Jokowi and Prabowo’s Image in Online News Articles: A Critical

Discourse Analysis

Hesti Raisa Rahardi, Lia Maulia Indrayani, Ypsi Soeria Soemantri

Universitas Padjadjaran, Jl. Raya Bandung Sumedang KM.21, Kabupaten Sumedang, Indonesia

Keywords: cda, presidential candidates, representation, socio-semantic approach, online news articles

Abstract: The purpose of this research is to investigate how Indonesian presidential candidates are represented in The

Jakarta Post and Jakarta Globe after the 2

and the 4

presidential debate and to find out the hidden

ideology based on the representation of each candidates in the news. The data were collected from eight

articles taken from The Jakarta Post and Jakarta Globe website published in February, March, and April

2019. In doing the analysis, the researchers employs van Leeuwen’s (2008) socio-semantic approach as the

analytical tool supported by transitivity system proposed by Halliday (2014) and online sentiment analysis.

The result points out that both presidential candidates are represented in inclusion, specifically in activation

and represented as active participants in the news article. However, the results reveal that Jokowi is

represented through positive processes more than Prabowo in the news articles. The result further shows the

values of both news outlets in regards to the presidential election. It is expected that the findings will

contribute to give more insights into how Indonesian news outlet reporting each candidate, so that people

can be more critical when reading news.

1 INTRODUCTION

The journalism industry has changed in the past

decades due to the improvement of technology.

People no longer need to buy printed newspaper in

order to get the information, since it is available

online. It seems like everything including latest

issue, advertisement, up to job vacancy can be found

with one click. Nevertheless, some aspects such as

language role remain unchanged despite the rapid

development of digital journalism. Concerning this,

language is just as important online as it is offline.

The text producer needs language in the process of

communicating message and shaping people’s

perception towards certain issue. Moreover, the way

they present the news is inseparable from the elite

people’s ideology who has control over the news

outlet. Thus, in reporting particular event, for

example, a newspaper appears to be subjective

despite the objective claim coming from the news

outlet. It is an inevitable thing as van Dijk in Al-

Duleimi and Al-Ebadi (2016) points out that the

ideologies of journalists in some way influence their

opinions that reflected in the discourse structures of

the articles. Due to this reason, readers can spot the

difference of each news outlet in reporting the same

event. One can hide the identity of the involved

party, while the others expose the identity. On the

other hand, one newspaper can report an issue using

neutral words, while the others use more powerful

words. The choice will once again depend on the

purpose and the ideology of the institution behind

the news outlets. In this way, the ideology of the

newspaper can be seen from the content of the news

that are published to public space.

In order to find the ideology of the news outlet

reflected in their news, Critical Discourse Analysis

can be used as the analysis tool. A number of CDA

analysis have been conducted on various issues.

Sivandi Nasab, Z. and Dowlatabadi, H.R. (2015)

have analyzed how Los Angeles Times and Tehran

Times reporting the nuclear program of Iran in its

news articles. Through employing discursive micro

and macro-strategies by van Dijk (2000), the result

points out that Los Angeles Times tended to use the

Authoritative, Explanation, Evidentiality and

Counterfactual discursive strategies; while, the

Rahardi, H., Indrayani, L. and Soemantri, Y.

Jokowi and Prabowo’s Image in Online News Articles: A Critical Discourse Analysis.

DOI: 10.5220/0008996502030209

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Education, Language and Society (ICELS 2019), pages 203-209

ISBN: 978-989-758-405-3

203

Tehran Times employed the Actor Description,

Hyperbole, Lexicalization, Repetition and Situation

Description discursive strategies. The results

indicate that Tehran Times depicted Iran's intention

and politics positively, while the Los Angeles Times

depicted Iran's in negative way. Another example is

a study conducted by Al-Duleimi and Al-Ebadi

(2016) on ideology of the news report with the Al-

Jazeera reporters as the representative. The result of

the study shows the ideology is reflected in the

discourse features in which non-modalized

propositions and modalized ones are used to

emphasize negative actions of the government. On

the other hand, Briones (2017) focuses on analyzing

the external and internal level of two online news

articles that report Moro Islamic Liberation Front's

submission of its findings on the "Mamasapano

Incident" based on Fairclough’s framework. The

result points out that the internal discourse features

portray ideological and social distinctions among

social actors such as the Philippine Senate, the SAF

troopers, the MILF, the MILF fighters, and the

civilians. On the other hand, the external social

practices reveals some evaluative stance as

exemplified by the adjectival phrases that included

in the articles. In addition, the internal and external

levelof the articles indicate power relations that exist

between the Philippine government and the MILF.

