The Ideology of the Jakarta Post through Headlines and Editorials on Negara Islam Indonesia s Case

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1 The Ideology of the Jakarta Post through Headlines and Editorials on Negara Islam Indonesia s Case Sugeng Irianto Jurusan Teknik Mesin, Politeknik Negeri Semarang sugengi2008@yahoo.com Abstract: This research is aimed to reveal or unfold the Ideology stance of the Jakarta Post when publishing the news on Negara Islam Indonesia (NII) case in the form of headlines and editorials. The data of this study was the headlines and editorials published in the Jakarta Post in the year of 2010 until This research is mixed method in nature, quantitative and qualitative. Simple quantitative is done to count the quantity of headlines and editorials in the study. The qualitative is used to describe, explain, and unfold the ideology belongs to the Jakarta Post when publishing the news on NII. The study uses the Appraisal model developed by White (2001) and Martin and Rose (2003) to reveal the ideology stance of the Jakarta Post. The result of this study is the Jakarta Post s ideology stance follow the government ideology when looking at the NII group. However, the Jakarta Post give the big portion (space) in the newspaper for the NII group (as there were many headlines, editorials, and national news published in the Jakarta Post with relatively big portion/space) to follow the Post policy to accommodate all the party in Indonesia, specifically to minorities groups or suppressed groups. This policy of the Jakarta Post reflects the democratic way as one of the vision of the Jakarta Post. Keywords: Critical discourse analysis, ideology, Negara Islam Indonesia 1. INTRODUCTION Negara Islam Indonesia or NII s case is of deep interest to the Indonesian news media, especially television and newspapers in Indonesia. The Indonesian newspaper s news on NII s case has special linguistic and rhetorical features that present the group as negative. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) perspective and analysis I want to reveal those linguistic and non linguistic factors (socio-politic and history) in the Jakarta Post s presentation of NII s case. NII is an illegal (underground) Moslem organization in Indonesia which began its movement since the era of 1940s (before Indonesian independence, 1945) up to now. The organization used West Java province area to be the central part (basis) for its movement. NII was founded by Karto Suwiryo with the goal to set up an Islamic-ruled country within Indonesia, which would not allow freedom for other ways of life. Although the organization was banned by the Indonesian government and could be disintegrated by the Indonesian army, its underground movement continues struggling. My study examines the Jakarta Post s news on NII for the following reasons: It is an internationally respected and available media source; the readers (specifically Indonesian people) are middle to upper level, mostly well educated people; Finally, the Jakarta Post is the main Indonesian (English written) newspaper which is read by all diplomats, expatriates, and other foreign people and democratic English speaking countries and is Ragam Jurnal Pengembangan Humaniora Vol. 15 No. 3, Desember

