A Critical Discourse Analysis of Online Newspaper Articles on 29
th
SEA Games Flag Incident
Andriana Vita Nurjannah
Department of Linguistics, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia
andrianavita@upi.edu
Keywords: Online newspaper, critical discourse analysis (CDA), ideology, Indonesia, Malaysia.
Abstract: Newspaper is a representation of what happened in a society. It ideally informs the truth without any
intervention and subjectivity from any party. This research is aimed at identifying Indonesia and Malaysia
perspectives on flag incident printed in the booklet of Sea Games 2017. Malaysian government as the host for
the annual event was responsible on what happened, but most Indonesian is still questioning about the
background the fatal incident. The top-rank online newspaper articles from both countries were used as the
instruments in revealing the stand point of the countries from mass media by using the discourse framework
from Fairclough (1989). The online news is believed to have faster publication in today’s digital and
technological era, thus the researcher focuses on the news published short after the issue was acknowledged.
A critical discourse analysis (CDA) was administered by focusing on the vocabulary used in the news and by
considering the cultural background between these two nations. It is expected that the findings of this study
would represent the real intended messages and implied ideology from the parties involved. Thus, it highlights
the relationship between those Southeast Asia Nations.
1 INTRODUCTION
Online newspaper becomes one of the major
information sources in the society, enabling the
reader in this digital and technological era to access
the updated news (Tewari, 2016). This form of mass
media contains discourse which conveys social
structure and power relation both explicitly and
implicitly (Fairclough, 1995; Van Dijk, 1988). It
reflects the attitude, believe, and perspective
according to each socio-cultural background. Thus,
analysing a text may reveal the stand point of a certain
society.
As newspaper holds an important role in revealing
the principles of a certain society, this research
focuses on administering Critical Discourse Analysis
(CDA) which is expected to identify the strategies
adopted by online newspapers articles in presenting
an event.
Analysing one of social event, this research
focused on the ideology implied in the recent
international sport event held by Malaysian
government. The event experienced difficult situation
because of the upside-down flag of Indonesia, one of
countries participated in the event, Southeast Asian
(SEA) Games. This was recognized by the Sport
Minister of Indonesia that later posted the picture of
the wrong flag printed in the booklet in his personal
social media account. Since social media is mostly
used in this era facilitating communication in
seconds, the posting of Indonesian flag being printed
upside down became viral.
The issue therefore ignited a storm of protest from
Indonesian and demanded an official apology from
the host of the event. However, the apology from the
Foreign Minister of Malaysia did not stop some
citizen asking the demise of the diplomatic relation
between the two nations. This flag gaffe thus remarks
as having great effect since it created mass reaction
especially from Indonesian.
Research on news report using CDA on a
particular event has been done (Wang and Liu, 2015)
by using Fairclough (1989) framework in which
Systemic Functional Grammar is employed to find
out the hidden methodology among the news articles.
On the other hand, the author used combination of
Fairclough (1989) and Van Dijk (1988) in obtaining
the aim of the study.
Nurjannah, A.
A Critical Discourse Analysis of Online Newspaper Articles on 29th SEA Games Flag Incident.
DOI: 10.5220/0007161300190023
In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference
on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 19-23
ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
19
2 THEORY AND
METHODOLOGY
This study represents a newspaper analysis using the
perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). It
is a framework to study or examine how an individual
or institution make use of language by not only
identifying the textual features but also interpretation
based on the context and interaction within it. CDA is
seen as the practice of language in society
(Fairclough, 1992; Gee, 1999), the representation of
power in social life (Weiss and Wodak, 2003), as a
means to connect linguistic analysis to social analysis
(Woods and Kroger, 2000). Therefore, it can be
generalized that CDA concerns in scrutinizing the
power and ideologies embedded in both linguistic and
social aspects.
The research employed the CDA framework
proposed by Fairclough (1989) consisting of three
level of discourse: description, interpretation, and
explanation. It describes the feature of presentation,
analyses the relationship between the text and
interaction, and relates the interaction with the social
context.
The online news described here were taken from
two online newspapers articles of The Jakarta Post
(TJP), representing Indonesian Media and The Star
(TS), Malaysian media. The news article was selected
since it is supposed to be objective, whereas editorials
or other news type have the higher degree of
subjectivity. The articles were selected randomly
after the Malaysian government officially gave
respond regarding the event.
3 FINDING AND DISCUSSION
This presents the findings analysis and discussion.
