A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST.
Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY
AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Submitted in partial fulfillment of a Sarjana Sastra degree
Arini Rusyda 0700351
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION INDONESIA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
A Social Action Analysis of News on 2011 War in Libya:
Representation of the US Alliances on Online USA Today and The
Tripoli Post
Oleh Arini Rusyda
Sebuah skripsi yang diajukan untuk memenuhi salah satu syarat memperoleh gelar Sarjana pada Fakultas Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni
© Arini Rusyda 2014 Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia
Agustus 2014
Hak Cipta dilindungi undang-undang.
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
dengan dicetak ulang, difoto kopi, atau cara lainnya tanpa ijin dari penulis.
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY
AND THE TRIPOLI POST
A Research Paper
Written by: Arini Rusyda
0700351
Approved by:
Main Supervisor Co-Supervisor
Dr. Odo Fadloeli, M.A. Susi Septaviana R., M.Pd. NIP. 195408041977021001 NIP. 197609042009122002
The Head of English Education Department Indonesia University of Education
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
Prof. Dr. H. Didi Suherdi, M.Ed. NIP. 196211011987121001
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
ABSTRACT
This paper reveals the representation of social actions of news discourse regarding 2011 War in Libya on online USA Today and The Tripoli Post. Social actions refer to a set of actions and reactions of nine main social actors involved in the war news reports, especially the US Alliances (President Obama, NATO, US Administration (White House), US Military (Department of Defense)). The research employs van Leeuwen’s (2008) framework on Representing Social Actions to analyse those social actions through two stages, by classifying the categories and discovering the distribution of the transformations.
The results indicate that USA Today presents 288 actions, 39 reactions and 187 transformations, while, Tripoli Post attributes 262 actions, 18 reactions and 112 transformations. US Alliances, on both media, are assumed to build legalization on war issue by being represented in positive quality transformation through objectivated and deagentialized social actions, which allow their social actions to be subtilized. In addition, quotations and renditions belong to them are dominantly mentioned, suggesting their power of dominance within the texts. This dominance is supported by their representation as the one that coping with the war in cognitive and perceptive reactions, illustrating them as rational, thinkers in contrast to civilians and rebels who are represented in more emotive reactions (affective). It indicates that both media tend to be biased in representing social actors involved by means of their attributed social actions.
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
ABSTRAK
Makalah ini membahas tentang representasi aksi sosial dalam wacana berita mengenai 2011 Perang di Libya pada portal berita online USA Today dan The Tripoli Post. Aksi sosial tersebut mengacu pada serangkaian aksi dan reaksi dari sembilan aktor sosial utama yang terlibar dalam wacana berita terpilih, terutama Aliansi AS (Presiden Obama, NATO, Pemerintahan AS (Gedung Putih), Militer AS (Departemen Pertahanan)). Penelitian ini menggunakan kerangka pemikiran van Leeuwen (2008) tentang Representing Social Actions untuk menganalisis aksi-aksi sosial melalui dua tahapan, dengan mengelompokkan kategori aksi dan menganalisa distribusi transformasi aksi-aksi tersebut.
Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa USA Today menyajikan 288 aksi, 39 reaksi dan 187 transformasi, sementara, Tripoli Post mengatribusikan 262 aksi, 18 reaksi dan 112 transformasi. Aliansi AS, pada kedua media, diasumsikan tengah membangun legalisasi isu perang dengan adanya transformasi positif pada aksi sosial melalu objektivasi dan deagentialisasi, yang kemudian memungkinkan aksi sosial mereka diperhalus secara literal. Selain itu, kutipan yang diutarakan AS dominan disebutkan, menunjukkan penguatan posisi mereka dalam teks. Dominasi ini didukung dengan adanya representasi mereka sebagai salah satu pihak yang menghadapi perang dalam reaksi kognitif dan perseptif, menggambarkan Aliansi tersebut sebagai pihak yang rasional, pemikir, berbeda dengan warga sipil dan pemberontak yang direpresentasikan dengan reaksi yang lebih emotif (afektif). Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa kedua media cenderung bias dalam merepresentasikan aktor sosial yang terlibat melalui aksi sosial mereka.