The aforementioned studies have illustrated how

different approaches of Critical Discourse Analysis

are used in different studies concerning various issue

included in the newspaper. Most of them are

discussing political discourse. Political discourse

itself as stated by van Dijk in Dunmire (2012) refers

to the politician’s text and talk within political

context which covers broad range of issues including

nuclear power policy and national policy on safety

as have been analyzed in previous studies. Similarly,

the current study aims to investigate the latest

political issue reported in the news. Unlike the

previous studies, the object that will be analyzed is

the news concerning Indonesia presidential election.

Presidential election itself is one of the most

important events that is held by a democracy

country. Considering its importance, various

elements of the issue can be investigated. Yet, to fill

the gap, the present study will be focusingon the

involvement of social actors found in the selected

articles based on Socio-semantic approach proposed

by van Leeuwen (2008). Furthermore, the ideology

of the news outlet will be covered later on.

Additionally, Socio-semantic approach is chosen

since this approach has not been explored yet in the

previous studies. Moreover, this approach is

considered appropriate as the tool of analysis

considering thefocus of the presidential election

usually given to the candidates. However, to limit

the data, the research only focuses on how the

presidential candidates are represented by two

Indonesian news outlets namely Jakarta Post and

Jakarta Globe. In the analysis, the researchers

employ descriptive qualitative method which

concerns with analyzing phenomenon that can be

found in daily lives as statedby Cresswell

(2014).Also, transitivity system by Halliday (2014)

and online sentiment analysis will be used in the

interpretation after the data is investigated through

Socio-semantic analysis. Before the analysis

process, the researchers obtained the data from two

online newspapers: The Jakarta Post and Jakarta

Globe. In collecting the data, the researcher read and

selecting the news article that are suitable for the

research. Considering the focus of the analysis is to

analyzing the representation of presidential

candidates, the articles that are selected limited to

the articles that published after the second and fourth

presidential debate, since those are presidential

debate between two presidential candidates without

their respective running mates.

There are the total of 8 articles (4 articles taken

from each news outlet) entitled “Jokowi Knocks

Prabowo on His Extensive Land Ownership During

Second Presidential Debate”, “Jokowi and Prabowo

Favor Image, Populist Jargon Over Detail in Second

Debate”, “Fourth Presidential Candidate Debate

Marked by Slow Pace”, and “Prabowo Reinvigorates

Commitment to Pancasila; Jokowi: Let's Not

Blaspheme Each Other” from Jakarta Globe.

Meanwhile, other four articles taken from the

Jakarta Post are “Jokowi endorses ‘Dilan’, Prabowo

says he’s ‘Batak of Java’ in rollercoaster debate”,

“Jokowi Stands His Ground”, “Second Round of

Presidential Debates Short of Great Ideas”, and

“Debate Invigorated by Prabowo’s Fiery Attacks”.

Additionally, the articles published in February,

March, and April2019. In obtaining the data, the

whole content of the articles are read carefully

before the content were further divided into clause

or clause complexesand presented in the table to be

further analyzed. Only clause and clause complexes

that include Jokowi and Prabowo that will be

analyzed using CDA approach, transitivity system,

and online sentiment analysis.

ICELS 2019 - International Conference on Education, Language, and Society

204

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)

Van Dijk (2008) argues that Critical Discourse

Analysis is an approach, particularly a intergrative

language approach that intentionally used to

highlight the creation of power, dominance, and

inequality through text in social and political

context. Meanwhile, Bloomaert (2005) explores the

definition of Critical Discourse Analysis by saying

that CDA is an analysis model which aims to figure

out inequality in cause by power in discourse.

