Contesting unity: Media representations of national identity in Malaysia’s multilingual press

This study examined how four selected Malaysian news outlets represented national identity in a multicultural and politically contested society. Drawing on framing theory and Ariely’s (2019) conceptualization of national identity, it analyzed 104 articles published in 2024 by Harian Metro (Malay), Sin Chew Daily (Chinese), The Star (English), and the English-language edition of the digital-native outlet Malaysiakini . The content analysis examined reporting volume, article types, news sources, frames, and tones. Sin Chew contributed the most coverage, while political actors were the dominant sources across all four outlets. “Interethnic harmony, multiculturalism, and diversity” constituted the dominant frame across most outlets, but ethnic tensions and competing interpretations of nationhood persisted. Other frames included the “defense of Malay identity”, “racism against non-Malays”, and “East Malaysia’s marginalization”. Coverage in Harian Metro and The Star was predominantly inclusive, whereas Malaysiakini gave comparatively greater visibility to contestation and democratic deliberation. The findings show that the coverage represented Malaysian national identity as a dynamic and continuously negotiated process. The observed patterns are consistent with differences in the outlets’ linguistic audiences and institutional positions and can be interpreted within the context of Malaysia’s nation-building legacies. The study contributes to framing research by documenting systematic variation across selected legacy and digital-native outlets within the same multilingual media environment.