Misreading the Crisis: Issues in Australian Media Representations of Indonesian Politics

Abstract

This article critiques differing approaches to analysing Australian media representations of Indonesia, and argues that an analysis of ideology and language is key to understanding this discourse. Many mass media commentators have been caught by surprise at the rapid development and severity of the economic and political crisis in Indonesia, and there has been ongoing confusion in media accounts of the crisis. The article explains this in terms of the contradictions that representing an authoritarian political system has created for the Australian media, which is underpinned by liberal-democratic ideology. These contradictions were held in check by the creation of several myths around Indonesia's apparent economic successes, the possibilities of peaceful change and Australia's national interest. The onset of a major crisis, however, has brought these contradictions to breaking point. The article also suggests some connections between the liberal discourse of a closer engagement with Asia and Australia's racist history.