Online News Media, State Agenda, and Policy on the Relocation of the Capital City of Indonesia: Watchdog or Lapdog?
La Mani
Lucia P. Dhamayanti
Ayu Wardani
Meilani Dhamayanti
Kamaluddin
This study examines the tendency of online media in Indonesia to construct the government's policy of moving the capital city of Indonesia to East Kalimantan Province. The research data were analyzed using a framing concept from Zhongdang Pan and Gerald M. Kosicki that involves four structures: syntax, script, thematic, and rhetorical. This research involved four online news media platforms in Indonesia which were MetroTVNews.com, CNN Indonesia, CNBC Indonesia, and Kompas.com. The news to be analyzed was coverage from April 2019 to January 2022. The research results on the four online media platforms showed different constructions in response to the policy of moving the Indonesian national capital from Jakarta to Kalimantan Province. Kompas.com media shows a neutral framing in reporting on government policy in moving the country's capital to East Kalimantan Province. Then, MetroTVNews.com broadcast a framing that agreed; CNBC and CNN Indonesia tended to show the opposite side of the news about the relocation of Indonesia's capital city. This reality shows that Indonesia has good press freedom because the media can determine certain position choices in responding to government policies. News media that are pro or agree with the policy of moving the Indonesian state capital can be assumed to have a position like a lapdog.In contrast, news media that are against the policy have a position like a watchdog. Then, the neutral news media have a position like the gray media because they do not have a firm stance on whether they agree or disagree. The results of this research have implications for the ideal role of the media in a democratic country. The media should be free to construct government policies so that the public gets objective and balanced information
Keywords: Online news, Framing, Policy agenda, Relocation of the national, capital, Watchdogs, Lapdog
