Reporting Megawati s bid for the Indonesian presidency: Framing and social realities

Transcription

1 Reporting Megawati s bid for the Indonesian presidency: Framing and social realities Jo Coghlan Abstract This paper examines the relationship between episodic framing and the construction and maintenance of social realities in English-language reporting about Indonesian politics during the nation s transition to democracy in 1998 and It evaluates framing in terms of context and frequency across 478 Australian, American and British newspaper reports primarily about PDI-P (Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle) leader Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of former president Sukarno. How Megawati was framed in the English-language news media provides theoretical and empirical links between episodic framing and its function in shaping social realities. Findings indicate that an overreliance on episodic framing led to a lack of critical journalism in relation to Megawati s agency and value to democratic Indonesia in the Post- Suharto period, and constructed influential narratives that privileged Megawati over her adversaries. Keywords: episodic framing, social reality, English-language reporting, Megawati Sukarnoputri, Indonesia. Introduction Accounts of news and, in particular, foreign news, need to be reported in ways that make international politicians and political events coherent and meaningful to audiences. In the case of foreign news, given that audiences may lack direct knowledge or firsthand experiences, framing practices such as the choice of culturally and politically resonating concepts, or frame devices, are regularly employed. They often function by creating binary oppositions in which actors and their actions are placed in positions of blame/remedy, legitimate/illegitimate or worthy/unworthy a form of frame reasoning. Some actors are positioned with privileged meanings while others are framed adversely. Therefore, this form of frame reasoning limits the dimensions with which audiences can interpret and draw conclusions about political actors. Further to this, the construction of social realities thrives in news environments that rely on immediate, up-to-date coverage of events as they unfold. It is argued that this episodic reporting, or episodic framing, also limits the development of contextual understandings and counter-realities. Newspapers predominantly episodic framing of Megawati Sukarnoputri s bid for the presidency of Indonesia in 1998 and 1999 can be viewed as an account of privileged framing, especially in terms of how mechanisms of frame reasoning Copyright 2012 (Jo Coghlan). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY_ND) License. For information on use, visit Cite as Coghlan, J. (2012) Reporting Megawati s bid for the Indonesian presidency: Framing and social realities, Communication, Politics & Culture, vol. 45, pp

2 COGHLAN REPORTING MEGAWATI S BID FOR THE INDONESIAN PRESIDENCY 25 were employed. Megawati s high-profile status as the daughter of Indonesia s first President, Sukarno, helped to ensure her presidential campaign was widely covered in the Western press. How her campaign was reported by journalists for their domestic audiences is of value in examining the theoretical and empirical links between episodic framing and the manufacturing of social realities about foreign politics in this case, about the first free election to be held in Indonesia since It is posited that the English-language media, relying heavily on episodic framing, positioned Megawati within a set of privileged meanings while, in contrast, others were ridiculed and trivialised or excluded as too radical and dangerous. Methodology The objective of this study was to demonstrate links between the use of episodic framing and the construction and maintenance of foreign audiences interpretations about Megawati and her political acumen in leading Indonesia in the post-suharto period. Unlike other framing studies that rely on representative samples, this study selected 478 articles featuring Megawati s presidential campaign from The Australian and The Age (Australia), The New York Times (America) and The Times and The Independent (Britain), published between 1 January 1998 and 30 December Each article was deemed as hard news embedded with newsworthiness values (in contrast to straight news accounts such as who, what, when, where, how). Aspects of timelessness, proximity, conflict, impact, prominence and political novelty were required for inclusion (Ludwig & Gilmore 2005). Articles were then coded as being episodically or thematically framed. While acknowledging that few news reports are exclusively episodic or thematic, it is generally accepted that one frame or the other generally dominates (Iyengar 1994). Using Iyengar s definitions, each article was determined to be wholly or mostly episodic or thematic. Both groups were then examined for frequency and context. Framing and social reality Robert Entman (1993, 2003) claims that to frame the news is to convey interpretations in ways that crystallise problems, predict effects, suggest likely outcomes and make moral judgements about political leadership. Framing constructs a social reality and can privilege one set of views or one political actor or political party over others via frame reasoning: a set of practices that interpret the news in ways that define problems, assign responsibility, pass moral judgement and offer solutions via frame devices. Frame devices include keywords, themes, stock phrases, stereotypes, catchphrases, metaphors and dramatic characterisations (Lee, Maslog & Kim 2006). Framing is an inescapable process and, correspondingly, the construction and maintenance of social realities is inevitable. Framing warrants that raw news is placed in a unifying context, which translates and renders events, issues and actors

