Media Representations of Urban Poverty in Jakarta and Manila: A Comparative Sociological Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26740/jsm.v10n1.p224-242Keywords:
media representation, urban poverty, comparative sociologyAbstract
Urban poverty remains one of the most persistent social challenges in Southeast Asia, yet its portrayal in mainstream media often shapes public understanding and policy responses in unequal ways. While current scholarship acknowledges the media’s role in marginalization, there is a distinct lack of comparative research that details how divergent macro-level political economies produce specific, localized journalistic practices concerning the urban poor. This study addresses this gap by examining news and digital media in Jakarta and Manila, two megacities that embody contrasting trajectories of postcolonial urban development. Drawing on comparative sociological and critical discourse analyses, the research investigates narratives, visual framing, and thematic emphases across leading platforms between 2020 and 2025. Using mixed methods—including content analysis, interviews, and audience studies—the paper uncovers how journalistic practices produce different frames, ranging from moralized depictions of the poor as "responsible citizens" to structural critiques of inequality. Findings reveal that Jakarta’s media normalizes poverty through developmentalist frames, whereas Manila’s media emphasizes resilience. Ultimately, this paper moves beyond descriptive comparison to advance a theoretical framework for the 'mediatization of urban marginality.' The study contributes to the political economy of communication by theorizing how journalistic routines and local governance structures co-produce neoliberal subjectivities, transforming structural urban inequality into individual moral narratives.
References
Ananda, M. F. S., A. R. Nugraha, and S. Sumartias. 2019. “Analisis framing pemberitaan korupsi massal di media online detik.com.” Jurnal Studi Komunikasi 3(2):253. https://doi.org/10.25139/jsk.v3i2.1464.
Armando, Ade. 2014. “The greedy giants: Centralized television in post-authoritarian Indonesia.” International Communication Gazette. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748048514524106.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1998. On television. Translated by P. P. Ferguson. New York, NY: The New Press.
Bustos, M., L. L. Lau, S. I. Kirkpatrick, J. A. Dubin, H. Manguerra, and W. Dodd. 2023. “Examining the association between household enrollment in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and wasting and stunting status among children experiencing poverty in the Philippines: A cross-sectional study.” Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health 35(6–7):420–428. https://doi.org/10.1177/10105395231189570.
de la Cruz Paragas, F., and T. T. C. Lin. 2016. “Organizing and reframing technological determinism.” New Media & Society 18(8):1528–1546. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814562156.
Dobbs, S., and K. S. Loh. 2023. “The origins of urban renewal in Singapore: A transnational history.” Journal of Urban History 49(1):60–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/0096144220985521.
Dougherty, D. 2005. The content analysis guidebook. Organizational Research Methods.
Entman, Robert M. 1993. “Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm.” Journal of Communication 43(4):51–58.
Escobar, Arturo. 2011. Encountering development: The making and unmaking of the Third World. Princeton University Press.
Fairclough, Norman. 2001. “Critical discourse analysis as a method in social scientific.” Pp. in
Methods of critical discourse analysis, edited by R. Wodak and M. Meyer. London: Sage.
Fairclough, Norman. 2001. Language and power. Pearson Education.
Fairclough, Norman. 2003. Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research.
Psychology Press.
Freire, M., and R. Stren. 2001. The challenge of urban government: Policies and practices.
World Bank Institute.
Garrido, Marco Z. 2019. The patchwork city: Class, space, and politics in Metro Manila.
University of Chicago Press.
Gazali, Effendi. 2003. “Negotiating public and community media in post-Suharto Indonesia.”
Javnost. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2003.11008823.
Goyena, M. N. N. G. 2022. “Filipino diasporic identity and space as mediated by ABS-CBN News Channel.” Southeast Asian Media Studies 17.
Gramsci, Antonio. 1971. “The modern prince.” Pp. 123–205 in Selections from the prison notebooks.
Guilleminot, C. 2023. “Information poverty and small worlds in Ibirapitá plan users.”
Informatio 28(1):437–454.
Hafiudzan, A., D. Kusumaningrum, and P. Prasetyoputra. 2024. “Who gets the most? Study of housing clustering and its relation to urban public transport accessibility in Jakarta.” Pp. 33–43 in Geoinformation Science Symposium.
Hall, Stuart. 1981. “The whites of their eyes: Racist ideologies and the media.” Pp. 28–52 in
Silver linings: Some strategies for the eighties.
Handayani, N. S., E. Huriyati, and M. Hasanbasri. 2023. “Association of maternal education with nutritional outcomes of poor children with stunting in Indonesia.” Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health 35(5):373–380.
Hernandez, A. A., R. A. Juanatas, V. J. C. Escolano, and M. D. E. Elvambuena. 2022. “Mobile payments adoption in small and medium retail enterprises.” Pp. 237–242 in International Conference on Business and Industrial Research.
