The Construction of Reality of Media Regarding Ustadz Abdul Somad's Refusal to Enter Singapore

Abstract

Media shapes the reality perceived by the readers. The issue discussed by the reader is based on how the media report the case. In the case about Ustadz Abdul Somad’s (UAS’s) refusal to enter Singapore was framed differently by two big online news portal: kompas.com and detik.com. Those two media were chosen since they are considered as the big and most-read news portal. The objective of the study is to analyze how the media framed the reality of UAS’s refusal to enter Singapore. The data used in this study were the news published by kompas.com and detik.com during 16-23 May 2022. The news articles were analyzed using the framing analysis method by Pan and Kosicki. This study found out that those two media constructed the reality differently. Kompas.com reported the news in more balance manner in a sense that they took the source both from UAS’s and Singapore’s side. On the other hand, detik.com tended to construct this event on more provocative way: they took the source more on UAS’s side or those who were in the same side of him.
 Keywords: constructing reality, framing, news