A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS: THE SEVERITY OF MOUNT MERAPI ERUPTION
PORTRAYED ON KEMAL JUFRI’S PHOTOS AS THE 2ND
PRIZE STORIES WINNER OF WORLD PRESS PHOTO
A Research Paper
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for Sarjana Sastra Degree
in Indonesia University of Education
By
ARIEF MAULANA HASAN (0808727)
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION INDONESIA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS: THE SEVERITY OF MOUNT MERAPI
ERUPTION PORTRAYED ON KEMAL JUFRI’S PHOTOS AS THE 2ND PRIZE
STORIES WINNER OF WORLD PRESS PHOTO
A Research Paper
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for Sarjana Sastra Degree
in Indonesia University of Education
By
© Arief Maulana Hasan 2014
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia
April 2014
Hak Cipta dilindungi undang-undang.
Skripsi ini tidak boleh diperbanyak seluruhya atau sebagian,
PAGE OF APPROVAL
A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS: THE SEVERITY OF MOUNT MERAPI ERUPTION
PORTRAYED ON KEMAL JUFRI’S PHOTOS AS THE 2ND PRIZE STORIES
WINNER OF WORLD PRESS PHOTO A Research Paper
By
Arief Maulana Hasan
0808727
Approved By
First Supervisor
Prof. Dr. Didi Sukyadi, M.A.
NIP. 196706091994031003
Co-Supervisor
Ruswan Dallyono, M.Pd.
NIP. 197008032005011002
Head of English Education Department Faculty of Language and Arts Education
Indonesia University of Education
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Table of Contents
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5.1 Conclusions ... 80
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V
ABSTRACT
This Paper Entitled “A Semiotic Analysis: The Severity of Mount Merapi Eruption Portrayed on Kemal Jufri’s Photos as The 2nd Prize Stories Winner of World Press Photo”. It is aimed to
uncover the meaning behind the photographs and to discover symbols, indexes and modes that appear in the photo stories. The study is qualitative which utilizes Eco’s (1994) Hermetic drift theory. The theory mainly focuses on the meaning of a symbol which not only has one meaning, but two or more meaning if the symbol is put in a different context. The main data are 12 photographs which were used in the photo stories taken from www.wordpressphoto.org. The study revealed the Juffri’s photo stories about the disaster of Mt. Merapi eruption. The symbols, indexes and modes in the photo stories signify the damages, losses, death, and suffering of the people people near Mt. Merapi, which directly got the worst effect of the disaster. The photo story also portrays collectiveness of Indonesian people to help the victims of the disaster.
Arief Maulana Hasan, 2014
A semiotic analysis: The seventy of mount Merapi eruption poortrayed on Kemal Juffi’s Photos as the 2nd prize sacries winneer of woria press photo
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the background of the study which consists of
background, research question, aims of study, scope of the study, significance of the
study, research methodology, classification of the terms and organization of the
paper. The research methodology is divided into data collection, data analysis, and
data interpretation and conclusion. This sub-chapter briefly describes the method used
in collecting and analyzing the data.
1.1 Background of the Study
Semiotics is a study which concerns everything that can be taken as „signs‟.
The study also concerns meaning-making and representation of the sign in words,
images, sounds, gesture and object (Chandler, 2002, p. 2). Signs are never arbitrary,
and „motivation‟ should be formulated in relation to the sign-maker and the context in which the sign is produced, and not in isolation from the act of producing analogies
and classifications (Kress, 2006, p. 8). Therefore, semiotics can be used to analyze the signs that appear in the images. Eeverything that appears in the images can be
recognized as the sign such as footprint, thunder and smoke.
Peirce (as cited in Chandler, 2002, p. 38) says a symbol is a sign which refers
to an object denoted by virtue of a law, usually an association of general ideas, which
operates to cause the symbol to be interpreted as referring to some object. Then,
index is the element of the signs which is not arbitrary but directly connected in some
way (physically or causally) to the signified in which the link can be observed and
inferred (Chandler, 2002, p 37). As a result, photos or images can contain symbols
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that contain symbols and indexes, such as news photographs. As one of media
products, news photographs or known as photojournalism not only consists of
pictures of events but also covers news and facts (Becker, 1995, p. 5).
In photojournalism, there is a term called “narrative photo” or “photo story”.
Unlike a written story, a compelling photo story requires not only complication and
resolution, but also action that can be photographed (Kobré, 2004, p. 147).
