JERAA 2025: What Now? Towards Restorative, Reparative and Rights-based Journalism
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I presented the primary findings of my master’s thesis from the University of New South Wales. My talk, titled “The dynasty next door: Framing and indexing within Australian news media coverage of Joko Widodo’s endorsement of Prabowo Subianto during the 2024 Indonesian presidential election,” explored how the Australian press navigates its coverage of democratic backsliding in neighboring Indonesia. Specifically, the presentation examined the media’s capacity to independently scrutinise foreign political developments and tested whether Australian journalism challenged or simply aligned with the “strategic silence” adopted by domestic political elites.
Drawing on quantitative content analysis and a deductive framing approach, I discussed how the media framed Jokowi’s controversial use of state resources and political influence. While some coverage employed negative tones to critique the endorsement through morality and responsibility frames, the research demonstrated that the overall coverage was insufficient to overturn the indexing hypothesis. By highlighting the prevalent use of neutral tones in stories focused on economic consequences and public opinion, the presentation illustrated that the media’s criticism was neither comprehensive nor systematic enough to challenge the political establishment, ultimately offering critical insights into contemporary media-state relations and cross-border political journalism.