Journal of Islamic World and Politics Vol. 6, No. 2, December 2022 ISSN: 2614-0535, E-ISSN: 2655-1330 Representation of Religious Conflict in Local Media Encep Dulwahab Department of Communication Studies, State Islamic University of Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Email: encep.dulwahab@uinsgd.ac.id Darajat Wibawa Department of Communication Studies, State Islamic University of Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Email: darajatwibawa@uinsgd.ac.id Enjang Muhaemin Department of Communication Studies, State Islamic University of Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Email: enjangmuhaemin@uinsgd.ac.id Dyah Rahmi Astuti Department of Communication Studies, State Islamic University of Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Email: dyah.rahmiastuti@uinsgd.ac.id Abstract The media always try their best to represent reality for their audiences, with the hope of retaining readers and increasing company revenues. However, in depicting the reality of religious conflict, the media often contradicts the norms, ethics, and code of ethics of journalism itself. The purpose of this study was to determine the representation of religious conflict in local media, namely the Ahmadiyah conflict in West Java, which was published in the Pikiran Rakyat in news coverage from 2010 to 2011. This study used Teun A. van Dijk’s critical discourse analysis method. The results of the study show that Pikiran Rakyat represents the Ahmadiyah conflict in various ways, including dividing the object of its reporting into two camps, strong and weak, by branding Ahmadiyah as a deviant, banned, and disbanded organization. The strong side is an organization supported by the government, and the weak side is Ahmadiyah, which does not receive 254 Journal of Islamic World and Politics Vol. 5, No. 2, December 2021 government protection and support. Pikiran Rakyat presents news sources in this religious conflict in an unfair and balanced manner, presenting more news sources from the majority than Ahmadiyah as a minority. Pikiran Rakyat also represent ways of resolving the Ahmadiyah conflict. Keywords: Representation, Media, Conflict, Religion, Abstrak Media selalu berusaha sebaik mungkin untuk merepresentasikan realitas bagi khalayaknya, dengan harapan dapat mempertahankan pembaca dan meningkatkan pendapatan perusahaan. Namun, dalam menggambarkan realitas konflik agama, media seringkali bertentangan dengan norma, etika, dan kode etik jurnalisme itu sendiri. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui representasi konflik agama di media lokal yaitu konflik Ahmadiyah di Jawa Barat yang dimuat di Pikiran Rakyat dalam liputan berita tahun 2010 hingga 2011. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode analisis wacana kritis Teun A. van Dijk. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Pikiran Rakyat merepresentasikan konflik Ahmadiyah dengan beragam, di antaranya membagi objek pemberitaannya menjadi dua kubu, kuat dan lemah, dengan mencap Ahmadiyah sebagai organisasi sesat, terlarang, dan bubar. Kubu yang kuat adalah organisasi yang di dukung pemerintah, dan kubu yang lemah adalah Ahmadiyah yang tidak mendapatkan perlindungan dan dukungan pemerintah. Pikiran Rakyat menyajikan sumber berita dalam konflik agama ini secara tidak adil dan berimbang, menghadirkan lebih banyak sumber berita dari mayoritas dibandingkan Ahmadiyah sebagai minoritas. Pikiran Rakyat juga dengan merepresentasikan cara-cara menyelesaikan konflik Ahmadiyah. Keywords: Representasi, Media, Konflik, Agama, INTRODUCTION West Java is a province with a large and heterogeneous population, which is identical to a province with Sundanese people who are famous to be polite and friendly. However, compared to other provinces, some studies show that citizens in the province also have a high level of religious intolerance. The Wahid Foundation reported that throughout 2017, there were 28 Encep Dulwahab, Darajat Wibawa, Enjang Muhaemin, Dyah Rahmi Astuti Representation of Religious Conflict in Local Media 255 conflicts triggered by religious issues in West Java (Irfan, 2017). In the same year LBH also advocated for nine issues related to violations of the right to freedom of religion and belief in West Java (Erdianto, 2018). This trend continues to happen until now. Recently, the Ministry of Religious Affair reported that the level of Religious Harmony Index in West Java is only 68.5 percent and the level still below the average Religious Harmony Index in other provinces which reach 73.83 percent (Nasyit, 2021). This data was confirmed by the results of the Indonesia Political Opinion (IPO) survey which shows that the level religious tolerance of the West Java community is very low (Rifat, 2022). According to Halili Hasan (in Irawan, 2021), there are four factors that