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE OF APPROVAL ... i
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ... ii
PREFACE ... iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... iv
ABSTRACT ... v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... vi
LIST OF TABLES ... ix
LIST OF FIGURES ... xi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background 1
1.2 Research Questions 4
1.3 Aims of the Study 5
1.4 Significance of Study 5
1.5 Research Methodology 6
1.6 Clarification of Key Terms 7
1.7 Organization of Paper 8
CHAPTER II: THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 News Discourse in Its Definitions 10
2.1.1 Difference between Discourse and Text 10
2.1.2 News as Part of Media Discourse 11
2.2 Critical Discourse Analysis: The In-depth Analysis of Discourse 13 2.3 Principles of CDA: Discourse as Social Practices 15 2.4 Discourse as Recontextualization of Social Practices 17
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
2.6 News Discourse as the Analytical Field of Van Leeweun’s CDA 24
2.7 Current Studies on CDA 26
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Formulation of Problems 30
3.2 Research Design 30
3.3 Data Collection 31
3.4 Data Analysis 32
CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Findings 37
4.1.1 Social Actors Represented on USA Today and Tripoli Post 37
4.1.2 Actions and Reactions 38
4.1.2.1 Material and Semiotic Actions 40
4.1.2.2 Transactive and Nontransactive Material and Semiotic Actions 43 4.1.2.3 Transactive Instrumental and Interactive Action 45 4.1.3. Reactions: Cognitive, Affective and Perceptive 47
4.1.3.1 Affective Reactions 48
4.1.3.2 Perceptive Reactions 49
4.1.3.3 Cognitive Reactions 49
4.1.4 Transformations on Action and Reaction 50
4.1.4.1 Deactivation: Objectivation and Descriptivization 50 4.1.4.2 De-agentialization: Eventuation, Existentialization,
and Naturalization 53
4.1.4.3 Abstraction: Generalization and Distillation 55 4.1.4.4 Overdetermination: Symbolization and Inversion 57
4.1.5 Social Actions Attributed to US Alliances 60
4.1.5.1 Social Actions Attributed to US Alliances on USA Today 60 4.1.5.2 Social Actions Attributed to US Alliances on Tripoli Post 63
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
4.2 Discussions 69
4.2.1 Social Actors on online USA Today and Tripoli Post
from Viewpoints of Social Actions 70
4.2.2 The Distribution of the US Alliance’s Social Actions
and Their Transformations 73
4.2.3 The Tendency of Objectivation and Abstraction
on US Alliances 74
4.2.4 Media Discursive Strategy through Representation of US Alliances on USA Today and Tripoli Post:
Legalization on War 75
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions 76
5.2 Suggestions 78
REFERENCES 79
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
LIST OF TABLES
1. Table 2.1 Elements of Social Practices 19
2. Table 3.3 The Initial Analysis 36
3. Table 4.1 Source articles taken from online USA Today 38 4. Table 4.2 Source articles taken from online Tripoli Post 38 5. Table 4.3 Actions and reactions on USA Today’s articles 39 6. Table 4.4 Actions and reactions on Tripoli Post’s articles 39 7. Table 4.5 Materializations and Semioticizations
on USA Today’s articles 41
8. Table 4.6 Materializations and Semioticizations
on Tripoli Post’s articles 41
9. Table 4.7 Transactive and Nontransactive Actions
on USA Today’s articles 43
10.Table 4.8 Transactive and Nontransactive Actions
on Tripoli Post’s articles 43
11.Table 4.9 Transactive Instrumental and Interactive Actions
on USA Today’s articles 45
12.Table 4.10 Transactive Instrumental and Interactive Actions
on USA Today’s articles 46
13.Table 4.11 Affective Reactions on USA Today
and Tripoli Post’s articles 48
14.Table 4.12 Perceptive Reactions on USA Today
and Tripoli Post’s articles 49
15.Table 4.13 Cognitive Reactions on USA Today
and Tripoli Post’s articles 49
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
on USA Today and Tripoli Post’s articles 51 17.Table 4.15 Deagentializations on USA Today and Tripoli Post 55 18.Table 4.16 Generalizations and Distillations
on USA Today and Tripoli Post 56
19.Table 4.17 Symbolizations and Inversions
on USA Today and Tripoli Post 58
20.Table 4.18 Reactions Embedded to the US Alliances
on USA Today 61
21.Table 4.19 Materializations and Semioticizations
Embedded to the US Alliances on USA Today 61 22.Table 4.20 Transactive and Nontransactive Actions
Embedded to the US Alliances on USA Today 62 23.Table 4.21 Transactive Actions Represented to the
US Alliances’ Social Actions on USA Today 62
24.Table 4.22 Reactions Embedded to the US Alliances
on Tripoli Post 64
25.Table 4.23 Actions Embedded to the US Alliances
on Tripoli Post 64
26.Table 4.24 Transactive and Nontransactive Actions
Embedded to the US Alliances on Tripoli Post 65 27.Table 4.25 Transactive Actions Embedded to the
US Alliances on Tripoli Post 65
28.Table 4.26 Deactivation Represented to the US Alliances’
Social Actions 66
29.Table 4.27 Deagentialization Represented to the US Alliances’
Social Actions 68
30.Table 4.28 Abstraction Represented to the US Alliances’
Social Actions 68
31.Table 4.29 Overdetermination Represented to the US Alliances’
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
LIST OF FIGURES
1. Figure 2.1 Influence of discourse on practice 17
2. Figure 2.2 Social Actions Network 21
3. Figure 3.1 Selected research corpus 32
4. Figure 3.2 Detailed scheme on data analysis 34
5. Figure 4.1 Objectivation and its forms 51
6. Figure 4.2 Constitutions of an action that can be
abstracted through generalization 55
7. Figure 4.3 Types of Social Action and Their
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter encompasses the background of the research, the significance of research, research questions, aims of the research, research methodology, clarification of key terms and the organization of paper.
1.1. Background
In society, mass media play a crucial role in both capturing and shaping realities among them. It does not only encompass all forms of information that are transferred to a large group of people but also create news based on the decision of what and which news to be reported. As asserted by Chomsky (2002, p.27), there are different necessities carried by the media. It shows that the media are not neutral and objective, supported by the different facts of their background and circulation. In addition, Gitlin (1980, p.15) in “The Whole World Is Watching”, writes that “the media created and amplified impressions of how the world work, that images and narratives were manufactured for consequential reason and purposes of their own.” Regarding to the value of subjectivity owned by each media the research makes effort to dismantle the representation of Middle East War‟s reporting news in different media, precisely, newspapers.
Newspaper itself is a product of a text or discourse which represents the prevailing knowledge at a certain place and time (Foucault, 1996). Discourse, as argued by van Dijk (1998), is a medium which functions as a powerful tool of communication through particular social and political beliefs and practices, ideologies, subject positions, and norms. It includes ways of using, thinking of language and acting over language. Therefore, discourse provides connection between social notions of value and practice either as inputs or outputs (Carling, 2009). In this way, discourse is counted as a social cognition which leads to social action network for van Leeuwen (1993).
