1. Introduction

The industrial revolution and technological developments slowly make changes in people's daily lives, including the world of newspapers. Newspapers were initially called the press, which came from the term press, a printing press machine as traditional media (Tejedor et al., 2020: 6330). Newspapers result from a printing press, why people associate the press with newspapers. Newspapers can influence public opinion as to the primary communication channel (Abbas, 2020: 1). In the world of newspapers, there is the term 'discourse'. Discourse in media is oriented towards interaction which is interpreted to build a meaning (Uzokova, 2020: 7). Discourse can also be interpreted as a complex speech or a language unit with cohesive and coherent properties, then describes the results of social interactions (Hill et al., 2020: 475). Thus, people who read the discourse can understand and express it with spoken or written language.

After the development of technology due to globalization, each aspect of life has changed, including the press. Conventional newspapers have experienced a shift and are slowly being replaced by digital-based newspapers (Nyambane, 2021: 538). Digital-based newspapers are considered profitable in the future (Thurman & Fletcher, 2018: 1003). Therefore, conventional newspapers have switched to digital-based ones. One of the digital-based newspaper platforms in Indonesia is CNNIndonesia.com. CNN Indonesia is one of the Indonesian news platforms that has been involved in national and international media news reporting and has operated under PT Transmedia Corpora since 2015 (Trisnawati et al., 2020: 817). CNN Indonesia is a partner of CNN International, CNN International sells a broadcasting license to CNN Indonesia, but in its operations, CNN Indonesia is still under the supervision of CNN International to maintain the quality of the news broadcasted (Thahara et al., 2019: 217). In a survey conducted by Alexa.com quoted by SurabayaNetwork.id, CNNIndonesia.com was ranked 15th among the top 20 online news stories last October (Hadi, 2021).

During the Covid-19 pandemic, news about the Covid-19 virus becomes a hot topic that is often discussed in various mass media and online news portals. COVID-19 is a very contagious viral disease and has a large number of death tolls (Khotimah et al., 2020: 310). At the end of 2021, a new variant of the Covid-19 virus emerged called the Omicron variant. This Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus was first reported on November 11, 2021, in Botswana, South Africa, and a similar case was reported in Hong Kong via tourists from South Africa (Karim & Karim, 2021: 1). A technical document released by the World Health Organization on December 17, 2021, explained that the Omicron variant spreads faster than the previous Delta variant. However, so far, there have been no results of further studies regarding the transmission speed of the Omicron variant, how the vaccine works in overcoming this variant, how virulent the Omicron variant is compared to other Covid-19 variants, and how the public understands the dynamics of the Omicron variant, understands the risks, and follows control measures (WHO, 2021).

In this article, discourse analysis is carried out on the online news portal CNNIndonesia.com which discusses the opinion of the Indonesian Covid-19 Task Force on the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus that has entered Indonesia. The discussion in this article focuses on the dimensions of the news text based on Van Dijk model to examine the macrostructure, the text framework (superstructure), and the microstructure contained in the text of the online newspaper CNNIndonesia.com. Macrostructure is the element that observes the themes or topics discussed in the news discourse to find out the text's overall meaning or analyze the news text thematically (Al-Ghamdi, 2021: e06864). Analysis of the superstructure means dissecting the text framework that includes several elements, namely the introduction, content, closing, and conclusion (Maretha, 2018: 4). Superstructure analysis uses a schematic concept to analyze how the sentences and opinions are structured. Microstructure examines the text based on the details contained in the text (Van Dijk, 2019: 38). Details in the text can be observed and found in the diction, sentences, and writing style. Overall, using language in describing objects of discourse is associated with ideology. The ideology of media certainly affects the text produced and distributed to the public. The reality of media is not limited to a set of realities but is the result of particular views, so the construction of reality raises representation as to the main issue.

1.1. Literature review

Several researchers have carried out previous studies on Covid-19 reports, such as in the introduction section by Khotimah et al. (2020) and Karim & Karim (2021). According to Khotimah et al., Covid-19 is a contagious virus and often causes death to those who contacted it, but this research also classifies ideological, social, and biological realities through news related to Covid-19 from language dynamics. Health eco-lexicon starts to appear in Indonesian news with terms or abbreviations in both English and Indonesian, such as lockdown, swab tests, WFH, PCR, and forms of acronyms such as COVID-19 and Sars-Cov-2. The pandemic has not ended until 2021, and even the new Omicron variant has appeared. Karim & Karim found Covid-19 had made the world exhausted and frustrated with how broad the pandemic has spread and negatively impacted social, economic, and mental well-being, especially after the emergence of the first reported Omicron variant on November 11, 2021.