3 COMMUNICATION, POLITICS & CULTURE, VOL.45 (2012) 26 so that audiences can comprehend happenings coherently (Koch 1990). Embedding frames with cultural and political narratives, and imagery considered meaningful to audiences, attains this coherence. Such framing ensures that the reality of happenings in the social and political world will always be constructed within a limited set of meanings. Thus, a version of reality will emerge in news accounts. Framing, then, takes strips of reality and packages them to facilitate audience understandings of the social and political world (Ryan 2004). As a result, the development and maintenance of social reality evidenced in news discourses is not a value free nor ideologically free process. While individual experiences, values, education, political views and even prejudices shape how audiences understand the social and political world, when media practitioners (journalists, sub-editors, editors) frame the news the resultant social reality is often reflective of the values and beliefs held by the news practitioners and/or shaped by the news industry (be it newsroom values or the ideology of the news outlet). In some cases, the shaping of social realities is mediated by national interests (Ryan 2004). Social realities are constructed and then actively maintained, only shifting when an overwhelming amount of discrepant information forces them to change (Hanson 1995). Until then, daily decisions are made in newsrooms about what news is to be selected, included and highlighted a process of agenda setting resulting in salience. Salience refers to the prominence and importance of some news items over others. Interceding factors such as the type, location and timing of events may shape decisions about how to achieve salience. However, in viewing news discourses as constructions of social reality, salience functions to ensure that only news that can be framed to sustain the social reality that is being constructed is included (Liebes 1992). As Entman (1991) argues, news that has the potential to disrupt the social reality is trivialised or excluded. A framing analysis aims to demonstrate how the structure and salience of a news account allows audiences to make sense of events, issues and actors by means of nationally familiar political and cultural narratives. Such frame devices function to build and maintain a level of understanding about the event, issue or actor being reported. Episodic and thematic framing Episodic framing, and its counter, thematic framing are best associated with the work of Shanto Iyengar, who examined how the nature of the news frame, as episodic or thematic, is a significant factor in determining how audiences evaluate political leaders, particularly in relation to their accountability and responsibility. Episodic framing is evidenced when a news report is structured and shaped as an unfolding occurrence or incident in a way that is event or issue oriented and, as such, lacks historical, political or cultural context. By framing news accounts within immediately occurring, event-oriented frames, meanings about events, issues and actors are contained within a limited frame of reference. This results in reports that omit the cognitive framework required by audiences to critically assess the relationships between social and political issues, and between government

4 COGHLAN REPORTING MEGAWATI S BID FOR THE INDONESIAN PRESIDENCY 27 actions or inactions. Because of this, governments and officialdom are often alleviated of their responsibility and accountability, and, within this construction of social reality, citizens are considered responsible for their own social or political situations (Iyengar 1987, 1994). Thus, episodic framing is considered detrimental to news audiences. Conversely, thematic framing is evidenced in news reports that are more interpretative in nature, that develop and contextualise broader social, historical, political or cultural themes, and are considered insightful in informing a more knowledgeable understanding of events or issues and their significance (Iyengar 1994; Iyengar & Kinder 1987). While episodic framing dominates broadcast news, the method is often justified as a reflection of the realities of the newsroom and how practitioners gather and format the news. In addition, episodic framing is considered a consequence of journalistic norms, such as objectivity, that place a premium on the reporting of hard news as specific events. Claims to journalistic norms, and especially objectivity, then, are played out within the structure of the frame itself. Yet, although thematic framing, with its interpretative qualities, is considered much more vulnerable to charges of bias (Iyengar & Simon 1993), accounts of bias are similarly evidenced in both episodic and thematic framing. In the case of reporting about Megawati, it is argued that episodic framing was not only evident but was also persuasive and, as such, may have contributed towards how English-language readers outside of Indonesia formed opinions about Megawati and her credentials to lead Indonesia in the Post-Suharto period. Similarly, persuasive episodic framing of Megawati s pro-democracy stance also functioned to shape alternative, or binary, meanings about her political contemporaries, such as Abdurrahman Wahid and Amien Rais who, for the most part, were framed within an Islamaphobia discourse. In English-language reporting, the construction of Megawati s opposition to Suharto symbolically and politically confirmed the existence of a preferred set of episodic frames about Megawati. In this instance, episodic framing constructed social realities that deemed President Suharto and his New Order regime irresponsible, and morally and politically unable to solve the economic, political and social problems that faced Indonesia during the late 1990s. Captured within this social reality was a set of privileged meanings that imagined a pro-democracy Megawati presidency as the remedy and solution. Megawati was positioned in privileged ways not available to other actors, as noted especially in relation to Rais and Wahid: the former framed as too much of an Islamic radical and the latter as comical and fickle. Statistical analysis Through episodic and thematic coding it was found that there was a propensity for the English-language newspapers to frame the political news of Megawati s campaign episodically more than thematically. Of the 478 articles examined for this case study, 344 articles were coded as episodic and 134 articles were coded as thematic. Accounts of episodic framing throughout 1998 ranged from 64% in The

