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THE 21st CENTURY U.S. GAY PRIDE PARADE AS CONSTRUCTED IN THE
ONLINE NEWS ARTICLE OF THE SEATTLE TIMES NEWSPAPER
PUBLISHED BETWEEN 2009 – 2011
THESIS
Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of Requirement
for the Sarjana Sastra Degree of the English Department
Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts
Sebelas Maret University
By
Vista Sandy Miftakhul Ujianawati
C0307057
AMERICAN STUDIES
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS AND FINE ARTS
SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY
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PRONOUNCEMENT
Name :Vista Sandy Miftakhul Ujianawati
Number : C 0307057
I sincerely certify that this thesis entitled The 21st Century U.S. Gay Pride Parade
as Constructed in the Online News Article of The Seattle Times Newspaper
Published between 2009 - 2010 is my original work. It is not a plagiarism nor
written by others. The things related to other people’s works are written in direct quotation or in paraphrase and included in bibliography. If it is proven that I have
done wrong or cheated in my writing, I am willing to take any responsibilities given
by Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts, including the withdrawal of my academic degree.
Surakarta, January 23, 2015
The Researcher
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MOTTO
“So
verily, with the hardship, there is ease. Verily, with the hardship, there
is ease. So when you have finished (from your occupation), then stand up
for Allah’s worship. And to your Lord (Alone) turn (all your intentions and
hopes and) your invocations.”
(Q.S. Ash-Sharh: 5-8)
Don’
t quit unless
you’ve given your best try
(self-motto)
Be the very best version of you
(self-motto)
“Normal” is just a
word created by Majority to marginalize Minority
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DEDICATION
I dedicated this thesis to:
My self,
my family,
my beloved mother, father, and brother,
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Bismillaahirrohmaanirrohiim..
Alhamdulillaahirabbil’aalamiin, I express all praises and massive gratitude to
Allah SWT for all of the love, the life, the chance, and the guidance which have
always been accompanying my way of accomplishing this thesis. I could never be so
strong enough to finish this thesis without keeping my faith in His help and blessing.
I would like to thank Drs. Riyadi Santosa, M.Ed., Ph.D, the Dean of Faculty
of Letters and Fine Arts, and Drs. Agus Hari Wibowo, M.A., Ph.D., the Head of
English Department, for giving me permission in conducting this research. I would
also like to express my great gratitude for all of my lecturers in English Department,
especially all of American Studies lecturers for giving me all of the knowledge,
assistance, and experience during all the years of my study.
I also want to express my deepest thankfulness to my thesis consultant, Dra.
Susilorini, M.A. for her powerful patience in assisting and supervising me during the
process of accomplishing my thesis. I thank you for all of the best encouragement,
enlightenment, trust, and support to me, so I could always have the courage, the
confidence and the strength to write and finish this thesis as good as possible. I am
also very thankful for any interesting discussion we had every time I had the chance
to see you in your office to consult my thesis. And I sincerely do apologize for all of
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My deepest thankfulness will always be dedicated to my lifetime motivator,
my mother and my father for their everlasting and unconditional love, affection,
support, and pray that is never stop unspoken. In this case, I want to give special
thankfulness to my father, for all of his encouragement, patience, trust, and also anger
every time I feel down and feel wrong about myself and my thesis. I do apologize for
always causing you in trouble and disappointment because of my wrong doings and
my irresponsibility. I also want to thank to my sibling and my only younger brother,
Paugeran Holyman (Holy) for his help in cataloging the bibliography of my thesis. I
know I can always count on you every time I need help and companionship.
Then, I would like to say thank you for my Shining Stars friends, Safitri,
Makna, Giwang, Zain, Cassandra, Yunita, Dorina, and Sabila for the sincere
fellowship, the smile, the laugh, the love, and support. I always feel good and happy
around you. You will always be the stars that shine bright in the night sky.
I must also thank to my all ED 07 friends that I could not mention one by one
for the good time we had in class. You are all important to me. Special thanks to Bara
Suda, grandma Dhian Nurma, and Ulfa Khoirunnisa for the companionship every
time I feel bad about my days. I hope we all survive and be successful in our lives and
career. Bunch of thanks also go to my English Department juniors, especially Evi
Baiturrohmah, Rizal Fikry, Tori Nuariza, Esty Diah Imaniar, and Mahardika for the
spirit and inspiration. I always feel young around you.
Massive thanks also directed to American Studies 07 family i.e. Safitri Bonea,
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for the good discussion we had in the class. We should make plan to go to U.S. for a
study tour. Then, the same massive thanks also go to American Studies seniors
especially mba Puspa, mas Pondra, and mba Suci Aryani (Aya) for the knowledge,
the joy, the music, and the inspiration.
I would like to express sweet thanks to Siti Fathonah (Sifa) and Amanda
Ulinnuha for the chat, the movies, the cats, and the ice-cream we always enjoy every
time we had the chance to hang out or just meet in somewhere. We should recall the
good time we ever had.
Last, I also would like to express massive thankfulness to Copeland, Jack’s
Mannequin, Balmorhea, New Century Classics, Depapepe, Kings of Convenience,
Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, Tove Lo, John Mayer, and Ed Sheeran for
their good songs and pieces of music that always give me the sense of
companionship, inspiration, and spirit during all the times I dealt with my thesis. I
think I could never really enjoy my writing moments without their music. For me, life
will be so much boring and pathetic without music.
Surakarta, January 23, 2015
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
COVER………..
APPROVAL BY THESIS CONSULTANT……….
APPROVAL BY BOARD OF EXAMINERS……….
PRONOUNCEMENT………...