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A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
A discourse exists in line with/or opposition to other discourses because each brings its own particular set of ideology. Here, van Leeuwen (2008) reflects the view by proposing concept of re-contextualization in social practices. He believes that elements of social practices can be traced in texts through the process of reconstructing followed by transforming or re-contextualizing.
Discourse as social practices can be re-contextualized through the substitution, deletion, rearrangement and/or addition of the social practice elements which construct the text in embody of specific context. The essence of those elements is the social action networks that can or cannot cause transformations (van Leeuwen, 2009, as cited in Wodak & Meyer, 2009). The categories of actions and the actor, whom they are attributed to, mostly trigger the recontextualization process to allow readers to go beyond the surface structures of text. In addition, van Leeuwen (1993, p.12) argues that
“the field structure of a text or set of texts is a recontextualization of the structure of social practice, or set of interrelated social practices”.
From March to May 2011, the conflicts of long-lasting dictatorial leadership in some Middle-Eastern countries became a global political discourse which has attracted Western countries‟ attention. One of the conflicting countries is Libya, of which the people fought against their leader, Moammar Khaddafi.
The Libyan civil war, also referred to the Libyan revolution (PBS Newshour, 2011), was preceded by protests in Benghazi beginning on Tuesday, 15 February 2011, which had escalated into a rebellion that spread across the country. The involved protesters were some of the citizens who sued for democracy against his tyranny within more than 30 years. According to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, however, the reason for the de-militarization was a reaction to the Iraqi War, so that Libya would not be accused of possessing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) and assumed to face the same fate (Russia Today, 2011).
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A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
Regarding the harsh political and military condition thereby, the involvement of other powerful countries were inevitable. The war has invited the United States to lead another invasion, involve its coalition armies and NATO to attack Gadaffi‟sresidence for the sake of „saving‟ civilians in Libya (Obama, 2011, as cited in USA Today). All Western countries cut off diplomatic relations with Gaddafi's governance in February and March, followed by applying regulation of Libyan no-fly zone on 17 March (UN Security Council, 2011, as cited in BBC News).
It was getting severe as other Western countries (US, Britain, France and Italy) were encouraged to be involved in the war. Each party (the pros and contras) generated more deaths and insecurity for the people, which was thus, leading to the decease of the Libyan leader himself by the allegedly NTC (National Transitional Council in Libya).
The Libyan war news in 2011 is thus a good issue to be investigated with Critical Discourse Analysis. The analysis may contribute to social change as it provides media representation on news contents both at a national or global level. In relation to the contents, news may create a debatable or pro-contra assumption to the readers in terms of a particular issue.
As suggested, CDA questions the usage of language and the context of its use and what subtext it produces to the text (Fairclough, 1995, as cited in Paltridge, 2000). It offers the opportunity to adopt a social perspective in the cross-cultural research of the media texts and “overtly political agenda” (Kress, 1976), which presents a critical, theoretical and descriptive accounts of texts. Therefore, van Leeuwen (2008) builds a conceptual discourse framework as the re-contextualization of social practice. It refers to a process of transformation of social practices, i.e. actions, performance modes, actors, presentation styles, times, spaces, resources, and eligibility. Consequently, recontextualization can be a powerful tool in transforming particular social or discursive (linguistic) practices and creating a new one (Busch, 2006).
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
Newspaper articles used are online USA Today and Tripoli Post. The former newspaper is the United States of America‟s most frequently read newspaper with total circulation of approximately 2,528,437 visitors (as cited in Infoplease). Though Qaddafi (1977) argued that “The press is a means of expression for society; it is not a means of expression for private individuals or corporate bodies”, the war has led the media to have more discretion in either reporting news or providing opinions of the people. As a matter of fact, the latter is included as one of the top rated private media in Libya that represents the conditions in Libya, according to newswealth.com.
Those texts on online version of USA Today and The Tripoli Post, from March to May 2011, encompass several social action networks and practices, which allow the analysis on particular hidden meanings represented linguistically. The differed representation will bring contrasted tendencies between USA Today and The Tripoli Post.
Also, through the presentation on their social actors, it is thus possible to reveal their each tendency on representing the US Alliances, in relation to the issue of 2011 war in Libya.
1.2. Research Questions
The research problems are formulated in the following questions:
1. How are social actors represented through social actions on online USA Today and Tripoli Post?
2. What are social actions attributed to US Alliances on online USA Today and Tripoli Post?
1.3. Aims of Research
Fundamentally, the research was conducted to uncover the hidden intentions beyond chosen texts as framed in the research problem. Therefore, the framework of critical discourse analysis was applied thoroughly. In
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
relation to its approaches and strategies, the research aimed to do the following steps:
1. Conduct critical discourse analysis on texts by representing the social actions attributed to US Alliances
2. Unpack the contrasts of social actions (actions and reactions) on online USA Today and The Tripoli Post referring to 2011 War in Libya
3. Reveal the tendencies of USA Today and The Tripoli Post in
representing US Alliances in their news reports on 2011 War in Libya
1.4. Significance of Research
The research concerns investigation on the distinctive representation of 2011 War in Libya in the media discourse. The used discourses are articles in USA Today and The Tripoli Post from March to May 2011. Those articles generally delineate the involving actions of America and other Western countries in the Libyan war.
Van Leeuwen‟s (2008) framework of discourse by representing social actions was applied in the research. The critical discourse analysis is preceded by identifying the categorizations of social actions within texts, as the textual evidence of distinctive social constructions, embedded with dismantling the transformations of each social action. In final sequence, it analyzes the contrasts of USA Today and The Tripoli Post through their social actors in representing 2011 war in Libya, as well as how the tendencies of both media in representing the US Alliances on the issue can be specified.
