FRAMING ANALYSIS OF MEDIA COVERAGE ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN

POS KUPANG AND TIMOR EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS

Petrus Ana Andung

(University of Nusa Cendana, [email protected])

ABSTRACT

Media plays a substantial role in shaping society’s perceptions including violence against
women. Exploitation and violence against women have been highlighted in media. There is a
tendency of the media to do commodification of news coverage on violence against women. The
sensation aspect of the violence is more accentuated than the aspect of substance. This is obviously
indicated in the language used in the title of the news.
This study seeks to understand how Pos Kupang and Timor Express Newspapers framed
violence against women through their news coverage; as well as to know how both newspapers
contructed violence against women. Using framing analysis developed by Pan and Kosicki, this
research compared newspaper articles of Pos Kupang and Timor Express in establishing facts of
news coverage on violence against women. The findings indicated there are differences between
Pos Kupang and Timor Express daily newspapers in framing the news on violence against women.
These two newspapers also constructed document, simulation, and symbolic violences against
women. News text, news content and other news supporting elements of both newspapers differed
greatly based on journalist’s interpretation of the case of violence against women. The implication
is that the same news topic interpreted differently which in turn the news is constructed with a
certain tendency. Two selected news articles used in this study confirmed to the thesis of Peter L.
Berger, who asserted that reality is shaped and constructed. The study indicated that the reality of
news coverage on violence against women is shaped and constructed by mass media.
Keywords: framing, violence against women, social construction of reality

BACKGROUND

Mass media plays a substantial and strategic role in society. In fact, mass media act as agents
of changes as well as controllers of social life.

However, shift of function and role of a number of media organizations in Indonesia is

happening. This is the reason why Bungin mentioned that academics and practitioners have
predicted that media will change drastically in terms of nature, role, and type; especially the role of
the mass media in the future. A number of mass media have started to play a role as productive
institutions and lose the identity as educational institution (Bungin, 2006, p. 327-330).

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 The negative views of the mass media are now growing in the community due to this shift of
role. Some people call newspaper ‘provocateur’, ‘violator’ and so forth. Lately, the articles in mass
media emphasize values that do not correspond anymore to the noble values of Indonesian. News of
materialism, violence against women and children, sadism, mysticism, superstition, porn media,
secularism, and other similar news coverage have continued undermine media world in this country.
Among those news coverage, commodification mostly occur on the articles of violence against
women.

Priyo (1999, p. 2012) asserted that, “In terms of news about women’ issues, most of the news
media puts women as objects. Women are identified as teasers that cause men to do sexual abuse
and violence, and other crimes”. Media make women as objects in order to get profit as much as
possible. Writing news on women’ issues has became a new trend. In fact, almost every day,
women issues are always highlighted in both printed and electronic media. Sensational aspects have
been emphasized rather than the substance of the issue. Media are often not gender responsive and
humiliate women. A similar argument was claimed by Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) in
Indonesia through their research. Finding of the research suggested that there were many news on
violence against women that imbalance, unjustified and discriminated (http://aji.or.id).

A growing number of news articles on mass media that tend to discriminate women indicated
that mass media have done violence against women through their news particularly language
use/text and visual violence.

In Indonesia, the cases of violence against women have increased in the last few years. This
impacts the intensity of news coverage on violence against women in the local mass media in
Kupang. One of the examples of news articles about violence against was published by Pos Kupang
daily newspaper on May 13th, 2013 with the title ‘Oooh! Widow of a child was raped by a driver
of motor taxi on the Roadside’. In this news article, the substance of the news was the fact that a
woman was raped. There was no relationship between her social status as a widow of a child and
the sexual abuse. The construction of the news title conveyed the message that she was raped
because she is a widow.

Another example is the news articles on Timor Express daily newspaper on November 21 st,
2012 titled ‘Felt Jealous, Wife was Slaughtered’. In this article, it is obvious that the journalist
used the word ‘slaughtered’, which refers to human brutality to animals. Both of these examples
showed that those two local newspapers differed in the construction of the news of violence against
women.

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 Based on that, the objective of this study is to understand how Pos Kupang and Timor Express
Newspapers framed violence against women through their news coverage. This study is also aimed
to know how both newspapers contructed violence against women.

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF MASS MEDIA THROUGH NEWS

The term social construction of reality was first introduced by Peter L Berger and Thomas
Luckmann. The concept of social reality according to Berger & Luckman (1991, p. 13) as follows:

“Reality is socially constructed and that the sociology of knowledge must analyze
the process in which this occurs. The key terms in these contentions are ‘reality’
and ‘knowledge’, terms that are not only current in everyday speech, but also have
behind them a long history of philosophical inquiry. We need not enter here into a
discussion of the semantic intricacies of either the everyday or the philosophical
usage of these terms. It will be enough, for our purposes, to define ‘reality’ as a
quality appertaining to phenomena that we recognize as having a being
independent of our own volition (we cannot ‘wish them away’), and to define
‘knowledge’ as the certainty that phenomena are real and that they possess specific
characteristics.