have influenced the low tolerance and high level of religious conflict in West Java over the last 14 years. These factors include government regulations on religion, politicization of religion, the historical context of religious development, and conservative of understanding Islam. In addition, some studies also show the importance roles of mass media in increasing or reducing religious tolerance. Despite the emerging roles of social media in informing various religious issues mass media remains the main source of information about conflict for communities (Venus, et. al., 2019). Rahmawati and Anwari (2013, p. 5) found that mass media in Indonesia also play certain roles in covering religious conflicts. There are two main issues that attract the media attention when it comes to religious conflict related issues. First, the relation between the majority muslim community with Christiants; second, the relation of the majority muslim with minority muslim who are believed to be deviated from the mainstream Islamic teachings which include the Ahmadiyah group, the Syiah group, and the Salamullah group (Rahmawati and Anwari, 2013, p. 5). In other countries, studies show that media are directly or indirectly involved in religious conflicts in constructive or destructive ways. Media has the capacity to present conflict and also has the potential to spread the spirit of peace (Marsden & Savingny, 2009, p.115- 157; Juditha, 2011; Manan et.al., 2014, p.38). However, media also has a tendency to reduce tolerance while also significantly increasing intolerance (Elisabeth & MacCabe, 2010; Keum et.al., 2005; Nelson et.al., 1997). 256 Journal of Islamic World and Politics Vol. 5, No. 2, December 2021 There are several existing studies about how media covering religious conflict and broader religious issues. Study from Suryana (2019) showed that there were media that support minorities, yet there were also media that act in the name of Islam and then support the enforcement of Islamic law. There were also media that tend to use bombastic and agitative language, especially toward minority groups (Suryana, 2019). Similarly, Andarini (2014) argued that the media tend to create a negative image towards minority group such as Ahmadiyah by using dramatic language. The treatment of minorities by the media is carried out not only in Indonesia, but also in the Western countries. For instance, study from Ahmet & Matthes (2016) found that media in the West often represent Islam and Muslims with a negative way such as by framing that Islam is a religion full of violence. However, another study also showed that there were media in Western countries such as in Australia that try to cover religion in different ways by considering various aspects of Australian society’s lives (Weng & Halafoff, 2020). Even though there are some existing studies about the way in which media covering religious conflict, most of those existing studies focus on national media, covering inter-religious conflict, and using general qualitative approaches. There are limited studies about how local media is covering news about intra-religious conflict, especially about Ahmadiyah by applying critical discourse analysis method. This study, therefore, focuses on how Pikiran Rakyat Newspaper covers Ahmadiyah conflict. The issue of the representation of the West Java Ahmadiyah conflict in Pikiran Rakyat is interesting to study. The reason for choosing Pikiran Rakyat as the research subject is because Pikiran Rakyat is the largest media in West Java society (Firman, 2019). Pikiran Rakyat is often said to be the newspaper of the Sundanese. LITERATURE REVIEW There are several research results regarding the representation of conflict in the media. Study from Christiany Juditha (2011) showed that the mass media has functional and dysfunctional roles. The functional role means that the media has a role in spreading the spirit of security, safety, and peace, which can reduce conflict. Meanwhile, the dysfunctional means that the media can destroy the atmosphere, exacerbate problems, and ignite Encep Dulwahab, Darajat Wibawa, Enjang Muhaemin, Dyah Rahmi Astuti Representation of Religious Conflict in Local Media 257 emotions, causing conflict or prolonging conflict. Dimitra L. Milioni et al. (2015) in their study found that media coverage can have an impact on providing resolution to conflicts in society. Meanwhile, the research results of Richard C. Reuben (2015) showed that conflict news has an impact on individual and public understanding of conflict. In their study about conflict news in Nigeria, Aliyu O. Musa and Neil Ferguson’s (2013) found that media often use hostile and stereotyped terms in reporting on conflicts. Not only that, the Nigerian media also always spreads and teaches hate to its readers and always exacerbates