1.5. Research Methodology
The method employed in the research is descriptive qualitative. It is coherent with the aims of the research due to its functions in analyzing written materials or documentary analysis. Furthermore, it reveals the subtlety and complexity of cases or issues since theory is generated from the
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
empirical data, and consequently there is 'closeness of fit' between theory and data (Woods, 2006).
The research investigates the representations of War in Libya, conveyed by USA Today and The Tripoli Post, using the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). According to Halliday (1994), there is an interconnection between word classes and their representations by engaging discourse with the social contexts. The interconnection has led van Leeuwen to conceptualize CDA based on discourse as the recontextualization of social practice. The core of social practice is a set of actions (Wodak, 2009, p.148), thus, the elements of social actions and their transformations are embedded in the research. Social actions are analyzed to investigate the relation between actual texts, discursive practices and social contexts that influence.
The further delineations of data collection and analysis are presented below.
1.5.1. Data Collections
The news reports of war in Libya from USA Today and The Tripoli Post, from March to May 2011, were used as the primary sources. Three articles of each were analyzed and sorted to uncover the tendencies beyond the news representations entitled:
President Obama tells Libya’s Gaddafi to step down (USA Today)
NATO hits Libyan ships to protect rebel-held port (USA Today)
Obama cites 'responsibility' of U.S. in Libya intervention (USA Today) NATO: 'No Apologies' For 'Friendly Fire' that Killed Rebels (The Tripoli
Post)
US Military Denies Shooting on Civilians (The Tripoli Post)
Barack Obama: 'Al Qathafi Must Step Down; Leave Libya to the Libyan People' (The Tripoli Post)
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
In analyzing the content of the data, the research applied the analytical framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) through representing social actions offered by van Leeuwen (2008, p.68) in his Discourse and Practice. His framework has been backgrounded by the preceding transitivity analysis in Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG), proposed by Halliday (1994). It focuses on observing language through representation of social actions used in a discourse. The use of social actions itself is inevitably influenced by the social and cultural contexts attributed to the actions.
Analysis on the core of social practices, namely actions, according to Wodak (2009, p.148) provides a more thorough representation of meaning. Three series of step are at least engaged in analyzing the social actions in the discourse. The first step deals with the categorizations of social actions. The main categories include actions and reactions, classified as material, semiotic, behavioural, non behavioural, cognitive and so forth. It is further followed by dealing with the transformations of those social actions, activated and deactivated, agentialized and de-agentialized, concretized and abstracted, as well as single and overdeterminated. Eventually, the relation between actual texts, discursive practices and social contexts is investigated. Those series lead to the different interpretation among texts.
1.6. Clarification of Key Terms
Several particular related terms are required to be presented in obvious clarification. Hence, it will lead to in-depth comprehension on the raised problematic issues. Below are some clarified terms in brief statements:
1. Representation is the production of the meaning of concepts in human‟s mind through language. Hence, it constructs the meaning beyond speech, writing or images as an aspect of „reality‟ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts (Hall, 1997).
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
2. Discourse encompasses ways of using language, of thinking and of acting in order to identify a socially meaningful identity (a social network). It functions as a powerful tool to analyze social and political beliefs and practices, ideologies, subject positions, and norms (Carling, 2009).
3. Social Action is a set of actions, which can be represented through various linguistic codes. It can be conducted through different attitudes to the represented social actions (Mazid, 2001).
4. The United States has formal diplomatic relations with most nations. In this paper, the US has several common goals and interests with NATO. Therefore, the social actions referring to President Obama, the US Defense and State Department, Nato and the US Spokesmen constitute the term 'US Alliances'.
5. Tendencies include a representation of a social construct or phenomenon which contributes to assign an identity and the establishment of knowledge. (Fairclough, 2003).
1.7. Organization of Paper
Five chapters are included within the research paper. Each chapter covers several subtopics which favours and completes the major discussions.
The first chapter is Introduction. It delineates the background of the research, overview of literature, research questions, limitation of research, aims of research, methodology in conducting the research, clarification of key terms, and organization of the paper.
The second chapter encompasses Theoretical Framework. It provides the theories and conceptual frameworks that are applied to support the accomplishment of research problems.
The third chapter presents Research Methodology. This chapter discusses the series of procedural step taken in conducting the research. It also presents the supporting tools of analysis completed with the reasons of choosing the procedure.
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
The fourth chapter depicts the major discussions if the research. It is namely, Finding and Discussion of the research. The result of the research and solve of research problems are put forward in the fourth chapter. Furthermore, the discussion and interpretation of the data findings are elucidated within.
Eventually, the last chapter presents the result and conclusion of the research. It consists of Conclusions and Suggestions. It also considers several suggestions for further research.
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter elaborates methodology applied in the research on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). A number of supporting aspects are described thoroughly concerning the research processes. They cover formulation of problems, research design and analytical framework. Furthermore, adopting the framework of „Representing Social Actions‟ by van Leeuwen (2008), it includes the data collections and sample analysis regarding to representation of social actions, the core of social practices. Thus, either aims or objects of the research are eventually provided.
3.1. Formulation of Problems
The research problems are formulated in the following questions:
1. How are social actors represented through social actions on online USA Today and Tripoli Post?
2. What are social actions attributed to US Alliances on online USA Today and Tripoli Post?
3.2. Research Design
The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative, intended at describing the use of discourse to represent certain tendencies on certain events in two different newspapers. The focus of the method lies on the „philosophy, concepts, data gathering procedures and statistical methods‟(Given, 2008, p.699) so that it is employed due to its appropriateness and support on the critical discourse analysis as the framework of the analysis. It is coherent with the aim of the research, which is analyzing written materials or documentary analysis. Also, it reveals the subtlety and complexity of cases or issues since theory is generated from the empirical data, and consequently there is 'closeness of fit' between theory
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Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
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and data (Woods, 2006). It is supported by Yin (1994), who argued that it is applied to dismantle the „how‟ and „why‟.
