In the first half of 2003, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic spread around the world and was widely covered by the media. The aim of this paper is to examine the social roles of the news sites in the epidemic. Online news sites have their unique medium characteristics and are able to cover the catastrophic epidemic in a different way. Totally 12 news sites from four regions were selected as samples. Findings indicate that news sites in Hong Kong and Taiwan were in crisis mode and adopted the approach and "trauma reporting." They fulfilled their roles of "interactive community bulletin board" by widely delivering warnings and advice about the epidemic. The news sites in US and UK, however, were only in alert mode and adopted the approach of "observatory reporting." They were sensationalizing the disease and "othering the situation." They played the role as "online othering catastrophe monitors". News sites are always regarded as global media. However, in the global SARS epidemic, findings show that their reaction and coverage depended mainly on their domestic situation. Online news is actually rooted in the local and facing the global.