REPRESENTATION OF THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN PHOTOJOURNALISM ON INSTAGRAM @REPUBLIKAFOTO (STUDY OF PHOTOGRAPHY SEMIOTICS ANALYSIS)

Abstract

One year has a COVID-19 pandemic event hit Indonesia, including countries around the world which has an impact on various sectors of human life. The incident did not escape the record of a photojournalist into the form of photojurnalism published on Instagram @republikafoto as an account of official reporting Republika photo. Photojournalism as a medium of visual messages from a COVID-19 pandemic event are not fully empty messages without the meaning of the codes or signs made by a photojournalist and the media where they work. The purpose of this study was to find out how the representation of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in photojournalism in the Instagram account @republikafoto the construction of photojournalists. Using the constructivist paradigm with interpretative descriptive research methods and photo analysis using Roland Barthes photographic semiotic analysis which was fixed on the two-stage significance. The conclusions obtained that one year the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that hit Indonesia was not a mere myth, but it was true as the photographs of the journalistic that reported the reality of the fact of the COVID-19 pandemic incident at the the Saung Angklung Udjo traditional cultural performing arts tourist spot, Bandung City, West Java. In denotation the impact represented by the lack of visitors. In connotation illustrates the silence of traditional angklung music performances. And in the myth of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic not only revenue decreases but can still survive with virtual tourism innovations.

Keywords: Photography Semiotics, Photojournalism, Roland Barthes, COVID-19 Pandemic, Instagram Account