Precision Journalism and Pandemic Coverage: A Study on Tirto.id

Communication Science Department, Faculty of Digital Communication and Hotel & Tourism, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480

^* Corresponding author: lila.nathania@binus.edu

Abstract

Pandemic changes various human behaviour, including how we get our news and information. With the help of the internet and technology, all information is within our reach all the time. Precision journalism is essential to bring light to crucial conditions during this information age. The research was conducted to study the manifestations of precision journalism in media coverage of a critical situation, specifically to the coronavirus pandemic in Indonesia. The research examined data from tirto.id’s coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in Indonesia in its category “Mild Report” from March 2020 to January 2022. The selected articles were analysed using qualitative content analysis to see how the narrative of the coronavirus pandemic in Indonesia was created by the media outlet. What was found in this research showcased that in a time of crisis, the public needs to be alarmed, informed, and to be enlightened with a specific understanding of such issues to prevent misapprehension that leads to possible instability. Also, the framing process in tirto.id’s coverages include the employment of sensationalism to exaggerate the narrative, which impacted the creation moral panic narrative of the coronavirus pandemic in Indonesia. Therefore, the principalities of precision journalism are implemented in tirto.id’s pandemic coverage managed to extrapolate the discourse of the coronavirus pandemic in Indonesia in a discursive community, showcasing an example that in a critical time like pandemic, media outlets must administer specific forms of journalism that can act beyond the bounds such as precision journalism.