The section begins with description by analysing
seven linguistic features of presentation in description
stage, followed by interpretation and explanation
(Fairclough, 1989).
3.1 Description and Interpretation
3.1.1 Headline
Headline holds a critical role in attracting the readers’
attention (Van Dijk, 1988). It is the keywords
summarizing the whole news story (Dor, 2003),
reflecting the writer’s perspective on the news being
reported. Both the news media use active sentence
reporting the event indicating the role of the subject
participants. TJP states “Sport minister of Indonesia,
Malaysia settle flag incident”, while TS writes KL
apologises over flag blunder”. There is a different
reference used by both media in representing
Malaysia. TJP clearly denotes Malaysia as a country,
while TS use the word KL, one of the cities in
Malaysia. Thus, it can be inferred that TS
acknowledges only the city, “KL”, which apologise,
not Malaysia as the whole nation.
3.1.2 Lexical Choice
The lexical choice plays a key role in the presentation
of position and attitude of the two newspaper
agencies. It mainly describes the writer’s point of
view towards the news as the he has freedom in
choosing the lexical item explaining a news event. It
also defines particular kinds of identities, values, and
series of event which is not explicitly stated (Machin
and Mayr, 2012).
In these articles, there are several lexical items
referring to the Indonesian flag being printed upside
down, represented in the table below.
Table 1: Lexical choice on the Indonesian flag being printed
upside down.
The Jakarta Post
The Star
flag incident
problem
incident
problem
misprinted
Indonesian flag
mistake
flag blunder
upside down
publication of the
republic’s flag
issue
matter
error
“big mistake”
Mistake
From the data above, it can be seen that TS and
TJP used similar word choice, however there is one
particular lexical item which is absent in TS and
appear twice in TJP.
Text 1
He has asked his fellow Indonesians to put aside
the problem and move on with the games.
Text 2
“However, we ask that no more problems like this
happen in the future.”
Thus, it informs that the journalist of TS does not
consider the issue is a part of problem, but it indeed
believes that it is a part of error and mistake.
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
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3.1.3 Quotation
Quotation and reported speech plays an integral part
in news reporting. Since the reader may not know the
real situation being reported, the journalist has an
authority to shape the readers’ perception by his
writing. Thus, it is crucial whether the verbal action
in the news is presented using direct or indirect
speech act. The absence of verbal action presented in
direct speech act in news may lead to uncertainty
causing the doubt of the readers since the journalist
may use his wording which is not suitable with the
real condition (Fairclough, 1995). Moreover, the use
of quotation is able to show the party holding the
power (Van Dijk, 1988).
By using about 30.77 and 33.33 % direct speech
acts without, the TJP and TS respectively tries to
maintain the reliability of the event. In this case, the
journalist has the choice in deciding what actions
need to be cited verbally. From the data, it shows that
both TJP and TS tend to cite from Indonesia’s point
of view. However, TJP uses more proportion on
citation from Indonesia government comparing to
Malaysia Government. Therefore, it can be said that
the power of Indonesia’s stakeholder holds important
part in this event.
3.1.4 Quoting Verbs
There are various quoting verbs in news being
analysed. The writer has the option in choosing the
quoting verbs best described the situation. The verbs
chosen thus determine the writer’s ideology or
perspective. In TJP, they are said, told, added, asked,
praised, assured; while in TS are said, quoted and
expressed as the reporting verbs in the article being
analysed. According to Coulthard (1994), TS used the
neutral structuring verbs in said and expressed. While
quoted belongs to metalinguistic verbs. The
metalinguistic is a more specified verb than the
neutral category having probability to give ironic
effect. In this case, quoted still tends to be neutral
since it simply reports on what happened. It can be
summarized that the quoting verbs administered in TS
give neutral point of view regarding the event.
TJP used more types of verbs in reporting the
event. Said, told, asked are categorized as neutral
structuring verbs, while added belongs to transcript
verb in relation to other parts of discourse. It is the
verb giving more information on the same point.
Praised and assured mentioned in the news are
classified as assertives in metapropositional verbs,
expressing the writer’s interpretation of the speaker.
The metapropositional verbs indicate a higher level of
interpreting and evaluating by the journalist. Here, we
can say that reporting verbs in TJP contain neutral,
transcript, and metapropositional verbs.
3.1.5 Scare Quote
Scare quote is quite identical to quotation mark, but it
covers only for some words, not the entire sentence.
