INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

POLITICAL COMMUNICATION AIM3005

Lecturer: Dr. Mumtaz Aini Binti Alivi

Damira Aisyah Adam S2124120

I. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 3

II. Social Politic Aspect ............................................................................................. 4

III. Process Aspect................................................................................................. 6

IV. Is media bias good or bad? .............................................................................. 8

V. Implications of Indonesia Political Discourse When Media is Biased ................ 10

VI. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 13

References ................................................................................................................ 14
 I. Introduction

I have always believed that the media are biased. It is not difficult to see that

medias have their own preferences when it comes to politics. We can see it by the

way the news is presented to us. There are just always certain ways medias will deliver

a story that makes us see it into a certain perspective or think a certain way regarding

that story.

Taking an example of one issue that happened in my country, Indonesia.

Recently, the now Governor of Jakarta and soon-to-be candidate for the next election,

Anies Baswedan, is seen to be visiting one of the provinces in the country, Banda

Aceh. Aceh is known for its religious beliefs. It is the only province in the country that

enforces Islamic syariah law. And the only province that holds strong Islamic value for

its residents. This visit then causes a lot of news outlet to go on and create many

stories. Some news assumed that this visit was a respectable move from the candidate

considering his future plan to run for presidency. But since it was done in Aceh, where

it is known for its religious belief, some news outlets think it’s a radicalistic Islamic

agenda. With this, we can see that many medias will turn an issue with however they

prefer it.

Why do medias create these stories and certain agendas? Well, the reasoning

is simple. Media have their own preferences. Every person in this world has their own

preferences and opinions. If we can know which ice cream flavor we like better then

certainly we will know what political stance we’re in. Other than that, medias also have

certain process to create some news. And this process consists of many editing that

might lead to certain hindrance of actual facts. This could then also become the reason
why medias can be biased. In this essay, I will elaborate two of this main point as the

reason of media bias and how a media can be biased.

II. Social Politic Aspect

Medias have preferences. Every media holds an ideology that becomes the

sole foundation of their company. Before they even start to create their organization,

they must know which principle they value, which ideas and what kind of messages

they want to deliver to the people. And they do this because people also have their

own preferences. Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch (1974) developed a theory called the

users and gratification theory. This theory explains that people tend to choose media

that can satisfy their needs. So, people would choose whatever media that could

deliver them a sense of belonging by supporting their personal values. (Alharthy &

Aljumaiahe, 2018).

If a media holds a strong religious value, for people who also has strong

religious value that media became important to them. Let’s say a news outlet is talking

about controversial issues such as LGBTQ or abortion right, either this media outlet

supports one of this two there will be people who are supporting and contradicting

them. Because they have personal beliefs. And they will choose which media that

supports their beliefs. People are prone to connecting themselves to things that

represents them or makes them feel seen. So if people can have their preferences so

does the media itself. Especially when it comes to politics.

When media organizations know that people have their opinions, they too would

present ideas that could cater to these preferences. I mean yes, they have preferences

because media is created by people who also have their own values. And these people
who controls the media, wants to share their own personal values. Because at the end

of the day, they are just the same as the audiences. They have personal preferences

to the politics in one country. They’re aware of which party holds their belief, which

candidate they feel will value the kind of life they want, etc. And it is supported when

they can share it to the audiences because they found people who also appreciate

these values or preferences.

Taking an example of one of the most accused biased news outlets in the world

which is Fox News and CNN. Both are media corporates from America. People believe

that Fox News has certain favoritism when it comes to the Republican party and CNN

has favor in the Democratic party. According to Broockman and Kalla, by research

that was conducted there is a certain polarization in the way Fox News and CNN wrote

their news. During the 2020 election, it can be seen that certain issues are particularly

chosen to be included in either news outlet. The research found that news about

Covid-19 and the poor mishandling of the country towards this public health was

shown lesser in Fox News. While CNN had written extensively about Trump’s poor

handling, Fox News was rather downplaying the severity of the COVID-19 impact.