According to Berger & Luckman’s contention, it is obvious that reality is the result of a social
construction and is a quality found in a phenomenon, which is independent and do not rely on our
own will. Social reality is similar to daily knowledge, which is developed by society and has
specific characteristics. Therefore, social reality is everywhere. Social reality in principle is the
result of social construction that primarily performed by the mass media. Social reality is a product
of interpretation of objects.

However, the theory of social construction of reality developed by Berger & Luckmann did
not include mass media. In fact, mass media influence construction of reality in society (Bungin,
2007, p. 202). Further Bungin (2007, p. 203) also asserted that:

Through the Social Construction of Mass Media; Reality of Television Advertising

in Capitalistic Society (2000), the theory and the approach of social construction of
reality developed by Peter L. Berger and Luckmann has been revised with a view
that variable or phenomenon of mass media becomes important in the process of
externalization, subjectivity, and internalization. Thus, the nature and power of
mass media have covered the weakness of social construction of reality that runs
slowly”.

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 Based on the Bungin’s view, it is evident that mass media have contributed greatly to the
emergence of social construction of reality. Through news, mass media can construct reality so that
society shapes their opinion instantly. Siu (2006, p. 6), claimed that ‘news is regarded as a form of
social construction’. Writing news article is actually an attempt to construct the reality itself rather
than a picture or description of the actual reality. The same opinion was said by Sobur (2006, p. 88),
“the content of media is essentially the result of the construction of reality with the language as a
medium of instruction”.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN MASS MEDIA

According to Lardellier (as cited in Haryatmoko, 2007, p. 119), violence is defined as an act
that uses power to force others without asking for consent. Furthermore Haryatmoko stated that
violence contains aspect of dominant over others in any forms of physical, verbal, moral,
psychological, or visual.

Haryatmoko argued that violence is deliberately exploited due to economic and market
demand. Violence through news, movies, fiction, broadcast, and advertisement is a part of the
cultural industries that aimed at pursuing high rating point and success in the marketplace.

Violence shown in the media certainly causes problems and has impacts. According to
research on violence in television media in the United States written by the American Psychological
Association in 1959, there were three interesting findings:

1) Presenting violence program in the media will increase aggressive behavior.

2) Repeatedly showing violence program leads to insensitivity violence and the victims.
3) Violence program increases fearful feeling that would shape the opinion of the audience that
our world is so dangerous (Haryatmoko, 2007, p. 124).

Violence against women is one of gender issues that occur due to gender inequality. Abar
(1998, p. 58) argued that violence against women as an issue of gender injustice can be divided into
two forms. The first form is physical violence including grape, beating, torture, and murder. The
second form is psychological violence that covers pornography, sexual abuse, etc.

In order to understand the violence in the media, people have to know that there are domains
in mass media called real, fictional, and virtual. Violence in the media is categorized according to

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those three elements. Three types of violence presented in the media are document violence, fiction
violence and symbolic violence (Haryatmoko, 2007).

Three types of violence in the mass media are as follows:

1) Document Violence
Document violence is an act of presenting documented or recorded violence facts that are
viewed by people (readers or audience) with their naked eyes. Violence in media can be
presented through content (murder, quarrel, fight, riot, and shot), and also situation (conflict,
injury, and cry). Recording of violence facts causes deep emotion or feeling such as interesting,
sympathy, boring, disgusting or upset. Document violence is in forms of pictures or photos as
well as texts.

2) Fiction Violence
Violence in fiction stories causes traumatic effects and aggressive actions imitated by the
audience particularly children. TV show such as ‘WWW Smack down’ is presented like actual
fights. This kind of show is categorized into hyper-reality. Although it is just an act, the visual
effect makes it looks like the real battle; hence, this causes dramatic effects to the audience.

3) Symbolic Violence
Symbolic violence appears in advertisement. It is called symbolic because the effect is not
visible like physical violence. Anxiety, injuries, traumatic are not visible and even the victims
themselves do not feel dominated or manipulated. Symbolic violence occurs because the
society is not aware that they are being dominated or controlled (Haryatmoko, 2007, p. 128-
136). When mass media constructs a reality which is differed from the actual reality, they have
committed symbolic violence (Sobur, 2006, p. 89).

FRAMING ANALYSIS DEVELOPED BY ZHONGDANG PAN AND GERALD M.

KOSICKI

This study used framing analysis developed by Zhongdang Pan and Gerald M. Kosicki.
Historically, this type of framing analysis has been introduced since 1992. Pan & Kosicki’s framing
analysis is used to analyze news articles entirely starting from title, lead, news content, and
conclusion. Furthermore the elements of graphic, idiom, and lexicon were also analyzed.

According to Pan & Kosicki, framing devices in news discourse are classified into four
categories:

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1) Syntactical Structures
Syntactical structures refer to the stable patterns of the arrangement of words or phrases into
sentences. In news discourse, the structures at this level convey very little information to make
news a distinct genre of composition.

Syntactic structure also related to the way journalists’ constructs reality starting from statement,
opinion, quotation, to observation which is aimed at creating general structure of news. The
structure is identified through writing style of headline, lead, background information and
citation.

