Editorial Framing of the Post-quake Nepal and its Response to the Gorkha Earthquake

Abstract

This paper examines eleven editorials of The Himalayan Times, The Kathmandu Post, and The Rising Nepal (henceforth THT, TKP and TRN) published after the Great Gorkha Earthquake of April 2015. The representations of this disaster in these mainstream papers form the main concern of this study. It identifies the post-quake Nepali government’s emergency response to the catastrophe as the dominant theme and then examines how this theme has been framed in the sampled editorials. Although the 2015 disaster has been studied in various writings, these are mostly restricted to reviews, field reports, write-ups and surveys. Research works exist even little. This lack of scholarly works reveals a gap in the studies conducted so far. Using framing analysis, this paper broadens the editorial representation of the April catastrophe. It engages a two-fold analytical process: identifying the dominant theme first and then analyzing how the theme has been framed. The paper also compares the editorials to understand whether they converge or diverge in terms of their framing, focusing on the major question: what dominant theme(s) have the editorials covered and how the frames used in the editorials project the overall national image of Nepal. The conclusion reveals that the frames used in the editorials have ultimately controlled readers’ perception of the post-quake Nepali government and the way it has responded to the emergency situation.