Moreover, Wodak (2002) mentions that the main

issue of Critical Discourse Analysis is interaction

between languages, power, and ideology that can be

found in different types of discourses. Meanwhile, as

mentioned by van Dijk (1988) in Wodak and Meyer

(2009), Critical Discourse Analysis focused on

uncovering identifying hidden opinions, agendas,

and ideologies placed in text.

2.2.1 Socio-Semantic Approach

Socio-semantic Approach is one of Critical

Discourse Analysis approaches introduced by van

Leeuwen (2008). This approach mainly concerns

with two different ways in presenting social actors

as the element of social practices. The two strategies

are known as inclusion and exclusion. Inclusion

according to van Leeuwen (2008) is the strategy

used by the text producer to include the social actors

in the text, while exclusion is the strategy used to

omit the existence of social actor in the text. There

are two different strategies that can be used to cover

or delete the track of social actors in text, namely

backgrounding and suppression. Backgrounding

means the strategy used when the purpose of the

author is to erase all the direct mention only, but

suppression is used when the entire presence of

certain social actors will be excluded. On the other

hand, inclusion strategy covers more strategies that

are classified into different groups. Unless stated

otherwise, the description of Socio-semantic

approach below are taken from van Leeuwen’s

(2008) explanation concerning the approach.

2.2.1 Role Allocation

The first strategy in inclusion is called role

allocation. According to van Leeuwen (2008) role

allocation concern with the inclusion of social actor

as an active or passive actor.

2.2.2 Genericization and specification

Genericization and specification deals with how

social actors are represented n term of plural form or

singular form.

2.2.3 Assimilation and Individualization

Assimilation strategy is used when the social actor is

represented as a part of group, while

individualization concern with the representation of

social actor as an individual.

2.2.4 Association and Dissociation

The next strategy is association, which defined as

groups consist of social actors, both general and

ones that are never labeled as one unit in the text.

Association uses parataxis and circumstances of the

accompaniment.

2.2.5 Indetermination and Differentiation

Indetermination is the strategy used when including

the social actors as unidentified and anonymous

human being, individual, or group. On the contrary,

to represent social actors in an indeterminate way, it

is common to use indefinite pronouns, such as

somebody in a sentence.

2.2.6 Nomination and Categorization

Nomination and categorization is the strategy that is

used to include the social actors based on their

identity (nomination) or their functions in society

that they shares with others (categorization). Van

Leeuwen argues that proper noun is the typical

characteristic of nomination. There are three

different kinds of proper nouns: formal, semiformal,

and informal. Yet, in given situation, the label that is

given besides the proper names can be considered

belongs to nomination strategy, particularly under

specific context where only one social actor exists

with that name, for example “the Giant” in certain

children stories. Additionally, van Leeuwen explains

that nomination also includes honorification or the

addition of standard titles, such as “Dr.” along with

the form of affiliation that show personal relations

terms, such as “Auntie”. Meanwhile, categorization

consists of two different terms: functionalization and

identification.

Jokowi and Prabowo’s Image in Online News Articles: A Critical Discourse Analysis

205

2.2.7 Personalization and Impersonalization

Personalizing social actors refers to the depiction of

social actors as human being. Personalization

involves the use of possessive pronouns or nouns

and meanings related to human’s features. By

contrast, impersonating social actors means

representing social actors by using abstract nouns

through two different ways: abstraction and

objectivation. Abstraction involves a quality

assigned to social actors in the process of

representing them in the text.

2.2.8 Overdetermination

The last strategy that can be used in representing the

social actors that is included in Socio-Semantic

Approach is called overdetermination. The term

overdetermination is the strategy used by the writer

to include social actors in several social practices.

As stated by van Leeuwen, there are four different

categories for overdetermination, namely inversion,

symbolization, connotation, and distillation.

Inversion refers to the situation where the social

actors are mentionedin two opposite practices;

symbolization refers to fictional social actors who

stand for nonfictional social practices; connotation

takes place when a distinctive determination

(concerning identity or physical identification)

stands for a classification or functionalization; and

distillation is achieved through compounding

generalization and abstraction.

2.3 Transitivity System

Transitivity system is used to investigate the

processes that attached to the social actors. There are

six types of processes according to Halliday (2014).