2 the first source of information (written) to know about Indonesian events for all these different groups. And also the Jakarta Post is written in English, the language I study. The Purpose of the Study is to seek to describe and explain how discourse structures operate in the Jakarta Post news on NII. I am looking specifically for ways that the discourse enacts, confirms, reproduces or challenges power and ideology in Indonesia in the case of NII as represented in the Jakarta Post. This study also wants to seek answers to the following important questions: 1. What the ideological stance of the Jakarta Post behind the text of NII through headlines and editorials? 2. How are power relations shaped in the discourse features of the Jakarta Post when publishing on NII? 3. What are the implication of this study to language study and tertiary education? 2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1. An Overview on Critical Discourse Analysis In the early development, the term CDA had not been recognized yet, however it was initially known as Critical Linguistics (CL) in the late 1970s. It was developed by a group of linguists and literary theorists at the University of East Anglia (Fowler et al, 1979, Kress & Hodge, 1979). Their approach was based on Halliday s Systematic Functional Linguistics. CL practitioners focused on isolating ideology and discourse and showing how ideology and ideological process are manifestated as systems of linguistic characteristics and processes. The aim was pursued by developing CL s analytical tools. (Fowler et al, 1979 based on SFL) In the development of discourse, the need for further elaboration toward a text or language increased and this promted alternative approach for some concerns: (1) taking into consideration the role of audiences and their interpretations of discourse possibly different from that of the discourse analyst, and (2) broadening the scope of analysis beyond the textual, extending it to the intertextual analysis. Therefore, Fairclough (1995) has raised both issues. He claims that the earliest work in CL did not adequately focus on the interpretive practices of audiences. In other words, he claims that CL has, for the most part, assumed that the audiences intepret texts the same way the analysts do. The other issue that Fairclough (1995: 28) puts forwards is that while earlier contributions in CL were very thorough in their grammatical and lexical analysis they were less attentive to the intertextual analysis of texts. The linguistic analysis is very much focused upon clauses, with little attention to higher-level organization properties of whole texts Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) CDA is a kind of approach that is interpretive, contextual and constructive in which it offers for intepretations of the meaning of the text rather than quantifying textual features and deriving meaning. It situates what is written or said in the context in which it occurs, rather than just summarizing patterns or regularities in text. It also argues that textual meaning is constructed through an interaction between producer-text-consumer rather than simply being read off the page by all readers in exactly the same way (Richardson 2007: 14). Fairclough (1993: 135) states CDA as discourse analysis which aims to systematically explore often opaque relationships of casuality and determination between (a) discursive practices, events and texts, and (b) wider social and cultural structures, 132 The Ideology of the Jakarta Post through Headlines and Editorials on Negara Islam Indonesia s Case (Sugeng Irianto)

3 relations and processes, to investigate how such practices, events and texts arise out of and are ideologically shaped by relations of power and struggles over power, and to explore how the opacity of these relationship between discourse and society is itself a factor securing power and hegemony (CDA aims at making transparent the relations between discourse practices, social practices, and social structures which might be opaque to the lay person) The Jakarta Post The Jakarta Post is one of Indonesian newspapers written in English which is widely accessible for local and global market. It was the first Indonesian newspaper written in English published in 1983 with aim at providing an Indonesian perspective to counter the highly unbalanced Western-dominated global traffic of news and views. Along the history, in 1994, this newspaper became the first Indonesian newspaper to go global under nickname Go international. Three global companies providing database services from three different parts of the world signed agreements with the Post to make the paper accessible 24 hours a day to tens of thousands of their subcribers around the world. Under the arrangements, the Post is transmitted every morning in digitalized format via modem to three main computers in New York in USA, London in the UK and Palo Alto in California, USA, each owned by Chamber World Network, Reuters and Dialog, making the paper the first in this country to go international without the heavy burden of transportation costs. The Jakarta Post can be accessed through The news is always changing everyday that serve both local and international audiences Journalistic Discourse I try to discuss how selected headline texts from the the Jakarta post expose its ideology or belief toward the topic of NII s case from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) perspective. This issue is exposed rapidly by media both electronic and newspaper as it is potentially consumptive. It seems that they try to present this hot topic as it to be persistent exists. However, as media function as a social means, they are expected to be neutral and proportional in conveying the news. They should not expose news based upon certain group s interest. Newspapers, as one of the media that functions as social control in society are expected to be fair in facing this matter, present a balance and proportional news about an issue. They are hoped to be able to give an in-depth comprehension for all layers of society. They were not supposed to take side to certain party or individual nor government. However, it is likely that there is a tendency that media tend to affiliate to a certain group. In writing headline texts or news, we suppose that the writers conciously or not will tend to stand for certain interest. This is probably affected by the influence of the major readers. For that, the newspaper publisher strives to fullfill the demand of the consumers or the writers themselves who tend to take side on the topic. For that reason, readers should be aware and critical to what they read especially the ideological issue, so that they do not just accept and take it for granted. As Richardson (2007: 27) asserted: Journalistic discourse, in particular, is one active element in bringing about such change through shaping understandings, influencing audience attitudes and beliefs (particularly through their reinforcement) and transforming the conciousness of those who read and consume it. Ragam Jurnal Pengembangan Humaniora Vol. 15 No. 3, Desember