Accordingly, a photo story cannot stand for only a single photo to make meaning, but
there should be two photos or more to create a story line. The story line determines
the sequences of pictures in the layout (Kobré, 2004, p. 159). A photo essay is simply
a collection of images that is placed in a specific order to describe the progression of
events, emotions, and concepts (Dickson, 2012). An example of a photo story was
photographed by James Nachtwey entitled beyond 9/11: Portraits of resilience
(Time, 2001). The photo tells about the tragedy of 9/11 when World Trade Center
was crashed. The photo story contains 14 photos.
There is also a photo story about the tragedy of Mount Merapi‟s eruption. Mount Merapi is one of the world‟s most active volcanoes. Mount Merapi is located in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The last eruption of Mount Merapi happened on October
2010. The phenomenon has been the largest eruption since 1870 (BBC, 2010). The
eruption made the area near Mount Merapi was covered by ashes released by Mount
Merapi. This phenomenon caused more than 70.000 people to have been evacuated.
In the disaster, one hundred people had been killed, many animals had also been
killed, and many of the local people had been injured (BBC, 2010). The eruption
attracted worldwide attention, especially the journalists and photographers.
Many journalists and photographers came to the area near Mount Merapi to
report the phenomenon. One of the journalist photographers who came to report the
phenomenon was Kemal Jufri. Kemal Jufri joined the World Press Photo contest in
2011 by sending Mount Merapi eruption photos. He won the second prize winner of
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severity of Mount Merapi eruption, such as the eruption, the victims and the area
affected.
Kemal Jufri is an Indonesian journalist photographer who won the world press
photo competition, World Press Photo is an independent, non-profit organization
based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955, the organization is known in
holding the world‟s largest and most prestigious annual press photography contest
(Worldpressphoto.org). In the first fifty years of establishment, World Press Photo
has become a truly global platform for professional press photography (Panzer, 2005)
. The mission of World Press Photo competition is to encourage high professional
standards in photojournalism and to promote a free and unrestricted exchange of
information.
Some studies have investigated photojournalism by using semiotic analysis. In
2001, Kibbey investigated semiotics of photographic evidence. While in 2010,
Lovelace investigated Vietnam War photographs. In Indonesia, Pratiwi (2009)
investigated female sex workers in photo journalism.
To achieve the purpose of the study, some theoretical approaches were needed
as the research foundation. This research is based on the semiotic theory of
signification by Umberto Eco (1994) to analyze symbols and indexes that portray the
severity of Mount Merapi eruption in 12 photographs in the photo story of Kemal
Jufri as the second winner of World Press Photo. Eco (as cited in Innis, 1985, p. 4)
says that "signification encompasses the whole of cultural life and the subject matter
of semiotics is co-extensive with the whole range of cultural phenomena, however
pretentious that approach may at first seem.”. Since the photographs comes as a
visual media to deliver the information or messages, the photographs have to use
various signs and symbol as attempts to create particular meaning. A study of the sign
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The research problems are formulated in the following questions:
1. What are the symbols, indexes and modes that appear in Kemal Jufri‟s photos
as the second prize winner of World Press Photo 2011?
2. What do these symbols, indexes and modes signify?
1.3 Aims of the Study
Based on the research question above, the study aims to:
1. Discover the symbols, indexes and modes that appear in Kemal Jufri‟s photo
as the second prize winner of World Press Photo 2011
2. Reveal the severity of Mount Merapi eruption portrayed by the symbols,
indexes and modes in Kemal Jufri‟s photo as the second prize winner of
World Press Photo 2011.
1.4 Scope of the Study
The research investigates Kemal Jufri‟s 12 photo story about Mount Merapi
eruption as the second prize winner of World Press Photo 2011.
1.5 Significance of the Study
This research examines the photos of Kemal Jufri as the second prize winner
of World Press Photo 2011. This research investigates the symbols and indexes that
appear in Kemal Jufri‟s photos and also analyzes the modes in the photos. Moreover,
the readers can realize the symbols and indexes that appear in Kemal Jufri‟s photo of
Mount Merapi, and realize that photos are not only photos, but there are signs and
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1.6.1. Research Method
The research focuses on investigating the portrayal of the severity and social
awareness in Mount Merapi eruption by the symbol, indexes and also modes that
appear in Kemal Jufri‟s photos that won the second prize winner of World Press
Photo 2011 by using a semiotic analysis proposed by Eco (1994). The research uses a
qualitative method. Qualitative research, on the other hand, is concerned with
qualitative phenomenon, i.e., phenomena relating to or involving quality or kind
(Mothari, 2004). It means that in qualitative research, the data does not in the form of
statistical or quantification data. Qualitative research is about describing the analysis
of data qualitatively.
