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Abstract

The trend of human rights violations in the digital era affects social life and the media as a space for discourses on human rights. Grounded upon the changing condition of the media in the digital era, two issues are addressed in the current study. First, how do human rights issues affect the stance of online media editorial departments, including their editorial policies in producing news? Second, what approaches do online media take to news production, particularly on privacy violations and freedom of expression? This study aims to acquire a comprehensive description of media content and editorial policies in producing news on human rights in the digital era. A qualitative study was conducted on local online media outlets in Yogyakarta, namely Tribunjogja.com and Mojok.co, from 2019 to 2024. We interviewed the media’s editorial departments, qualitatively analyzed their news content, and carried out observations. We used concepts such as communication rights, thematic and episodic news, and deinstitutionalization to interpret the study’s findings. The research findings show that each media outlet tried to respond to the situation of human rights by publishing news that tended to be episodic and comment-based reporting and writing. Incidents relating to violating privacy and freedom of expression were not perceived as a pattern or a part of a bigger series of events. Such practices can distort the public’s ability to view human rights issues holistically while undermining the growth of space for criticism.

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