This is a huge example of media bias. It shows that some news has certain

ways of news selection. Some medias chose not to write bad about certain political

parties because it’s their preference. And they want to portray that political party in a

positive light so that the audience will think that way also. If they can influence the

audiences and people to think a certain way they can persuade them into supporting

certain political beliefs. Though it will always come back to the audiences and how
much they can easily get affected. But medias will always try to sway political views in

the direction that is most suited to their principals and values.

This might lead to the question as to why a media would create biases. And

other than their willing to convey certain preferences it also goes back to the business

aspect. If a group of audiences enjoy certain news that cater to their preferences it

would come in favor of the media organization itself and the party, they are in support

of. Some may argue certain parties to hold a connection to certain medias. They have

the power over the media to create news that would be able to portray the party or

government in a good light. This could be good for the media as they would get good

feedback from audiences that support the same values. And it would be good for the

party/government as they would get good coverage. So then it becomes a win-win

situation for both parties involved.

III. Process Aspect

News does not instantly get published after it is covered by a reporter. It will go

through different stages of editing. It will go from the choosing of topic, getting the

sources from the person of interest, then the writing of the news, editing,

communication between several news hierarchy. And between these processes there

will be moments where actual events can get changed or manipulated. Cohen (1963)

said that media is capable of telling the audiences ‘What to think about’. And that is

exactly the point I will be arguing next.

Medias has certain roles in the society and one of them is to provide information

for people. Whether or not these information are true, they still hold a very huge impact

towards society that could form certain ways an audience should think of. This is a
part of agenda setting. Agenda setting theory explains that mass media can frame

issue for the audience. They can create an issue that would cause discussion among

the audience. (Mohd Zain, 2014). And the issue would be that of bias thinking.

The process of publication can be complicated and goes through many editing.

And through this editing some can be change by either one of the processes. There

can be a miscommunication between the reporter and the source. There could also

be change in the editing for the news to appear how the media organization wants it

to be. This is where media bias lies. They will create the news with some of the facts

provided but also with editing that could lead the news to create a certain perspective.

A perspective that will make the audience think how the media organization wants

them to think about or talk about.

The connection with politics is that it goes back to the media preferences. If

they do have certain values they want to show, then they will provide information or

create stories that will cater to that principals and values. If a news outlet supports a

certain issue. They will manipulate how the news is presented as long as it shows how

they wanted it to be. Like for example what I said in the introduction. The Anies

Baswedan visit to Aceh case. Why is there news who wrote two completely different

perspective to the real story? Because each outlet has different preferences. Some

news wants it to be a good story for Anies because they support him. And others may

write and manipulate the news, looking at it at a different angle that may be negative

because they don’t necessarily agree with his political stance.

Media bias is obviously not good, especially for democracy. Democracy is

explained as government where the power is rooted in the people. Abraham Lincoln

describes democracy as government “of the people, by the people, and for the

people”. This meaning that the people here have a significant role in a country. They

became the steering wheel of the country. Everything that the government should do

is for the people. Which is why it is important to always create decisions that will put

the people’s interests first. If a media decides to be bias, it is not something that is

good for the people.

One of the key elements of democracy is fairness. Fairness for all people. They

should be able to have the freedom to construct their own opinions. They should be

able to have room to think critically and smartly about problems that goes on in a

country. If a media is bias, that means that they have certain opinions that they want

the people to think about. Media leads and forms opinion. If it is used to lead certain

opinion for the people, then it becomes bad. It does not support the core values of

democracy itself. People are not allowed to think independently anymore as medias

want them to think a certain way.

Media should be independent. It is the core of media itself. One of the most

important foundation for media is its independence. Independent in the sense of no

interference or bias towards any group. In the Indonesian journalism code of ethics,

independent is written first as one of the most important pillars of journalism.

“Independent means reporting appropriate events or facts with conscience without

interference, coercion, and intervention from other parties including the owner of the
press company” (Nugroho & Samsuri, 2013). This definition means that any form of

interference will not be tolerated when it comes to journalism even the ones from the

press company. So if there is any form of involvement that derails the media to report

the factual news with pure objectivity it has violates the code of ethics itself. And

indirectly disrespects the core value of media.

