Evolution of the Grand Narrative of the Climate Crisis in the President's State of the Nation Address
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.38035/gijlss.v4i2.1028Keywords:
Climate Change, State address, Fantasy theme analysisAbstract
The construction of the climate crisis narrative in the state addresses of the Presidents of the Republic of Indonesia for the 2001–2024 period uses the Fantasy Theme Analysis (FTA) approach within the Fantasy Theme Analysis (FTA) framework. This study aims to reveal how the state constructs meaning about climate change through dramatic elements such as scenes, characters, and plots in state addresses and how these narrative changes reflect the dynamics of environmental politics in Indonesia. The method used is qualitative interpretative with text analysis of approximately twenty state addresses from the eras of Megawati Soekarnoputri, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and Joko Widodo. The results show a significant shift in the construction of the climate crisis narrative in each leadership period. In the Megawati era, environmental issues were positioned as ecological vulnerabilities in the context of national recovery. In the SBY era, the narrative evolved into climate leadership that positioned Indonesia as a global actor in environmental diplomacy. Meanwhile, in the Jokowi era, climate issues were integrated into the green pragmatism narrative oriented towards economic transformation and industrial downstreaming. This shift shows that the issue of climate change is not static, but rather is politically constructed according to development priorities and government legitimacy strategies. This study concludes that the state address serves not only as a medium for policy communication but also as an instrument for shaping rhetorical visions that influence how the public understands the climate crisis. Thus, Fantasy Theme Analysis (FTA) proves relevant for studying environmental political communication in developing countries, particularly in examining the relationship between narrative, power, and policy legitimacy.
References
Astari, D. W., Agustina, D. P., & Nurussa’adah, E. (2024). Symbolic Reality Construction of the K-Pop Community on Twitter. Interaksi: Jurnal Ilmu Komunikasi, 13(1), 152–168. https://doi.org/10.14710/interaksi.13.1.152-168
Erbaugh, J. T., Chang, C. H., Masuda, Y. J., & Ribot, J. (2024). Communication and Deliberation for Environmental Governance. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 49(1), 367–393. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-112321-082450
Fatkhullah, M., Mulyani, I., Dewi, A. S., Habib, M. A. F., & Reihan, A. (2023). Strategi komunikasi dalam mengatasi perubahan iklim melalui pelibatan masyarakat. Jurnal Komunikasi Pembangunan, 21(1), 17–33. https://doi.org/10.46937/21202341909
Gaborit, P. (2022). Climate adaptation to Multi-Hazard climate related risks in ten Indonesian Cities: Ambitions and challenges. Climate Risk Management, 37(August), 100453. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2022.100453
Gjerstad, Ø., & Fløttum, K. (2021). Climate change lifestyle narratives among Norwegian citizens: A linguistic analysis of survey discourse. European Policy Analysis, 7(S2), 386–404. https://doi.org/10.1002/epa2.1122
Istiani, A. N., & Mansyur, M. (2022). Analysis Of Communication Media Assistance On The Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH) In The Implementation Of Family Development Session (FDS)”. Komunika, 5(1), 33–48. https://doi.org/10.24042/komunika.v5i1.11303
Khairul Syafuddin. (2025). Dynamics of Environmental Issues in Indonesia: Critical Discourse Analysis of the #perubahaniklim Digital Campaign Through TikTok. Mediakita, 9(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.30762/mediakita.v9i1.2752
Luthfiyani, P. W., & Murhayati, S. (2024). Strategi Memastikan Keabsahan Data Dalam Penelitian Kualitatif. Jurnal Pendidikan Tambusai, 8(3), 45315–45328. https://jptam.org/index.php/jptam/article/view/21803
Megawati Soekarnoputri. (2001). Pidato Kenegaraan Presiden Republik Indonesia dalam Sidang DPR RI 16 Agustus 2001. Sekretariat Negara Republik Indonesia.
Morris, B. S., Chrysochou, P., Christensen, J. D., Orquin, J. L., Barraza, J., Zak, P. J., & Mitkidis, P. (2019). Stories vs. facts: triggering emotion and action-taking on climate change. Climatic Change, 154(1–2), 19–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-019-02425-6
Nailah Syakirah, Anwar, R. K. A., & Winoto, Y. W. (2025). Environmental Communication in Social Media: A Bibliometric Study of Climate Change Discourse and Public Engagement. The Journal of Society and Media, 9(1), 203–240. https://doi.org/10.26740/jsm.v9n1.p203-240
Osama Ghoraba, M. (2023). Influential Spanish Politicians’ Discourse of Climate Change on Twitter: A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Study. In Corpus Pragmatics (Vol. 7, Issue 3). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41701-023-00140-3
Poerwaningtias, I. (2025). Prioritizing economic growth over environmental protection: A rhetorical situation of President Joko Widodo’s speeches. Jurnal Komunikasi, 19(2), 19–34. https://doi.org/10.20885/komunikasi.vol19.iss2.art2
Rahman Selfara, Basri, L. J. (2026). STRATEGI GURU BAHASA ARAB DALAM MENGATASI KESULITAN BERBAHASA ARAB SANTRI KELAS 1 KMI PONDOK PESANTREN MODERN AL SYAIKHABDUL WAHID KOTA BAUBAU. Pendas : Jurnal Ilmiah Pendidikan Dasar, 11(1), 54–72.
Ritonga, A. D., Amin, M., & Situmorang, T. P. (2025). Indonesia’s policy responses to climate change in sustainable natural resource management: Jokowi’s tenure. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 1445(1), 0–10. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1445/1/012063
Rockström, J., Gupta, J., Qin, D., Lade, S. J., Abrams, J. F., Andersen, L. S., Armstrong McKay, D. I., Bai, X., Bala, G., Bunn, S. E., Ciobanu, D., DeClerck, F., Ebi, K., Gifford, L., Gordon, C., Hasan, S., Kanie, N., Lenton, T. M., Loriani, S., … Zhang, X. (2023). Safe and just Earth system boundaries. Nature, 619(7968), 102–111. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06083-8
Shields, D. C., & Preston, C. T. (1985). Fantasy Theme Analysis in Competitive Rhetorical Criticism. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 58(2), 50–61.
Sunarya, A. (2024). Climate and Environmental Policy in Indonesia: Challenges and Opportunities. Ganaya : Jurnal Ilmu Sosial Dan Humaniora, 7(1), 195–206. https://doi.org/10.37329/ganaya.v7i1.3030
Suryadi, I. (2010). TEORI KONVERGENSI SIMBOLIK - Suryadi. Academica, 2(2), 426–437.
Tillery, D., & Bloomfield, E. F. (2022). Hyperrationality and Rhetorical Constellations in Digital Climate Change Denial: A Multi-Methodological Analysis of the Discourse of Watts up with That. Technical Communication Quarterly, 31(4), 356–373. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2021.2019317
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Achmad Jais Mustafa
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright :
Authors who publish their manuscripts in this journal agree to the following conditions:
- Copyright in each article belongs to the author.
- The author acknowledges that the Greenation International Journal of Law and Social Sciences (GIJLSS) has the right to be the first to publish under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (Attribution 4.0 International CC BY 4.0).
- Authors can submit articles separately, arrange the non-exclusive distribution of manuscripts that have been published in this journal to other versions (for example, sent to the author's institutional repository, publication in a book, etc.), by acknowledging that the manuscript has been published for the first time at GIJLSS.