Thus, it gives stress to particular words and
symbolizes disagreement on that certain lexical item.
It also represents that the term in scare quote belongs
to someone else; it is between the writer’s and
assumed reader’s perception (Fairclough, 1992).
There is not any scare quote written in TJP, however
TS makes use of this scare quote in one of its
sentences.
Khairy, while offering his public apology
7
,
expressed his regret over the matter and was quick to
admit that it was a “big mistake”.
The words big mistake shows the uncertainty
from media publishing it. Thus, it can be interpreted
that according to TS, the flag being printed upside
down in the Sea Games booklet is not considered fatal
incident. However, the media still considers that this
event is a mistake as TS uses the mistake as one of
lexical choice representing the flag gaffe.
3.1.6 Theme
According to Van Dijk (1988) refers theme or
setential topic as the main point on the sentence.
Thus, it relates to what the subject is doing in which
the subject plays the key part of the news. In TJP, the
comparison of the Indonesia and Malaysia
government being the theme is 8:5 while in TS is 8:9
respectively. Both media in this case represent the
country government in which media published,
placing each country as the main focus of the news.
3.1.7 Report Proportion
Generally, the two media gave three kinds of
information: Indonesia’s action, Malaysia’s action
and the action from both countries. The simple
calculation of the report proportion is written in the
following table.
Table 2: The proportion of reporting.
Kinds of
information
The Jakarta
Post
The Star
Indonesia’s action
53.84 %
44.5 %
Malaysia’s action
38.46 %
50 %
Both countries
7.70 %
5.5 %
A Critical Discourse Analysis of Online Newspaper Articles on 29th SEA Games Flag Incident
21
By looking at the table, it can be analysed that TJP
and TS have different ways in reporting the event.
TJP focuses the action done by Indonesian
government, while TS tends to represent Malaysian
government as the main actor. Thus, the report
proportion has a role in detecting the tendencies of the
news media.
3.2 Explanation
After describing and interpreting the articles, the next
stage is explanation which is needed to make the
connection between language, power and ideology
clear.
The news articles represent the 29
th
SEA Games
hosted by Malaysian government in which tainted
with the issue having Indonesian flag being printed
upside down in the booklet distributed to the
participants. Youth and Sports Minister of Indonesia,
Imam Nahrawi, spotted that and then shared his
disappointment on his social media account, twitter,
which later triggered responses from Indonesian
netizen giving remark #ShameOnYouMalaysia.
Demonstration over Malaysian embassy in Jakarta
and the hacking on Malaysian websites following the
flag incident are the other reactions expressing the
disappointment toward the incident.
Flag of a country symbolises an honour and
dignity. In Indonesia case, it also reflects the struggle
in acquiring independence which contains historical
value. Considering the geographical aspect between
these neighbouring countries which have mutual
traits, including culture, history and religion, it seems
unnatural for organization committee getting the
Indonesian flag mistakenly printed. Thus, that what
makes citizens of a country feel insulted because of
the mistake of the flag.
Historically, Malaysia and Indonesia had a
number of problematic situation related to the right of
several islands lies around the nations. There were
also growing tension regarding the heritage culture,
like Reog and Batik. Batik is later officially
recognized as the Indonesia intangible heritage by
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO). Having prior conflict
makes the Indonesian are more sensitive towards the
incident demanding further investigation about it.
Officially, Malaysian government expressed
apology through the Foreign Affair Minister and
President of Indonesia accepted it. The president then
invited his citizens to move their attention to support
the Indonesian athlete in the sport event.
4 CONCLUSIONS AND
SUGGESTION
The analysis of two online newspaper articles shows
that even though the news is seen as objective social
practice product, it is inevitably determined by
ideology. From the two online articles, we can see the
difference in representing the same event. Thus, it is
undeniable that media has the ability in shaping the
readers’ perception.
In the first step analysis, describing the headlines,
lexical choice, quotation, quoting verbs, scare quote,
theme, and report proportion was done to observe in
what point of view the journalists from both
newspaper media representing the event.
Secondly, the interpretation was done on those
aspects in getting the implication of the lexical
features chosen. Therefore, the embedded ideology
can be revealed.
Lastly, those point of view and interpretation were
related to the social context geographically, culturally
and historically as the social context is important in
finding out the background of the issue. Therefore, it
is useful to for the readers to be aware and critical
when reading news media.
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