Abstract
This paper reports an analysis on the naming and title-giving practices of The Sydney Morning Herald toward General Wiranto in the news about Indonesia‟s 2004 General Election when he contested as a presidential candidate but failed. In the news data he was mostly related to the allegations of his responsibility as the Commander of Indonesia‟s armed forces for a number of atrocities committed by the Indonesian military and Jakarta-backed militias in East Timor. Honorification is one standard referencing in news. Its presence is believed to indicate respects, and its absence can be interpreted as either showing solidarity or less respect. However, Wiranto was negatively represented both when he was referred to with and without his military title. Such a representation suggests the newspaper‟s perception and stereotype it has had about Wiranto.
Highlights
What we read in the news should not be understood as what happened
News should rather be seen as the representation of real people and actual events which have been perceived by the news writers (e.g., O‟Shaughnesssy & Stadler, 2005)
Among the recontextualizing choices in his system, this study focuses on one system only, the honorification
Summary
What we read in the news should not be understood as what happened. Rather, it should be seen as the news writer‟s perception and representation of what has happened. Some Indonesian controversial figures, such as Abu Bakar Bashir, Amrozi, Ali Imron, Muklas, and Imam Samudra, who were involved in Bali bombings, were never given honorification tokens even the standard “Mr” (Dwi-Nugroho, 2013) This tendency cannot be generalized, because some favourable actors were not given any personal title either, such as human rights activist Munir Thalib, who was poisoned in his flight from Singapore to the Netherlands (e.g., Moore, 2004c). The honorification, or the title-giving, of „General Wiranto‟ in the news texts may suggest showing respect, while the nomination of just „Wiranto‟ may suggest no-respect or solidarity in other texts These addresses are only the standard way and its variation of referring to a news actor as the house rules dictate. A critical analysis on the representations of him in the texts suggested a different result
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