BIAS IN SOME NEWS ON THE ISSUE OF TONY ABBOT’S SPYING INDONESIA’S POLITIC: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Abstract

The objects are the text of news report from many newspapers. They are the Jakarta Post, the Guardian, the New York Times and the Age National. They report the same issue about spying of Australia to Indonesia. Their report looks neutral but the content of the report tends to Bias implicitly. Bias can emerge because of power that is gained by the journalists. It is interesting to investigate the factor behind bias the journalists serve to give a support for Australia. The goal of this study is to examine the language used by the journalists in their news report in serving bias. This study is conducted to reveal the production of bias used by the journalists to report the issue of spying. The investigation of this research bases on the theory of SFL proposed by Halliday from the point of processes and participants include in transitivity. Moreover, the theory of CDA is to see the implicit meaning from the language used. The nature of this study is statistical, descriptive, and interpretative. Those types of analysis research are applied on quantitative and qualitative researches. The method of collecting data is applied documentary method. In sorting data, purposive sampling has been conducted to select the intended things (Mickey and Gass, 2005:122). There are 74 clauses sorted from each newspaper. In processing, the verb processes of clauses are coded into tabulation in terms of transitivity by Martin, et.al (1997). Finally, in interpreting, combining the grammatical knowledge features and my own opinion helps. The findings of this thesis reveal that the processes the journalists used and the choice verbs in the news report indicate bias to support Australia. There are orders of mostly used verb process. They are material, mental, relational and verbal clauses. Furthermore, verb processes have models to design the event or state of affairs describe by the clause. In line with this, Fowler (1991:73) states type of predicates (verb processes) are action and process that relate to change the world, and states that imply no change or development. Moreover, the participants also take a hand in clauses or give an effect to the clause; therefore, bias can be seen from the participants in the clause too. According to Fowler (1991:98), some simple analysis can reveal a lot about the categorization of participants. Finally, the information of issue spying aims to the readers that are designed or constructed by journalists. The media of reports will inform and frame their news report by subjective of the journalists. Therefore, the implication of bias appears in the news report.