Eventually, people can’t easily depend on media anymore. When media has

the responsibility to become the place where impartiality is respected, turns out it’s

not. It becomes difficult for people to look up news that could give them enough

information and doesn’t subtlety drive them to think a certain way or look at an issue

through certain perspective. Every single political news that they read, hear, or listen

will always have an agenda behind it. It will lead to a betrayal to democracy itself.

Because then people are not given the trust to be critical about their country and the

future of their lives. Media bias is in fact bad for democracy.

As for media bias impacts on politics, it is completely different than democracy.

We can not see it purely between whether it’s good or bad. Because as far as politic

goes it has never been a clean process. For the longest time, politic has always

involved certain mission or issue that may not always be ethical. Agenda setting theory

can be found back in the 1960s. Bernad Cohen (1963) was the earliest researcher

that collected information about the influence of mass media towards the people. And

maybe it can also be seen in the earliest time of politics. There will always be a

propaganda in which a political party stand. Because every party has the urgency to

hold the power. Politics is a race. And to win the race people are willing to do anything.

If that means to use media to convey opinions then it will be done. But, seeing it from
an ethical point of view. It is definitely wrong. Politic should be fair. It should be a clean

race without any interference that count as fraudulent. So while yes media bias is good

for the political party that gets the benefit of the doubt, it is still bad to the ethical way

of living.

V. Implications of Indonesia Political Discourse When Media is Biased

The implications that comes when a media is biased are the ones that is

affecting the democracy of the country. Indonesia has always dealt with a lot of issue

regarding democracy since its true implementation in the Reform Era. Before, during

the New Order Indonesia was ruled more authoritarian by the government. Medias are

not allowed to be free of press and they are fully controlled by the government. But

since the Reform Era which is 2000-until now, democracy has find its way in the

country. And it has not been easy. There are many problems faced in Indonesia while

trying to build a democratic country. And one of those obstacles are politic discourse.

Since the early foundation of Indonesia, politic has been such a huge influence

to the country. Even before the independence, Indonesia has always had many

problems regarding politics. For example, the incident of G30S/PKI which was a

discourse between a political party and the military of Indonesia that caused some

important people to die tragically. And the 1998 incident, where the former president,

Soeharto was forced to file his resignation due to the heavy riots. The riots was caused

by the issue of corruption, economic problems and many more. These are all political

discourse that happened before the involvement of democracy. Truthfully, democracy

have been the foundation of Indonesia since its independence. But it had just been

properly applied during the Reform Era. With the existence of democracy, Indonesia

is more free, especially when it comes to media and press. The laws are different now.
And the growth of media has been significantly noticeable. But this also means that

we can easily found media bias.

To further answer the question of this part, I will be giving a few examples of

media bias cases that happened in Indonesia. The first one is between two of the

biggest media organizations in Indonesia, Metro TV and TV One. So during the 2014

election, both news outlet had shown their obvious preference towards the two

candidate. At the time, Metro TV, was highly supporting the pair of Joko Widodo and

Jusuf Kalla. While TV One was in the side of Prabowo and Hatta Rajasa. The

accusations was further strengthen because at that time the political party that Jokowi-

JK was in (Nasdem) owns Metro TV, Suryo Paloh. And Abu Rizal Bakrie, the owner

of TV One was also a part of the political party Prabowo and Hatta was in. So during

this time there were a lot of conflict regarding media bias.

At the time of the election Metro TV and TV One made it obvious where they

stand. And they do this by creating news that would often attack and bring each other

down. So according to a research done by students of Universitas Sebelas Maret in

Indonesia, Metro TV often used a certain image to describe the candidate Prabowo.

Metro TV described Prabowo as “criminal for humanity” because he had military

background. Metro TV often presented stories that put Prabowo in a bad light while

TV One victimizes Prabowo. One issue that was highlighted in Metro TV was the fact

that Prabowo had something to do with the 1998 riot and that he had a black

background. While TV One was defending him and putting it in a way that Prabowo

was victimized. This is one of many issues that shows the media bias in Indonesia.