5 COMMUNICATION, POLITICS & CULTURE, VOL.45 (2012) 28 Australian to 78% in The Age. In 1999, accounts of episodic framing ranged from 62% in The Australian to 88% in The Independent. However, accounts of episodic framing varied across each of the newspapers examined and varied significantly from 1998 to In 1998, with the exception of The Australian, over 70% of all news reports about Megawati were framed episodically. While the accounts of episodic framing are considered high, thematic accounts ranging from 19% in The New York Times to 38% in The Australian suggest that, on average, about one-quarter of all of the 1998 news accounts analysed did attempt to provide a broader interpretative framework. Again, with the exception of The Australian, what is noticeable in the 1999 reporting is that accounts of episodic framing increased, ranging from 79% in The Times to 88% in The Independent. While the 1999 accounts of thematic framing increased in The Australian, albeit marginally, accounts of thematic framing decreased in all other newspapers. Episodic and thematic framing measured with this kind of statistical analysis, however, fails to capture how the frames functioned to shape social realities or induce privileged meanings about Megawati. In order to interrogate these aspects more critically, episodic and thematic frames were examined in relation to salience. This was achieved by examining accounts of episodic and thematic framing in periods of increased frequency of reporting. Episodic framing, frequency and salience Accounts of episodic and thematic framing in the periods of high volume suggest the relationship between salience, frequency of reporting, and meaning. Four key periods of reporting January 1998 (Megawati s announcement to contest President Suharto and the next presidential election), May 1998 (President Suharto s resignation), June 1999 (general election) and October 1999 (presidential election) indicate that while episodic framing remained higher in frequency than thematic framing, there were significant variations. In 1998 in periods of high frequency of reporting, rates of episodic framing ranged from 42% in The Australian to 100% in The Times. Yet The Age, The New York Times and The Australian also all produced more thematically framed stories than in other months of production. For readers of these newspapers, the inclusion of more thematically framed news reports arguably provided a broader context for the development of cognitive understandings and evaluations to be made. For British audiences, with the exception of The Independent s January coverage, framing was more episodic than thematic, suggesting audiences lacked the broader historical and political context provided in the Australian and American publications. In periods of high yield production in 1999, however, a significant shift is noted. For readers of The Independent and The Times, accounts of episodic framing in the high production month of October were less than other months of production. This was a reversal of the trend noted in While thematic reporting in 1999 did increase in The Independent, the background, historical and political contexts for audiences to understand the events that occurred in relation to the 1999

