New Study: Critical Discourse Analysis of the Kanjuruhan Tragedy by Global Media

HUMANIORA - (1/3/2024) The Kanjuruhan Football Tragedy in Malang is still fresh in everyone's minds. The incident that occurred on October 1, 2022, has attracted the attention of national and even international media, especially The New York Times. This incident involving the police, supporters, and the government, unfolded amidst complex dynamics of actions and responses.

Although this bloody tragedy seemed to occur as a simple event, it actually revealed a complexity of actions represented by various actors in an incident. This was revealed by Achmad Arinal Qowim (a student of the English Literature Program at the Faculty of Humanities) and Agwin Degaf (a lecturer of the English Literature Program at the Faculty of Humanities) through an article titled "Kanjuruhan Tragedy in the New York Times: A Critical Discourse Analysis," published in the Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics UPI Bandung, Volume 13, Number 3 (2024).

In this Scopus-indexed journal, Achmad Arinal Qowim and Agwin Degaf highlighted the Kanjuruhan football tragedy by analyzing media representations of the entities involved in the incident and examining nuances of representation in news narratives. They used the international media, namely The New York Times, as a case study in narrating the event.

As known, the Kanjuruhan football incident involved the police, supporters, and the government, occurring amidst complex dynamics of actions and responses. This article elaborates on the media representations of these entities, examining nuances of representation in news narratives. By adopting van Leeuwen's (2008) Critical Discourse Analysis framework, the two authors used qualitative methodology to analyze how social actors are portrayed through strategies of inclusion and exclusion, along with the representation of social actions through action and reaction approaches.

This article unveils layered narratives in news discourse, highlighting the complexity of representing various actors in high-impact events. Its conclusion suggests that media narratives in such scenarios are complex, often shaped by the interaction of roles and actions of various actors.

Analysis of The New York Times coverage revealed that the police were often depicted as law enforcers, often resorting to actions such as tear gas deployment, while supporters were portrayed as responding to these actions and being greatly affected by the tragedy. The government was represented as the main authority, responsible for handling the situation and its consequences.

These findings emphasize the need for comprehensive discourse analysis in understanding media representations, suggesting that future research should broaden the scope of analysis by integrating broader elements from van Leeuwen's framework and other Critical Discourse Analysis theories to gain deeper insights into media representations in similar situations.

The publication of this article further enriches the discourse analysis studies on media reporting in narrating an event. The full article can be read at https://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/IJAL/index.