2) Script Structures
Script refers to the way journalists narrate or recount events in the form of news. This structure
shows strategy used by journalists to speak or tell stories in a form of news.

A generic version consists of the familiar five Ws and one H in news writing: who, what, when
where, why and how. Even though they do not have to be present in every single story, these
are categories of information that a reporter is expected to gather and report.

3) Thematic Structures
A thematic structures consists of a summary and a main body. The summary is usually
represented by the headline, lead, or conclusion. The thematic structure also indicates the way
journalists express their opinions about a particular event in a form of propositions, sentences
or paragraphs to compose entire texts. This structure shows how the journalist interpretation is
presented in a smaller form.

4) Rhetorical Structures
Rhetorical structures of news discourse describe the stylistic choices made by journalists in
relation to their intended effects. This includes metaphors, exemplars, catchphrases, depictions,
and visual images—belong to this category.

This type of structure refers to the way journalists emphasize a particular meaning in news
articles. This structure show journalists select and use dictions, idioms, graphs, and images to
not only support the composition but also to emphasize a certain meaning (Pan & Kosicki,
1993, p. 59-62).

RESEARCH METHODS

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 This study uses framing analysis method. Eriyanto (2005, p. 10) stated that, “framing analysis
is used to show how media constructs reality. Framing analysis is also used to see how events are
understood and framed by the media”.

The unit of analysis in this study was the news articles published by Pos Kupang and Timor
Express daily newspapers on March 1st–22nd, 2013. The reasons for selecting the news on that
particular dates was because during that period of time protection of human rights and campaigns to
stop violence against women were becoming hot issues. International Women's Day is celebrated
on March 8th and during that period time, activists of women's rights made various efforts to fight
injustice against women.

a. Findings
After analyzing news on Pos Kupang and Timor Express daily newspapers during
the celebration of International Women Day in 2013, particularly from 1st to 22nd of March,
2013, it was found that there are two news articles of violence against women, which were
similar in terms of topic and content.

b. The Framing of Pos Kupang and Timor Express Newspapers on the first news: “A
murder of a mother and a child in Belu”
The news of the murder case of Mrs. Rosalinda Bete and her daughter, Emelia Putri
Bria, was reported by Timor Express on Thursday, March 7th, 2013. The news with the same
topic was also reported by Pos Kupang on Saturday, March 9th, 2013.

c. Framing of Pos Kupang

News title: “Bria was Suspected of Mutilation of his Wife and Daughter”

1) Syntactic

Saturday, March 9th, 2013, Pos Kupang reported news article entitled “Bria was
suspected of mutilation of his wife and daughter. The news headlines using bold and larger font
sizes and covered the front page of the newspaper. Then, it was followed by the phrase “Body,
legs and hands have not been found.” The title described that the victim’s husband was
allegedly as the killer. The use husband’s name ‘Bria’ as the subject indicated that domestic
violence is often committed by husbands. This represented patriarchy culture of people in Nusa
Tenggara Timur. The lead further stated that Pos Kupang suspected Bria of mutilation of his
wife and daughter.

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 The sixth paragraph of the news' article mentioned in detail about the search for victims
with Sylvester Bria. Bria went to her wife’s relatives in Atambua and asked about her wife.
Later in the eighth paragraph, it stated that Rosalina body’s was found without arms and
shoulders. It was also found that Rosalina was three months pregnant. The head of her
daughter, Ezra, was found but the body has not been found yet. The ninth paragraph expressed
the anger of the family of the victims that condemn such barbaric act. The family also asked the
police to conduct a thorough investigation and arrest the husband and his colleagues who
picked the victims up the day before. Those three paragraphs showed how the journalists
narrated the involvement of the husband over his wife's death. Pos Kupang highlighted the
chronology of the murder. Then, it was followed by the statement of the spokesman of the
police department, public relation officer, Iptu Muhammad Azhram. He stated that the case is
being investigated by the police.

Pos Kupang used legal approach to compose the news, which is shown by the statement
of victim's family that asked the police to conduct a thorough investigation and arrest the
husband and his colleagues who picked the victims up the day before.

In the news “Bria was Suspected of Mutilation of his Wife and Daughter”, the journalist
quoted the statement of the victim’s family. The family stated that the husband was suspected
of the murder. The quoted statement supported the news headline. Quotation is aimed at
strengthen and validate the news.

2) Script

The composition of this news article used inverted pyramid structure that started with
the most important parts to unimportant parts. The sequence is as follows: The actor -
chronology - the police investigation. The title and lead described the main issue of the case,
then, the details were elaborated on the body of the news.

