Mass Media’s Racist Reportage about Russian Invasion of Ukraine: Orientalism Study

This study discusses the mass media’s racist report about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This research is analyzed by using Orientalism. This study uses qualitative methods supported by the data from some mass media like CBS, Al-Jazeera, Hareetz.com


INTRODUCTION
The Russian Invasion of Ukraine received a lot of attention from the world so many media covered it. There are so many mass media that show their support for Ukraine considering the large number of casualties. Some of those mass media are CBS, Al-Jazeera, Haaretz.com, and Channel 4 News. CBS is an American television distribution company owned by CBS Studio as a part of CBS entertainment group. It is a division of Paramount Global. Paramount delivers premium content to audiences across platforms worldwide including CBS News which gives the latest news to the audiences (www.paramount.com). Besides CBS, Al-Jazeera is another media that also announced the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to its official website (www.aljazeera.com), Al Jazeera is an independent news organization funded in part by the Qatari government. In 2006, Al Jazeera Satellite Network was changed to a public utility, private corporation by a public memorandum and articles of association in accordance with the provisions of Qatar Law No. 21 of 2006, and was re-named "Al Jazeera Media Network". Al Jazeera Arabic was the first independent news channel in the Arab world dedicated to providing comprehensive news and live debate launched in 1996. Al Jazeera English, which was launched in 2006, is part of a growing network comprising more than 10 channels and divisions. Next, according to its website (www.hareetz.com), Haaretz is the online English edition of Hareetz newspaper in Israel. It is an independent daily newspaper with a broadly liberal outlook on domestic issues and on international affairs. Hareetz has an important role in shaping public opinion and is read for government decision-making. Furthermore, Channel 4 News is the main news program on British Television and the highest television program in the United Kingdom. Channel 4 News is made for Channel 4 by ITN and is a publicly-owned and commercially-funded UK public service broadcaster (www.channel4.com ). These media reported the Russian Invasion of Ukraine by using (Kajian Orientalisme) written by Irvina Restu Handayani (2018) also discuss racism, especially the physical assessment Hinobe gave to people outside Japan based on the special characteristics that show which nation the person is from. Hinobe, shows that every human being, whatever nation he comes from, has a good attitude and a bad attitude, no one is in a lower or higher position, opposite to orientalism. Furthermore, he also believes that anyone can get knowledge despite their background identity. In addition, Representasi Orientalisme dalam Film The Man Who Knew Infinity written by Abrar et al in 2017 also discuss the West's power in the fight against the East. It also focuses on how denotation and connotation meaning and also Orientalism myth are depicted in this movie. Therefore, this study seeks to capture the mass media's racist reportage on the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has not been discussed before on the research above. This study also emphasizes the marginalization of the East and highlights the superiority of the West.

METHOD
The method used in this research is a qualitative study with the Orientalism theory by Edward Said. The data collection is done by using documentation and discourse analysis. The writer focuses on the narration of the reportages that depicted racism and ethnocentrism. The writer writes the narration of the reportages down. Then, it continued with finding some information about the mass media that give racist narration and show unfair treatment which are CBS, Al-Jazeera, Haaretz, and Channel 4 News. It is completed by reading some books, either printed or electronic books about the theory used in this research.
The media reportage is seen as the text consisting of the narration of the reporter about the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. The steps in analyzing the data are observing the narration, especially in describing the West, said by the reporters, and capturing unfair treatment towards the Blacks as Ukraine refugees. After that, the writer writes the narration of the reporters that contains racism and behavior of unfair treatment. Then, the writer analyses every part of those racist narrations and behavior of unfair treatment by using Orientalism theory.

The West as The Civilized
The depiction of the West as Civilized can be seen in the statement of a CBS reporter-Charlie D'Agata-about bout the refugee of Ukraine on February 25, 2022 "It is not like Iraq, Afghanistan. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European. City where you would not expect or hope that it is going to happen." By his statement, it can be said that Iraq and Afghanistan are uncivilized countries and their people are uncultured that it is normal for them if there are wars in their countries. He also said that "But this is not a place, with all due respect, you know like Iraq and Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades." In other words, people in in Iraq and Afghanistan more deserve hundreds of bombs. They deserve to be killed and attacked because there have always been conflicted for many years. In contrast, Ukraine is part of Europe where the people are civilized and cultured and it makes them do not deserve to be attacked and bombed, in this case, by Russia. Said (2003) said that the relationship between the West and Occident is a relationship of power, of domination, of varying degrees of a complex hegemony (pp 4). The statement of CBS reporter above also contains hegemony which everything that is good like civilized always related to the West and the opposites belongs to the East like Iraq and Afghanistan. Ashcroft and Kadhim (2001) also added that -it refers to, but does not document, the material effects on the colonized of those techniques which construct them as inferior, dehumanized, and infantilized (pp 97). From the quotation above, it can be said that the past colonization affects the East by believing that they are inferior, backward, and even dehumanized, in contrast, the West is superior and civilized hence they have higher

The West as a Priority
There is racial discrimination against Black people during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There are a lot of Black students and foreigners in Ukraine that also need to be evacuated. In fact, the government made them wait longer than the White people to be evacuated. According to Channel 4 News, the Black students had come out via Hungary by walking for hours in order to avoid Ukrainian polish border exit points to the West. The Ukrainian border guard said that the policy was one foreigner allowed through for every ten Ukrainians. In fact, the White foreigner is in the same queue as the White people. They were separated in the queue between the White people and the Black people. They were also treated differently. Based on the news above, it can be said that the West is the priority to be saved and evacuated. In another word, White people's lives are more valuable than those of Blacks. It can be seen through this quotation, "Nigerian embassy officials are here for example transporting hundreds of people to Budapest mainly students who have been walking for days… Victor first went to the polish border with Ukraine to the west but says he was told by Ukrainian border guide that the policy was one foreigner allowed through for every ten Ukrainians." It is fine to make the Black students and people walk further and wait longer as long as the Whites are safe. Furthermore, the unequal treatment is clearly seen through the separated queue. The way the White people govern the Black people indicates that racism and discrimination still happen even during the war. Humanity is not the main reason to save people's lives and it is based on skin color instead. It is in line with Said's (2003) class, court, prison, or manual for scrutiny, study, judgment, discipline, or governing" (pp 41). According to the quotation above, the way the White people treated the Black people in Ukraine indicates that the Black people needed to be disciplined and governed by White people even though it means that they were unfairly treated. The White people acted like the ones who taught the Black how to be orderly and disciplined by separating the queue and suspending the evacuation. The Black must accept those discriminations and obey those policies if they want to survive. They have no power or chance to fight and defend their pride.

CONCLUSION
Mass media can be the medium to both spread and maintain the ideological construction to the audiences' minds. It can be seen through the narration of those mass media that give to the audience. Based on the research that has been done above, The Footage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine also tries to perpetuate the depiction of the West as superior to the East. These reportages show the depiction of the West as 1) civilized; 2) prosperous, middle class, and well-dressed; 3) intelligent and educated; 4) priority. All of the depictions of the West above affect the audiences by internalizing them in their mind, starting to agree with and believe them. As an effect, the East will consider themselves inferior and believe that they have to depend on the West or it can be said that the West has more power than the East. All those cycles will strengthen the belief of the West as the most superior nation among the other nations. These beliefs will lead to racism and ethnocentrism in the West. It is suggested to discuss racism and ethnocentrism in the Russian invasion of Ukraine by using another theory and approach.