THE STRUGGLE FOR MEANING IN SEARCH FOR A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE AT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONVENTION IN THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

This article discusses on the struggle of meaning by the Indonesian newspaper owner, Dahlan Iskan, in the meaning construction of himself as the presidential candidate at the Democrat Party Convention 2014. It also intends to look at how power influence or intervene signs in the mass media language. This research uses textual analysis using Theo van Leeuven’s semiotic analysis and critical paradigm. Research results revealed that news on Dahlan in Radar Bandung and Bandung Ekspres seems to show his effort to construct the struggle of meaning to the campaign. Trough news reporting, Dahlan constructed the meaning of his own self in the arrangement of signs in a specific news language. Text as a sign configuration is directed to form meanings of Dahlan as something legitimate in the eyes of the Indonesian and also Dahlan as a common Indonesian. This is constructed to direct the society’s perception towards the existence of Dahlan as elite because the society feels that the elites in power are different from them. It is concluded that the newspapers Radar Bandung and Bandung Ekspres through its reporting structure has become the domination tools for Dahlan to develop his self-image throughout the campaign. The struggle of meanings of Dahlan basically dominates the symbolic capital created by media owners towards media symbols in the forms of power semiotics.