6 COGHLAN REPORTING MEGAWATI S BID FOR THE INDONESIAN PRESIDENCY 29 elections were lacking. Overall though, across newspapers, an increase in the use of episodic framing from 1998 to 1999 was noted. Episodic framing continued to dominate news reporting in high frequency periods in 1999, with accounts ranging from 63% in The Australian to 93% in The New York Times. This trend suggests audiences in 1999, in particular, were exposed to a narrower framework within which evaluations could be made about the political and social events occurring in Indonesia. Evident in rates of episodic and thematic framing in high volume periods is an attempt to achieve salience in the coverage of Megawati s bid for the presidency. Salience is a contributing factor in establishing meaning and for suggesting the potential impact of meaning on news audiences. The concept of salience hypothesises that news consumers will elevate the importance of events and issues when news coverage is high. Taking Entman s (1993) claim that in selecting some aspects of perceived reality, salience promotes particular problems, definitions, evaluations and treatment recommendations, frequency data proves informative in understanding how meaning-making can be shaped by the volume of news coverage. Salience across episodic framing accounts tends to have a stronger impact on audiences (Shen 2004). Frame salience, in terms of the presence and absence of news, reflects the subtlety of the practice. Taking this into consideration, it is suggested that claims of bias in relation to framing need to be contextualised in relation to factors such as frequency and context. Episodic framing and context To further explore the relationship of episodic framing and frequency to constructing meaning, an analysis of the content and context of episodic news accounts was undertaken. This analysis demonstrated how a social reality was embedded within news discourses and how this functioned to shape meanings about Megawati. Specifically, it is argued that contained within the frame schemas was a particular set of meanings that positioned binaries of blame/accountability against remedy/solution, and that this positioning within the news discourse functioned to promote privileged meanings about Megawati. In examining news reports about Megawati, it became evident that in a majority of accounts Megawati was reported in relation to other events and actors and in only a small number of accounts was she reported autonomously. By coding news accounts into six categories, data demonstrated that in 215 of the 478 news reports (approximately 45%) Megawati was contextualised in relation to Suharto, Habibie, the New Order (including its adjuncts, Golkar and the Indonesian military, ABRI) and elections. In 93 news reports (approximately 19%) she was reported in relation to human rights issues, including occurrences of political demonstrations, the treatment of protesters, claims of torture and provincial claims for independence. Her relationships and alliances with pro-democracy actors, and socio-political organisations, such as student and labour movements, were noted in 63 news reports (approximately 13%). Likewise, in 63 reports (approximately 13%) Megawati was reported in relation to Sukarnoism. In 25 reports (approximately 5%) Megawati reported in relation to regional and

7 COMMUNICATION, POLITICS & CULTURE, VOL.45 (2012) 30 international concerns about the economy, and in only 19 reports (approximately 4%) was she reported in relation to the state of the Indonesian economy. In examining the most reported contexts in news reports (the events and issues surrounding the New Order and elections), examples of episodic and thematic framing from the key periods of reporting (January and May 1998 and June and October 1999) demonstrate how framing shaped a social reality about the political events occurring in Indonesia. More so, they demonstrate the privileged framing that positioned Megawati as the remedy/solution to the crisis/drama caused by Suharto and the New Order. Reporting in January 1998 from The New York Times serves as one such example. Under the headline Indonesian Opposition Chief Calls on President to Resign, Seth Mydans wrote: Indonesia s leading opposition figure, Megawati Sukarnoputri, called on President Suharto today to step down when his term ends in March and told a chanting crowd she was ready to succeed him. Her declaration came during a period of growing public demands for an end to Mr. Suharto s 32-year rule as the country s economy swirls in crisis. A crash in the currency Thursday touched off a wave of panic buying that continued today. I hereby take the opportunity to declare my determination to become leader of our nation and people -- if this is indeed the will and consensus of the people, she told about 500 supporters in the garden of her suburban Jakarta home. They raised their fists and shouted, Long live Mega! (Mydans 1998, p. 8) Within this example of episodic framing, there is a lack of political and historical context for Megawati s calls to inform broader understandings about why the economy is in crisis. The context potentially shapes understandings about Suharto s accountability for the crisis and posits Megawati as a remedy. Moreover, it constructs a social reality for audiences. Similar frame reasoning was noted in The Age s coverage of the same event: The pro-democracy leader, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, has set herself on a collision course with President Suharto, declaring her willingness to challenge him for the leadership of Indonesia. In a speech to supporters, Ms Megawati yesterday rebuked the ruling elite for lacking the courage to challenge Mr Suharto She said the 76-year-old Mr Suharto must not be re-nominated for a seventh five-year term when the 1000-member People s Consultative Assembly meets to elect the a new President in March (Williams 1998, p. 7). In this case, the context is coupled with the keywords of collision course (a frame device), which highlights the binary between Megawati and Suharto. Episodic framing dictates that there is no broad framework to conceptualise the conditions, events or issues that led Megawati to challenge Suharto, nor to conceptualise who the ruling elite is and why they lacked the courage. While The Australian similarly tended to position Megawati in relation to the New Order regime, its propensity to rely less on episodic frames and more on thematic frames provides a more extensive background within which audiences

