A Quantitative Text Analysis Approach on LGBTQ Issues in Contemporary Indonesia

This paper seeks to clarify how the major online media reports Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning or Queer (LGBTQ) issues in contemporary Indonesia. LGBTQ issues are a dividing factor within the Muslim community of contemporary Indonesia. Indonesia, with the largest Muslim population, is suffocated with criticism against LGBTQ. Major debates on Indonesian LGBTQ issues in precedent literature are from the anthropological perspective, focusing on how individuals identify or recognize themselves in society, with little discussed from a quantitative point of view. Thus, this paper aims to clarify, by using quantitative text analysis, the tones of online media about LGBTQ issues among four major online media news agencies in Indonesia; Republika, Kompas, Detik, and Antara. Specifically, regression analysis, using the ordinary least squares (OLS) model, was applied to verify the hypotheses from LGBTQ-related article texts published in these major online media platforms. This analysis showed that it is not only Islamic media or national media fueling the negative reporting tone of LGBTQ issues, but also online media with the largest number of readers and visitors among Indonesians.