2.3.1 Material Processes

Material processes as mentioned by Halliday (2014)

construct the process of doing and happening,

usually physical action. Material processes, in other

words, express the idea of someone engages in doing

some actions or some entities doing something

toward another entity. Thus, the main elements of

material processes are process and participant.

2.3.2 Mental Processes

Mental processes describe the participant involved

in conscious processing, including feeling, thinking,

and perceiving. Therefore, it is mainly questioning

on what do you think/feel/know about X? Different

from material processes, the involved participant in

mental processes is not entirely acting upon in

performing sense since they already possess

feelings. Here, the participants are called as senser- a

conscious being who is able to think, feel, and see

phenomenon- and any kind of entity which is being

sensed by the senser.

2.3.3 Behavioral Processes

Behavioral processes are defined as a type of

processes that deal with human behavior, including

their physiological and psychological actions.

Hence, these processes share some characteristics of

material processes and mental processes. For

instance, both material and behavioral processes

have conscious being as participant, yet, in the case

of behavioral processes, the participants are called

behaver. Moreover, in terms of processes,

behavioral is more material-like even though it also

includes mental and verbal types of processes, such

as gossip and shiver.

2.3.4 Verbal Processes

Verbal processes associate itself with the act of

signaling or saying including various modes of

saying, such as reporting, quoting, denying, and

many more. Verbal processes cover four different

types of participants: first is sayer- the signal source;

target is the addressee who acted upon verbally;

receiver- the one to whom the verbal is addressee;

and lastly verbiage/ range as the content of saying.

2.3.5 Relational Processes

While verbal processes deal with the verbal function

of the sayer, relational processes deal with the

process of having and being. Relational processes

are classified into two different types: identifying

processes and attributive processes. Identifying

processes refer to processes that serve to

characterize or to form an identity on the other hand,

attributive processes designate a quality which

usually expressed by adjective. The difference

between both of them is that identifying processes

may be reversed, while attributive clauses may not.

2.3.6 Existential Processes

Existential processes cover a number of verbs that

indicate the existence of the participant. Similar to

ICELS 2019 - International Conference on Education, Language, and Society

206

behavioral processes, existential process typically

requires one social actor, which is the existent. In

existential processes, the word “there” is important

to signify the process types, yet, it does not have

representational function of the participant or the

location.

It is important to mention that the strategy used

in representing the social actor will depend on the

author’s decision. Therefore, in some cases there is

certain strategy that is not included in mentioning

the social actor, but in another case it is possible for

the author to use two strategies that belong to the

same category.

3 ANALYSIS

Data analysis points out the inclusion and exclusion

strategy used by the news outlets to represent both

candidates in the news after the second and the

fourth presidential debates.

From the result of the analysis, both media

outlets used inclusion strategy in representing the

presidential candidates. That is to say, the

presidential candidates are mostly represented

actively as the actor of the activities. Yet, there is

one example of exclusion strategy used by The

Jakarta Post. As has been mentioned in the earlier

chapter, exclusion strategy is used to omit the

participation of the actor in the text as exemplified in

the 4.1 excerpt taken from Jakarta Post

below.Excerpt 4.1 “What you mean by unicorn is

those online thingies, right?” (Jakarta Post)

In the example above, the projected wording

pointed the existence of the verbal action. However,

the sayer is not directly mentioned in the same

clause complex, but in another sentence following

the projected wording. Therefore, it is belong to

backgrounding strategy. In contrast, the realization

of inclusion strategy where the involvement of the

social actors is mentioned in the articles can be

found in in the excerpt 4.2 that obtained from

Jakarta Globe. Excerpt 4.2 Presidential challenger

Prabowo Subianto criticized this approach. (Jakarta

Globe)

In Excerpt 4.2, the social actor which is marked

by the underlined part is mentioned clearly in the

text. Prabowo as the social actor in excerpt 4.2 is

mentioned as an active participant of the verbal

process (criticized). The active representation is

showed through the grammatical participant roles as

the subject of the sentence. After finding out the role

of the social actor in the text, the next thing is

analyzing whether the social actor refers to general

reference or specific reference. In excerpt 4.2, the

active actor is represented specifically through

concrete words(presidential challenger Prabowo

Subianto) and refers to concrete individual who

involve in the verbal process. Next is finding out

whether the social actor represented as a part of a

group or not through assimilation and

individualization. In the data above, the reference is

an individual named Prabowo Subianto, thus the

social actor is represented through individualization.