The data investigated in the research were in the form of photos. The data
were collected from the World Press Photo website on the Internet.
1.6.2. Procedures of the Research
In conducting this study, the following procedures were taken:
1. Data Collection
The photo story of mount Merapi eruption was selected to be the source of
data. It contains 12 photographs. The data is containing symbol, indexes and
modes that related to the context which can be analyzed by Eco‟s Hermetic
Drift theory. The data were taken from World Press Photo website on
www.worldpressphoto.org. World Press Photo is the largest organization which holds the world's largest and most prestigious annual press photography
contest (The Express Group, 2013). The relevant theories are also figured out
based on library research.
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In this study, the data analysis was based on the Hermetic Drift theory by
Eco (1994) to analyze the symbol and indexes. In addition, visual modality
also analyzed to discover meaning behind the modes in the photo story
photographed by Kemal Jufri to portray the severity of Mount Merapi
eruption in the www.worldpressphoto.org. Umberto Eco Order of
signification was employed to analyze and discover the hidden meanings of
this photo story. The theory defined as an instance of connotative neoplasm.
There is a phenomenon of connotation when a sign function (expression plus
content) becomes in turn the expression of a further content.
3. Interpretation of Data and Conclusions
The data were interpreted by reflecting on how finding relate to the
existing research. The data were interpreted to reveal the symbol, indexes and
modes to portray the severity of Mount Merapi eruption in the Kemal Jufri‟s
photo story as a second prize winner of World Press Photo Contest.
1.7 Clarification of the Terms
There are some terms that are mentioned in the study that might be needed:
1. SEMIOTICS
Semiotics is a study which concerns with everything that can be taken as
„signs‟. It also concerns with meaning-making and representation of the sign in the form of words, images, sounds, gesture and object (Chandler, 2002, p.
2).
2. SIGN
Sign is anything which produces meanings (Thwaites, et al, 1994, p.7).
3. SYMBOL
Symbol is a sign which refers to object denoted by virtue of a law, usually an
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interpreted as referring that object (Peirce, 1931, as cited in Chandler, 2002, p.
38).
forces magma up through the conduit and out the volcano's vents. When the
magma chamber has been completely filled, the type of eruption partly
depends on the amount of gases and silica in the magma. The amount of
silica determines how sticky (level of viscosity) the magma is and water
provides the explosive potential of steam (Oracle ThinkQuest, 1998).
7. WORLD PRESS PHOTO
World Press Photo is an independent, non-profit organization based in
Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955 the organization is known in
holding the world's largest and most prestigious annual press photography
contest (www.worldpressphoto.org).
1.8 Organization of the Paper
This study is divided into five chapters, as follows:
CHAPTER I
The first chapter discusses introduction of the research, including the background
of the research, the research questions, the aims of the research, the scope of the
study, the significance of the study, the research methodology, the classification of
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CHAPTER II
The second chapter discusses the theoretical frameworks and the literature
reviews.
CHAPTER III
In the third chapter, the discussion is around the research methodology. It
describes the steps and procedures of the study.
CHAPTER IV
The fourth chapter presents the findings and a discussion of the research.
CHAPTER V
The last chapter discusses the conclusions of the research and the suggestions for
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CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHOD
This chapter focuses on the methodological aspects of this research. It
starts with formulation of problem, the explanation of the research method and
design followed by stages of the research procedure. The data collection is also
presented together with the data analysis in this chapter.
1.1 Formulation of Problem
The problems in this study are formulated into the following questions:
1. What are the symbols, indexes and modes that appear in Kemal Jufri’s
photos as the second prize winner of World Press Photo 2011?
2. What do these symbols, indexes and modes signify?
1.2 Research Method
This study was conducted by using a qualitative method. Maxwell (1996)
states that a qualitative method aims to investigate and understand certain object,
event or phenomena, discourses, behavior, a set of condition or situation in the
particular context in which people are involved and experienced with. In other
ways, qualitative method is a method systematically involving and gathering
enough about particular person, social setting, event, or group to permit researcher
to effectively understand how the subject operate or function (Berg, 2007).