8 COGHLAN REPORTING MEGAWATI S BID FOR THE INDONESIAN PRESIDENCY 31 may have been able to more critically assess Megawati s claims. Patrick Walters, for example, under the headline Megawati Sukarnoputri re-establishes her credentials as the informal opposition leader reported: Almost 32 years after President Suharto eased her father from power, the wheel has come full circle for Bung Karno s eldest daughter, Megawati Sukarnoputri. In an ironic twist, Sukarno s daughter has now thrown down the gauntlet to the man who ended Sukarno s reign as Indonesia s first president. In the most important speech of her political career, Megawati re-established her credentials as the informal opposition leader. It was a brave, defiant speech and a bitter denunciation of the performance of Suharto s New Order Government. But, as Megawati s chief aides acknowledge, Sukarno s favourite daughter has an uphill battle to become president Her main problem is that she lacks the necessary backing from Indonesia s power elite most notably the armed forces. She is barred from formal politics and her supporters have no parliamentary representation (Walters 1998, p. 7). In this thematic account, a broader historical framework allows readers to better evaluate Megawati s call for Suharto s resignation. While negative connotations are evident in the narrative, particularly her uphill battle and her lack of public profile, there is also an alleviating claim that suggests her future successes may be reliant on others, in this case the power elite (as with The Age, they are unnamed) and the military. What is being implied in both episodic and thematic accounts of Megawati s calls for Suharto s resignation is a narrative that Megawati s future may be in the hands of others. This may function to establish a framework that assuages Megawati s responsibility for failing to win the presidency, a frame developed throughout 1998 and heightened in With the regime and its instigators framed as responsible for the drama and tragedy (continually named as crises ) occurring in Indonesia, a social reality emerged within which a Megawati presidency was imagined as a solution. Within this scenario, reporting framed the New Order and Megawati within a set of juxtaposing positions, highlighting New Order blame against Megawati as a remedy and saviour. As such, what political benefit Megawati would be to a post- New-Order Indonesia was generally mute in English-language press reports and arguably (audience agency aside) this did contribute to Western understandings about Megawati. This is not to suggest that there was no negative framing of Megawati during 1998 and In fact, there were several accounts in the Australian, American and British press examined in this study that questioned her political acumen. However, the dominant framing evidenced in reporting was of the end of the New Order regime, firstly in relation to Suharto s resignation and, later President Habibie s. Generally, the context of May 1998 reporting surrounded the machinations leading up to and including the resignation of Suharto. While episodic frames dominated reporting, as reporting generally was framed with immediate, on-the-

9 COMMUNICATION, POLITICS & CULTURE, VOL.45 (2012) 32 spot accounts of developments as they unfolded, more interpretative narratives of Megawati were embedded in multiple news frames. Some accounts were positive and some negative. But where negative coverage did appear for example, when The Australian (Crouch 1998, p. 14) suggested Megawati would have no hope of being elected and that the most likely outcome would be the election of a president from the military no context was offered as to why this might be. Appearing to connote negativity, this type of framing, given its episodic nature, can function to shape an understanding of the machinations working against Megawati. This is particularly evident when read as part of a broader narrative of victimhood at the hands of unseen others. It is indicative of the privileged framing attached to Megawati. This type of framing was comparable with coverage noted in The Age that similarly exemplified the binary and privileged framing seen in January, and also reinforced meanings about Megawati s political status under the regime. On 15 May 1998 The Age reported: The problem is that, clear though it is that the President must go, it is far from clear who or what will be his successor...habibie is deeply implicated in the web of patronage and the profligate spending practices that have led to Indonesia s turmoil the political leaders who might be able to devise a new form of government for Indonesia, such as Muslim leader Mr Amien Rais or the prodemocracy campaigner Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, have been demonised and excluded from power ( Soeharto must go, and quickly ). While The New York Times reporting conceptualised the events occurring in May 1998 with episodic frames focused on the drama of the political crises unfolding in Indonesia, as with The Australian, narratives were embedded in the frames that functioned to posit multiple meanings. One example indicates not only the multiplicity of meaning identified in the newspaper generally, but also how the complexity of meaning was captured within one news report. The opening of Mark Landler s 21 May report reads: As successful as the students protests have been, it was clear the movement lacked a leader like Corazon C. Aquino, who inspired a people power revolution in the Philippines in 1986 and vanquished Ferdinand E. Marcos by the sheer force of her moral authority (Landler, 1998, p. 9). The meaning embedded in this alludes to Megawati s failure to adopt a more significant profile as an opposition leader, thus missing a key political opportunity. But later in the report, Landler suggests: Megawati Sukarnoputri has more in common with Mrs. Aquino than Mr. Rais. Like Mrs. Aquino, Ms. Megawati has an emotive tie to her country s political history Ms. Megawati is also a symbol of Mr. Suharto s tactics (Landler 1998, p. 9).