In the previous studies regarding Covid-19 reports, Khotimah et al. (2020) focused on language analysis, while Karim & Karim (2021) focused on the emergence of a new variant of Omicron. Therefore, it can be concluded that discourse becomes very important to see the gap. Discourse practices may display ideology by producing unequal power relations between social classes. The hidden ideology is seen through the use of language. When people's economic welfare has started to grow, the economy improves. WFH (Work from Home) is slowly turning to WFO (Work from Office), all online activities are slowly turning into face-to-face activities, and people have started the 'new normal' era. On the other hand, there is a discourse about a new variant of the Covid-19 Omicron, which limits people's movement in all aspects. What ideology is hidden behind it?

The critical discourse analysis (CDA) developed by Van Dijk is chosen based on the stages that contain ideology to be used as analysis in this study. The CDA of Van Dijk's model maps the object of research into three aspects, namely macrostructure, superstructure (text framework), and microstructure. According to Van Dijk, CDA focuses on the abuse of power, inequality, and domination produced through texts or verbally in a socio-political context (Borysovych et al., 2020: 328). Discourse reveals ideology by looking at how words are arranged and used, active and passive sentences, nominalization, and modalities (Van Dijk, 2000: 54). Therefore, CDA needs to be developed as a tool to uncover ideologies, interests, and power practices in language and discourse.

1.2. Research questions

Based on the background and literature review, the following research questions are developed.

     1. What are the dimensions of the text contained in online news on CNN Indonesia?

     2. How is ideology represented in the news text?

2. Method

This research adopts the critical discourse analysis (CDA) method developed by Van Dijk. CDA uncovers ideology based on looking at oneself in a positive light and looking at the other party negatively. Discourse structures must be observed globally and demonstrated through macrostructure analysis, superstructures which analysis is more profound than just word and sentence analysis, and microstructures must also be considered (Van Dijk, 1985: 65). The three dimensions of the text of Van Dijk's CDA model are presented in Table 1 below.

Table 1. Discourse Structure of Van Dijk's Model

The CDA of Van Dijk's model combines the entire discourse structure in a single unit because the three dimensions in Table 1 correlate with each other. Macrostructure is the global meaning that appears based on the themes in the news discourse. Superstructure describes how the arguments are arranged in a news text's framework. Microstructure highlights the meaning of discourse by looking at the use of words, propositions, clauses, sentences, paraphrases, and images presented. In this case, text analysis is not merely understood as an object of language study but is used to reveal the ideology hidden in discourse.

2.1. Sample

This study selected the data sample from a digital newspaper titled "Satgas Covid-19 Sebut Kasus Omicron Pertama Sebagai Alarm Kewaspadaan (Covid-19 Task Force Calls First Omicron Case As an Alert)," published on December 20, 2021, sourced from the digital newspaper portal CNN Indonesia. The news can be accessed through the official website address CNNIndonesia.com. In addition, this writing is supported by secondary data sources, namely several official websites, electronic journals, electronic proceedings, and electronic books relevant to this research.

2.2. Instrument(s)

The instrument of this study was a set of laptop and Internet connections that were used to retrieve the primary data from the official source of CNN Indonesia (https://www.cnnindonesia.com), and other data which was also taken online. In addition to using an Internet connection, the researcher also operates MS Word to facilitate the research.         

2.3. Data collection procedures

Data collection was carried out using Internet searching techniques. Internet searching or Internet search is a technique that can be used to collect data together with the use of technology in the form of search engines available on the Internet to make it easier for researchers and writers to search and obtain data from various aspects quickly (Sun, 2019: 3). The data obtained through Internet searching were selected, downloaded, translated into English, then copied to MS Word for analysis and interpretation.

2.4. Data analysis

The technique used to analyze the data in this research is the CDA model by Van Dijk. The study focuses on the structure of the news based on the elements of the text as proposed by Van Dijk, which consists of macrostructure, superstructure, and microstructure. The first analysis procedure is to collect data related to the focus of this research, such as words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. After the data is classified, the data is identified to investigate the hidden ideology by searching how discourse or text is produced. Then, the data is analyzed and interpreted. Van Dijk's CDA model focuses not only on a news text but also on social cognition and the context of the news (Ibnus, 2019: 71), so the ideology in the discourse is revealed in interpretation.

3. Results

In this section, three sub-topics are presented based on the dimensions of the text of Van Dijk's CDA as a process to reveal the ideology hidden behind discourse, namely macrostructure, superstructure, and microstructure, which are described below.

