THE REPRESENTATION OF INDONESIA’S POLICY TOWARDS DUO BALI NINE AS REPORTED BY THE JAKARTA POST AND THE AUSTRALIAN: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Abstract

This thesis deals with the investigation of the representation Indonesia‟s policy towards Bali Nine as reported by The Jakarta Post and The Australian. It aims to know how the media represent this issue and reveal the bias of the media towards this issue using Interpersonal analysis of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) by Halliday (2004) supported by Butt et al. (1995) and Eggins (2004). Because this thesis tries to analyze the power abuse of media, this thesis uses the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) by Fairclough (1989). This analysis divides into three steps which are describing the text (microanalysis), interpreting the discursive practice (mesoanalysis), and explaining the social practice (macroanalysis). This thesis operates qualitative method. The collecting data uses documentary research strategy by internet based. The data is electronic newspaper of The Jakarta Post and The Australian. This research chooses The Jakarta Post’s news published on on February 7th, 2015 entitled Bali Nine duo to be executed this month and The Australian’s news published on February 18, 2015 entitled Bali Nine: Abbott steps up pressure on Indonesia over executions. Total clauses in The Jakarta Post‟s news article are 42 clauses. Meanwhile, The Australian‟s news article has 161 clauses. The finding divides into Mood and modality analysis. The Mood is mostly declarative mood which means the media are mostly giving information to the readers. Moreover, there are few imperative and interogative moods in The Australian. Beside the findings of Mood system, the finite is also important. Both media use past tense to report event in the past. Then, the finite of modality are used more in The Australian (24 claues) than in The Jakarta Post (7 clauses). It means The Australian conveyed more opinion rather than the fact. The Jakarta Post is the first English language of Indonesia‟s newspaper. The readers should be foreign readers. Meanwhile, The Australian is part of big company of media, News Corp. It has media in Britain, USA and also Australia. Therefore, The Australian can distribute to all states in Australia. This power of distribution affects the discourse from the media. The Jakarta Post reports the execution, Indonesia and Australia‟s information equally. Meanwhile, The Australian reports more about the assistance of Australia towards Indonesia than the execution. It tries to take side to Bali Nine Duo by providing option to rehabilitate them, and punish for life. The Australia‟s government also supports the Bali Nine by drawing the Ambassador for Indonesia whether the Australian Federal Police is the informant for arresting the Bali Nine in Bali. In conclusion, The Australian and The Jakarta Post have bias to their own country towards this issue. The Jakarta Post tends to support Indonesia‟s policy but it still reports this issue neutrally. Meanwhile, The Australian tends to rejects the Indonesia‟s policy by exaggerating the Australia‟s voice in the news article. This research proves that The Australian takes side to Duo Bali Nine.