Media, Political Power, and Social Harm: A Critical Criminological Perspective on Indonesian Political Narratives

Abstract

Media institutions play a significant role in shaping political realities, influencing public perceptions of legitimacy, authority, and social order. While conventional criminology focuses primarily on legally defined crime, critical criminology broadens the scope of analysis to include structural inequalities, power relations, and forms of harm that may be lawful yet socially damaging. Despite growing scholarly attention to media power and political communication, the relationship between media narratives and social harm remains insufficiently explored within critical criminological scholarship, particularly in the context of Indonesia. Using critical criminology as the primary theoretical framework, this article examines how political narratives are constructed, circulated, and legitimised through media discourse. The analysis is supported by insights from zemiology, state crime theory, and media capture theory to explore how media institutions may contribute to the production, normalisation, and concealment of social harm within democratic settings. Particular attention is given to the ways media representations shape public understandings of legitimacy, justice, accountability, and political authority. The discussion argues that media narratives are not neutral reflections of reality but contested sites where power is exercised and negotiated. Through processes of framing, selection, and omission, media discourse can reinforce dominant political interests, marginalise alternative perspectives, and obscure broader forms of social harm. At the same time, media institutions may also function as spaces of resistance by challenging dominant narratives and amplifying critical voices. This article contributes to critical criminological scholarship by proposing an integrated analytical framework that connects Critical Criminology, Zemiology, State Crime Theory, and Media Capture Theory to explain how media narratives participate in the production, legitimisation, and concealment of social harm. By moving beyond legal definitions of wrongdoing, the study demonstrates that media function not merely as channels of political communication but as institutional actors capable of shaping public understandings of legitimacy, accountability, and structural harm within contemporary democratic societies.