Photograph is the data which contains information, social setting and event,
therefore it can be analyzed by using particular theory by using descriptive
qualitative method to interpret the meaning behind the photographs.
The research aims to uncover the hidden meaning and describe the
portrayal the severity of mount Merapi eruption on Kemal Juffri’s photo. This
study uses a descriptive qualitative approach framed in Eco’s (1994) Hermetic
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Moreover, this study uses Eco’s Hermetic Drift (1994) which consists of
Representamen (denotation) and Immediate Object (connotation). This
connotation was determined by a given context.
a) Procedure of Data Collection
In conducting the research, the data collection was undertaken by:
1. Preparing investigation conducted by library and online research for
related references about journalism and photojournalism.
2. Collecting the data of Kemal Juffri’s photos about Mount Merapi
eruption in 2011 from www.worldpressphoto.org.
3. Analyzing the data based on semiotic analysis. The photos were
analyzed though the concept of Eco’s (1994) Hermetic Drift theory to
uncover the symbols and indexes that come up in the data.
4. Using visual modality element to analyze the meaning behind the
modes.
5. Drawing conclusions and suggestions; the conclusions were obtained
from the findings and discussions, while suggestions were made for
the interest of further studies.
b) Data Source and Collection
The data consisted of the photo essays of Mount Merapi eruption taken
from www.worldpressphoto.org as the 2nd story winner photographed by
Indonesian photojournalist, Kemal Juffri. Here, The photo essays of Mount
Merapi eruption were the data source of this study because the disaster was the
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Photo 1 Photo 2
Photo 3 Photo 4
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Source: www.worldpressphoto.org
To conclude, there were 12 photographs of Kemal Juffri about the disaster
of Mount Merapi eruption taken from www.wordpreesphoto.org. Furthermore, the
photos were analyzed by using Eco’s (1994) Hermetic Drift theory to discover
hidden meaning behind the photographs, specifically about the portrayal of the
severity of mount Merapi eruption in 2011.
Photo 7 Photo 8
Photo 9 Photo 10
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1. The present study was conducted to examine the symbols, and indexes
that appear in Kemal Jufri’s photo and reveal the severity of Mount
Merapi eruption portrayed by symbol, indexes and modes in Kemal
Jufri’s photo as the second prize winner of World Press Photo 2011. Miles and Huberman (1994) state that the data analysis consists of
three steps: first of all is data reduction, data display and conclusion
drawing/verification.
2. Photos were selected by selecting photo story from the websites
www.wordpressphoto.org as the data and focusing the data which
appears in photos which is called as data reduction. After focusing the
data based on the aim of the study, the data display is ready to have the
further action. Understanding what is happening and analyzing the data
based on the particular theory can be applied after the data display
emerges. The final step is to conclude the data that has been analyzed.
3. Semiotic analysis was used to examine the portrayal of severity of
mount Merapi eruption in the Kemal Juffri’s photos. Each symbol,
index and mode that appears in the photos was analyzed by using
Eco’s (1994) Hermetic Drift which concerns in the meaning of the
symbols referring to particular contexts. The focuses of analysis were
on the element of content 1 (C1) which represents the first content or
literal meaning of sign in the photos, also the elaboration of content 2
(C2) which represents a connotation which comes from the symbols,
indexes and modes that appear in the photos with local and global
meaning and lastly is the analysis of context 3 (C3) which represents
the meaning of the sign according to a context given.
Following is an example of analysis Hermetic Diagram analysis
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diagram represents the phenomenon of connotation which derived
from the classification of the first, second and third content.
Expression Context
Expression Context
Table 3.2 The diagram of connotation Phenomenon Source: Eco, 1994:30
In the table above, E stands for Expression and C stands for Content. It
describes that “there is a phenomenon of connotation when a sign function
(expression plus content) becomes in turn the expression of a further content (Eco,
1994, p.29).
