Table 3.1 Identification of Building Tasks of Data 1 2
No. Indicators
Building Task
Signi fi
cance A
ct iv
it y
Ident it
ies R
el at
ionsh ip
Poli ti
cs C
onn ec
ti ons
Sign s y
st em
s and
kn ow
ledge
1. Ian McKellen and 27
Nobel laureates
√ √
2. speak out
√ √
3. against
√
4. Russia‟s
√ √
√ √
5. anti-gay
√ √
√
6. Law
√
7. NBC
√ √
8. Olympics
√
9. Coverage
√
10. won‟t ignore
√ √
2. February 2014 – Michael Sam of the NFL
The American football player, Michael Sam, kissed his boyfriend, Vito Cammisano, at an NFL draft party in San Diego after he was selected
by the St. Louis Rams. The action sparked a controversy because it was aired by an American sports channel, ESPN.
Datum 3:
“Meet Michael Sam, the college football star who could go on to become the NFL‟s first openly gay player.”
Datum 4:
“Will Michael Sam save the NFL from its homophobia?” Seven Building Tasks of discourse on data 3 and 4 are analyzed
and elaborated as to be seen below.
From the significance task, these tweets build up intensity to
display a remarkably huge concern towards the wellbeing and continuation of LGBT community as an integrated part of the society starts with the
foregrounding of personal pronoun “Michael Sam” merely as an individual
who then acknowledged as an emerging “star” in “college football” as the
most popular sport in the U.S.A. adding significance entitling his name. The noun
phrase “NFL‟s first openly gay player” gives away the impression of a new start, regardless it is a good one or a bad one. Later, it
is seen as a chance to a good one as shown by the transitive v erb “save”
which will affect one of the world‟s biggest practitioners in the field of sport broadcast, “NFL”. The noun “homophobia” is put at the end of the
second tweet acts as the peak of significance as it strengthens the intensity in the suggestion of a high level of intolerance towards the idea of
equality.
On the activity task, this tweet delivers a sense of hope to the
readers, which obviously consist mostly of the members of the LGBT community. The delivery starts with the act of introduction shown by the
transitive usage of the verb “meet”, as if both or at least one of the parties
were not aware of each other existence and social significance. Gradually, as the introduction foreseen to have taken off, both parties acknowledge
each other capacities. One could act as the hero and one is presented as the group in need indicated by the transitive verb
“save” as an action of salvation from an unpleasant or difficult situation on the contrary of the
more negative and harsher one which currently happens in the society shown by the noun
“homophobia”. The Huffington Post
‟s Gay Voices HuffPostGay has taken the
identity
of a supporting third party or in a simpler term, a matchmaker. As like already interpreted in the activity task, the news aggregator intent to
bring two parties together, but that could not be effective unless the background of one or more parties is known thoroughly. This is where the
use of the personal pronoun “Michael Sam” and the transitive verbs
“meet” by the news aggregator reflects some kind of amiability in its nature. The use of the noun
phrase “NFL‟s first openly gay player” does not provide a restrictive gesture; it even gives the impression of the news
aggregator‟s disappointment of the fact that there has never been a more daring and progressive figure in the earlier era and its amelioration process
by surfacing the issue.
The relationship task provides an outstanding level of casualty
and even austerity as for the tweets do not use sophisticated words or terms. The intention of The Huffington Post
‟s Gay Voices HuffPostGay could really be seen as an institution open to public
embrace from the verbs as they are used in regular daily basis of all members of the society, such as “meet” and “save”. Similarly, the phrase
“NFL‟s first openly gay player
”
opens up a whole new level of intimacy as it is appraisal-free. The only thing to be noted of this intimacy done by the
news aggregator is that the phrase is merely the tip of the iceberg as it intent to broadcast its contents as accessible and modest as possible.
In the politics task, the verb
“to become” indicates the distribution of excitement as well as the expectation of a renewal of a social
statesymbolized by the rising popularity of Michael Sam as an icon to represent the LGBT community in a more positive nature concerning his
origin from athletic background that is keen with positive social values, such as sportsmanship, integrity, and perseverance in opposition with
negative stereotypes the society holds against the community. Moreover, contradictive attributes are to be reflected by two noun phrases;
“NFL‟s first openly gay player
”
versus “its homophobia”. The earlier phrase
exhibits a manifestation of an emergence of a new era represented by the contributing adjective “open” which will replace the older and less
desirable one represented by the later phrase.
The connections task brings The Huffington Post
‟s Gay Voices HuffPostGay intention in making the matters relevant as can be seen
from the linking in the noun “college football” which surely could capture
the audience attention as Americans are die-hard supporters of the sport. When the attention is already captured, the arrangement of connecting
Michael Sam as a “star” and “homophobia” which both of them carry the sense of contradictory in the manner of alternating, in this case from a less
desirable state to a more desirable alternative by the use of the “NFL” and
“NFL‟s first openly gay player
”
which in hindsight would ignite a wave of movement in the field of sexual as well as social status transparency.
The sign systems and knowledge task, the linguistic units from
the linguistic units “meet”, “college football”, “star”, “will”, “save”, “NFL”, “homophobia”, to the phrase, “NFL‟s first openly gay player” are
all enacting the language of common citizen of the middle class as it takes the largest shaping component within society. The acknowledgement and
deployment of this task by The Huffington Post ‟s Gay Voices
HuffPostGay can bring a shake-up in national-scale even international stability as the issue is becoming more of a focus of the policy making
process that includes public participation in voicing their demanded rights. The identification of the analyzed building tasks above can be seen
from the table below.
Table 3.2 Identification of Building Tasks of Data 3 4
No. Indicators
Building Task
Signi fi
cance A
ct iv
it y
Ident it
ies R
el at
ionsh ip
Poli ti
cs C
onn ec
ti on
s
Sign s y
st em
s and
kn ow
ledge
1.
Meet
√ √
√ √
2.
Michael Sam
√ √
3.
college football
√ √
√ √
4.
Star
√ √
√ 5.
to become
√ 6.
NFL‟s first openly gay player
√ √
√ √
√ √
7.
Will
√ √
8.
Save
√ √
√ √
9.
NFL
√ √
√
50
10.
Its
√ √
11.
Homophobia
√ √
√ √
3. March 2014 – Transgender Issues