The news is described as follows:

 What. The husband was suspected of murder his wife and daughter, in addition, the news
also contained the expression of anger of the victim's family.
 Who. It was stated in the title and lead that the domestic violence was committed by
Bria, and the victim's family was represented by Father Ande Hane, SVD.
 When and where. The date and place of the case were mentioned in the news article. The
statement of victim’s family which was delivered by Pater Ande Hane, SVD. He said the

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 date and place: in Atambua on March 8th, 2013. The ‘Why’ explained the reasons why
the family wanted the killer to be arrested.
 Why. The husband was suspected of murder his wife and daughter.
 How. The chronology of the crime starting from the day the victims were lose to the day
they were found mutilated.
3) Thematic

In composing the news, Pos Kupang proposed three themes: first, the husband was
suspected of murder his wife and daughter. This theme can be seen from the beginning of the
news which is in the title and lead. It was followed by the chronology of events, which was
recounted with regular flow of news content. Paragraphs 3 to 6 recounted the involvement of
her husband, because when it was reported that Rosalina was missing, his husband picked her
up the day before. The second theme was about the motive of murder as stated in the third
paragraph. The journalists stated that victim’s husband was angry because the wife carried a
small traditional cloth on a mourn day. People humiliated them because of that.

The third theme was the investigation of the case conducted by the police. The last
paragraph in the news indicated the statement of investigation by the police.

4) Rhetorical

The journalists emphasized the facts of the news by using the word “…..suspected….” in
the title with bold and large font sizes. Font and its sizes are used to attract people.

In order to emphasize the fact, Pos Kupang used dictions such as “he would be a target of
humiliation by the mourners”. These words were repeated for three times in the news text
(paragraphs 3, 4, and 5). This diction emphasized that the victim (Rosalina Bete) performed a
shameful act and this triggered her husband anger. There are also other dictions “because he
embarrassed”, this phrase seemed to justify that Rosalina did something that did not confirm
with the norms and customs of society.

Based on the analysis of this rhetorical structure, it revealed gender bias on the news
articles. Rosalina should be responsible for the act that embarrassed her husband.

a. Framing of Timor Express

News title: Mother-Daughter Found Decay

1) Syntactic

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 Timor Express daily newspaper highlighted the title “Mother-Daughter Found
Decay” with bold and larger font sizes. Below the title, the phrase “The Victim was a
teacher of SD GMIT III Atambua” was written with smaller non-bold font. The title was
written in the passive voice, without an actor. Through the title, Timor Express directed
the story that the death of Rosalinda Bete and her daughter Emilia occurred in a
considerable time and was just found a state of decay. This was reinforced by a short
lead “Rosalinda Bete, 46 years old, an elementary school teacher at GMIT III Atambua,
Monday morning (3/3) was found dead with her youngest daughter, Emilia Putri Bria
(2.7 years old). The title informed the reader that the killer was still unknown.

This news which was reported on March 7th, 2013 was followed by the lead to
facilitate the readers in comprehending the content or substance of the news. Although it
did not mention the location of the event, the news was described clearly.

In the news body particularly the fourth paragraph, it was specified that the
victim, Rosalinda, met her husband a month ago. That was the last time they met because
the victim choose to escape by leaving their house. Then, in the fifth paragraph, it was
described in detail about victim’s disappointment of his husband attitude. This second
paragraph expressed journalist’s opinion that the husband might involve in the crime.

2) Script
The composition of the news article followed the structure of inverted
pyramid, which started from the most important to least important elements. The
order is: the victim –the causes - the police investigation. The title and lead
explained the main issue. Then, it was followed by detail explanation of the cause of
death and ended with the investigation being made by the local police.

The news is described as follows:

 What: the discovery of rotten corpse of the victims (Rosalina Bete and her
youngest child, Emilia Putri Bria).
 Who: Rosalina Bete and her youngest daughter, Emilia Putri Bria. Rosalina’s
husband was the suspect.
 Where: The forest in Bekani Village, Sasitamean sub district, Belu district.
 When: Monday (3/3) morning
 Why: the victim’s husband was the alleged killer.

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  How: the victim left home because she was disappointed with her husband bad
attitude.
The journalist wrote her husband as the suspect at the end of the paragraph.
This created an impression that the statement that her husband was the suspect was
least important. However, it is normal because of the presumption of innocence. This
is because journalists are not the judges that are allowed to make any judgment
without evidence and law.

3) Thematic
There were some themes presented in the news reported by Timor Express’s
journalist. The first them was the discovery of the bodies of the two victims
(Rosalinda and her daughter, Emilia) in a state of decay. This theme was seen in the
title, lead, first and second paragraphs. The second theme was the alleged cause of
death as described in fourth and fifth paragraph. Her husband was the suspected
murder because the victim left her husband’s house due to her husband bad attitude.
The last theme was related to police investigation of the case which was stated in the
last paragraph.

Based on the structure of this news article, it appeared that the first and
second themes dominated the news content. This indicated that the main construction
of the news was stated on those two themes.

4) Rhetorical
The way the journalist emphasized the facts was presented through the title of
the second line “... Found ...“ with italic font and red highlight. This graphic
technique made it easy for readers to read the title. The use of graphic with red
highlight on the word ‘Found’ indicated that Timor Express wanted to emphasize the
to attract the readers.

