Hegemony in Digital News: A CDA Approach to Power Relations in Indonesian Social Media

I Gusti Ngurah Parthama; Yana Qomariana

Authors

I Gusti Ngurah Parthama Bachelor of English, Faculty of Humanities, Udayana University, Denpasar, Indonesia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7635-7466
Yana Qomariana Bachelor of English, Faculty of Humanities, Udayana University, Denpasar, Indonesia

Keywords:

Discourse, Language , Power, Media, Ideology

Abstract

This study investigates language that constructs and legitimizes power relations in news discourse published on social media platforms during the covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on Fairclough’s (1995) critical discourse analysis framework, the research aims to reveal the ideological mechanisms embedded in linguistic choices used by state actors in shaping public perception. The study employs a qualitative method with data collected through documentation of news texts posted on Facebook. The news test was particularly concerning to government responses on the pandemic. The analysis involves textual examination, intertextuality mapping, and social semiotic interpretation. The findings reveal that government-affiliated discourse employs declarative structures, institutional deixis, and culturally embedded phrases such as gotong royong. It is to promote national unity, responsibility, and trust in leadership. The texts construct an authoritative narrative that normalizes state intervention and discourages dissent through moral appeals and symbolic alignment with cultural norms. Linguistic features are strategically used to legitimize top-down communication and to frame the state as both protector and moral guide. The study concludes that language in social media news discourse serves as an instrument of symbolic power that maintains ideological hegemony under the appearance of crisis communication and collective solidarity.

Author Biographies

I Gusti Ngurah Parthama, Bachelor of English, Faculty of Humanities, Udayana University, Denpasar, Indonesia

I Gusti Ngurah Parthama is one of lecturers in English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Udayana University. He graduated from magister program on linguistics concerning translation studies at Department of Linguistics, Udayana University. His subjects in teaching are reading and writing skills, translation theory and practice, British - American Institutions, and British - American literature. He also interests in research covering topics of translations, discourse, critical discourse analysis, social media, sentiment discourse, netnography, narratives of resistance in social media, cyber bullying, and cyber pragmatics.

Yana Qomariana, Bachelor of English, Faculty of Humanities, Udayana University, Denpasar, Indonesia

Yana Qomariana is one of lecturers in Bachelor of English, Faculty of Humanities, Udayana University. Currently, she is pursuing her doktoral study at Department of Linguistics, Udayana University.

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