To complete the employment of the method, descriptive method is applied due to its nature of gathering information about the occuring phenomenon in testing hyphotheses and answering the related questions (Creswell, 1994). Thus, it is capable of describing the 2011 War in Libya as the recent existing phenomenon to investigate.
The above methods facilitate the research to concern on the framework of representing social actions as one of analytical tools in CDA in order to discover the representations of 2011 War in Libya, the tendencies conveyed by USA Today and The Tripoli Post both in presenting the war and the position of US Alliances. According to van Leeuwen (2008), CDA can be conceptualized through representing the core element of social practices, a set of actions (Wodak, 2009, p.148). Thus, the elements of social actions are investigated to find the relation between actual texts, discursive practices and social contexts that influence.
The further delineations of data collection and analysis are presented below.
3.3. Data Collection
The data were collected from USA Today and The Tripoli Post published from March to May 2011. Selected articles were on the hypotheses that they have different points of view concerning 2011 war in Libya. In addition, several related specific tendentious information were provided at each. Three articles of each were selected as the materials to analyze. Both papers are retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com and http://www.tripolipost.com. The selected articles are presented on the following figure:
(24)
Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
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Figure 3.1. Selected research corpus
3.4. Data Analysis
In analyzing the content of the data, the research applies the analytical framework of representing social actions as an analytical tool of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), offered by van Leeuwen (2008) on his Discourse and Practice. Building on what Halliday (1956) proposes—transitivity (Systemic Functional Grammar), he develops a categorization of elements of social practices (action, participant, presentation styles, time, location, resources of tool and material and eligibility condition). Out of those elements, social actions are the core (Wodak, 2009, p.148) to be represented in a text on the newspapers as the research sources.
Sequentially, there are three series of steps in analyzing the representation of social actions in the online newspaper discourse. The first step concerns close
Texts
USA Today The Tripoli Post
President Obama tells Libya's Gadhafi to step down
March 6th, 2011
Barack Obama: 'Al Qathafi Must Step Down; Leave Libya to the Libyan People'
May 25th, 2011
NATO hits Libyan ships to protect rebel-held port
May 20th, 2011
Obama cites 'responsibility' of U.S. in Libya intervention
March 28th, 2011
US Military Denies Shooting on Civilians
March 3rd, 2011
NATO: 'No Apologies' For 'Friendly Fire' that Killed Rebels
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reading of the selected texts—online USA Today and The Tripoli Post) to identify the social actions through the frame of social action network (See in Chapter 2: Figure 2.2. Social Actions Network).
Total number and type of social actions that were discovered include reactions and actions, in which the former consists of three types; affective, perceptive and cognitive. The latter are constituted by material and semiotic actions that can be transactive or nontransactive among the social actors.
It is followed by the next step, dealing with the transformations of the above social actions. They can be identified based on their four main form (See Chapter 2: Figure 2.2. Social Actions Network) covering deactivation (objectivation and descriptivization), deagentialization (eventuation, existentialization and naturalization), abstraction (generalization and distillation) and overdetermination (symbolization and inversion). Those series lead to the different interpretation between each text, so that the relation between actual texts, discursive practices and social contexts is investigated.
Essentially, in this research, preferred forms of social action performed by US Alliances regarding the 2011 War in Libya can be discovered.
The following scheme illuminates details of data sets drawn from a sample text based on the formulation of problems.
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A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
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Figure 3.2. Detailed Scheme on Data Analysis
Table 3.1. below presents the initial analysis of social actions on each article of both newspapers based on van Leeuwen‟s categories on social action network. It consists of four main columns. The first column presents clause complexes of Data Analysis Close-Reading
Identification of social Actors and Actions
Specification of Social Actions’ s’
Transformation TEXTS
Analysis of transformation on social
actions (the sub -classification)
Contrasting two online newspapers as
the primary text sources
Dismantling the tendencies of each newspaper through Actions embedded to the US
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each article under discussions (See Appendices) based on the sequence of sentences. The second and third column covers the realization of actions (material or semiotic; transactive or nontransactive) and reactions (specified; affective-perceptive-cognitive or unspecified) embedded. The last column illuminates the transformation occur on those social actions. Some abbreviations are used to shorten the terms of each type of transformation:
DeAct. Deactivation
O Objectivation
Desc. Descriptivization DeAgt. Deagentialization
Ev. Eventuation
N Naturalization
Ex. Existentialization Abs. Abstraction
G Generalization
Dist. Distillation
OverDet. Overdetermination
S Symbolization
I Inversion
Further depictions on findings and discussions of the research are provided in the next chapter.
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A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
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36 Table 3.1. The Initial Analysis
No Sentences
Actions Reactions Transformations
Material Semiotic Unspecified Specified
DeAct DeAgt Abs Over Det
O Desc Ev N Ex G Dist S I T
I T L E
President Obama tells Libya‟s Gaddafi to step down
step down (nontransactive)
Tells (transactive-interactive) 1 President Obama
delivered what he called a “very
unambigous”
message to Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi on Thursday: Step down from power and leave
Step down (nontransactive) ...leave (nontransactive) Delivered (transactive-instrumental) Called (transactive-instrumental) Message (transactive-interactive) X Dictator (nontransactive) X 2 He also warned those
carrying out
Gaddafi‟s orders that
they will be held accountable for their actions
carrying out (transactive-instrumental) will be held accountable for (nontransactive)
(30)
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A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
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CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS
5.1. Conclusions
The study is conducted to observe the representation of social actors that are embedded in news discourse regarding 2011 War in Libya on online USA Today and The Tripoli Post, based on the classification of van Leeuwen’s (2008, p.73) Social Action Network. The study finds that there are nine actors involved on six articles used from both media, including President Obama, NATO, US Administration (White House), US Military (Department of Defense), Civilians, Rebels, Pro-government Libyans, Gaddafi, Other Allies, Nations, Coalitions and Journalists. Based on that recognition, the last four main actors including President Obama, NATO, US Administration (White House), US Military (Department of Defense), are referred to ‘US Alliances’. Social actions are defined as a set of actions and reactions attributed to those social actors involved in the war news reports, which can be further transformed into activated, de-agentialized, over-determinated forms for re-contextualizing the discourse.