Journalists also used the term “decay” to underline that this murder was
committed in a considerable time and a witness saw the bodies in distant. This was
pointed out in the first sentence of paragraph 1, “Tragically, the bodies of two
victims were found eaten by worms”.

b. The comparison of framing between Pos Kupang and Timor Express on the first news

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 The comparative analysis indicated that Pos Kupang and Timor Express daily
newspapers differed greatly in the construction of reality. Each journalist used different
frames in interpreting the crime. This is obvious in the way each newspaper collected the
facts from the interviewee, analyzed the facts, and published the news articles in the
newspapers.

Pos Kupang constructed the murder reality by pointed out that the husband, Silvester
Bria, is mainly suspected of the murder. Therefore, framing presented by Pos Kupang was,
Silvester Bria was suspected of the murder of his wife and daughter. Silvester Bria was a
figure of cruel husband that kill his own wife and daughter. This was evident from the title
that explicitly mentioned Bria as the alleged murder of his wife and daughter. This
construction is stated in by the first paragraph of the news article. However, the news was
gender-biased because it emphasized the fact that Rosalina did shameful acts that triggered
her husband to murder her.

On the other hand, Timor Express framed the news by stating that the killer of
Rosalinda and her youngest daughter was still a mystery. Timor Express did not mention
explicitly the involvement of her husband. Therefore, frame of Timor Express was stating
that the killer of Rosalinda and her youngest daughter was still a mystery. This was obvious
in the title of the news “Mother-Son Found Decay“. In storytelling strategy, journalist did
not mention clearly that the husband was suspected of the murder. Although in the second
last paragraph, the journalist also quoted the police statement that her husband was rude to
his wife, Rosalinda Bete.

The journalists of these two newspapers collected data from different sources. Pos
Kupang did not only collect data from the police but also citing a statement from the
victim's family, Father Ande Hane, SVD. On the other hand, the journalist of Timor Express
only collected the data from the police, Iptu Jefri Fanggidae.

Table 1 shows comparison of frame between Pos Kupang and Timor Express on the
same news coverage:

Element Pos Kupang Timor Express

Frame Sylvester Bria was the killer of his The killer of Rosalinda Bete and
wife and daughter. Silvester Bria her youngest daughter was still
was a figure of cruel husband that anonymous.
kill his own wife and child.
Syntactic It was suspected that Rosalinda The killer of Bete Rosalinda and

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 Element Pos Kupang Timor Express
Bete and her daughter were killed her daughter Emilia Bria occurred
due domestic violence committed in some considerable time and
by her husband. found in a state of decay.
Script Title and lead explained the main Title and leads explained the main
issue which is violence that leads issue, then, it was followed by
to the murder committed by the detail explanation of alleged cause
victim’s husband, it was followed of death. The last sentence was the
by the chronology of case, and the investigation made by the local
last sentence was the investigation police.
madeby the local police.
Thematic The main theme was her husband The main theme was Rosalinda
was suspected of the murder of Bete and her daughter, Emilia Bria,
Rosalina Bete and the chronology died in a state of decay. The second
of the case. The second theme was theme was the victim’s husband
police investigation of the murder. was suspected of the murder. The
third theme was police
investigation of the murder case.
Rhetorical Pos Kupang used the term Timor Express used the term
‘suspected’ to emphasize an ‘decay’ to emphasize that this
indication of the involvement of murder occurred in some
her husband in the case of considerable time. Timor Express
mutilation that cause the death of also used the term ‘suspicious
his wife and daughter. Pos Kupang signs’ to strongly indicated
used some diction such as victim’s husband was suspected of
“mourners humiliated him” and the murder.
“because he was embarrassed”.
The diction emphasized that the
victim (Rosalina Bete) did
shameful act that made her
husband angry.

Table 1: The comparison of framing between Pos Kupang & Timor Express on the first news

c. The Framing analysis of Second News: Killing His Wife, The Husband Committed
Suicide.
News of violence against women made headlines in Timor Express on Tuesday, March
5, 2013; and the same news was also reported by Pos Kupang on the same day, Tuesday, March
5th, 2013.

i. Framing of Pos Kupang

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News title: After Killing His Wife, Melianus Committed Suicide.
1) Syntactic
Pos Kupang used active voice in writing the title of the news. Thus, it was
obvious that Melianus is the sole killer of his wife and himself. Title was printed in
bold with a larger font size. The lead article was written as follows:

Looking at his wife’s body, Emerensiana Rasimuni (44), full of

blood, Melianaus Rasamuni (45), a resident of Amarasi Selatan
District, committed suicide. Both were found died in their garden at
Faru, Buraen.
The lead was misleading because the use of words “allegedly committed
suicide”. This gave impression that Emerensiana Rasimuni committed suicide, then
when her husband saw her bloody, he also committed suicide.

Pos Kupang used legal background in reporting this news. The victim's
family stated that police arrived in the crime scene, then, the police and the family
took the victims to the local hospital, RSU Johanes Kupang, to be examined. The use
of the words ‘to be examined’ suggested that this case had been investigated legally.

