A Teun A. van Dijk Model Discourse Analysis of BBC News Indonesia's Coverage of the 'No Viral, No Justice' Phenomenon

This research analyses the discursive construction of “no viral, no justice” in BBC News Indonesia’s coverage through Teun A. van Dijk’s critical discourse analysis. A qualitative approach examines text, social cognition, and social context. The object is BBC News Indonesia’s article on the rescue of Chinese actor Wang Xing from an online scam centre in Myanmar. The article is purposively selected as a critical single case because it uses “no viral, no justice” as its headline frame, presents a sequence from institutional non-response to viral-driven intervention and structural critique, and connects a transnational case to Indonesian audiences, including Indonesia among victim-origin countries. This single-case design supports analytical, not statistical, generalisation. At textual level, BBC News Indonesia moves from an individual victim’s story toward structural critique, legitimising digital virality as an informal instrument of law enforcement. At social cognition level, journalists perceive virality as symptomatic of formal institutions’ failure to respond promptly and effectively. At the social context level, the reporting reflects social media’s growing role as a mechanism of social control capable of pressuring state institutions. The study concludes that BBC News Indonesia does not merely report events but ideologically frames “no viral, no justice” as a critique of the formal legal system’s limitations and unequal access to justice, which increasingly depends on visibility and popularity in the digital sphere.