News reports on Islam have gained more attention in recent times because they are often associated with conflicts, which have led to a negative public perception of the religion. In the context of Malaysia, Islam is often associated with conflicts arising from political factors or actions taken by religious authorities against any organisation or individual that provokes public discussion. Islam is also said to be used as a hegemonic tool by the government to maintain the existing status quo and control public perception. However, the discourse on issues involving Islam has become more open after the emergence of digital news portals that enable hegemonic counter arguments to be discussed widely among members in the mentioned medium. Therefore, this study has focused on the discourse by a digital news portal, Malaysiakini involving the application of halal certificate by Aunty Anne’s, which was rejected by Jakim. Using the critical discourse analysis and approaches introduced by van Dijk (2006), the findings showed that Malaysiakini has provided fair and equitable coverage of the case study, which is thoroughly discussed in this article. Nonetheless, Malaysiakini appears to be bold in criticising and questioning the actions taken by Jakim and linking it with Islamisation in Malaysia.

Title

Global Journal Al-Thaqafah

Publisher

Universiti Sultan Azlan Shah

Publisher Country

Malaysia

Indexing

Scopus

Impact Factor

None

Publication Type

Online only

Volume

10

Year

2020

Pages

19-26