A Politeness Strategies Used by Indonesian Journalists on Racism Issue

International Journal of English Linguistics, Literature, and Education (IJELLE) Vol. 3, No. 1, June 2021, pp.26-33 ISSN 2686-0120 (print), 2686-5106 (online) 26 http://journal.univetbantara.ac.id/index.php/ijelle/index A Politeness Strategies Used By Indonesian Journalists On Racism Ade Mulaiawan a,1,*, Suswanto Ismadi Megah S b,2,*, Nurul Aimi Razali c,3 a Universiats Riau Kepulauan, Indonesia b Universiats Riau Kepulauan, Indonesia c Universiti Tun Hussein Onn, Malaysia 1 , 2 , * Corresponding Author Received 3 March 2021; accepted 12 April 2021; published 19 April 2021 ABSTRACT KEYWORDS This study analyzed politeness strategies of the journalists on racism issue of Papuans. This study used Politeness strategies of Brown and Levinson, mainly bold on record and off record strategies to identify the journalists’ politeness. This study employed descriptive – qualitative method to find out politeness of the journalists to report the issue of racism. The data were got from five articles in the Jakarta Post English Newspaper published in Jakarta. The findings were 33 frequencies which consisted of Off record with 20 frequencies (60.6%) and Bald on record with 13 frequencies (39.4%). Each frequency came from the amount of the cooperation of data between Off record and Bald on record. The mostly strategy used was “give hints” because the journalists wanted to state his wishes about the racism in Papua. This study concluded that the articles written by the journalists explored much about the racism done face to face to the interviewee so the information conveyed more valid. Politeness Racism Indonesian Journalists This is an openaccess article under the CC–BY-SA license 1. Introduction Journalism is a form of writing that tells people about things that actually happened, but that they may not already have known about. People who write journalism are called "journalists". They may be working for newspapers, magazines, websites or TV or radio stations. Journalism is the collection of news material (coverage), the reporting of events, the writing of news, the editing of news texts and the presentation or dissemination of news (publication / release) through the media. Trough the media, the journalist has some styles to broadcast the news politely (Zelizer, 2005: 66). This makes the media looks nice. Therefore, it is important to convey the message politely in order to make the reader more enjoyable (Astuti et al. 2019). Journalism has certain identifiable characteristics and practices that can be distinguished from other activities and productst. They also make it indispensable for a democratic society. According to Zelizer (2005: 72), journalist is a servicer in the public interest, one that is shaped with an eye toward the need of healthy citizenship. Politeness is then a major source of deviation from such rational output, and it is precisely this deviation which communicates. According to Yule (1995: 106) politeness is a system of interpersonal relationships to promote human interaction by eliminating possible disputes and confrontations that are inherent in all human interchanges. In addition, he also notes that politeness is defined as strategies (or series of strategies) employed by speakers to achieve a variety of objectives, such as fostering or sustaining harmonious relationships. In additional, politeness is a form of behavior that is intended to develop and maintain mutually beneficial interpersonal relationships Leech (1983). doi :10.32585/ijelle.v3i1.1344 27 International Journal of English Linguistics, Literature, and Education (IJELLE) Vol. 3, No. 1, June 2021, pp. 26-33 ISSN 2686-0120 (print), 2686-5106 (online) Newspaper is part of the correspondence that brings us knowledge on outside world affairs, challenges and changing characters. Inorder that it will be interesting, or even exciting, there is the important key of news as a medium to inspire those who are well educated. According to Lynch& Pear (2002: 7), the newspaper consists of different types of content including articles, ads, listings and graphics. A newspaper aims at a large circulation of general readers and is primarily a vehicle for topical news and information. For this analysis the writer used the Jakarta Post newspaper. Jakarta Post Newspaper is one of Jakarta, Indonesia's best recognized media outlets. The Jakarta Post in Indonesia is a daily English language newspaper owned by PT. Bina Media Tenggara, and the headquarters is in Jakarta, the nation's capital. The Jakarta Post was established in 1983 (Bria et al, 2019: 256). The researcher used the newspaper of the Jakarta Post to analyze racism. Racism is defined as a global hierarchy of superiority and inferiority along human lines that has been produced and reproduced politically, culturally and economically for centuries by the "modern world system (Grosfozxcguel, 2011). According to Clair & Denis (2015: 857), racism is analytically distinct from racial crimination and racial inequality. Racial discrimination concerns the unequal treatment of races, whereas racial inequality concerns unequal such as income, education, health, etc. Racism usually concerns with the shape of body, color of skin and the background of a person. Based on this definition of racism allows us to understand the various forms of racism. Depending on the colonial history of different regions of the world, hierarchies of superiority / inferiority along human lines could be established through various racial markers. Racism can state that ethnicity, ethnicity, culture and / or religion. This research analyzed the racism in Papua using the newspaper of the Jakarta post as as the source of data. There were 5 articles of newspaper used to analyze the off record and on record on racism words. One of the title of the article was “Racism: My experience as doctor in Papua. Saturday, June 13th 2020/ 11:31 am.” typed by Herliana Elizabeth Yusuf. The article stated her opinions about the “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika”. She said “ Indonesia are very proud of motto “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” ( Unity In Diversity) ironically, not everyone truly believe in the idea of respecting diversity in ethnicity, religion or race, or whatever differences in daily life”. The second article was “Escalating intimidation, threats, ahead of high-profile treason verdict: Rights group”. Tuesday, June 16th 2020/ 02:30 pm by Agustinus Boa Da Costa. Costa stated protest for prisoners: Student and activists from Papua political prisoner liberation committee rally in front of the supreme court building in central Jakarta on Monday, demanding that seven Papuans being tried at the Balikpapan district east Kalimantan be cleared of all charges. The third article was “2020: A year of meaningful diplomacy over Papua?” Monday, February 3,2020/ 08:55 am by Ronny kareni. Ronny typed “Indonesia has in principle committed to granted the UN Human Rights Office access to Papua”. The fourth article was “Cultura (...truncated)