The meaning of connotative use must also be determined by context, this
phenomenon of connotation is developed further by Eco. He proposed an idea
named as neoplastic connotative growth where the content of the first one (Eco,
1994, p.30). It is described in a table based on Eco’s Hermetic Drift theory below:
Context (C3) Expression (E3)
Expression (E1) Content (C2)
Expression
(E2)
Content (C1)
Table 3.3 Diagram of Neoplastic connotative growth Source: Eco (1994)
The table above is a new pseudo-connotative chain proposed by Eco
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To obtain a comprehensive analysis, symbol and indexes that appear in
each photograph were analyzed by using Eco’s Hermetic Drift (1994) theory. The
analysis which uses Eco’s (1994) is based on such components as E1, C1, C2, and
C3. E1 represents an expression or sign. C1 represents the first content or literal
meaning of the sign. C2 or the second content represents a connotation which
comes from the expression (E1) plus the first content (C1). The last is C3 or the
third content which represents the meaning of the sign according to a context
given. Thus, to fully understand the connotative meaning in the photograph, the
color, pose, facial expression, fashion, and the basic techniques of photography
are elaborated in the analysis to uncover the meaning of the photographs. The data
presentation is presented as follows:
Opening photo in the essays of Mount Merapi eruption
C3
(Connotation + context) Critical Disaster
E1 + Context
Mount Merapi spews volcanic material
E1 (Sign) Mount Merapi
C2
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massive eruption
E1 (Expression of the
sign) Mount Merapi
Erupted
C1
(First content or literal meaning of the sign) Eruption is the sudden occurrence of a violent discharge of steam and
volcanic material
Table 3.4 Diagram of Neoplastic connotative growth Source: Eco (1994)
The First E1 in the table shows the sign in the photo. It portrays the Mount
Merapi spew the volcanic ash. The second E1 shows the denotative sign or literal
meaning of the sign and the third E1 shows the meaning of the sign referring to the
context in this case Mount Merapi spews the ash showing the massive and critical
eruption. The symbols in this sign are ashes and gray smoke. It symbolizes critical
and massive eruption that caused destruction while the ashes and smoke are
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CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter provides the conclusions of present study based on the
findings and discussion that have been presented in the previous chapter. It also
contains the suggestions for the readers of the present study who might be
interested in conducting research discussed in the present study.
5.1 Conclusions
This study, a semiotic analysis of the severity of mount Merapi eruption
portrayed in Kemal juffri’s photos as the 2nd prize stories winner of World Press Photo, aims to reveal the severity of Mt. Merapi eruption portrayed in the Juffri
photo story, using Eco’s Hermetic Drift (1994). In addition, the symbol, index and
mode are also analyzed to uncover the whole meaning in the photographs.
The signs appeared in the photo were analyzed by Eco’s (1994) hermetic
drift, which involves the context of the sign to reveal the meaning behind the
photograph. In the story, it can be concluded that (50%) of the symbols signify
damages and losses, (33.33%) of the symbols signify suffering of the people and
(16,67%) of the symbols signify death. Whereas the indexes in the photo stories, it
can be concluded that (58,33%) of the indexes signify damages and losses, (25%)
of the indexes signify suffering of the people, and (16,67%) of the indexes signify
death. While the element of modes in the story shows that (58.3%) of the photos
in the story are dominated by grey & black color. According to Zammito (2005),
those colors are related to death and sadness. The fashion identity in this photo
shows the people wearing uniform and collar. According to Barnard (2006), the
uniform is related to the collectivism, in the stories, people who wear the uniform
appeared in (25%) of the photos and collar related to the citizens appeared (8,3%)
of the photos. A sad facial expression indicated by mouth open, corners of the lips
down, raised cheek, eyes look downward and upper eyelids drop (Ekman &
Arief Maulana Hasan, 2014
A semiotic analysis: The seventy of mount Merapi eruption poortrayed on Kemal Juffi’s Photos as the 2nd prize sacries winneer of woria press photo
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
The research found that the Juffri’s photo story about the disaster of Mt. Merapi eruption portrays the suffering of the people near Mt. Merapi, which
directly got the worst effect of the eruption disaster. The photo story also portrays
collectiveness of Indonesian people to help the victims of the disaster.
5.2 Suggestions
After conducting the research, there are some suggestions related to the
present study:
1. The next researcher can explore other genres of photojournalism such as
portraiture story, documentary and photo essay based on the related issue
using semiotic analysis.
2. The next researcher may find other online prestigious photo competition to
pick the data such as from the winner of Pulitzer.
3. The next researcher may also analyze the caption in the photo by using
particular framework such as functional grammar.
4. The next researcher may also combine the qualitative data with
Arief Maulana Hasan, 2014
A semiotic analysis: The seventy of mount Merapi eruption poortrayed on Kemal Juffi’s Photos as the 2nd prize sacries winneer of woria press photo
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
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