The Discipline of Verification in a News Production Process (News Coverage of the Polemic of the Malaysian National Anthem in Indonesian Mass Media)

Indonesia and Malaysia are neighbouring countries in the Southeast Asian region. The geographical position is the opposite of that in Southeast Asia. However, the number of similarities between the two countries does not necessarily make the relations between the two harmonious. After the 2000s, Indonesia-Malaysia relations often underwent ups and downs. The problem of territorial disputes, cultural claims, migrant workers, as well as the fog due to forest and land fires illustrates the ups and downs of the relations between them. The mass media that have often reported on Indonesia-Malaysia relations included institutions which influenced the perception of the society on Indonesia-Malaysia relations. How the society gives meaning to the relation between the two countries will depend on the integrity of the facts told by the media. This paper attempts to discuss how the media carry out the process of verifying facts in reporting the polemic of the Malaysian national anthem and the song Terang Boelan. This study employed a qualitative analysis using visual social semiotics. The findings of this research show that the Indonesian mass media, in this case, Metro TV and Kompas.Com, still have to put harder attempt to fully present what has happened regarding the polemic between the two songs.