International Media Discourse Constructing the Controversy in Indonesia VS Bahrain Football Match: Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the information from international media reports about Indonesia vs Bahrain football match on 2026 World Cup Qualifiers. The second goal by Mohamed Marhoon, the player of Bahrain’s national team, caused a problem that was investigated by both Indonesian netizens and PSSI. This controversial goal has spread even discussed in European countries’ football communities. The researcher applied descriptive qualitative method to explain the words that media used to reports the news. The data were collected by reading the news and find some data with the tool called LancsBox. After that, the data were classified into word and word cluster, then combined them to identify the textual analysis, discursive practice, and social practice based on critical discourse analysis theory by Norman Fairclough (1996). In the end of the study, we can conclude that the researcher found the word such as controversial (42 tokens), stoppage time (14 instances), injury time (19 instances), etc. The researcher also explained the word cluster “stoppage time” and “injury time” refers to the referees who conducted this match and the word “controversial” refers to the referee who has suspected of performing the act of unfairness on his duties, which indicates that he was on the side of Bahrain team. From this research, the researcher hopes that the readers are able to discover and understand the meaning behind the word choice used and reported by the international media.