Hjorth, L., and M. Arnold. 2011. “The personal and the political: Social networking in Manila.”
International Journal of Learning and Media.
Janssen, K. M. J., P. Mulder, and M. H. Yudhistira. 2022. “Spatial sorting of rich versus poor people in Jakarta.” Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies 58(2):167–194.
Jelinek, G. 1992. “Aspects of density in urban and residential planning for JaBoTaBek.”
Trialog.
Kataoka, M., and A.-I. T. Darangina. 2023. “Imperial Manila syndrome in poverty reduction.”
Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science 7(1):1–28.
Kevin, E. Cahill. 2017. “The relative effectiveness of the minimum wage and the earned income tax credit as anti-poverty tools.” Journal of Religions 8(69):1–17.
Kitley, P. 2000. “Television, nation, and culture in Indonesia.” Media International Australia.
Krippendorff, Klaus. 2018. Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Sage.
Kusaka, W., and A. Marie Karaos. 2017. “Moral politics in the Philippines.” Contemporary Southeast Asia.
Lewis, H. T., and W. H. Scott. 1998. Barangay: Sixteenth-century Philippine culture and society.
Lombard, M., J. Snyder-Duch, and C. C. Bracken. 2002. “Content analysis in mass communication.” Human Communication Research.
McChesney, Robert W. 2016. Rich media, poor democracy. The New Press.
Mittal, S., T. Yabe, F. Arroyo, and S. Ukkusuri. 2023. “Linking poverty-based inequalities with transportation.” Transportation Research Record 2677(3):668–682.
Miyamoto, M. 2020. “Poverty reduction saves forests sustainably.” World Development
127:104746.
Ogena, N. 2012. Social survey on Muslim migrants in Metro Manila. Waseda University. Ong, Aihwa. 2010. Spirits of resistance and capitalist discipline. SUNY Press.
Ong, A. K. S., Y. T. Prasetyo, F. C. Lagura, et al. 2023. “Determining tricycle service quality.”
Cities 137:104339.
Ong, J. C. 2015. “The television of intervention.” Pp. in Television histories in Asia. Pacoma, M. A. 2019. “Environmental realities.” Jurnal Studi Komunikasi.
Pacoma, M. A. 2020. “Mapping the ‘home’.” Jurnal Studi Komunikasi 4(2):259.
Putri, A., L. Bessie, J. Anabelle, and T. Herwanto. 2025. “Sustainable solutions to poverty.”
KnE Social Sciences 10(15):164–181.
Ronaghi, M., and E. Scorsone. 2024. “The impact of governance on poverty.” Journal of Poverty 28(4):318–338.
Sampurna, A., F. Indra, and A. Fandhy. 2024. “Media baru: Tren berita provokatif.” Jurnal Studi Komunikasi 8(1):207–216.
Sanglay, G. G., and R. G. Abanto. 2024. “Evaluating poverty-alleviating programs in Asia.”
International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation 11(1):166–190.
Savirani, A., and E. Aspinall. 2017. “Adversarial linkages.” Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 36(3):3–34.
Sepe, B. H. 2019. “Group wary of discrimination.” ABS-CBN News.
Sienkiewicz, M., and M. L. Wayne. 2023. “Minority representation in the streaming era.”
International Journal of Cultural Studies 26(2):145–163.
Silverstone, Roger. 2013. Media and morality. Wiley.
Siriyuvasak, U. 2005. “People’s media and communication rights.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies
6(2).
Susilo, D. 2017. “Facing the Indonesian media conglomeration.” Jurnal Kajian Media.
Susilo, D., and M. Primatama. 2018. “City architecture as the production of urban culture.”
Jurnal Humaniora.
Susilo, D., R. Sugihartati, and R. R. T. Santos. 2023. “Muslim minority in Manila.” Al-Jami’ah
61(2):419–440.
Sutanto, A., D. Nugroho, and H. Sjamsir. 2017. “Bureaucracy reformation management.”
Journal of Social Sciences Research.
Thompson, E. C. 2007. Unsettling absences. National University of Singapore Press.
Triary Hardy, M., and D. Susilo. 2022. “Jakarta’s urban culture representation.” Simulacra
5(1):29–43.
Utami, N. A., A. W. Wijayanto, S. Pramana, and E. T. Astuti. 2023. “Spatially granular poverty index.” Earth Science Informatics 16(4):3531–3544.
Wilson, I. 2019. “Urban poor activism.” Pp. 99 in Activists in transition.
Xu, N., and C. Li. 2023. “Migration and rural sustainability.” Sustainability 15(7):6248. Zulfiningrum, R. 2014. “Spasialisasi dan praktik konglomerasi media.” Jurnal ASPIKOM.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 The Journal of Society and Media
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract views: 14
,
PDF Downloads: 15
