INDEPENDENCE OF REPORTING ON PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES IN INDONESIAN MEDIA

Abstract

The independence of the mass media in Indonesia, especially in reporting on political issues of power such as the General Election, has raised concerns that could threaten democratic life. Especially the mass media are considered to have significant power to construct the reader's mind about the ideal leader character for Indonesia. In this case, the news regarding the two pairs of presidential candidates in the Presidential debate which took place in 2019 and was held in five stages. The purpose of this study is to find out and understand how much the independence bias in Media Indonesia is on the reporting of the Presidential debate. This article uses qualitative research methods. The analytical approach in research uses the construction of the top with the text as its object namely Koran Media Indonesia. To see whether Media Indonesia is neutral or not, then the McQuail neutrality aspect is used based on the category of Personalization, sensationalism / emotionalism, stereotypes, juxtaposition/circle and accuracy. The result showed that the Media Indonesia newspaper is not yet objective in reporting the Presidential debate. The Indonesian Media was clearly at the forefront to defend the interests of the incumbent. Media Indonesia has become an influential discourse in leading public opinion to provide support candidate pairs of Jokowi-Amin. This is seen from a number of indicators used in research, namely personalization, sensationalism / emotionalism, stereotypes, juxtaposition /lingkages and the last is accuracy. As a note that the lingkages elements in this study were not found.

Key Words : Independence, Mass Media, Presidential Candidates.