Mapping the Media Agenda on Sumatran Tigers in Indonesia (2020–2025)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17977/um087v3i22026p147-166Keywords:
media agenda, Sumatran tiger, human–wildlife conflict, wildlife conservation, topic modelingAbstract
The media agenda concerning wildlife can shape which aspects of conservation become visible to the public. This study examines how Sumatran tigers are represented in the Indonesian online news media agenda during 2020–2025 and identifies the issues that receive the greatest attention. A computational content analysis is conducted on 1,236 news articles collected from four Indonesian online media outlets: Antara News, Bisnis, Detik, and Mongabay Indonesia. Articles are collected through web scraping and analyzed using Non-Negative Matrix Factorization-based topic modeling. The optimal model consists of ten topics, which are substantively interpreted and grouped into five issues: human–tiger conflict, wildlife conflict mitigation and handling, conservation and natural habitat, threats and law enforcement, and ex situ conservation and wildlife management. Human–tiger conflict is the most salient issue, while conflict-related coverage and subsequent mitigation account for more than half of the corpus. Media attention fluctuates across the study period and varies across outlets, with Detik emphasizing conflict and Mongabay Indonesia emphasizing conservation and natural habitat. The findings indicate that Sumatran tigers are most visible in news coverage when their presence intersects directly with human activities, safety, and conflict-related responses.
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