TEKNOLOGI MARA Centre For Media And Information Warfare Studies JOURNAL OF MEDIA AND INFORMATION WARFARE VOLUME 3 DECEMBER 2010 ISSN 1675-1302 ^oTTs^ pousi pousi p°L,si pousi ^^ POLISI POL UNDERSTANDING PROPAGANDA FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS Mohd Rajib Ghani POL.S. POL.S. POL.S. POL.S. POLISI POLIS. POL.S. PO _ ISI POLISI POLISI POLISi OL.S. POL.SI POL.S. POLISI POLISI POLISI POL.S. P FRAMING OF TERRORISM' ISSUES IN INDONESIA- A STUDY OF TWO MALAYSIAN MAINSTREAM NEWSPAPERS Dafrizal Samsudin, Faridah Ibrahim |jgj S||j|j ™^I ?Ot-'S. POL.S, POL.S. POL.S. PQL.S. POL... p0Llsl POL.S. POL.S. PC P0U81 MPJS^SWI^ .— POLISI HULlbl P0LiSl POUSI POLISI POLIS Faridah Ibrahim POL.S. POLIS. POL.S, POL.S. POL.S, POUS, POUS. POL. —..«. POLISI POLISI POLIS POLISI POL.S. POL.S. POL.S. POL.S. POL.S. T' ^ DISSECTING CRIME NEWS: CAPTURING THE VALUE OF STORIES Sharon Wilson, Faridah Ibrahim LIS! POLISI POLISI POLIJ US. POUS. POL.S, PQL.S, P0LIS, P0LIS, pQL,s, pQ| ,„ ^ _ ..:,„ .•••• - ~* - ••- •-' -Tr^J" "" " POLISI POLSSI POLISI POLISI POL.SI POL.SI POL.SI POLISI POLISI POLISI POLISI POLISI POLISI POLISI P( FRAMING A PANDEMIC: ANALYSIS OF MALAYSIAN MAINSTREAM NEWSPAPERS IN THE H1N1 COVERAGE Chang Peng Kee, Faridah Ibrahim, Normah Musbaffa ""« ~* P0L,s, P0L1S, P0L1S, P0Lls, pous| pousi pousi pousi pousi _.._^ POLISI PO THE TECHNIQUES OF POLITICAL AGENDA SETTING BY BLnrrpoo. & A LOOK AT CHE' DET.COM AND RAJA PETRA SSSSJK ILOGS Mazril Hameedy Mazlan, Mariah Muda g.^^^,^ POLISI POLISI POLISI POLISI POLIS! POLISI POLISI POLISI POLISI POLISI POLISI POLIS. POLISI POLISI PO ICT IN THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM: PROMISING YET CHALLENGING? PART 1 Zaibon Hamin, Ani Munirah Mohamad )LISI POLIS. POLISI POLISI POLISI POLISI POLIS, POLISI POLISI POLISI POLISI POLISI POLISI POL.SI POLISI JOURNAL OF MEDIA AND INFORMATION WARFARE Centre for Media and Information Warfare Studies EDITORIAL BOARD Journal Administrator Faiz Ismail Managing Editors Assoc. Prof. Mohd Rajib Ghani Director CMIWS Language Editor Prof. Philip M. Taylor, Institute of Communication Studies University of Leeds (UK) and Distinguish Prof, UiTM Assoc. Prof Shehah Mansor Academy of Language Studies, UiTM Editorial Advisory Board (MALAYSIA) Assoc. Prof. Rajib Ghani, Universiti Teknologi MARA Assoc. Prof. Dr. Faridah Ibrahim, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Editorial Advisory Board (INTERNATIONAL) Prof. Philip M. Taylor, Institute of Communication Studies University of Leeds (UK) and Distinguish Prof, UiTM Copyright €2010 by Centre of Media and Information Warfare Studies, Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission, in writing, from the publisher. Journal of Media and Information Warfare Studies is joint published by the Centre of Media and Information Warfare Studies, Faculty of Communication and Media Studies and University Publication Centre (UPENA), Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. The views and opinion expressed therein and those of the individual authors and the publication of these statements in the Journal of Media and Information Warfare do not imply endorsement by the publisher or the editorial staff Copyright vested in Universiti Teknologi MARA. Written permission is required to reproduce any part of this publication. Centre For Media Rnd Information UUarfarg Studies JOURNAL OF MEDIA AND INFORMATION WARFARE Volume 3 December2010 ISSN 1675-1302 1. Understanding Propaganda from the Perspective of 1 General Semantics Mohd Rajib Ghani 2. Framing of Terrorism' Issues in Indonesia: A Study of Two 15 Malaysian Mainstream Newspapers Dafrizal Samsudin Faridah Ibrahim 3. Media Framing of Peace and War News: A Comparative Study 37 between Malaysian TV Stations and the Global Media Faridah Ibrahim 4. Dissecting Crime News: Capturing the Value of Stories 55 Sharon Wilson Faridah Ibrahim 5. Conceptual Framework on Information Security Risk 77 Management in Information Technology Outsourcing Nik Zulkarnaen Khidzir No or Habibah Arshad Azlinah Mohamed 6. Framing a Pandemic: Analysis of Malaysian Mainstream 105 Newspapers in the HIN 1 Coverage Chang Peng Kee Faridah Ibrahim Normah Mustaffa 7. The Techniques of Political Agenda Setting by Bloggers: 123 A Look at Che' Det.Com and Raja Petra Kamaruddin's Blogs Mazril Hameedy Mazlan Mariah Muda 8. ICT in the Judicial System: Promising Yet Challenging? Part I 159 Zaiton Hamin Ani Munirah Mohamad Journal of Media and Information Warfare Vol. 3, 15-35, 2010 Framing of ‘Terrorism’ Issues in Indonesia: A Study of Two Malaysian Mainstream Newspapers Dafrizal Samsudin & Faridah Ibrahim School of Media and Communication Studies Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia ABSTRACT Indonesia is one of the ASEAN countries that is always struggling with terrorism issues. It has also been the focus of the international news media where terrorism issues are concerned. On 17th July 2009, once again Indonesia is traumatised yet with another terrorism incident with the bombing of JW Marriot and Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Jakarta. This time Malaysia also becomes a major focus in the international agenda. This is because the prosecution of Nordin Mat Top, a Malaysian citizen who is said to mastermind a series of bombings in Indonesia, is widely discussed in the mass media, both in Malaysia and Indonesia and also at the international level. In this situation how would the Malaysian mainstream media report the story on terrorism in a neighbouring country, when the terrorist himself is from Malaysia? Hence, it is interesting to look at how Malaysia writes about terrorism news in Indonesia especially with this case in point. Furthermore, with a heavy reliance on the international news agencies for international news coverage, will Malaysia adopt the same news frame as created by the international agencies when writing about terrorism issues or will the Malaysian media create their own news frames in dealing with terrorism issues in Indonesia. The purpose of this study is to identify whether Malaysian mainstream media, specifically Utusan Malaysia and The New Straits Times, with different news orientation, language preferences and editorial policies, create their own news frames or subscribe to the frames created by the international news agencies in reporting terrorism issues in Indonesia. Keywords: Framing, International News Agencies, Terrorism, Terrorist Threat, Jemaah Islamiah (JI). ISSN 1675-1302 © 2010 Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia 15 Chap 2.pmd 15 18/04/32, 03:02 „ Journal of Media and Information Warfare Introduction The debate on terrorism issues remain in dispute not only among the political elites, scholars, and the people, but also has become a global mass media issues. This is consistent with the views of scholars who are concerned over issues of terrorism. Since the events of 11 September 2001, terrorism in the contexts of “war on terror” has been characterised as a continuous threat from Islamic extremist (De Nelson, 2006: 193). Meanwhile, Fabiano (2009) explained that the “war on terror” is perhaps the principle metaphor used by the Bush administration to disguise US terrorism as an acceptable state policy. Another statement comes from Mahathir Mohammad (2003) that the Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a terrorist organisation in the eyes of the British but is regarded as freedom fighters worthy of financial support by the American. In addition, Faridah Ibrahim and Emma Mirza W. Mohamad (2005), argued from the general semanticist perspective, that words such as “terrorism”, “war heroes”, “fundamentalist” and “freedom fighters” are words created to dehumanise or humanise certain individuals, events, nations or objects. It is clearly seen that even scholars still do not perceive terrorism as a universal concept. In other words, the lack of understanding and diversed interest in terrorism issues had caused the polarization of interpretation and perception toward the issue. This is because interpretation really depends on the orientation of the particular individual. The polarization of the interpretation and perception toward terrorism issues and concepts are inspired from media coverage, especially through media framing. According to Entman (1993) to frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communication text. Alex Schmid and Janny de Graaf (in White, 2006: 261) said that media label terrorism and cover it according to their own needs. What is more, Cole (2006) states that there is a symbiotic relationship between non-state combatants and the media, but the relationship is actually more complex. The media might seek sensationalism in order to improve its ratings, but it also has a vested interest in ensuring the survival of the state. It is rare for a mainstream media source to champion the goals of a terrorist or revolutionary group. It means that mass media reporting on terrorism issues have reflected the distortion of the news framing according to the news media agenda setting. Similarly according to Giessmann (2002), the media portrays the event of terrorism as a depiction of appalling news reporting. For instance, 16 Chap 2.pmd 16 18/04/32, 03:02 „ Framing of ‘Terrorism’ Issues in Indonesia in the days following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, all the major television networks devoted their broadcast to continuos news coverage without commercial interruption (McDonald and Lawrence, 2008). Additionally, after the events of September 11, 2001, the United States has framed the Southeast Asia (ASEAN) as the second front in the war on terrorism (Amitav Acharya and Arabinda Acharya, 2007; De Nelson 2004; Gershmann, 2002). That Perception was understandable since the ASEAN region is seen as the centre of operation of the Islamic Council or better known as Jemaah Islamiah (JI), Abu Sayyaf, and the Malaysian Mujahideen Group (KMM). This development was seen as a new home base for terrorist movement that had brought down the World Trade Center (Gershman, 2002).