Corruption is a criminal act that has posed a threat to the world, including Indonesia and France. Acts of corruption have caught the attention of many parties because these not only harm the nation but also burden the people. Mass media from both countries have already exposed many corruption cases that happened in each country.
“But the news have not taken side with people in lower class, they have been staying in their comfort zone only,” Drs. BR. Suryo Baskoro, M.S., said on Wednesday (30/12) at Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM.
The research he conducted on print media, especially having online media, such as Kompas, Republika, Le Figaro and Le Parisien, in 2012 showed that there is similarity between Indonesian and French media. They both focused on main social actors as their resource. The news will cover information about the criminal act and the punishment received for the act. But it does not involve information about how the corruption act impacted on society.
“The focus made media forget about the impact that has been made by corruption on the lower class society,” Suryo explained during his doctoral open examination with dissertation entitled Corruption News on Indonesian and French Media: Critical Analysis.
The lecturer of French Literature Department said that in organizing their discourse, Indonesian as well as French media seemed to be focused on the case itself. There is no in-depth exploration on how to relate corruption case to other cases, especially social problems related to corruption.
It goes along with the production of corruption text, media from both counties tend to have interdiscursive relation and intertextual relation with other texts. Interdiscursive and intertextual sources preferred on the corruption texts are only legal reference forms and/or a text with the same previous case. This indicates that the media from both countries is not motivated to explore more on other interdiscursive and intertextual resources.
“For example, the text about poverty and other social problem is believed to provide inspiration to construct more interesting text,” he said.
Suryo added that in terms of socio-cultural practices, both countries have some similarities, one of them is an absolute control of a one-sided power behind the media. Media limited their information to the main role of the case and forgetting the people impacted by the cases.
“Media should have changed their corruption ideology from concerning the law and its sentence to adding some perspective on impacted party,” he added.
Taking side with people can be implemented through many efforts such as paraphrase, explorations and dysphemism. Paraphrase is expressing some information in another way, especially a way exposing the victim. Explorations enrich the intellectuality through more references related to social problems. While dysphemism uses bold word or phrase such as from gratification to bribe and from corruption to pillage.
“If paraphrasing, exploration and dysphemism are considered an intervention by the media, according to analytical critics, it would be considered as positive socio-cultural practice because it presents an advocative situation to society,” he concluded.