religious conflicts. Research on the media and religious conflict can also be seen in the research of Aliyu Odamah Musa and Muhammad Jameel Yusha’u (2013) which found that news made by CNN and Al Jazeera reporters about events in Boko Haram, are always inaccurate in reporting events. In presenting data, the news tends to be polarized. Meanwhile, Olayinka et al. (2015) focuses on government’s attitude towards the media in reporting on conflicts, the government should invite the media to resolve conflicts because the media can educate the public about how to resolve a conflict. Looking at the results of the research, it is clear that the media is very interested in covering and reporting on conflicts, including religious conflicts. The conflict studied is inter-religious conflict, there is no internal religious conflict itself which is the object of this research, namely how the media presents conflict between Ahmadiyah and religious organizations in West Java. RESEARCH METHOD This study uses the theory of social positioning from Harre and van Langenhove. According to Harre and van Langenhove (1991), the media always represents its news object in two different positions. The media represents or carries out negative constructions regarding the object of the news, or conversely; the media represents positively towards certain individuals or communities in the object of the news (Harre & van Langenhove, 1991; 1999). Therefore, to analyze the news, Ibrahim (2020) suggests that researchers can look at quotes from sources as discourse actors. So the theory of social positioning says that the statements of sources in a news story can be 258 Journal of Islamic World and Politics Vol. 5, No. 2, December 2021 called a means of social positioning (Ibrahim, 2020). This study uses the critical discourse analysis method of Teun A. van Dijk because it can elaborate deeper discourse elements for the text and dismantle the process of making texts (Eriyanto, 2006, p. 221). Then the news that was selected was the news in Pikiran Rakyat in 2010 and 2011, in which there were a total of 15 news stories about the Ahmadiyah. In that year, conflicts occurred in various areas in West Java with the highest frequency compared to the years before or after. This research data collection uses observation techniques, in which the researcher observes news texts about Ahmadiyah news. The observed 15 news items were published from 2010 to 2011. The types of news that were observed were all straight news. The observed news are taken from different pages, on the front page as well as on pages 4 or 5. The researchers analyze how the discourse strategy is used to describe Ahmadiyah. How is the textual strategy used to get rid of or marginalize the Ahmadiyah group and its ideas? To obtain accuracy, the researcher uses linguistic characteristics in reporting on the Ahmadiyah conflict (Eriyanto, 2006, p. 135). Researchers analyze Ahmadiyah news texts by looking at several discourse structures as follow: (1). Thematic, observing how journalists write their main ideas in Ahmadiyah news; (2). Schematic, observing how journalists make news flow from the first paragraph to the last paragraph of Ahmadiyah news; (3). Semantics, observing how journalists make the background of the Ahmadiyah conflict; (4). Syntax: observing how journalists compose words into sentences in Ahmadiyah news; (5). Stylistics, observing how journalists choose words in making news about the Ahmadiyah conflict; (6). Rhetorical, observing how journalists place emphasis on news of the Ahmadiyah conflict (Eriyanto, 2006, pp. 228–229). RESULT AND EXPLANATION Heresy, Forbidden, and Disbandment According to a text analysis of 15 news stories about Ahmadiyah, eight of the stories from Pikiran Rakyat portray Ahmadiyah as a deviant religious organization that is forbidden and must be dissolved. It can be seen in the eight news stories, including: Encep Dulwahab, Darajat Wibawa, Enjang Muhaemin, Dyah Rahmi Astuti Representation of Religious Conflict in Local Media 259 Number Title 1. There are seven heretical sects in Bekasi (October 13, 2011) 2. K a j a r i Ku n i n g a n A s k s Ahmadiyah Manislor to Lower JAI Attributes (April 5, 2011) 3. Bogor Mayor Issues Ahmadiyah Ban Decree (March 5, 2011) 4. Regency Government Seals Ahmadiyah Mosque (July 26, 2011) 5. PPP Requests Ahmadiyah Disbandment (July 5, 2011) 6. Kuningan Muslims Urge Pre- sident to Immediately Disband Ahmadiyah (March 1, 2011) 7. Bekasi City Government Issues Ban on Ahmadiyah (October 13, 2011) 8. Kuningan Muslim Component Asks Ahmadiya h to b e Disbanded (March 27, 2011) Table 1. News of the Pikiran Rakyat stating that Ahmadiyah is a deviant, prohibited organization and must be disbanded. The discourses developed by the editor of Pikiran Rakyat regarding representation of Ahmadiyah