10 COGHLAN REPORTING MEGAWATI S BID FOR THE INDONESIAN PRESIDENCY 33 Referring to her ousting from the head of the PDI in 1996, the narrative further mimics the Australian accounts by providing a context within which her failures are attributed to Suharto, rather than to Megawati s own inabilities. In 1999 news coverage, there was a significant increase not only in episodic framing, but also in the majority of news reports contextualising Megawati in relation to the June general election and the October presidential election. Seth Mydans, writing for The New York Times in June 1999, offered the following account, again suggesting the privileged meanings being constructed about Megawati: The world s fourth most populous country, freed from the grip of its long-time dictator, marked a new era of political freedom today with its first free election in four decades In contrast to the stage-managed elections of President Suharto, who was forced to resign one year ago after 32 years in power, the outcome of today s vote is utterly unpredictable For many people here this messy process, with its unknowns, amounts to a battle over the soul of a future Indonesia, pitting what are known as the forces of reform against the forces of the status quo. The status quo is represented by Mr. Suharto s party, Golkar, which still holds power The leading symbol of reform is Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Mr. Suharto s predecessor, Sukarno. She is the candidate of the conservative nationalist Indonesian Democratic Party of reform Around these big-name players, the country s politics, with its competing 48 parties, swirls and surges with factions, rivalries and hidden agendas (Mydans 1999, p. 3). In this account of the June general election, trends appear that emerged in 1998 coverage, which functioned to construct a binary opposition of the New Order and Megawati, and, furthermore, maintained narratives of the existence of others who may have acted with dubious motives to deny Megawati the presidency. A similar version of the binary appeared in The Age. In this case Megawati was reported as being on one side and Islamic parties, including Golkar, on the other ( Soeharto must go, and quickly ). While the Melbourne-based newspaper was not as garrulous as other newspapers in stating Megawati s claims to the presidency, it did maintain narratives of her victimhood and the threats that may still have emerged. The newspaper s 5 June 1999 coverage reported: Only the foolhardy will call this race for sure. Megawati appears the one to beat because she symbolises Suharto s victimisation. But no single party will win a majority and a coalition is a most likely outcome. Even Golkar cannot be ruled out because of its well-established rural networks and a stash of cash it can use in the phrase of the times: money politics (Murdoch p. 6). As has been suggested, this type of episodic framing, which deflects blame on others, generally functions to obscure a political leader s own failures and lack of responsibility (Iyengar 1994, pp. 2 3). The Australian similarly framed the June general election in ways that posited a binary, noting the struggle between the reformists versus the status quo (Chong 1999, p. 9) and reported the election as a

11 COMMUNICATION, POLITICS & CULTURE, VOL.45 (2012) 34 crystallisation of the polarising forces of Islamic power on own side and secularnationalists on the other (Walters 1999, p. 7). Suggestive of how privileged meanings were posited even in The Australian s thematic accounts of the social reality of the Megawati and New Order binary, Don Greenlees s June story Daughter of Destiny reports: To millions of urban and rural poor, Megawati has a rare and fortunate appeal: the politician who is seen as being above politics. If Megawati succeeds it would be the climax of a modern Indonesian fairytale. She is the daughter of Indonesia s first president Sukarno schemed against and deposed by Suharto in In her own political career, she too was a victim of Suharto s plots. As de facto opposition leader in 1996, she posed too great a threat to the status quo so Suharto arranged for her to be removed from the helm of the Indonesian Democratic Party. But she enjoyed the final word: she went on to create the breakaway PDI Struggle as a personal and even more successful election vehicle. Megawati embodies a contemporary and historical national struggle for justice. Her supporters look to her to right the wrongs of Suharto s New Order regime; to eliminate the corruption, the blatant favouritism, the oppression and the widening gap between rich and poor. Her campaign is permeated with a certain irrational nostalgia. Street-side posters and banners often feature images of Sukarno who ruled Indonesia at a chaotic and distressed time For millions of Indonesians, she has become the symbol of their struggle for democracy. So deep are the passions of her followers many politicians and observers are fearful of the public reaction should she be denied (Greenlees 1999, p. 21). While negative connotations are potentially attached to Megawati via the references to Sukarno, for the most part, the narrative functions to maintain the binary between the regime and Megawati and, as such, evaluations and judgements about both are potentially shaped by the binary positioning. Discourses identified in The Times also engaged in polarisation, juxtaposing Megawati, whom they described as the most popular single politician, against Golkar. Golkar was described as Mr. Suharto s party, which amounted to little more than repression and corruption and whose leader, Habibie, was Mr. Suharto s former lieutenant. Habibie, it was reported, had done little to allay suspicions that, as a crony of the former regime, he is covering up its corruption ( Yellow fires: Hopes and fears for Indonesia at the polls ). The Times also maintained privileged positioning of Megawati by suggesting her invincibility, particularly noted in narratives of her mythical powers (ibid.). Of further note is how the British newspaper, having adopted this position, maintained it well into October 1999, shaping reports with a discursive understanding of Megawati s role in the new era of Indonesian politics. The following is an excerpt from an October 1999 report by David Watts: Ms Megawati is expected to win the largest share of the vote [and is] favourite for the post (of the presidency) The support for Ms Megawati is emotional and mystically linked to her charismatic father, whom many

