findings of this study include the various frames adopted by the news media in reporting on the issue of plastics, such as “attribution of responsibility frame” and “human interest frame”. It was found that there were only 8 articles that mentioned about microplastics. A pronounced emphasis seems to be placed on recycling, reusing and reducing of plastics. In addition, there were more articles on plastics from overseas wire-agencies in the newspaper than local news reports, including those on microplastics. There is also growing interest of various stakeholders such as government, private companies and non-governmental organisations in the debate on plastics.