3.1. Macrostructure

The textual analysis is centered on the text structure in the news "Covid-19 Task Force Calls First Omicron Case as an Alert Alarm" from CNNIndonesia.com. Thematic observation of a discourse is a global meaning conveyed by journalists to show the main points of news content. The following thematic observations are presented in Table 2.

Table 2.Macrostructure of the news text

The focus of observation in macrostructure analysis is the topic raised by the text to find out the general meaning of news discourse. In CNN Indonesia's online news, the main topic of discussion is a warning to all people and elements of the state not to be careless about entering a new Covid-19 virus variant in Indonesia. This global theme can be seen in Table 2, starting from the headlines, which implicitly says that this new variant is an alert 'alarm'. Furthermore, the news section begins the news by explaining that there is already a variant of Omicron in Indonesia, which is a warning to increase vigilance. The body of the news also discusses the warnings given by the Covid-19 Task Force to increase awareness with this new variant as an alarm to every element of the Indonesian people to be aware of the Covid-19 Omicron variant.

3.2. Superstructure

The superstructure analyzes the writing scheme of news discourse, especially from the coherence and continuity between the parts of the discourse. There is coherence in the writing of the CNN Indonesia newspaper discourse with the title "Covid-19 Task Force Calls the First Omicron Case as an Alert Alarm," which is built into four subtopic categories, this is illustrated by the transition between one sub-theme and another, which is described in Table 3 below.

Table 3.Superstructure of the news text

The first subtopic of Table 3 discusses the first case of the Covid-19 virus new Omicron variant that occurred in Indonesia. The author describes the explanation of the Spokesperson for the Covid-19 Task Force, who explained that the existence of this first case served as a warning to every Indonesian citizen, and everyone must be disciplined on health protocols. Furthermore, the author of this text explains health protocols and reviews the government policies in the following subtopics. This newspaper discourse concludes by reaffirming that the public needs to understand the policies made by the government and comply with these policies. Each subtopic in this news discourse is written continuously. Thus, an explicit scheme is drawn and can be understood by the readers of the text.

3.3. Microstructure

Microstructure analysis observes the text based on semantics, syntax, and rhetoric in more depth which is described as follows.

3.3.1. Semantics

In semantics, what is observed is the meaning emphasized in the discourse. Four things are studied in semantic analysis composed of background, detail, purpose, and presuppositions.

1) Background

The background is an element that relates to the purpose which the author wants to express. In this news text, the author aims to review the response of the Covid-19 Task Force about the new variant of the Covid-19 virus, the Omicron variant.

2) Detail

Detail relates to the control of the information flow presented contextually. CNN Indonesia media presents their thoughts objectively based on facts. In the news text, the journalist conveyed the facts in the news quote, "The Covid-19 case occurred at the Wisma Atlet Jakarta Hospital, experienced by janitor with initials N." Thus, the first case of the Omicron variant in Indonesia was experienced by a janitor at Wisma Atlet Jakarta Hospital by mentioning the initials N. Therefore, it has the potential to lead readers to confirm the existence of the Omicron variant and some have been infected with the virus even though the name mentioned is only an initial. Another proof that has the potential to lead readers to be more aware of the presence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 is contained in the quote, "The discovery of the first Omicron case is a warning that we must remain vigilant by consistently implementing health protocols, without worrying too much," after explaining information related to the emergence of Covid-19 new Omicron variants. Therefore, the public is asked disciplined about health protocols, stay alert, and not worry too much about the news.

News related to the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 written by a CNN Indonesia journalist informs readers regarding his belief in the government to enforce policies as in the quote, "Wiku said, the changes in policies from time to time to adjust to these conditions indicate that the government is committed to enforcing policies that solely aimed at protecting the Indonesian people from the potential increase in Covid-19 cases." Journalists lead public opinion that the government must commit to dealing with this pandemic's sustainability.

3) Purpose

The element of purpose has functioned as a foundation of the will, attitudes, and beliefs that have been determined. Purpose can also be interpreted as a goal in writing the news narrative, as in the quote "Wiku hopes that the citizen  will not be negligent and careless in implementing health protocols, even though the current Covid-19 pandemic condition has cooled down" and "He asks all elements of society not to be careless and continue to keep themselves updated with information on the development of the handling of Covid-19 in Indonesia, so that there are no more violations that have the potential to harm others.” In this newspaper text, the author's purpose is to provide information regarding the latest variant of the Covid-19 virus whose cases have emerged in Indonesia and also aims to increase public awareness and vigilance of every element of Indonesian society, as well as to convey that the public must be updated of government policies in dealing with the pandemic.