USA Today presents total of 288 actions, 39 reactions and 187 transformations, while, Tripoli Post attributes 262 actions, 18 reactions and 112 transformations. Approximately 60% of those social actions are assigned to US Alliances and highly distributed in the form of material and semiotic actions. The dominating instrumentalized material actions lead them interchange the other
actors as the object or goal affected by their material purpose, such as ‘strike’,
‘attack’ and ‘hit’. The instrumentalization also projects humanized actions as
objects that are passive in responses. Their interactive actions are also
objectivized in positive qualities, such as ‘responsibility to protect’ and ‘address
to the nation’. In addition, they are stated to make ‘lifesaving effort’ to maintain their positive quality action and affirmed with the assumed urgency to ‘help’
(31)
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A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
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‘democratic aspirations spreading across Middle East’ and ‘Hits Libyan Ships to
Protect the Rebel Held Port’. The statements thus legalize them to freely ‘bomb’
and wage war in Libya.
By means of semioticization, the mostly heard voices are theirs. It is a result of high number of occurrence of nontransactive quotations and renditions relying to their arguments through influence, comments, instructed, said, push back against, told, urged, and saying. USA Today presents more nontransactive semiotic actions, whereas Tripoli Post shows a balanced proportion between transactive and nontransactive actions.
Regarding the reactions, both USA Today and Tripoli Post mostly attribute
them with cognitive reactions, including ‘decisive’, ‘make sure’ and ‘predicted’,
leading them to be assumed as rational, react in a logical and reasonable way. Supporting to that, the study reveals that deactivation and de-agentialization are the most frequent transformations applied to subtilize their discourse over the war. USA Today and Tripoli Post attempt to objectivize ‘hit’ and ‘attack’ into
‘friendly-fire’ and let it be attributed to a thing; ‘NATO’s warplanes’, ‘British
Jet’. Thus, objectivation may also trigger a deagentialization. When their actions
are deagentialized, responsibility of the agent is disguised as in ‘the attacks
struck’. In addition, when the reactions are objectivated, they distance the
emotions, not represented as activated feelings and directly representing how the US Alliance feels such as the affective reaction of the US Alliance, as in
‘interests’. Interestingly, ‘interests’ is combined with the material ‘serves’,
illustrating their dominance and control over the event and the other social actors. It, thus, sharpens the biased portrayal of both media, not only by the imbalance amount of actions and reactions but also by the attempts of transformation made by the media to represent US Alliances in a particular way. Tripoli Post, however, presents a more balanced proportion in presenting actions
and reactions of the US Alliances compared to the other social actors’ actions and
(32)
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A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
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5.2. Suggestions
Assigning a critical discourse analysis based on van Leeuwen’s (2008) framework on recontextualization of social practice is not limited to social action analysis, as a set of time, location, presentation style of an actor, tool and material resources to perform a practice may also invite an in-depth investigation. Those wide ranges of analysis may contribute to break down discourses, so that the process of perceiving something through discourses will be more impartial, avoiding bias, judgment or justification. In addition, selected discourses may vary from discourses of economic, sociocultural conditions to educational discourses, such as rules at school, source books used at school, and so forth. Those further analyses may support to a critical consideration of a system in our country based on the massive use of a particular discourse.
Van Leeuwen’s framework on recontextualization of social practice can also be combined with his Visual Grammar Analysis, as recently mass media discourses often completes their illustration on a particular topic with images. A CDA, through the combination of recontextualization and visual grammar, will dismantle discourse with visual communication in a more adequate understanding and valid intrepretation.
(33)
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A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
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REFERENCES
Paltridge, B., (2000). Making sense of discourse analysis. Making sense of language series-Book 3. Brisbane: Merino Lithographics
Tripoli Post. (n.d.). Major Libya newspapers including Libyan tabloids and
broadsheets. Retrieved from
www.newswealth.com/Newspapers_Worldwide/Africa/Libya/libya.html USA Today. (n.d.). Media lists-LC's weekend media journalist research. Title of
newspaper. Retrieved from
http://ladybank.wikispaces.com/Media+lists++LC%27s+weekend+media +Journalist+research, cited on Infoplease.com
Baum, M. A. & Philip B.K.P. (2008). The relationships between mass media, public opinion, and foreign policy: toward a theoretical synthesis. California: Annual Review of Political Science
Cresswell, J.W. (1994). Research design qualitative and quantitative aprroaches. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. London: Longman
Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis: the critical study oflanguage. New York: Addison Wesley Longman
Fardianni, N. (2009). A CDA on the representation of pros and cons of Indonesian playboy in The Jakarta Post articles. (Unpublished paper). Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia
Fraenkel, J. R. S Wallen, N. E. (1993). How to design and evaluate research in education. New York: Mc Graw-Hill Inc.
