Berita Harian issues public apology over tsunami cartoon

Berita harian as a one of Malaysia’s top news daily newspaper has apologized to public the world, especially to Japanese on its website and also through tweeter and Facebook, about the publication of cartoon depicting the devastating tsunami and earthquake which just had happen in Japan and killed thousands people The cartoon was represented the Tsunami and earthquake in Japan which shown the famous Japanese icon cartoon “Ultraman” running away from an oncoming Tsunami (The Star 2011). ­­­ Because the publication, there out coming protests from outsiders which is politicians and the public criticizing regarding inappropriate image which Berita Minggu published.  The reason why politicians and the public criticizing give some poor judgments are that they describe from the “Cartoon Tsunami” are not preferred and offensive.  Apart of this, Youth chief of Umno Khairy Jamaluddin  was giving some comment through tweeter, he stated that Berita Harian must apologies  for publishing the cartoon and also Elizabeth Wong the Executive councilor of Bukit Lanjan assemblymand sum Selangor was tweeted, saying that “the matter was not funny” (The Star 2011). According to Kress and Van Leeuwen (1998), image is a part of multimodal text because it is making representation. It means that image can also convey a message without text. Moreover, the arrangement and visual representations contribute to meaning.  Relating to image of cartoon Tsunami which Berita Harian published, the reader must have their own perspective to construe the image of the cartoon itself, as Kress and van Leeuwen agree that readers are mapping reading path before actual reading.  However, this issue can be related to one of cultural meaning aspects from intertextuality which will lead people to understand of cultural array of meaning making.  Shchirato & Yell (1996) state that discourse has an important function which is to express the meanings and values of the institution. Connecting to the issue, those authors illustrate that some discourses like religious discourse are strongly regulated through their personal institutions. However, even though the image over Tsunami cartoon it’s just an image, yet it has extremely different meaning and perspective from different social context.

Reference

Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. 2006, Chapter 6: The meaning of composition Reading images, Reading images, Routledge, pp. 175- 214

Shchirato, T. & Yell, S. 1996, Chapter 5: Framing Contexts, Communication and cultural literacy: An Introduction, Allen and Unwin, St. Leonards NSW, pp. 90-117

The Star 2011, “ Berita Harian issues public apology over tsunami cartoon”, online, viewed 10 June 2011, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/14/nation/8262608&sec=nation>