The journalist of Pos Kupang quoted the statement of victim’s family (their
child) who witnessed the murder and claimed that the victim was suspected of
domestic violence that cause death and victim's husband was suspected of suicide. In
the second paragraph, Pos Kupang quoted the statement of victim’s child “I feed
may pork, when I saw my father beat my mother on her neck with a pestle, then, my
mother fell down”. The quoted statement supported the news of domestic violence
against Emerensiana and reinforced the title of the news.

2) Script
The news was composed using the structure of inverted pyramid that started
from the most important parts to the least important parts. The sequence was as
follows: The actor - chronology - the police investigation. The news is described as
follows:

 What. The husband was suspected of committed domestic violence against

her wife.
 Who. The title and lead of the news stated that Melianus committed domestic
violence. Apollos Bau was the victim’s family.

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  When and where. The date was March 23rd, 2013. The place was in Faru
village in Buraen Sub District.
 Why. This elements explained the reason why the victim’s was killed which
is stated by their son. He said that his father hit his mother with a pestle in
her back neck.
 How. This element descrribed the chronology of the murder which is ended
with the fact that the victim was found died.
The journalist narrated the murder in the first paragraph. This emphasized
that the parts that were considered to be important by Pos Kupang was the story of
the murder of a wife committed by her husband. However, in this news article, Pos
Kupang did not completely elaborate the ‘Why’ element. This element was not
found in the news.

3) Thematic
There are three themes in this news. The first theme was the discovery of two
bodies namely Emerensiana and Melianus. This theme dominated the news. In
paragraph 1-4, Pos Kupang told the story of murder and suicide. The second theme
was the opinion of the victim's family about the incident. Then, the last theme was
the investigation conducted by local police which was stated in paragraph 6 or the
last paragraph in the article.

4) Structure
The journalists wrote the title between news content and a picture and framed
them in a box in order to distinct this news with other news. Although the size of the
font was not too large compared to other headlines on the same page, the strategy of
using colored photo and framing grid on the news attracted reader's attention.

The picture of three children that left by their parents’ supports the idea and
reinforced the message. The picture implicitly illustrated that in every case of
domestic violence, children are always the victims.

In this news, Kupang used cause-effect method, which was pointed out on the
word ‘after’. This cause-effect method elaborated the relationship between the death
of Emerensiana (wife) and physical violence committed by Melianus (husband). The
victim’s family stated that when family members arrived at the garden they found
the dead body of the husband.

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ii. Framing of Timor Express
News title: After Killing His Wife, The Husband Committed Suicide

1) Syntactic
The news of violence against women committed by the Melianus Rasi Muni
(husband) to his wife Emerensiana Fay was the headline in Timor Express on
Tuesday, March 5th, 2013. The title was ‘After Killing His Wife, The Husband
Committed Suicide”. The title printed in bold with larger font size. Below the title,
there was a phrase “Husband’s Neck Was Cut, Wife Head Was Injured”. This phrase
was printed non-bold but with a larger font size. This sub title was written in the
passive voice. In the sub-title, the journalist first stated the condition of the husband
(Melianus) who get injured on his neck; then, described the condition of the wife
(Emerensiana) who get injured on her head. The construction of the news obviously
described that the man was prioritized not the woman. In fact, the wife was actually
the victim of a violence committed by her husband. This was also stated in the
second paragraph, “Melianus was found in a bad condition with injury on his neck.
On the other hand, there were serious injuries and bruises of blunt objects on the
wife body”.

The news that was issued on Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 was written in active
voice and it was clearly stated that the wife was killed by her husband. However,
conflicted statement found in the sub title “The Husband Neck Was Cut, The Wife
Head Was Injured”. This subtitle gave an impression that there were other people
who suspected of murder the married couple. This was reinforced by the short lead
“The Resident of Apren Village, Amarasi sub-district, Kupang District, Sunday
(3/3), was shocked by the discovery of the bodies of a married couple. The coupled
married was Melianus Rasi Muni (45) and Emerensiana Fay (42), resident of RT
11/RW 06, Apren village, were found dead in their garden“. This lead was
misleading because it can be interpreted that the married couple was murdered by
someone else. Even though the fact was Emerensiana Fay was killed by her husband,
Rasi Melianus Muni who committed suicide after killing his wife.

This news consisted of 5 paragraphs. In the first and second paragraphs,

Timor Express described the bodies that were found with some injuries. The third

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 and fourth paragraphs presented the information from the police, Marsudi, that
Emerensiana was killed by her husband. In the last paragraph, Timor Express quoted
the testimony of the victim’s youngest daughter “At that moment, I was feed a pork,
and my mother was washing her hair, then, my father came and hit my mother with a
pestle on her back neck. My mother fell down, but my father kept hit her and cut my
mother with a big knife until she died”. This was written in the last paragraph so it
gave an impression that this statement was unimportant.

2) Structure
The composition of the news used inverted pyramid, started from the most
important to the least important parts. The order is: the discovery of the bodies of
both victims - a police investigation – witness.

