CARMA recently unpacked data around the Global Energy Conflict from the US/Iran tensions, drawing emerging narratives of how the world’s media is talking about energy.
A lot of what we discussed stayed with me. But one thing stands out, and it speaks directly to every communicator, brand, and government working in this region.
Asia is being framed as the exposed importer. And right now, that messaging is what everyone is reinforcing. But we can change that.
What the Data Shows
Our analysis of millions of articles and social media posts tells a clear story. Global media has assigned each major region a dominant narrative frame. For Asia, it is vulnerability. For Europe, sleepwalking. For the US, energy weaponisation. For the Middle East, the epicentre.
These are reputational positions that shape investor confidence, policy credibility, and public trust. And in a prolonged crisis (which 46% of journalists and analysts now predict) there is enough time for such messaging to linger and develop.
Asia is feeling that more acutely than anywhere else. India is one of the world’s largest hydrocarbon importers, acutely exposed to Middle East supply disruption. In Gujarat alone, one of the world’s leading ceramics manufacturing regions, the LNG shortage has already forced closures and an estimated 400,000 job losses.
Southeast Asia has been hit twice, first by the global supply shock, then by China’s decision to ban exports of refined oil products outside its borders, a rational act of self-preservation that nevertheless sent shockwaves through markets in Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and beyond that depend on Chinese supply.
Control of energy, according to the data, is the primary strategy in this conflict. The energy crisis lens now accounts for more media coverage than the military lens (~22k articles vs. ~16k articles).
But Here’s What the Framing Misses
Asia is not a passive victim. It is the world’s largest energy demand bloc, and demand is power.
India and China together represent two of the biggest consumers of hydrocarbons on the planet. What they want, what terms they negotiate, what alternatives they develop, these carry genuine geopolitical and market weight. The “exposed importer” label captures the vulnerability of the wider region but forgets the leverage Asia has.
China already demonstrated this, but in a way that hurt its neighbours. Its 1.5billion-barrel strategic reserve means it can withstand a prolonged crisis in ways that smaller markets cannot. India, for all its exposure, is a market that every producer needs. Japan has pledged $10 billion to support Asian neighbours. South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, who are all sophisticated economies with options, alliances, and agency.
The data shows small but real alternative framings exist in Asian coverage. We are advocates for energy security and stability. This positioning is but a fraction of the ongoing dominant narrative. But we can make it grow.
The Comms Objective for the Region
What this means for communicators in Malaysia, the Philippines and across Southeast Asia is both urgent and nuanced.
The individual story has been lost. Our analysis shows the individual lens accounts for barely 5,600 articles out of millions – a negligible share of global coverage. Yet the human impact is real, specific and close to home.
Brands and organisations operating across the region need to ensure their global messaging passes the local context test and that means strengthening the link between regional and local teams.
The factory worker in Gujarat. The Filipino family paying more for fuel. The Malaysian SME facing logistics cost spikes. These stories need telling, and communicators in this region are best placed to tell them.
The global-local tension is real. Global announcements land differently here. What reads as reassurance in London reads as inadequate in Kuala Lumpur or Manila.
Brands and organisations operating across the region need to ensure their global messaging passes the local context test and that means strengthening the link between regional and local teams.
Silence has a cost. The risk of backlash from tone-deaf communications is real, and many brands are choosing to stay quiet for good reason. But silence in a vacuum gets filled by someone else’s narrative.
Asian governments and organisations need to take genuine measures need to communicate them not loudly, but consistently and specifically.
A Final Thought
One of the most striking observations from our briefing came from a panellist who noted that the energy system is fundamentally global and each region is a player, not a spectator. The hope, he said, is that people start putting their heads together, that trust gets rebuilt, that the divisiveness driving the world’s energy backwards starts to reverse.
That’s not naïve. That’s the only viable path. And Asia, with its scale, its diversity of response, and its acute understanding of what is actually at stake on the ground, has a more important role to play in that conversation than the “exposed importer” label would suggest.
The framing can change. But it won’t change by itself.
Jeremiah is the General Manager, Malaysia and the Philippines at CARMA Asia.
Featured image by Punit Singh.
