Framing Village Funds: A Corpus Linguistic Analysis of Online News Media and Academic Publication

This study investigated the framing of Indonesia's Village Fund (Dana Desa) program (2015-2024) in online news and Academic publications, aiming to identify thematic differences and analyze the resulting agenda-setting networks. Corpus analysis is employed in this study because it facilitates comparisons between various sources, highlighting differences in framing and emphasis. By utilizing corpus linguistic analysis on a dataset comprising 137 news articles and 260 academic abstracts, we applied frequency, concordance, and collocation analyses to identify key terms and their relationships.. Findings revealed that online news emphasized corruption cases and the role of village heads, while Academic publications focused on governance, accountability, community empowerment, and program effectiveness. These distinct yet interconnected themes illustrate how different information sources affect public perception of the program's success, emphasizing complementary networks where media narratives regarding corruption reveal shortcomings in discussions of academic accountability. This research advances the application of corpus linguistics, where it is now possible to construct mixed corpora and textual materials from a range of sources (McEnery and Hardie 2011), particularly through the use of collocation networks to understand the complex interplay between media, academia, and public discourse surrounding development policy, as well as its potential broader implications.