BLAMING THE VICTIM : REPRESENTASI PEREMPUAN KORBAN PEMERKOSAAN DI MEDIA MASSA (Analisis Semiotika dalam Pemberitaan di Koran Suara Merdeka Desember 2011 – Februari 2012)

Abstract

Mass media especially newspaper is one of the medium that used to convey the
messages which the readers will processed that messages as the reality through the proces
of interpretation. News about rape in Suara Merdeka give us the image of women as rape
victim. How the women potrayed in the news will gives society the idea of women as
rape victim. It also affect how society seeing them as victim.
The purpose of this study is to see how Suara Merdeka represent women as rape
victims in their daily news which made by the journalists. Theory that used in this study
is the Muted Group Theory by Cheris Kramarae. Reseacher will try to find the meanings
that showns in news through semiotics with syntagmatic and paradigm analysis.
Syntagmatic see meanings that seen through text, meanwhile paradigm looks beyond into
the meaning of text. In paradigm analysis, we used five major codes by Roland Barthes.
The results of this study indicate that basically, in the news that Suara Merdeka
writes about rape represent women as rape victims as passive figure, weak, and helpless
when it comes to facing the perpetrators in every case of rape. Women are seen as
someone who blamed when rape happens. They considered as the cause of rape for their
presence. Women as rape victim also surrounded by the values in the society that makes
them feel disanvantaged. Few stigma and labels that given by society when they become
rape victims can give them a certain psychological burden.