Transitivity system of the lexemes “development”, “growth”, and “sustainability” in the mass media regarding the relocation of the Indonesian capital city: An ecological discourse analysis

Abstract

Background: The development, growth, and sustainability of relocating Indonesia’s national capital have become ecological crisis phenomena, making language use in mass media crucial for shaping the public perception of environmental issues. This study aims to analyze the transitivity system of the lexical items “development,” “growth,” and “sustainability” in mass media coverage of the relocation of Indonesia’s national capital. Methods: This study employs a mixed-methods design. The data consist of words and clauses sourced from news articles about the relocation of Indonesia’s national capital in media outlets Kompas.com for the years 2023–2024. Data were collected using Octoparse and Bootcat and subsequently analyzed with AntConc 4.3.1. A total of 974 articles were obtained, comprising 294,169 tokens. Concordances containing the lexemes “development,” “growth,” and “sustainability” were analyzed using transitivity theory within the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) framework of Halliday and Matthiessen (2014). Findings: The results indicate a prevalence of material processes that foreground actions and events. The findings also reveal a dominance of non-natural resource entities as the source domain and passive participants in clauses. This transitivity pattern reflects eco-ambivalent discourse grounded in the eco-philosophy principle of “recognition of rights for all parties,” which represents an anthropocentric perspective. Conclusion: The findings reveal how Kompas.com mass media express the experiences and perspectives of stakeholders in an ambivalent manner regarding the relocation of the national capital. Novelty: The study’s novelty lies in the lexeme “development,” in the use of Kompas.com news from 2023–2024 as the object of analysis, and in the integration of diverse data-processing tools.