The data will be analyzed by utilizing the qualitative method to reveal the building tasks of discourse on The Huffington Post
‟s Gay Voices HuffPostGay tweets and the social activities and identities it portrays in
the stance on LGBT issues.
D. Data Analysis
1. January 2014 – Russia’s Anti-gay Law
The month of January 2014 brought us the new controversial law of the Russian Federation approved by Vladimir Putin which bans the
promotion of homosexuality to minors. It is considered as an unnecessary, clumsy piece of legalization and of a political agenda because it is
designed solely to boost support f or Putinin Russia‟s conservative
heartland.
Datum 1:
“Ian McKellen and 27 Nobel laureates speak out against Russia‟s anti-
gay law.”
Datum 2:
“NBC Olympics coverage won‟t ignore Russia‟s anti-gay law.” Seven Building Tasks of discourse on data 1 and 2 are analyzed
and elaborated as to be seen below. From the very beginning of the two tweets, the level of
significance to the LGBT community can be measured by the placing of
the indicators of the participants of the objection shown by the noun phrase “Ian McKellen and 27 Nobel laureates” as the subject placed in the
head foreground of the first as well with the display of “NBC” in the
second tweet. When an internationally renowned corporation, NBC, as one of the biggest news network in the United States as well as in the world, is
being taken into the matter, the issue must be in a great deal of importance and urgency. This notion occurred in similarity with the effect of
McKellen ‟s seniority as a Hollywood actor who has achieved “A level” of
stardom proved by his winning on the Academy Awards. Same explanation also applied for the “27 Nobel laureates” as the Nobel award
is seen as the top form of an awarding grant for humanities being the same level with the Oscars for cinematography. This fact makes them public
figures that have certain powers in their voices especially when voicing the issues of minorities. The uncountable noun “coverage” done by NBC
on “Olympics” as the biggest sport competition in the world joined by almost all countries indicate that the issue should be worldwide. The cue
can bring changes in the action of the opinion-derived public with one of the effects of news which is able to, as Fairclough phrased it, “apply and
transform social practices ”.
86
For the activity
task, the preposition “against” alongside with its complementary in the clause “against Russia‟s anti-gay law” in the first
tweet exhibits the act of informing and a possible encouragement to enact
negative manners towards Russia by its audience. The two verb phrases “speak out”, as appears as verb + adverb, in the first tweet and
“won‟t ignore
”, as appears as negative copula + verb transitive, in the second
86
Fairclough, op. cit., p. 34.
tweet evinces the conviction wherein the general population and the LGBT
community is to be supported by having big names and corporate body taken interest and to have no need to fear on the ignorance on the report of
the issue as it is to be pushed away by other issues.
In the task of identities
, the noun phrase “Ian McKellen and 27 Nobel laureates
” and “
NBC
” are clearly tied by The Huffington Post‟s Gay Voices
HuffPostGay with the same string, the adjective “anti-gay”.
The adjective itself with the prefix “anti-“ means opposed or against used to capture the attention of its audience with the intention to promote itself
as the reversal of the adjective, pro-gay; Therefore displays the standpoint of the news aggregator as a supporter of the community with its issues.
For the relationship
task, the use of the phrasal verb “speak out” in the first tweet displays a relatively high level of casualty and informality
in the case of how a news institution relate to its audience rather than if the verbs “express”, “propound” or “remark” is used. Similar with that, the
verb phrase “won‟t ignore” expresses the assurance of NBC‟s commitment in the simplest words which could possibly be used in line of
broadcast to be able to be received by all segment of society. The noun phrase “Russia‟s anti-gay law” in both tweets shares the
negative gesture towards opposition as a social good in the task of politics.
While performing the gesture sharing, The Huffington Post ‟s Gay Voices
HuffPostGay also cementing its stance in the reputation redeemed as
more favorable by the LGBT community opposite to Putin‟s which bans the promotion of homosexuality to minors.
In the connection task, The Huffington Post
‟s Gay Voices HuffPostGay displays big names in their own fields, personal
pronouns, “Ian McKellen” in the field of art and pop culture, “27 Nobel laureates
” in the field of social and humanities, and “NBC” in the field of communication and broadcasting. All for making the issue relevant to be
discussed by the general population as it can be seen that the issue is not exclusively belong to a certain group or field.
The sign systems and knowledge task of the two tweets de-
privileging the native language of where the law implemented as can be seen from the possessive “Russia‟s”. This, again, shows that the issue is
considered to better not be kept as an internal issue as it is more than a nationwide issue, but rather worldwide concerning human rights which
should be understood, respected and upheld by all nations without exception; Therefore English is chosen as the language in use, not
Russian. The identification of the analyzed building tasks above can be seen
from the table below.
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