4 3. RESEARCH METHODS In this study, I analyze the data of headlines and editorial of the Jakarta Post (year 2011 until 2015) with the objective of examining the documented accounts put forward by the Jakarta Post in the topic of NII. So the units of analysis of in this study are words, phrases, clauses and argumentation development. The study uses several distinct discourse strategies in analyzing the data: a. Topic selection; b. Lexicalization (words or lexicons that support the idea or ideological stance simplified within the topic selection); c. Argumentation (use of a range of strategies in attempting to justify and legitimate an idea in order to promote an ideology). The data were analyzed using Appraisal Model developed by White 2003 to reveal the ideology stance of the Jakarta Post when publishing headlines or editorial about NII. In this study, I also use questionnaire and interview (free but guided interview) to some Jakarta Post s journalists and some senior members of board of the Jakarta Post which have right to publish headlines and editorials in the newspaper organization. This interview is used as secondary data to strengthen the primary data (text of headlines and editorial) so the research will relatively complete. 4. THE RESULTS OF THE STUDY 1. The Jakarta Post is a liberal and democratic type of newspaper which has a policy to publish about democracy, environment and democratization. Every party (specifically minority groups, suppressed group and etc) has right to be accommodated their activity. So the Jakarta Post accommodated NII with publishing NII s Headline and Editorial. 2. Although the Post gave the space for publishing of news on NII relatively big portion in the newspaper space, but the Post tried to avoid to be the speaker of the group and the means of NII s propaganda. 3. The Post has policy to publish NII s news (as giving space to minority group) in the Post space newspaper, but the Post also has a policy or an ideology which follows or supports government. So the ideology stance of the Jakarta Post is behind the government or defense department. It means, as long as the group (NII) does not conduct violent way or break the rule of government, the Post will accommodate the group to have space of the news in the Post. 5. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION The result of this study is the Jakarta Post s ideology stance follow or support the government ideology when looking at the NII group. However, the Jakarta Post give the right to NII group to have space on the post. There were many headlines, editorials, and national news published in the Jakarta Post with relatively big portion/space to follow the Post policy to accommodate all the party in Indonesia, specifically to minorities groups or suppressed groups. This policy of the Jakarta Post reflects the democratic way as one of the vision of the Jakarta Post. The choices of the vocabulary of the Jakarta Post showed the post the government ideology for example the words refers to NII group were illegal group, underground movement, and the similar words. REFERENCES Badib, AbasAchmad Discourse. Lecture Notes. Unpublished. Bell, Allan and Peter Garret Approaches to Media Discourse. New York: Blackwell Publishing. 134 The Ideology of the Jakarta Post through Headlines and Editorials on Negara Islam Indonesia s Case (Sugeng Irianto)

5 Bhatia, K. Vijai Worlds of Written Discourse. London: Continuum. Blommaert, Jan Discourse. New York: Cambridge University Press. Brown, Gillian and George Yule Discourse Analysis. New York: Cambridge University Press. Celce-Murcia, Marianne and Elite Olstain Discourse and Context in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dellinger, Brett Critical Discourse Analysis. Internet. Derewianka, Beverly Exploring How Texts Works. New South Wales: Primary English Teaching Association. Eriyanto Analisis Wacana. Yogyakarta: LKiS Fairclough, Norman Language and Power. Singapore: Longman Group UK Limited. Halliday, M.A.K An Introduction to Functional Grammar. Second Edition. London: Edward Arnold. Martin, JR and David Rose, 2003.Working with Discourse Meaning beyond the Clause. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. Richardson, John E Analysing Newspapers. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Schiffrin, Deborah Approaches to Discourse. Oxford: Blackwell. Sutopo, Joko Discourse. Lecture Notes. Unpublished. Van Dijk, Teun A Text and Context. London: Longman. Wodak, Ruth and Paul Chilton A New Agenda in Critical Discourse Analysis. Philadelphia: John Benjamin Publishing Company. Ragam Jurnal Pengembangan Humaniora Vol. 15 No. 3, Desember

Lecture (9) Critical Discourse Analysis

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