4) Presupposition

A presupposition is an attempt to support an argument by including a premise of believable truth. In this news narrative, the presupposition can be seen through the quote, "He stated that the policy was made indiscriminately and enforced to all levels of society, under regulations and Circular Letter of the Task Force for Handling Covid-19 Number 25 of 2021". The argument presented by the resource person was that the policy on handling Covid-19 was made to apply to every element of society, and the premise that supports this argument is the Circular Letter of the Covid-19 Handling Task Force Number 25 of 2021.

3.3.2. Syntax

Syntax analysis is concerned with the arrangement of sentences to achieve the intended goals. Syntax analysis consists of sentence, coherence, and pronoun.

1) Sentence

There are two kinds of sentences, active sentence, and passive sentence. The online newspaper discourse with the headline "Covid-19 Task Force Calls First Omicron Case as an Alert Alarm" contains these two types of sentences. The active sentence in the narrative can be seen through the quote, "On Thursday (16/12), Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin announced the first case of the Omicron variant in Indonesia". It can be determined that the sentence is an active sentence form through the verb announced which is an action performed by the subject. In this sentence, the subject who is the Minister of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, acts as the subject and takes direct action. Then, the form of passive sentences in the news text can be found through the following quote, "A positive case of Covid-19 caused by the new Omicron variant infection is assessed by the Covid-19 Handling Task Force as an alarm or a warning alert". The verb used is in the form of a passive verb, which is indicated by past participle usage. If the sentence is analyzed further, the phrase 'a positive case of Covid-19 caused by the new Omicron variant infection' acts as an object. In the phrase, there is also a passive verb, caused. The Omicron variant infection acts as the subject in the phrase. Then, by combining it with the following phrase, the phrase 'a positive case of Covid-19 caused by the Omicron variant infection' is the object, the verb 'caused by' is passive, and the subject is the 'Covid-19 Handling Task Force'.

2) Coherence

Coherence describes the continuity and the cohesion of the sentences in the text. There are four types of coherence, namely additive coherence, causal coherence, contrasting coherence, and chronological coherence.

additive coherence

Additive coherence in the narrative can be seen through the quote, “Health protocols are believed to be the easiest, cheapest, and most effective way of preventing the spread of Covid-19 to be implemented. Wiku also added that the government is also making various efforts for additional protection, including various policy adjustments based on the dynamics of the development of Covid-19, both nationally and globally. The use of conjunctions also in sentences reflects the creation of additive coherence in the sentence. Additive coherence or addition is also clearly illustrated through the phrase Wiku adds, wherein there is additional information in the paragraph.

casual coherence

In causal coherence, there is a cause-and-effect relationship between the sentences in the text. In this newspaper discourse, the causal coherence can be seen through the quote, "Positive case of Covid-19 caused by infection with Omicron variant...". The passive verb ‘caused’ describes a cause-and-effect relationship in the phrase.

contrasting coherence

Contrasting coherence describes a reciprocal relationship in a sentence. In this text, it can be seen through the quote, "Wiku hopes that people will not ignore and be careless in implementing health protocols, even though the current condition of the Covid-19 pandemic tends to be sloping". The use of ‘even though' conjunction in the sentence illustrates the contrasting coherence.

chronological coherence

Chronological coherence describes the time in a sentence that can be seen through the use of temporal conjunctions such as ‘then’, words that signify time such as ‘now’ or ‘ago', and words that signify aspects, such as ‘will’. In this text, it can be seen through the quote, "Wiku hopes that the citizen will not be negligent and careless in implementing health protocols, even though the current Covid-19 pandemic condition has cooled down". The phrase “current” in the sentence describes the chronological coherence in the discourse with the presence of word markers in the sentence.

3) Pronoun

A pronoun is an essential aspect of discourse. The role of pronouns is to replace an object or a subject in a sentence to make it more concise. In this discourse, it can be seen in the quote, " Wiku hopes that the citizen will not be negligent in implementing health protocols, even though the current Covid-19 pandemic condition has cooled down. He reminded…” The word ‘he’ in the sentence acts as a personal pronoun, as in replacing the subject of Wiku. Furthermore, in the quote, "He stated, the policy was made indiscriminately and enforced to all levels of society...", the pronoun used is the pronoun that replaces the object of the pandemic handling policy described in the previous paragraph.

3.3.3. Rethoric

Rhetorical analysis in this study analyzes things related to graphics and metaphors. In the following section, data and analysis related to graphics and metaphors are presented.

1) Graphic

There is only one graphic in this text, namely a photo depicting the Wisma Atlet Jakarta Hospital. The following data were found to be analyzed based on attitude and background.

