Aleph, UCLA Undergraduate Research Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Studies of evictions in Jakarta often focus on the evictions process, its impacts, and the justifications given by the Jakarta administration. However, these studies often fail to discuss the role that the Indonesian mass media plays in facilitating the discussion surrounding evictions. To address this gap in research, we use a traditional qualitative discourse analysis and Wordle, a visualization tool, to analyze The Jakarta Post’s news articles over a twenty-year period. From this analysis, we conclude that evictions in Jakarta are justified by a need to dredge rivers, that replacement housing remains a common form of compensation, and that resistance methods increasingly involve legal means. Furthermore, we offer a step towards understanding the past and current state of evictions in Jakarta.