can be seen in the languages used in the news, such as Ahmadiyah is heretical, Ahmadiyah is destroying the teachings of Islam, Ahmadiyah is a religious liar, Ahmadiyah has tarnished Islam, and Ahmadiyah deserves to be dissolved. Pikiran Rakyat’s Editor represents Ahmadiyah in its news by labeling Ahmadiyah using those negative words. In this way, the editor of Pikiran Rakyat give their own meaning about religious intolerance to the readers. As Hall (1982) said, the media can make something meaningful, or the media can make meaning for an event, through an active process, starting from the process of sorting, presenting, compiling, and constructing a moment. Pikiran Rakyat, with all the facilities it has, present their meaning about various events including about Ahmadiyah conflict to the reader. With events that have been interpreted by the editors, what the readers get is the interpreted version of reality made by journalists and the editors of Pikiran Rakyat. According to Hall (1997), the process of representing an event or issue in media is carried out by giving a sign, name, or label into that event or issue. Using Hall’s framework (1997, p. 237), it can be understood that the differences in the designations made by the editors of Pikiran Rakyat against Ahmadiyah and various other Islamic organizations are the 260 Journal of Islamic World and Politics Vol. 5, No. 2, December 2021 result of reality construction through language use in the form of binary opposition. Wood (1985) argued that in labeling, there are processes of control, regulation, and arrangement, most of which the makers themselves are not aware of. In this sense, the editors of the Pikiran Rakyat do not realize the detailed process and implication when they quote a news source’s statement, then the statement is packaged in such a way, then published it in the form of news, and then those terms are spread, which then become public consumption. Labeling, or more precisely, tagging, involves power relations. Therefore, marking or labeling makes it easier to address or assign people in certain situations (Hobart, 2007, p. 131). In the case of editor of the Pikiran Rakyat, they mark or label Ahmadiyah community as people who do not have power, so they are used as objects to receive the labeling. The labeling of Ahmadiyah by the editor of Pikiran Rakyat is based on the social positioning theory, according to which Pikiran Rakyat has constructed or described the phenomenon of conflict between Ahmadiyah and the religious community. In this case, the editor of Pikiran Rakyat described the Ahmadiyah as a target group to be portrayed negatively in its news (Harre & van Langenhove, 1991, p. 1999). Giving a name, or more specifically, a symbolic marking of the Ahmadiyah community in the media, experiences intrinsic internalization in the reader (community), who is used to living with various new vocabularies from the media, new values introduced by the media, and various mass cultures that are so popular. dominant so that people no longer have the power to reject it, let alone try to test its truth. The vocabularies and values introduced by the media are considered something natural (naturalized) and present in the midst of society (Bailey & Harindranath, 2010, p. 276). Media-reinforced labeling involves hegemony and rulers, so this labeling occurs as something natural (Wood, 1985, p. 351; Hobart, 2007, p. 131). The editor of Pikiran Rakyat spread various terms as labels for Ahmadiyah, such as terms for blasphemy, deviant sects, and so on, the term became massive and familiar to the public. Hence, the term quickly became ‘commonplace’, and people considered it a natural thing. Using Ludwig Wittgenstein concept (1958, p. 26), the labeling carried out by the Pikiran Rakyat against Ahmadiyah is the same as attaching a stamp to certain objects Encep Dulwahab, Darajat Wibawa, Enjang Muhaemin, Dyah Rahmi Astuti Representation of Religious Conflict in Local Media 261 or goods. The editor of Pikiran Rakyat has frammed Ahmadiyah as an organization with a forbidden label, a blasphemer of religion, a deviant sect, and so on. The labeling carried out by the editor of Pikiran Rakyat can be interpreted as an effort by the editors of Pikiran Rakyat to fight against the representation of Ahmadiyah, which has been going on for a long time. “Representational strategies” and “linguistic terms” that challenge and undermine those familiar expressions are referred to as “counter-representations” by Bayley and Hariandranath (2010, p. 277).  STRONG FACTION VERSUS WEAK FACTION The Editor of Pikiran Rakyat also represents the Ahmadiyah conflict with strong and weak polarizations. The percentage is 80% of the reporting portion of the strong side and 20% of the reporting portion of the weak side in reporting on religious conflicts in the Pikiran Rakyat in 2010 and 2011.   