Not to mention, the identity of the social actor

should be examined through nomination or

categorization. As mentioned previously,

nomination refers to the way the actor is represented

through their unique identity, while categorization

focuses on the function in society. From the data

found in excerpt 4.2, the author mentioned the social

actor by using proper noun, in this case his given

name and surname. Considering name is quantity

that differentiate one person from another individual,

the representation is included to nomination strategy.

On the other hand, in terms of transitivity

system, the process used in the articles is mainly

verbal process, since the news reported the

presidential debate. Yet, the bias of the news outlets

can be seen from the verbal that is chosen to

represented both presidential candidates. Excerpt 4.3

He criticized that infrastructure development was

not efficient. (Jakarta Post) Excerpt 4.4 He argued it

may take a long time for people… (Jakarta Post)

In terms of the transitivity system, it can be

said that the verbal used in both excerpts are

classified as verbal process. Yet, the degree of both

verbal words are different. In order to know the

degree of each verbal process, online sentiment

analysis is used. Through online sentiment analysis,

the researchers found out that in representing

Jokowi, both news outlets used more stronger verbal

(stronger word choice) such as argue compared to

the way Prabowo is represented in the articles. The

result further indicates the political tendency of each

news outlet following the presidential election on

April 2019. Concerning this, the political bias of the

media is illustrated through the way the text

producer employed inclusion strategy in

representing both candidates along with verbal

processes attached to the social actors. The result

corresponds with the study conducted by Elejalde,

Ferres, and Herder (2018) on the real and perceived

bias in the mainstream media. The result of the study

shows how media bias and favoritism towards

certain political party are reflected through the

vocabulary used and the entities mentioned by

different news outlet. That is to say, in the

Jokowi and Prabowo’s Image in Online News Articles: A Critical Discourse Analysis

207

mainstream media, the choice of words is not

something insignificant, but a powerful tool to

control its narrative in order to influence the readers.

Moreover, the issue of media bias in political

discourse is nothing new. In addition to the result of

the study that indicates the bias towards candidate

no 1, another study conducted by Sedláková, Lapčík,

and Burešová (2019) also reveal similar result. The

study points out the significant bias of Czech Radio

towards Donald Trump in the post-election period of

the US 2016 presidential election. However, the

result of the present study contradicts the result of

the study conducted by Prayudi and Hendariningrum

(2016) on 2014 general election in Indonesia. The

result shows that the Jakarta Post had taken no side

in representing the candidates of the 2014

presidential election. Meanwhile, in 2019

presidential election, along with Jakarta Globe, the

political stance of the Jakarta Post adheres to the

left-wing political spectrum with their clear support

given to Jokowi. Regarding this, the shift of political

stance might be the result of the conflict between

candidate no.2 andthe Jakarta Post that happened

during the 2014 general election. After Jokowi won

the 2014 general election, government

representations in the Jakarta Post tend to be

righteous. Nevertheless, the result of the present

study further confirms the notion that journalistic is

subjective and its ideology is inseparable from the

elite’s people’s power and influence.

4 CONCLUSIONS

The purpose of this study is to find out how Jakarta

Globe and The Jakarta Post represented Jokowi and

Prabowo in their news articles along with their

ideology concerning the representation. From the

analysis, it can be said that both Jokowi and

Prabowo are mostly represented through inclusion,

particularly as the actor of the process. Moreover, in

terms of transitivity system, the verbal words that

are used to represent both candidates have different

degree. Jokowi is associated with more stronger

verbal expression compared to Prabowo in both

news outlets articles. That is to say, the image of

Jokowi is appeared to be more stronger and positive

compared to his opponent. Regarding this, the

ideology related to the political position can be seen

clearly. Both news outlets show more favor towards

Jokowi rather than Prabowo.