Figure 1. Two men walking while wearing a mask in front of Wisma Atlet

In Figure 1, two men are depicted in the image; both are wearing masks. One masked man is standing in front of the Wisma Atlet while looking at his cell phone, wearing a pink t-shirt. Another masked man stands straight and walks out of the Wisma Atlet Hospital wearing a red collared shirt. The tense atmosphere can be inferred by looking down and walking out of the Wisma Atlet. The two men are represented as resigned and obeying health protocols to prevent the spread of the new Omicron variant, which has just emerged in Indonesia.

2) Metaphors

Metaphors aim to emphasize and guide in exploring a text's meaning. Metaphors can be in the form of expressions, proverbs, ancestral advice, proverbs, ancient words or phrases, or quotes sourced from holy verses. The metaphor can be seen in this text through the quote, "The Covid-19 Handling Task Force considers a positive case of Covid-19 caused by the new Omicron variant infection as an alert alarm". The use of the word alarm in the sentence is a form of expression that means warning. Furthermore, the metaphor can also be seen in the quote, "He stated that the policy was made indiscriminately and enforced by all levels of society". The use of the phrase indiscriminately in the sentence is a form of expression that has meaning without discrimination.

4. Discussion

The CNN Indonesia news text contains a tendency of interest and shows an imbalance between policymakers (rulers) and the community. The news discourse published by CNN Indonesia is seen as a medium by the dominant group to influence the audience with the power and domination they have so that this dominance is seen as the most correct and legitimate. Language in a discourse is not a neutral medium of ideology, and power networks influence the author of the text. CDA is not limited to understanding discourse as a study of language but connecting the discourse with the context of power practices that marginalize a particular group or individual.

There is always an ideology practiced to dominate and fight for influence in a discourse. Ideological development strategies emphasize the good things about oneself and reduce the positive things in others. The discourse presented on CNN Indonesia has a particular motive to gain more legitimacy, such as the appeal addressed to the public to "...continue to keep themselves updated with information on the development of handling Covid-19 in Indonesia". If the discourse is more exposed, the truth will become more firmly embedded in the people's minds.

The term 'alert alarm' indicates that people have not been aware of Covid-19. With the emergence of the new Omicron variant, people who have been returning to the 'new normal' are forced to start limiting their social interactions again. This new Omicron type of coronavirus could potentially create a conflict of interest between the state apparatus and the citizen, especially the lower class who earn daily income.

If an ideology is interpreted as a perpetrator of the power structure, then all levels of society must obey the consensus and eliminate dissensus. This study confirms that CNN Indonesia adheres to the ideology of nationalism, which seeks to defend the country's sovereignty by realizing the same goal for the national interest in the face of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The public is expected not to be negligent in implementing health protocols. Every control of the Covid-19 handling officer unit that comes from the government's order is effective if all levels of society obey it.

The characteristics of the CDA model by Van Dijk received many contributions from the Frankfurt School of thought, one of which was Louis Pierre Althusser. In developing CDA, Althusser shows that ideology is not abstract but part of social practice. Althusser argues that ideology praises and questions individuals as concrete subjects by representing imaginary human relationships about reality which are the impact of environmental internalization and become the basis for human's unconscious decision making. The concept of ideology becomes famous and exciting when associated with the country, especially the relationship between policy makers and those under control. In the news, the ruler is the leader of the policy-making state, while those controlled are all levels of society.

Althusser describes the two main mechanisms on how an ideology works: ISA (Ideological State Apparatus) and RSA (Repressive State Apparatus). The Ideological State Apparatus (ISA) is the subtle strategy through education, religion, community organizations, family, culture, political institutions, and the media. Meanwhile, the Repressive State Apparatus (RSA) is repressive or through coercion, such as the courts and the military. These two mechanisms can lead to an understanding of the subject's position as dominating and being dominated.

Subtle strategies are more successful than repressive strategies, but they both perpetuate the power structures. The state apparatus, in this case, uses the ideological state apparatus (ISA), namely through the media under the pretext of protecting the people from the potential increase in cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Indonesian society is dominated to submit entirely to the government to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant.

5. Conclusions

There are three main elements in the news text "Covid-19 Task Force Calls First Omicron Case as an Alert Alarm'' published by CNN Indonesia media. First, the macrostructure describes the news theme, warning the public about the Omicron variant. Second, superstructure explains that this online news is written in a structured manner. Third, microstructure describes small parts of the news based on semantics, syntax, and rhetoric. The findings in this study confirm that CNN Indonesia adheres to the ideology of nationalism which seeks to maintain state sovereignty for the national interest in preventing the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.