G. Simpson, H. (2010). US media objectivity and Arab issues: A content analysis of coverage of the proposed ground zero mosque. Pembroke: University of North Carolina
Gerot, L. & Wignell, P. (1994). Making sense of functional grammar. Cammeray: Antipodean Educational Enterprises (AEE).
(34)
Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
Gitlin, T. (2003). The whole world is watching. California: University of California Press
Hackett, R. A. (1984). Decline of a paradigm? Bias and objectivity in news media studies. CSIMC. 1 (3)
Hall, M. (2011). Obama cites ‘responsibility’ of US in Libya intervention. Retrieved from www.usatoday.com on March 28th 2011
Hall, M. (2011). President Obama tells Libya’s Gaddafi to step down. Retrieved from www.usatoday.com on March 6th 2011
Halliday, M. A. K. & Matthiessen, C. (2004). An introduction to functional grammar (3rd ed.). London: Hodder Arnold
Jinan, K. (2008). The representation of the conflict between FPI and AKKBB regarding the monas incident in Kompas and Republika. (Unpublished paper). Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia.
Khairunnisa, S. (2012). Critical discourse analysis of The Jakarta Post’s reports on the 19th ASEAN summit: The portrayals of social sction. (Unpublished paper) Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia.
Kress, G. R. (1976). Halliday: System and function in language. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Paltridge, B. (2006). Discourse analysis: An introduction. London: Continuum. Sadaf, A. (2011). Public perception of media role. International Journal of
Humanities and Social Science. 1(5). Pakistan: Center for Media and Communication Studies International Islamic University
Sajid us Salam, M. (n.d.). Clause as representation in Hallidayan functional English. Islamia University Bahawalpur
Saputri, Y. Y. (2012). The representation of social actors on Obama's national security strategy (NSS). (Unpublished paper). Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia
Sarangi, S. (1998). Text - Interdisciplinary journal for the study of discourse. Walter de Gruyter: Walter de Gruyter
Laswad, S. (2011, May 25th). Barack Obama: 'Al Qathafi must step down: Leave Libya to the Libyan people'. Tripoli Post. Retrieved from www.tripolipost.com
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Laswad, S. (2011, May 20th). NATO: 'No apologies' for 'friendly fire' that killed rebels. TripoliPost. Retrieved from www.tripolipost.com
Laswad, S. (2011, March 25th). US military denies shooting on civilians. Tripoli Post. Retrieved from www.tripolipost.com
Van Dijk, T. A. (1993). Discourse and society. 4(2), 349-283. London / New Delhi: SAGE.
Van Leeuwen, T. (2008). Discourse and practice (New tools for critical discourse analysis). New York: Oxford University Press.
Wodak, R. & Meyer. (2009). Method of critical discourse analyis (second edition). Los Angeles/London/New Delhi/Singapore/Washington DC: SAGE.
(1)
Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS
5.1. Conclusions
The study is conducted to observe the representation of social actors that are embedded in news discourse regarding 2011 War in Libya on online USA Today and The Tripoli Post, based on the classification of van Leeuwen’s (2008, p.73) Social Action Network. The study finds that there are nine actors involved on six articles used from both media, including President Obama, NATO, US Administration (White House), US Military (Department of Defense), Civilians, Rebels, Pro-government Libyans, Gaddafi, Other Allies, Nations, Coalitions and Journalists. Based on that recognition, the last four main actors including President Obama, NATO, US Administration (White House), US Military (Department of Defense), are referred to ‘US Alliances’. Social actions are defined as a set of actions and reactions attributed to those social actors involved in the war news reports, which can be further transformed into activated, de-agentialized, over-determinated forms for re-contextualizing the discourse.
USA Today presents total of 288 actions, 39 reactions and 187 transformations, while, Tripoli Post attributes 262 actions, 18 reactions and 112 transformations. Approximately 60% of those social actions are assigned to US Alliances and highly distributed in the form of material and semiotic actions. The dominating instrumentalized material actions lead them interchange the other
actors as the object or goal affected by their material purpose, such as ‘strike’, ‘attack’ and ‘hit’. The instrumentalization also projects humanized actions as objects that are passive in responses. Their interactive actions are also
objectivized in positive qualities, such as ‘responsibility to protect’ and ‘address to the nation’. In addition, they are stated to make ‘lifesaving effort’ to maintain their positive quality action and affirmed with the assumed urgency to ‘help’
(2)
Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
‘democratic aspirations spreading across Middle East’ and ‘Hits Libyan Ships to
Protect the Rebel Held Port’. The statements thus legalize them to freely ‘bomb’
and wage war in Libya.
By means of semioticization, the mostly heard voices are theirs. It is a result of high number of occurrence of nontransactive quotations and renditions relying to their arguments through influence, comments, instructed, said, push back against, told, urged, and saying. USA Today presents more nontransactive semiotic actions, whereas Tripoli Post shows a balanced proportion between transactive and nontransactive actions.
Regarding the reactions, both USA Today and Tripoli Post mostly attribute
them with cognitive reactions, including ‘decisive’, ‘make sure’ and ‘predicted’, leading them to be assumed as rational, react in a logical and reasonable way.
Supporting to that, the study reveals that deactivation and de-agentialization are the most frequent transformations applied to subtilize their discourse over the war. USA Today and Tripoli Post attempt to objectivize ‘hit’ and ‘attack’ into
‘friendly-fire’ and let it be attributed to a thing; ‘NATO’s warplanes’, ‘British
Jet’. Thus, objectivation may also trigger a deagentialization. When their actions
are deagentialized, responsibility of the agent is disguised as in ‘the attacks
struck’. In addition, when the reactions are objectivated, they distance the emotions, not represented as activated feelings and directly representing how the US Alliance feels such as the affective reaction of the US Alliance, as in
‘interests’. Interestingly, ‘interests’ is combined with the material ‘serves’, illustrating their dominance and control over the event and the other social actors.
