“Two Faces” of Darsem: The Representation of Indonesian Migrant Workers

Darsem, one of Indonesian migrant workers who worked in Saudi Arabia and successfully escaped from the death penalty, had been reported by two famous newspapers, Kompas and Jawa Pos. These two newspapers constructed different points of view about Darsem when she came back to Indonesia on 14th July 2011. It is interesting to know how newspapers as mass media construct the representation of a migrant worker through Darsem. The aims of this research are to know how media represent Darsem and what kind of visual elements that mostly construct the representation of Darsem as Indonesian migrant workers. The research uses Barthes’ semiotics to analyze some visual elements like the layout of Darsem’s news, her photograph, and language selection on the news title and content. The analyses of two newspapers give us descriptions about Darsem as the object of the government and media’s success. Again, we notice that media is not neutral.