Examining a News Discourse of a Female Politician in Indonesia: Fairclough's Model of Critical Discourse Analysis and its Implication in English Language Teaching

Abstract

<p>As one of the most important sites in which particular agenda are articulated and disseminated, news media play important roles in reproducing power relations and ideologies. Drawing on Fairclough’s approach of three-dimensional model within the paradigm of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and of the qualitative research, this study aims to identify the ideology enacted in a news article which reports the appointment of Susi Pudjiastuti as the Indonesian minister of maritime affairs and fisheries. It does so by analysing the textual, the discursive, and the social practices of the news discourse. Underpinned by the results of the analysis, this research also investigates the integration of CDA in English classrooms in Indonesia. The results of this study reveal that the patriarchal ideology is enacted in the news through (1) the construction of language use in comparing the qualifications of Susi with Indroyono Soesilo as the coordinating minister for maritime affairs; (2) the use of direct and indirect speech constituted intertextuality; (3) the enquiry of socio-political contexts surrounding the news discourse in relation to women’s participations in politics. Based on these findings and Cot’s framework, this research also attempts to design a reading task using the news article by constructing consciousness-raising questions, so that students can enhance their critical thinking skills and their ability to reveal hidden meanings in discourse. The implications of the research both in the theoretical importance and in the English language teaching are also discussed with reference to intercultural issues.<strong></strong></p><strong>Keywords: </strong> critical discourse analysis, news discourse, ideology, patriarchy

A Critical Discourse Analysis of a Political Talk Show on the 2019 Indonesian Presidential Election

“…In addition, studies of political discourse have confirmed the use of linguistic features in political news and politicians' posts on social media. For example, linguistic features in the forms of comparatives, direct and indirect sentences, and social contexts have been used intensively to challenge the patriarchal ideology related to news report on the appointment of a female minister in the Jokowi's cabinet (Santoso, 2018). Using a different perspective, Adam (2021) examines political news that uses metaphorical elements based on the inclusiveness of religious terms by political figures to establish communication with their constituents.…”

“…Asmarandhani (2019),Prihatin & Dawudi (2019),Pramita et al (2019), Guswita & Suhardi (2020,Yuvitasari (2020),Fidyati &Rajandran (2020), andSantoso &Wardani (2021). The news coverage of the 2019 presidential election by several media, for example, has been reviewed by Asmarandhani (2019) who found the use of lexical choices, nominalization, passivization, and editorial statements of ABC and BBB news agencies to show their neutrality to both Jokowi and…”

Third Wave Feminism And Women’s Invisibility In The Discourse Of Politics

“…According to Berger (2016), discourse in linguistics marks a shift in focus from sentence to conversation and considers language in use as a form of social practice crucial in social and political lives of people. Fairclough & Wodak (1997) perceived discourse as an instrumental factor in creating social identities and relationship between people (Santoso, 2018). According to Cap (2019), the study of discourse aims at drawing connection between language in use at the micro level and an analysis of the social situation at the macro level.…”

“…Moreover, media discourse, to discourse analysts, provides an insight into the prevailing social and power structures through a detailed inspection of recordings and transcriptions guided by the proponents of Critical Discourse Analysis -a widely used method to analyze media texts. Fairclough (1985) was the first to use the term CDA and has so far been its most influential practitioner (Santoso, 2018). He has also been writing extensively on critical discourse analysis since 1980s.…”

“…According to Haig (2017), when people talk about CDA, they have Norman Fairclough in their minds due to his major contributions to the field. According to Santoso (2018), Fairclough focused the social importance of language by developing a multidimensional approach often referred to as the social theory of discourse. His view of language as a social practice involves power and ideology in discourse (Carvalho, 2008;Ramanathan & Hoon, 2015;Sari et al, 2018).…”