REFERENCES

Al-Duleimi, A., D., D., & Al-Ebadi,H.,K. (2016).

Ideology in news reports: Al-Jazeera reporters as

representative: A critical discourse analysis. British

Journal of English Linguistics 4(2), 53-66.

Blommaert, J. (2005). Discourse: A critical introduction.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Briones, R., R., Y. (2017). A demonstrative analysis of

news articles using Fairclough's critical discourse

analysis framework. A journal on applied linguistics

and language education 5(1), 83-97.

Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative,

quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.).

Los Angeles: Sage Publication.

Dunmire, P., L. (2012). Political discourse analysis:

Exploring the language of politics and the politics of

language. Language and Linguistics Compass

6(11),735-751.

Elejalde, E., Ferres, L., Herder, E. (2018) On the nature of

real and perceived bias in the mainstream media. PLoS

ONE 13(3): e0193765.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193765

Halliday, M.A.K., & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M (2014).

Introduction to functional grammar (4th ed.). NY:

Rouledge.

Jakarta Globe. (2019). Jokowi knocks Prabowo on his

extensive land ownership during second presidential

debate. Retrieved from

https://jakartaglobe.id/context/jokowi-knocks-

prabowo-on-his-extensive-land-ownership-during-

second-presidential-debate

Jakarta Globe. (2019). Jokowi and Prabowo favor image,

populist jargon over detail in second debate.

Retrieved from https://jakartaglobe.id/context/jokowi-

and-prabowo-favor-image-populist-jargon-over-detail-

in-second-debate/

Jakarta Globe. (2019). Fourth presidential candidate

debate marked by slow pace. Retrieved from

https://jakartaglobe.id/context/fourth-presidential-

candidate-debate-marked-by-slow-pace/

Jakarta Globe. (2019). Prabowo reinvigorates commitment

to Pancasila; Jokowi: Let's not blasheme each other.

Retrieved from

https://jakartaglobe.id/context/prabowo-reinvigorates-

commitment-to-pancasila-jokowi-lets-not-blaspheme-

each-other/

Prayudi & Hendariningrum, R. (2016). Textual analysis of

the Jakarta Post online representationof presidential

candidates in Indonesia. Humaniora 28(3), 339-347.

Sedláková, R., Lapčík,M., & Burešová., Z. (2019) Media

representation of the US 2016 presidential elections in

Czech Radio broadcast. The Journal of International

Communication, 25(2), 301-323.

Sivandi Nasab, Z. and Dowlatabadi, H.R. (2015). A

critical discourse analysis on newspaper: The case

study of nuclear program of Iran. International

Journal of Research Studies in Education 5(2), 93-

103.

ICELS 2019 - International Conference on Education, Language, and Society

208

The Jakarta Post. (2019). Jokowi endorses ‘Dilan’,

Prabowo says he’s ‘Batak of Java’ in rollercoaster

debate. Retrieved from

https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/03/31/joko

wi-endorses-dilan-prabowo-says-hes-batak-of-java-in-

rollercoaster-debate.html

The Jakarta Post. (2019). Jokowi stands his ground.

Retrieved from

https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/03/31/joko

wi-endorses-dilan-prabowo-says-hes-batak-of-java-in-

rollercoaster-debate.html

The Jakarta Post. (2019). Second round of presidential

debates short of great ideas. Retrieved from

https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2019/02/19/

second-round-of-presidential-debates-short-of-great-

ideas.html

The Jakarta Post. (2019). Debate invigorated by

Prabowo’s fiery attacks. Retrieved from

https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/04/01/deb

ate-invigorated-by-prabowos-fiery-attacks.html

van Leeuwen, T. (2008). Discourse and practice: New

tools for critical discourse analysis. New York:

Oxford University Press.

van Dijk, T. A. (2008). Critical discourse analysis.

Discourse and power. Hampshire: Palgrave

Macmillamn

Wodak, R. (2002). Aspect of critical discourse analysis.

Austrian Academy of Sciences, 5-31.

Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (2009). Methods of critical

discourse analysis. London: Sage.

Jokowi and Prabowo’s Image in Online News Articles: A Critical Discourse Analysis

209