The news is described as follows:

 What: brutal murder

 Who: Emerensiana Fay was killed by her own husband, Melianus Rasi Muni
 Where: on the right side of a hut, in their garden in the village of Apren, Kupang
Sub District.
 When: Sunday, March 3rd, 2013.
 How: without any apparent reasons, suddenly the victim's husband, Melianus
took the pestle and swung to hit Emerensiana’s neck until her wife died.
The journalist narrated the murder in the last paragraph. The organization of
paragraphs gave an impression that this part is less important for the reader. In
addition, the element of ‘why’ was not reported by Timor Express. This news only
quoted two statements from the Head of Public Relations of Kupang police and the
victim’s youngest child.

3) Thematic
There were several themes in the news. The first theme was the discovery of
the bodies of two victims (Melianus and Emerensiana). This theme was stated in
paragraph1 and 2. The second theme was the evacuation of the bodies by the police
as shown in the third paragraph. The third theme was the cause of death of the
victims as described in paragraph 4 and 5.

This news structure shown that he third theme was placed at the end of the
news. As we know that according to the inverted pyramid structure, the most

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 important part was stated at beginning and least important one was at the end of the
article.

4) Rhetorical
The title ‘Killing Wife’ is printed in bold with larger font size that was
followed by the word ‘Then’ below it with a smaller font, but was given a red
highlight and underneath it there is the word “Husband Suicide”. Graphic Technique
emphasized that he murder was her own husband. The rhetorical aspect of the title
wanted to emphasize that the victim’s husband, Rasi Melianus Muni, was very cruel,
rude, and act reckless. The husband rude and bad attitude was obviously described
by the diction ‘Execution’, ‘Suicide’, ‘slit’, ‘Slitting own neck’.

Timor Express preferred to use the word ‘Execution’ rather than a common
word such as ‘kill’. The word ‘Execution’ was impressed that Melianus’ wife
(Emerensiana) is like food that can be wiped away. In the context of this word
choice, Timor Express constructed violence against women trough the news.

In the rhetorical structure, the use of illustrations was also intended to support
the idea or reinforce the main message. In this news, Timor Express used illustration
of chronology of murder committed by Melianus. Timor Express used three
illustrations to provide an overview of the murder. In the first picture, there was an
illustration that Melianus swinging pestle to Emerensiana back head and was
emphasized with the picture of victim’s blood. The second illustration described
Melianus condition with cut on his neck. The third picture was the picture of the two
dead bodies.

The use of highly detailed illustration had certain effects. The first one was
the effect of ‘theatre of the mind’. This means that every reader could imagine the
murder just like a theatre in their heads. This was certainly cause the traumatic effect
and fearful effect to women.

d. The Comparison of Framing between Pos Kupang and Timor Express on the Second
News
Based on this second news article, it was evident that there was a difference between
Pos Kupang and Timor Express in framing the news of violence against women. The following

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table compared the news of violence against women published by Pos Kupang and Timor
Express daily newspaper. The news was described as follows:

Based on this second news article, it was evident that there was a difference between
Pos Kupang and Timor Express in framing the news of violence against women. The following
table compared the news of violence against women published by Pos Kupang and Timor
Express daily newspaper. The news was described as follows:

Element Pos Kupang Timor Express

Frame Melianus Rasi Muni committed Melianus Rasi Muni was a cruel,
suicide after killing his wife, anarchist, and reckless husband.
Emerensiana Fay. As a result of that
reckless action, their children
became orphans now.
Syntactic Melianus was allegedly committed The title referred to the killer,
suicide after killing his wife. victim's husband. The title was in
active voice. This sub-title clearly
indicated the construction of the
news that men were prioritized than
women. The victim's husband was
mentioned first and then his wife. In
fact, the victim was the wife
(woman) not the husband (men). The
lead was misleading as it seemed
that the murder was committed by
someone else. In fact, Emerensiana
Fay was killed by her husband, Rasi
Melianus Muni who also committed
suicide.
Script The news coverage followed the The news coverage followed the
structure of inverted pyramid. The structure of inverted pyramid.
theme committed suicide and murder However, the sentence that stated
was in the beginning of the coverage Melianus as the killer was in the last
to emphasize that that theme was paragraph so that it was considered
important. The Theme about the to be least important. The elements
investigation by the police was of ‘why’ was not mentioned at all in
stated in the last paragraph because the news content.
it was considered to be least
important by Pos Kupang. The
element of ‘why’ was not found in
the news.
Thematic The main them was Melianus was The first was the discovery of the
allegedly committed suicide after bodies of the two victims (Melianus

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 killing his wife, Emerensiana. The and Emerensiana). The second
second theme was the attitude of the theme wasthe police evacuated the
family over the case. The third bodies. The third theme was the
theme was the investigation was cause of death of both victims.
being conducted by the police.