And there are many discourse that happens from it.

the news they presented. News can no longer be trusted to be objective but rather

pushing certain agendas for the audiences to follow. And because of that many

Indonesian people can’t fully trust a news because they know that it is twisted into this

certain perspective. Many people will form opinions according to what the news

presented to them and not what they actually believe in. And it is hard to understand

the real issue in the country, issues that mattered, that needed attention. Because it

is all could be manipulated. Other than that it could also create many disruptions in

the society.

For example, back with my first case study. The Anies Baswedan case. When

he visited Aceh some news will say that it was just a campaign visit and he was trying

to meet people of Indonesia. But in other news they can twist it and say that it was a

part of a radical movement. Because when seeing the photos most people who met

Anies are of Islam religion. And this has become one of the biggest controversial issue

in Indonesia. Many news like to say that certain parties in Indonesia are promoting

radicalistic beliefs and that it must be stop. And media biases like this can support

these opinions and arguments. By the end it will lead to endless discourse within the

people. It can cause disunity of the country. Because people will believe certain issues

that might not be entirely true yet offensive to some groups in the country. Indonesia

has a wide range of people with different backgrounds. And I feel like media bias can

cause certain disruption in the peace of the country. It could also create a betrayal to

the democracy that the country said to be holding so dearly of. People can no longer
have a say in what the country is facing because the media took a huge control of it.

This definitely one of the important implication that media bias can create.

VI. Conclusion

Looking at how the world is right now, it is very hard to determine the solution

for the problems of media bias. Politic as I have said already are accustomed into

agenda setting. And it may has its positive impact towards the political party. But in

the end it does not bring any good for the democracy of a country. Democracy is one

of the most important foundation in some countries who holds them. Because it can

involve the people to build the country for the better. And if it is broken, it will just

causes damage to the country.

Truthfully, there are not many solution that could fix this issue. But, what we

can do as independent citizens is to just be aware of the media. Be aware of its

influence, be aware of the organizations behind them, be aware of the messages and

just overall built media literacy. Because at this point we can not force what happens

around us or what is given to us but rather what we can do with ourselves. In order to

live independently in this socio-political world.

Alharthy, S. S., & Aljumaiahe, D. A. (2018). The Relationship Between Ideology and

Communicational Process New Media and Mass Communication, 74.

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/234653531.pdf

Ardèvol-Abreu, A., & Gil de Zúñiga, H. (2016). Effects of Editorial Media Bias Perception

and Media Trust on the Use of Traditional, Citizen, and Social Media News.

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 94.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699016654684

Broockman, D. E., & Kalla, J. L. (2022). The impacts of selective partisan media exposure:

A field experiment with Fox News viewers.

file:///Users/damiraaisyah/Documents/uni%20malaya/Semester%203/Political%20Co

mm/ind%20refs/Partisan_Media-2.pdf

Dellavigna, S., & Kaplan, E.. (2007). The Fox News Effect: Media Bias and Voting. The

Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(3), 1187–1234.

https://doi.org/10.1162/qjec.122.3.1187

Entman, R. M. (2007). Framing Bias: Media in the Distribution of Power. Journal of

Communication, 57, 163-173. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00336.x

Kartinawati, E., Pawito, Warto, Wijaya, M., & Purwasito, A. (2020). POLITICAL

PREFERENCE OF MEDIA OWNER, POWER ABUSE, AND BIAS (CASE ON

PRIVATE TELEVISIONS IN INDONESIA). PalArch’s Journal of Archeology of

Egypt/Egyptology, 17(7).

Martin, G. J., & Yurukoglu, A. (2016). Bias in Cable News: Persuasion and Polarization.

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w20798/w20798.pdf
Mohd Zain, N. (2014). Agenda Setting Theory.

Nugroho, B., & Samsuri. (2013). Pers Berkualitas, Masyarakat Cerdas.

Ratnaningsih, A. (2019). Indonesian Online News: Where Does the Bias Go? Journal of

Language and Literature, 19(2), 2580-5878.

Surur, N., & Halili, M. REVEALING MEDIA BIAS ON THE “ANGLE OF TELLING”:An

Analysis on Metro TV and TV One News Maulana Malik Ibrahim State Islamic

University]. Malang.

https://www.academia.edu/12445043/An_Analysis_on_Angle_of_Telling_Metro_TV_

and_TV_One_Case_Study