Risky News

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was first reported in Guangdong. China in November 2002 followed by an outbreak in Hong Kong in March 2003 and then gradually spreading to other parts of the world. Risk, public anxiety, fear and panic has been widespread in both countries that have been affected and not been affected by the virus. Evidence of underreporting of the virus in both China and Hong Kong has been shown and fear of SARS seems to come hand in hand with the Swine flu virus in terms of panic caused. Newspapers and news on television have been major contributors to this unrest and panic caused. Hence, this research study will use the research method of critical discourse analysis to analyze two major newspapers:China Daily based in Beijing and the other South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. Risk and the construction of actors and actions in media discourse is very prominent within the results. The findings showed that the medical-warning reporting style and over emphasizing government officials' and experts' opinions and using facts and figures about the virus have contributed to the risk and public anxiety.