PARTIES, PROCESS, AND NURANI HATI: HOW THE INDONESIAN PRESS CONSTRUCTED THE 2004 ELECTIONS A thesis presented to the faculty of the Center for International Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Teresa M. Reimers June 2006 This thesis entitled PARTIES, PROCESS, AND NURANI HATI: HOW THE INDONESIAN PRESS CONSTRUCTED THE 2004 ELECTIONS by TERESA M. REIMERS has been approved for the Communication and Development Studies Program and the Center for International Studies by Jerry L. Miller Associate Professor, School of Communication Studies Drew McDaniel Interim Director, Center for International Studies Abstract REIMERS, TERESA M., M.A., June 2006. Communication and Development PARTIES, PROCESS, AND NURANI HATI: HOW THE INDONESIAN PRESS CONSTRUCTED THE 2004 ELECTIONS (171 pp.) Thesis Advisor: Jerry L. Miller In 2004 Indonesia celebrated its sixth year as a democracy with the first direct election of the president. This thesis is a study of Kompas newspaper its framing of the presidential elections. The framing analysis is guided by Kerbel et al’s (2000) candidate, issue, process and audience frames. The research methods are content and textual analyses of the election coverage articles during each campaign period. This thesis surfaces four frames: political associations, predators and prey, organizational process, and constituent perspectives. Kompas framed candidate and issue discussion through political parties, coalitions and personal associations. Personality contests were framed in a predator-prey characterization that admires the prey candidate as a victim. The elections were not just framed as the contest, but also as the organizational process of KPU. Finally, Kompas parted from these elite frames to reflect the perspectives of constituents and the qualifications they set for voting nurani hati (with a pure heart). Approved: Jerry L. Miller Associate Professor, School of Communication Studies 4 Table of Contents Page Abstract............................................................................................................................... 3 List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... 7 List of Figures..................................................................................................................... 8 Preface................................................................................................................................. 9 Introduction....................................................................................................................... 12 Asian Values and Pancasila Democracy: the Historical Dependence of Media Theory on Ideology ........................................................................................... 16 Press Models In Transitioning Democracies ................................................................ 17 Liberal and Critical Economy Perspectives.................................................................. 20 Ideological Theories of the Press.................................................................................. 21 Asian Development Journalism.................................................................................... 22 The Pancasila Press Model ........................................................................................... 23 Comparative Political Communication......................................................................... 27 Framing Analysis.......................................................................................................... 29 Summary....................................................................................................................... 32 Politics, Parties, Players and the 2004 Elections .............................................................. 34 History .......................................................................................................................... 34 The 2004 Presidential Elections ................................................................................... 36 General Election Commission (KPU)........................................................................... 39 Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates.............................................................. 40 Political Ideology Streams ............................................................................................ 45 History of the Press in Indonesia ...................................................................................... 48 Professional and Political Nurturing............................................................................. 48 Media during the New Order Regime........................................................................... 49 Ministry of Information and Press Freedom................................................................. 50 Underground Press........................................................................................................ 52 The Unsettling Influence of Economic Growth............................................................ 53 Political Collapse .......................................................................................................... 54 Media Coverage of the 1999 Elections......................................................................... 55 Post-Soeharto Mediascape............................................................................................ 56 Self-Censorship............................................................................................................. 56 Values in the Indonesia Press ....................................................................................... 57 The Print Mediascape ................................................................................................... 58 5 Influence of Broadcast Media....................................................................................... 59 Kompas ......................................................................................................................... 62 The Landscape during the 2004 Elections.................................................................... 63 Methods............................................................................................................................. 66 Research Questions....................................................................................................... 66 Research Methods......................................................................................................... 71 Content Analysis........................................................................................................... 72 Textual Analysis ........................................................................................................... 78 Participant Observation................................................................................................. 78 Content Analysis............................................................................................................... 80 RQ1: What frames did Kompas use to describe the candidates and explain to them the political workings of the campaign?............................................................................. 80 Discussion of the Candidates........................................................................................ 88 RQ2: Which issues did Kompas select to highlight in this election year? How were those issues highlighted? .............................................................................................. 94 RQ3: How did Kompas frame the political process of the first direct presidential elections? ...................................................................................................................... 98 RQ4: How were the perspectives of constituents and non-politically aligned citizens selected and represented in the articles?..................................................................... 101 Summary..................................................................................................................... 104 Textual Analysis ............................................................................................................. 106 RQ1: What frames did Kompas use to describe the candidates and explain the political workings of their campaigns?..................................................................................... 106 RQ2: Which issues did Kompas select to highlight in this election year? How were those issues highlighted? ............................................................................................ 118 RQ3: How did Kompas frame the political process of the first direct presidential elections? .................................................................................................................... 122 RQ4: How were the perspectives of constituents and non-politically aligned constituents selected and represent in the articles?..................................................... 127 Summary..................................................................................................................... 130 Discussion and Conclusion............................................................................................. 132 Discussion of Findings................................................................................................ 132 Consistency