D. The Objective of the Study………
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CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW………..
A. Gay Pride Parade……...
A.1. History and Definition………..
A.2. The Development through Decades……….
B. Homosexuality in the Eye of American Society ………..
C. News Media Attitudes toward Homosexuality through Decades…
D. Semiotics in Media Studies ………..
E. Queer Theory in Media Studies ………
CHAPTER III: ANALYSIS……….
A. The Media Construction of the 21st Century U.S. Gay Pride Parade
as a Carnival of Gay Pride and Gay Visibility……….
B. The Media Construction of the 21st Century U.S. Gay Pride Parade
as a Political Celebration of Gay Rights Movement Victory……….
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ABSTRACT
Vista Sandy Miftakhul Ujianawati. C0307057. 2015. The 21st Century U.S. Gay
Pride Parade as Constructed in the Online News Article of The Seattle Times
Newspaper Published between 2009 – 2011. Undergraduate thesis. Surakarta. English
Department. Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts. Sebelas Maret University.
Gay pride parade is an annual gay event in the United States that symbolizes the presence/visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in public space i.e. the city street. On the contrary, public space e.g. the city street has often been socially and culturally constructed as the heterosexual space where heterosexuality works as the dominant and hegemonic sexual-norm. In this case, the dominant and hegemonic practice of heterosexual norms in public also works as social control that may influence the way the media constructs its view about certain homosexual phenomenon i.e. gay pride parade. Thus, this research is conducted to find out how the media constructs the 21st century U.S. gay pride parade. The result of the research is used to find out whether or not the media maintains the hegemonic influence of heterosexual norm in framing the phenomenon of homosexuality in public as represented by the parade.
This research is a qualitative research that is conducted in the scope of American Studies which mainly focuses on media studies. The source of data uses the online news articles about U.S. gay pride parade taken from the online page of The
Seattle Times newspaper http://wwwseattletimes.com published in 2009-2011. Thus,
semiotics is employed to analyze the meaning behind the words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and pictures stated in the news article. Queer theory is also employed in this research because the topic of the research is related to homosexual issue i.e. gay pride parade.
The analysis shows that there are two constructions of the 21st century U.S. gay pride parade presented in the online news articles published by The Seattle Times
newspaper. First, the parade is constructed by the newspaper as a public carnival of
LGBT pride and visibility. Second, it is constructed as a political celebration of gay
rights movement victory. It is also found that the newspaper maintains negative or
heteronormative stance in explaining those two constructions which is signified
through the way the newspaper often used more explicit languages, words, phrases, and photograph to describe the sense of a carnival or a celebration by paying less serious attention to the political messages and agenda related to gay rights equality communicated by LGBT Americans through the 21st century U.S. Gay Pride Parade.
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ABSTRAK
Vista Sandy Miftakhul Ujianawati. C0307057. 2015. Konstruksi Parade Kebanggaan Gay Amerika Serikat Abad-21 dalam Artikel Berita Online Surat Kabar The Seattle Times yang Dipublikasikan antara Tahun 2009 – 2011. Skripsi. Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra dan Seni Rupa, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta.
Parade kebanggaan gay adalah sebuah acara tahunan kaum gay di Amerika Serikat yang melambangkan keberadaan atau visibilitas orang-orang lesbian, gay, bisexual, dan transgender (LGBT) di ruang publik yaitu di jalan kota. Sebaliknya, ruang publik seperti jalan kota telah seringkali dikonstruksikan secara sosial dan budaya sebagai ruang heteroseksual di mana heteroseksualitas berfungsi sebagai norma seksual yang dominan dan hegemonik. Dalam hal ini, praktik dominan dan hegemonik dari norma-norma heteroseksual di ruang publik juga berfungsi sebagai kontrol sosial yang bisa saja mempengaruhi cara suatu media mengkonstruksi pandangannya tentang fenomena tertentu homoseksual yaitu parade kebanggaan gay
(gay pride parade). Oleh karena itu, penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengetahui
bagaimana media mengkonstruksi Parade Kebanggaan Gay Amerika Serikat
Abad-21 (the 21st century U.S. Gay Pride Parade). Hasil dari penelitian ini digunakan
untuk mengetahui apakah media mempertahankan pengaruh hegemonik dari norma heteroseksual dalam membingkai fenomena homoseksual di ruang public seperti yang direpresentasikan oleh parade kebanggaan gay.
Penelitian ini adalah penelitian kualitatif yang dilakukan dalam kerangka Kajian Amerika yang terutama berfokus pada kajian media. Sumber data penelitian menggunakan artikel berita online tentang parade kebanggan gay Amerika Serikat
yang diambil dari halaman online surat kabar The Seattle Times
http://wwwseattletimes.com yang dipublikasikan antara tahun 2009 – 2011. Oleh karena itu, teori semiotika digunakan untuk menganalisa makna dibalik kata-kata, frasa, klausa, kalimat, dan gambar yang tercantum dalam artikel berita. Teori queer
juga digunakan dalam penelitian ini karena tema yang dibahas berkaitan dengan isu homosexual yaitu parade kebanggaan gay.
Hasil analisa menunjukkan bahwa terdapat dua macam konstruksi tentang
Parade Kebanggaan Gay Amerika Serikat Abad-21 yang disajikan dalam artikel
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karnaval atau perayaan dengan sedikit memberikan perhatian serius terhadap pesan-pesan dan agenda politik terkait kesetaraan hak-hak asasi kaum gay yang disampaikan oleh kaum LGBT Amerika melalui Parade Kebanggaan Gay Amerika
Serikat Abad-21.