The stronghold that is quite significant in the coverage of the Ahmadiyah in Pikiran Rakyat is seen in including government officials and the majority Islamic organizations. The organizations have a lw ay s ha d d i f fe re nt perspective from Ahmadiyah or even have been in conflicts with the Ahmadiyah. The media give the organizations freedom to express their voices, desires, and complaints about Ahmadiyah. Meanwhile, the Ahmadiyah were given a little space to defend themselves and clarify the accusations against them. In its reporting text, the Ahmadiyah congregation is positioned as a weak stronghold. The Editor of the Pikiran Rakyat did not hesitate to say that the strong majority demanded the local and central government officials disband the Ahmadiyah. Using the title that Ahmadiyah is a deviant sect that deserves to be disbanded, such as in the news, “PPP asks for Ahmadiyah to be disbanded,” “The Muslim Component of Kuningan asks Ahmadiyah to still be disbanded,” and “Muslims in Kuningan urge the president to immediately disband Ahmadiyah.” Among the news stories above, the contents are more likely to invite the majority to fill in the news, compared to those from the Ahmadiyah, who are clearly a minority. The news also shows the hegemony of the majority over the minority. As in the news, “PPP asks for Ahmadiyah to be disbanded.” From the title to the content of this 262 Journal of Islamic World and Politics Vol. 5, No. 2, December 2021 news, it really provokes the readers to carry out acts of violence against the Ahmadiyah congregation as a weak stronghold. Journalists, when making news, have constructed two camps between the majority and the minority. The editors also often agree on the Ahmadiyah report, which positions two camps: the weak and minority Ahmadiyah camps and the larger and stronger camp, namely the stronghold of Islamic community organizations and the government. And in its reporting, the editor of the Pikiran Rakyat prioritizes what the government and Islamic community organizations want over Ahmadiyah. Ibrahim (2020, p. 97) argues that the representation that journalists build as discourse actors when they construct the Ahmadiyah is powerless when contrasted with the voices of dominant and powerful bureaucrats and Islamic community organizations. Journalists and the media have excluded Ahmadiyah as the dominant and powerful group in reporting. UNBALANCED PORTION OF SPEAKERS In representing the Ahmadiyah conflict, the editor of the Pikiran Rakyat presents more sources from the ruling party and the majority than from the Ahmadiyah. In represeting news on Ahmadiyah, approximately 80% of news sources come from government elements and several mainstream Islamic organizations. There are only 20% Ahmadiyah representatives covered in the news.  The principle of objectivity in reporting is non-negotiable. Hafez (2002), in his research, found that there is an agreement between the journalistic cultures of the Middle East and Europe, namely that standards of truth and objectivity must be the central values of journalism. This means that journalists everywhere, when making news, must be in accordance with the reality on the ground and may not support or side with one group. Moreover, when covering conflict, journalists and media must do so in a more objective and balanced way (Demarest et al., 2020). Journalists, when making news, must thoroughly explain the event, not in pieces (Atmakusumah & Atmakusumah, 2009, p. 54) as the fragmented news can be misunderstood by the reader. The editorial side of Pikiran Rakyat’s representation of the Ahmadiyah conflict is quite contrasting. This partisanship Encep Dulwahab, Darajat Wibawa, Enjang Muhaemin, Dyah Rahmi Astuti Representation of Religious Conflict in Local Media 263 certainly violates Article 1 of the Journalistic Code of Ethics regarding independence. Pikiran Rakyat has displayed non-independent works in Ahmadiyah coverage and reporting. What Pikiran Rakyat does is particularly againts the principle of independence journalism as promoted by many experts suach as Kovach and Rosenstiel (2006, p. 122). Yasraf Amir Piliang (2003) viewed that objectivity, justice, covering both sides, and fact- verification are indeed used by journalists and the media, but they are all used and intended for the authorities. Although the authorities did not directly ask for the media’s alignment with them, non-technical factors directed them to do so; such as buying newspapers in large quantities, advertising diligently, giving bonuses to the editors, and so on, which makes the editors rethink if they want to fight them. The existence of a violation of the Journalistic Code of Ethics by the Editor of Pikiran Rakyat when carrying out their duties in reporting the Ahmadiyah conflict