Language Framing of Corruption Offenders as Victims: An Analysis of Indonesian Media Coverage

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-563-8_34How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Corruption; Language Framing; Discourse Analysis; Diction Choice; Media

Abstract

This study investigates how Indonesian media portray corruptors as victims of their circumstances in reporting corruption cases. Employing a descriptive qualitative approach along with framing analysis, the research analyzed 800 online news articles about corruption published by national media between 2021 and 2025. The findings reveal four predominant patterns of framing. First, the victimhood narrative highlights the emotional and psychological distress of the perpetrators, encompassing factors such as illness, familial pressure, and political coercion. Second, the use of sympathetic language, including terms like “forced,” “trapped,” and “pressured,” serves to mitigate the perpetrators’ guilt. Third, the humanization of corruptors is evident through coverage focusing on their personal lives, emotional breakdowns in court, and family struggles. Ultimately, the narrative reframing of corruption portrays it as a consequence of systemic weaknesses or external pressures, ra-ther than a deliberate criminal act. The novelty of this study lies in its fo-cused examination of how corruptors are linguistically recharacterized from criminals to victims within media texts. These findings have significant im-plications; academically, they contribute to the discourse on media represen-tation and corruption in Indonesia, and practically, they call for enhanced media literacy and journalistic accountability to prevent the normalization of corrupt practices through the use of victim narratives.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Muhammad Anwar
AU  - Yusri Yusri
AU  - R. Mantasiah
AU  - Nurming Saleh
AU  - Nur Irmayanti Umar
AU  - Amalia Nurul Fatihah
AU  - Siti Hardianti Kahar
AU  - Muhammad Aqil Mushaddiq
AU  - Annisa Salsabilah Akuba
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/04/28
TI  - Language Framing of Corruption Offenders as Victims: An Analysis of Indonesian Media Coverage
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of Research on Language 2025 (IROLE 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 455
EP  - 464
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-563-8_34
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-563-8_34
ID  - Anwar2026
ER  -