It, thus, sharpens the biased portrayal of both media, not only by the imbalance amount of actions and reactions but also by the attempts of transformation made by the media to represent US Alliances in a particular way. Tripoli Post, however, presents a more balanced proportion in presenting actions
and reactions of the US Alliances compared to the other social actors’ actions and
(3)
Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu 5.2. Suggestions
Assigning a critical discourse analysis based on van Leeuwen’s (2008) framework on recontextualization of social practice is not limited to social action analysis, as a set of time, location, presentation style of an actor, tool and material resources to perform a practice may also invite an in-depth investigation. Those wide ranges of analysis may contribute to break down discourses, so that the process of perceiving something through discourses will be more impartial, avoiding bias, judgment or justification. In addition, selected discourses may vary from discourses of economic, sociocultural conditions to educational discourses, such as rules at school, source books used at school, and so forth. Those further analyses may support to a critical consideration of a system in our country based on the massive use of a particular discourse.
Van Leeuwen’s framework on recontextualization of social practice can also be combined with his Visual Grammar Analysis, as recently mass media discourses often completes their illustration on a particular topic with images. A CDA, through the combination of recontextualization and visual grammar, will dismantle discourse with visual communication in a more adequate understanding and valid intrepretation.
(4)
Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu REFERENCES
Paltridge, B., (2000). Making sense of discourse analysis. Making sense of language series-Book 3. Brisbane: Merino Lithographics
Tripoli Post. (n.d.). Major Libya newspapers including Libyan tabloids and
broadsheets. Retrieved from
www.newswealth.com/Newspapers_Worldwide/Africa/Libya/libya.html
USA Today. (n.d.). Media lists-LC's weekend media journalist research. Title of
newspaper. Retrieved from
http://ladybank.wikispaces.com/Media+lists++LC%27s+weekend+media
+Journalist+research, cited on Infoplease.com
Baum, M. A. & Philip B.K.P. (2008). The relationships between mass media, public opinion, and foreign policy: toward a theoretical synthesis. California: Annual Review of Political Science
Cresswell, J.W. (1994). Research design qualitative and quantitative aprroaches. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. London: Longman
Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language. New York: Addison Wesley Longman
Fardianni, N. (2009). A CDA on the representation of pros and cons of Indonesian playboy in The Jakarta Post articles. (Unpublished paper). Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia
Fraenkel, J. R. S Wallen, N. E. (1993). How to design and evaluate research in education. New York: Mc Graw-Hill Inc.
G. Simpson, H. (2010). US media objectivity and Arab issues: A content analysis of coverage of the proposed ground zero mosque. Pembroke: University of North Carolina
Gerot, L. & Wignell, P. (1994). Making sense of functional grammar. Cammeray: Antipodean Educational Enterprises (AEE).
(5)
Arini Rusyda, 2014
A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
Gitlin, T. (2003). The whole world is watching. California: University of California Press
Hackett, R. A. (1984). Decline of a paradigm? Bias and objectivity in news media studies. CSIMC. 1 (3)
Hall, M. (2011). Obama cites ‘responsibility’ of US in Libya intervention. Retrieved from www.usatoday.com on March 28th 2011
Hall, M. (2011). President Obama tells Libya’s Gaddafi to step down. Retrieved from www.usatoday.com on March 6th 2011
Halliday, M. A. K. & Matthiessen, C. (2004). An introduction to functional grammar (3rd ed.). London: Hodder Arnold
Jinan, K. (2008). The representation of the conflict between FPI and AKKBB regarding the monas incident in Kompas and Republika. (Unpublished paper). Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia.
Khairunnisa, S. (2012). Critical discourse analysis of The Jakarta Post’s reports on the 19th ASEAN summit: The portrayals of social sction. (Unpublished paper) Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia.
Kress, G. R. (1976). Halliday: System and function in language. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Paltridge, B. (2006). Discourse analysis: An introduction. London: Continuum. Sadaf, A. (2011). Public perception of media role. International Journal of
Humanities and Social Science. 1(5). Pakistan: Center for Media and Communication Studies International Islamic University
Sajid us Salam, M. (n.d.). Clause as representation in Hallidayan functional English. Islamia University Bahawalpur
Saputri, Y. Y. (2012). The representation of social actors on Obama's national security strategy (NSS). (Unpublished paper). Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia
Sarangi, S. (1998). Text - Interdisciplinary journal for the study of discourse. Walter de Gruyter: Walter de Gruyter
Laswad, S. (2011, May 25th). Barack Obama: 'Al Qathafi must step down: Leave Libya to the Libyan people'. Tripoli Post. Retrieved from www.tripolipost.com
(6)
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A SOCIAL ACTION ANALYSIS OF NEWS ON 2011 WAR IN LIBYA: REPRESENTATION OF THE US ALLIANCES ON ONLINE USA TODAY AND THE TRIPOLI POST
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
Laswad, S. (2011, May 20th). NATO: 'No apologies' for 'friendly fire' that killed rebels. Tripoli Post. Retrieved from www.tripolipost.com
Laswad, S. (2011, March 25th). US military denies shooting on civilians. Tripoli Post. Retrieved from www.tripolipost.com
Van Dijk, T. A. (1993). Discourse and society. 4(2), 349-283. London / New Delhi: SAGE.
Van Leeuwen, T. (2008). Discourse and practice (New tools for critical discourse analysis). New York: Oxford University Press.
Wodak, R. & Meyer. (2009). Method of critical discourse analyis (second edition). Los Angeles/London/New Delhi/Singapore/Washington DC: SAGE.