Rhetorical Pos Kupang used the term ‘After’ to Timor Express used the word
emphasize the indications that the “Execute”not other common word.
husband killed the wife. The word ‘execute’ gave an
impression that the wife of Melianus
(Emerensiana) like food that can be
wiped away. In the context of this
word choice, Timor Express
constructed violence against women
on its news coverage.
Table 2: Comparison of Framing between Pos Kupang and Timor Express for the Second News

DISCUSSION

Those two news coverage suggested that there were significant differences between the
journalists of Pos Kupang and Timor Express in constructing reality of violence against women in
society. It was obvious that in both news coverage on violence against women, the journalist of Pos
Kupang was brave to tell people about violence and sadism. This was indicated by the headline
which was formulated in active voice. On the contrary, the journalist of Timor Express preferred to
use the passive voice and seemed to be less brave to inform people about violence and sadism.
Another indication was the first paragraphs that did not mention in detail about the murder. In these
two news coverage on violence against women, the sentences mentioned about the killer was in the
second paragraph and even in the last one.The journalists used inverted pyramid structure as their
writing strategy to emphasize that the sentences in the last paragraphs were least important or even
unimportant.

According to the analysis, the journalists’ interpretation of the reality of violence against
women in society also determine the construction of the news which was delivered to the society.
This was obvious trough the way the journalist of Pos Kupang in framing the news about a
mutilation of his wife committed by Melianus Rasi Muni. The pictures of the three children of
Melianus in front page before the headline conveyed stronger and deeper message about short and
long term impacts of the reckless actions committed by their father.

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 Thus, it was obvious that media contributed to construct reality in society. Two examples of
news coverage used in this study indicated that the same incident or reality, both murder of the
wives committed by Bria and Melianus, were written using different frames. Thus, these different
frames lead to the construction of the news in a different ways as well.

This suggested that news including news violence against women was the result of the
construction of the mass media of an incident or reality in society. The different perspectives of the
journalist in capturing and understanding the same reality contributed to the creation of different
construction of the news, detail of the news, strategy used by journalist in narrating the cases.

In terms of news framing on violence against women in those two daily newspapers, a
debatable issue was emerged. This issue was the role of the media in constructing violence against
women. In terms of violence types, the violence against women committed by Pos Kupang and
Timor Express as follows:

1. Document Violence

Document violence appeared in the use of graphics or illustrations in Timor Express

daily newspaper especially on the news “Killing His Wife, The Husband Committed Suicide”.
This illustration triggered emotion, anger, resentment, and deep spiritual wounds for the
victim’s children and family. The children will be shocked if they see the documentation of
sadism of their parents through the news issued by Timor Express. This became even worst
with the use of graphic technique that showed blood in their parents’ body and long pestle that
was swung to the victim’s head. This construction of news created the effect of ‘theatre of the
mind’ in the mind of the victim’s family. The affirmation of this sadistic murder through the
pictures created theatre of event in the readers’ mind that show sadistic violence committed by
Melianus to his wife, especially in the mind of the those three young children of the victim.

2. Simulation/Fiction Violence

Simulation violence was committed by Timor Express on the news entitled: “Executing
His Wife, The Husband Committed Suicide”. The use of the word ‘executing’ created an
impression that Emerensiana Fay was food that can be eaten. This uncommon word was
considered to be simulation violence against women. Timor Express tried to construct frame o
superiority of men over women. That news coverage obviously indicated that the men,
Melianus Rasi Muni, was associated as superior that had an authority to ‘eat’ his wife. On the

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 other hand, Melianuse’s wife, Emerensiana, was associated as ‘food’ to be eaten. Whereas,
Timor Express should choose more common word that shows humanity not hyper reality.

3. Symbolic Violence

According to Piliang (2001, p. 49), symbolic violence the most violence used in mass
media. This is because mass media presented implicit violence such as, distortion, deviation,
fabrication and joke. Symbolic violence also includes ambiguous meaning and bias that are
delivered with soft and ambiguous language so that the information was unclear (Roekhan,
2009).

In relation to two news coverage on violence against women mentioned in this study,
symbolic violence was shown in the article titled “Bria Was Suspected of Murder His Wife and
daughter” that was issued by Pos Kupang on Saturday, March 9th, 2013. In the third and fourth
paragraphs of the news article, the chronology of the murder was narrated starting from the
shameful act done by Rosalina Bete where she gave small tais (traditional cloth). This made her
husband angry because the mourners humiliate them. The indirect quotation used by Pos
Kupang indicated Rosalina Bete had done something fatal that caused her death. The story line
in the second paragraph presented symbolic and multiple violence against the victim. Pos
Kupang tried to construct opinion that Rosaline Bete was a person who did not understand
culture, was miserly, and was an object of humiliation by the mourners.

CONCLUSION

There are differences between Pos Kupang and Timor Express daily newspapers in framing
the news on violence against women. The differences in terms of news text, news content and
other supporting elements were caused by different interpretation of the journalists of both
newspapers about the reality of violence against women. The same news topic interpreted
differently which in turn can construct the news with a certain tendency. Furthermore, these two
newspapers also constructed document, simulation, and symbolic violences against women.

Two selected news coverage used in this study confirmed Peter L. Berger’s contention that
reality is shaped and constructed. The findings which were analyzed by Pan and Kosicki’s framing
analysis indicated that reality was shaped and constructed by mass media.

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