12 COGHLAN REPORTING MEGAWATI S BID FOR THE INDONESIAN PRESIDENCY 35 Indonesians believe she embodies. Her style is inclusive and secular Ms Megawati s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle provides an umbrella for all (Watts 1999, p. 14). Binary positioning and privileged framing was also evident in The Independent. However, the framework was subtler. The election itself was framed as a binary: the democrats, Megawati, Rais and Wahid, against the authoritarian New Order, Golkar and Habibie ( Indonesia goes to historic free polls ). Reinforcing the binary were descriptors of the electoral system under Suharto as fraudulent and government controlled, which forced opposition parties to put up the pretence of competing with elections won by bullying and bribing voters, whereas in June an excess of democracy was evident (O Sullivan 1999, p. 19). In terms of privileged positioning, threats in this case were narrated in claims of potential electoral fraud. While not specifically attached to Megawati, a sense of foreboding at the hands of unseen others was still apparent in news reporting. While episodic framing was evident in reporting of the October presidential elections, a distinct shift in both binaries and privileged framing was noted within the schema. The social reality was no longer shaped by the struggle between Megawati and the New Order, but by the machinations of others who were acting against Megawati and, as such, threatening her moral right for the presidency (Skehan 1999, p. 10). The other social reality posited in news discourses was the spectre of violence if Megawati failed to win office. This was overlaid with narratives that, perhaps for the first time, broadly captured Megawati s own culpabilities. Arguably, the problem here for audiences was that the nature of the framing as episodic meant a limited framework was available to critically assess, evaluate and judge the key actors and their value to the future of Indonesian leadership. For news audiences, such framing, particularly the episodic accounts, is problematic, speaks to the discursive nature of the news to shape knowledge in ways that are emotive and contentious, and is reflective of agenda-setting through salience. Conclusion Empirical data indicates that the English-language news media examined for this framing analysis had a propensity to frame news accounts of Megawati episodically throughout 1998 and The use of episodic framing was highest in all publications except The Australian in Relative to other newspapers, The Australian provided more thematic accounts within which audiences could evaluate both Indonesian politics and its key actors. Even though there was some thematic reporting in 1998, trends indicate it declined in newspapers 1999 again, The Australian, was the exception. Arguably, readers of The Australian likely remained more able to contextualise and understand the political events that were occurring in Indonesia during this time. When episodic framing is interrogated in relation to periods of high frequency, data indicates that across 1998, episodic accounts decreased. But the overall trend of decreasing episodic accounts in months of high frequency reversed in All

