POLITICAL INTERVENTION IN TELEVISION NEWSROOM: STUDYING TELEVISION’S COVERAGES ON THE JAKARTA GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION 2017

Abstract

The television newsrooms is a space full of meaning, because the position of the newsroom in the constellation of external-internal influences and dependencies has an impact on the process of production and consumption of news in the television newsroom itself. This has been shown by Indonesian Television such as iNews TV and Metro TV in the political news of Jakarta Gubernatorial Election in 2017 (Pilkada DKI Jakarta 2017), where the television newsrooms were co-opted and could not be separated from the political interests of media owners in supporting one of the candidates Governor and Deputy Governors for Jakarta. This article highlights the issues related to the practice of political intervention in the newsroom of iNews TV and Metro TV on reporting about Jakarta Gubernatorial Election (Pilkada DKI Jakarta) on Indonesian television. Furthermore, this article critically examines the political interests behind the editorial policies of iNews TV and Metro TV in reporting the Jakarta elections that were constructed. In addition, it is intended to strengthen the study of television media policies, in particular the election of political news program. The study found that there had been partial through political news discourse constructed by the television due to the affiliation and partisanship of political interests towards candidate number two Governor-Deputy Governor Ahok-Djarot who was supported by Metro TV and candidate number three Governor-Deputy Governors Anies-Sandi who was supported by iNews TV. This critical approach qualitativ research was analyzed using Critical Discourse Analysis Norman Fairclough model with a hierarchical level framework of the influence of the content of media messages including; individual, organization, routine, extramedia, and ideology. The findings of the study indicate the intervention of media owners and political party politicians in the newsroom of the Jakarta Regional Election Commission (KPUD DKI Jakarta) news coverage because of support for the pairs of candidates for Governor and Deputy Governor which have implications for the division of television and the public.