was due to the strong economic interests of the media and political power. These two factors make it is not easy for the media to be neutral, independent, fair and objective. It is the economic interests of the media and the power of political power that will change the direction of media policy. Editorial policy in particular cannot be stopped by its shifting orientation, starting from the information conveyed by the media containing the truth to false truth: conveying objective information becomes subjective; representing facts becomes twisting facts; describing reality becomes simulating reality (Piliang, 2004, pp. 133–134). Truth, objectivity, facts, and original reality are all hidden, then replaced with truth, objectivity, facts, and shadow reality. So, it is indeed difficult for journalists to uphold justice and be balanced in every news story. It may be as difficult as keeping the facts accurate (Atmahkusumah & Atmahkusumah, 2009, p. 53). According to Roberto Herrscher (2002, p. 277), it is necessary to have a clear division of this journalistic code of ethics, namely a journalistic code of ethics for media owners, a journalistic code of ethics for the public, and a journalistic code of ethics for professional journalists. Roberto Herrscher suugested that journalists should not violate the code of ethics. However, this advice will be difficult to put into practice because the news production 264 Journal of Islamic World and Politics Vol. 5, No. 2, December 2021 process will involve many people, so it requires a universal code of ethics that is not partial. Journalists play the most imp or t ant and v isible role in repres enting Ahmadiyah. Me anw h i l e , j ou r n a l i s t s are influenced by various factors that weigh in on how strong they are, so they cannot fight back. Journalists are shaped by their social environment, influenced by ideology and politics, and some are openly influenced by their religion, as stated by Akbarzadeh and Smith (2005, p. 36). These factors influence their mindset and drive them to work as journalists in the newsroom. As a result, Muttaqin (2012) shows that the media tend to report on religion from the perspective of one religious school or sect. The media can sometimes enter and become a part of certain religious groups, or it can become opposed to certain religious groups and be outside of them.  Hall (1982, p. 148) asserted that news is a product of human formation that has been trained and bound in a press institution—in the context of a certain space and time, in a certain society and culture, in a certain set of cultural values and political economy, making it difficult for journalists free from intervention and for journalists who are sterile or untouched by the social and cultural environment in which journalists work. Therefore, it is not surprising that there is a bias in the representation of news about the Ahmadiyah conflict in the Pikiran Rakyat. HOW TO RESOLVE THE CONFLICTS Pikiran Rakyat also represents ways to resolve the Ahmadiyah conflict and efforts to reduce the Ahmadiyah conflict in their reporting. As listed in Table 2, there are more or less six news reports that explicitly and clearly explain how the editors of Pikiran Rakyat also participate in reducing conflicts and resolving disputes between Ahmadiyah and Islamic community organizations and government officials that are motivated by opposing religious sects or beliefs. Number Title 1. Muhammadiyah and NU Initiative to Resolve Ahmadiyah Conflict (March 8, 2011) 2. FUHS Conducts Peaceful Action (June 9, 2010) 3. NU Elders throughout the Cirebon Region will Respond to Ahmadiyah (March 2, 2011) Encep Dulwahab, Darajat Wibawa, Enjang Muhaemin, Dyah Rahmi Astuti Representation of Religious Conflict in Local Media 265 4. A h m a d i y a h R e p e n t a n c e Eliminates Conflict (March 16, 2011) 5. Kapolda Asks All Parties to Retain (July 28, 2010) 6. Violence is a Crime (April 21, 2011) Table 2. News of the Pikiran Rakyat that participate in reducing conflicts and resolving disputes between Ahmadiyah and Islamic community organizations and government officials. The Ahmadiyah conflict as a reality that becomes news material in the Pikiran Rakyat is presented in several news stories that are different from other news stories. Starting with news source statements and descriptions, although in this news, news sources are still dominated by people with influence or authority. However, the messages conveyed by news sources mostly make readers aware of the importance of maintaining ukhuwah Islamiyah; readers are aware that even violence will not solve problems; and differences do not have to lead to divisions among fellow citizens. Here, the editor of Pikiran Rakyat, as an influential and popular media in West Java, can help the government in resolving the