13 COMMUNICATION, POLITICS & CULTURE, VOL.45 (2012) 36 newspapers increased their use of episodic frames in the high frequency period of October 1999 presidential election. The type of event occurring in each period shaped trends in episodic accounts during 1998 and Given that a general election was held in June 1999 and presidential and vice presidential ballots were held in October 1999, this accounts for the increase in frequency in these months, and also indicates the use of more episodic than thematic frames to shape reports of these events. Within this context, framing of Megawati was shaped for the most part by the electoral process, normatively framed as a contestation between two competing forces. Given the notion that the broader narrative evident in Western news reporting during 1998 and 1999 was the end of the New Order and the start of a Megawati presidency, it is unsurprising that the electoral process was framed episodically, with frames privileging Megawati and her character, values, and motivations above others. The consequence, however, was that public knowledge regarding Megawati and her value to the post-suharto period was limited. In this, her lack of both political acumen and policy prescriptions were generally ignored. Framing functioned more so to maintain the dominant discourse regarding the end of the New Order, ostensibly to ensure democratisation and liberalisation. Central to this discourse was the framing of Indonesia: the production and maintenance of a social reality that of Indonesia in a state of crisis with Megawati its likely saviour. References Chong, F. (1999), Megawati tipped to win poll, The Australian, 25 May, p. 9. Crouch. H, (1998), Roundabout of reform just another vicious circle, The Australian, 23 May, p. 14. Entman, R. (1991), Framing US Coverage of International News: Contrasts in Narratives of the KAL and Iran Air Incidents, Journal of Communication, vol. 41, no. 4, pp (1993), Framing: Towards clarification of a fractural paradigm, Journal of Communication, vol. 43, no. 4, pp (2003), Projections of Power: Framing News, Public Opinion, and US Foreign Policy, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Greenlees, D. (1999), Daughter of destiny, The Australian, 5 June, p. 21. Hanson, E. (1995), Framing the World News: The Times of India in Changing Times, Political Communication, vol. 12, pp Indonesia goes to historic free polls, (1999, 7 June), The Independent, p. 13. Iyengar, S, (1987), Television News and Citizens Explanations of National Issues, American Political Science Review, vol. 3, pp (1994), Is Anyone Responsible? How Television Frames Political Issues, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Iyengar, S. and Kinder, D. (1987), News that Matters, Chicago University Press, Chicago. Iyengar, S. and Simon, A. (1993), News coverage of the Gulf Crisis and Public Opinion: A study of Agenda-Setting, Priming and Framing, Communication Research, vol. 20, pp

14 COGHLAN REPORTING MEGAWATI S BID FOR THE INDONESIAN PRESIDENCY 37 Koch, T. (1990), The News as Myth: Fact and Context in Journalism, Greenwood, New York. Landler, M. (1998), The fall of Suharto: the opponent; Movement lacked leader in streets, The New York Times, 21 May, p. 9. Lee, S., Maslog, C. and Kim, H. (2006), Asian Conflicts and the Iraq War: A comparative framing analysis, International Communication Gazette, vol. 68, no. 5 6, pp Liebes, T. (1992), Our way/their way: Comparing Intifada and the Gulf War on US and Israeli Television, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, vol. 9, no. 1, pp Ludwig, M. and Gilmore, G. (2005), Deciding what s news, in M. Ludwig and G. Gilmore (eds) Modern News Editing, Ames, Blackwell Publishing, pp Murdoch, L. (1999), Hold your breath, The Age, 5 June, p. 6. Mydans, S. (1998), Indonesian Opposition Chief calls on President to resign, The New York Times, 11 January, p. 8. (1999), Indonesians vote, opening a new, unpredictable era, The New York Times, 7 June, p. 3. O.Sullivan, D. (1999), First free poll in 44 years gets underway, The Independent, 20 May, p. 19. Ryan, M. (2004), Framing the war against terrorism: US newspaper editorials and military action in Afghanistan, Gazette, vol. 66, no. 5, pp Shen, F. (2004), Chronic Accessibility and Individual Cognitions: Examining the Effects on Message Frames on Political Advertisements, Journal of Communication, vol. 54, pp Skehan, C. (1999), Setback for Megawati, The Age, 5 October, p. 10. Soeharto must go, and quickly (1998, 15 May), The Age, p. 14. Walters, P. (1998), Megawati Sukarnoputri re-establishes her credentials as the informal Opposition Leader, The Australian, 12 January, p. 7. (1999), Mega-crowd makes the others see red, The Australian, 4 June, p. 7. Williams, L. (1998), Megawati Push to Grab Reins from Suharto, The Age, 12 January, p. 7. Watts, D. (1999), Indonesia votes as new corruption scandal erupts, The Times, 7 June, p. 14. Yellow fire: Hopes and fears for Indonesia at the polls, (1999, 7 June), The Times, p. 21. Author Note Dr Jo Coghlan is a lecturer in Australian and International Politics in the School of Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales. Jo researches national and international media practices and media technologies particularly in relation to public policy, free speech, and human rights. Her current book is Western Media and Indonesian Politics: Gender, Religion and Democracy (2011).