Ahmadiyah conflict. In this sense, it is relevant to look at study from Olayinka et al. (2015) which suggests that the parties’ state apparatus should be willing to accept the position and role of the media, starting with reporting and teaching the public about resolving conflicts. When the government is aware of this role, it can maximize the media to convey messages of peace. The Editor of Pikiran Rakyat can be a medium to reduce the Ahmadiyah conflict; on the other hand, it can also exacerbate the Ahmadiyah conflict. It can be seen in the reports in other news texts that the editor of Pikiran Rakyat uses the term “disbandment,” which indirectly can trigger mass action to commit anarchy. However, as in the news of conflict resolution, the editor of Pikiran Rakyat can quell the emotions of the masses. According to the findings of a study conducted by Christiany Juditha (2011); Elizabeth and McCabe (2010); Keum, et al. (2005); Nelson, et al. (1997); Lee Marsden and Heather Savingny (2009, pp. 158-157), Manan, et al. (2014 p. 38); and Dimitra L. Milioni et al. (2015 p. 240), the media has the capital and role to promote peace and reduce conflict. On the other hand, it can play a dysfunctional 266 Journal of Islamic World and Politics Vol. 5, No. 2, December 2021 role, i.e., exacerbate problems and trigger emotions so that conflicts arise. Richard C. Reuben (2015, p. 80) states that reporting on conflict has an impact on the public’s understanding of conflict. If the media is wrong in presenting conflict to the public sphere, then the conflict can last forever. On the other hand, if the media can create awareness among the people in conflict, the conflict can be quickly resolved. Howe ver, t he e ditor of Pikiran Rakyat and the conflict are inextricably linked. Conflict issues are still a source of news that has high appeal. The Ahmadiyah conflict in West Java is no exception. However, no matter how strong the editors of Pikiran Rakyat’s interest in conflict is, it is best not to make it a source of news with news that destroys the harmony and peace of religious life. As Dimitra L. Milioni Vaia Doudaki et al. (2015) note, conflict in society comes in various forms, so this conflict is of great interest to the media. Yet, do not let these conflicts be presented in the media in a confrontational way with a less interesting goal. It is better to present this conflict by taking into account the elements of its impact on the news. CONCLUSION Based on the discussion of this study, there are four important and interesting notes related to the representation of religious conflicts in Pikiran Rakyat. First, in representing the Ahmadiyah conf lict, the Pikiran R akyat indirectly states that Ahmadiyah is a sect that is heretical, forbidden, and must be disbanded. The Pikiran Rakyat is doing so by quoting statements from sources and regulations from the government that clearly and unequivocally state that Ahmadiyah is heretical and misleading, is prohibited from carrying out various activities, and must be disbanded. Second, Pikiran Rakyat represents the Ahmadiyah conflict by positioning two different camps. The strong faction consists of the majority, such as community organizations that receive support from the government; meanwhile, the weak faction consists of Ahmadiyah community, which is weak and does not receive support from anywhere. Third, Pikiran Rakyat represents sources in every report on the Ahmadiyah conflict in an unequal manner. Pikiran Rakyat quoted many sources from elements of the government and society who were Encep Dulwahab, Darajat Wibawa, Enjang Muhaemin, Dyah Rahmi Astuti Representation of Religious Conflict in Local Media 267 anti-Ahmadiyah. Meanwhile, the representation of the Ahmadiyah community itself is very small. Fourth, Pikiran Rakyat also represents ways of resolving the Ahmadiyah conflict in its news. Although there is little news, Pikiran Rakyat provides a strategy that was successfully carried out by the ulemas in resolving the Ahmadiyah conflict. In reporting the Ahmadiyah conflict, Pikiran Rakyat should not use a normative approach in carrying out its duties but can use a solution journalism or peace journalism approach. Therefore, it would be interesting for future studies to use a solution journalism approach so that the role of journalism gets stronger in resolving conflicts and maintaining peace. BIBLIOGRAPHY Book Akbarzadeh, S. & Smith, B. (2005). The Representation of Islam and Muslims in the Media: The Age and Herald Sun Newspapers. Monash University: School of Political and Social Inquiry. Atmakusumah, H. & Atmakusumah, P. (2009). Jurnalistik: teori dan praktik. Bandung: Remaja Rosdakarya. Croteau, D. & Hoynes, W. (1997). Media/Society : Industr ies, Images, and Audiences. 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