FEAR RHETORIC IN THE ONLINE NEWS DISCOURSE ON THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN TEUN VAN DIJK’S CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

The news media, once thought to be only as a tool of information delivery, has subtly shifted its roles as an agent of (de)constructing thoughts, introducing, or denoting fear, especially in appalling news. This raises a question whether the news on the COVID-19 pandemic is only for transmitting news updates on the pandemic condition or agenda-driven. However, research tapping into the imbued messages in language complexity in this context seems minimal. This study aims to uncover the language elements that sign fear in a news text. This research focuses on how fear is imbued in three online English-language newspaper articles in Indonesia published by the Jakarta Post, thereby the rhetoric of fear. The three articles discussed the spread of COVID-19 in Indonesia. In this study, CDA is devised to reveal the traces of fear-embedded language choices found in the three online newspaper articles. The researchers used the critical analysis discourse model of Teun A. Van Dijk (1993) and the three elements of discourse (1993): micro, macro, and superstructure. The findings indicated that there were common uses of euphemism, dysphemism, and orthophemism to refine the language being conveyed. This study classified euphemism into five objectives: (1) evasive maneuver to prevent mass panic; (2) speech refinement to soften offence, insults, and/ or other language expressions that may result to humiliation; (3) diplomacy tool; (4) language replacement for taboo or vulgar language choices or those endowed with negative connotation (5) tool for satire, sarcasm, and subtle criticism. This study also revealed some linguistic decisions, such as lexicon choices and strategies on sentence construction, subtly evident not only to impose fear but at the same time to dispose of it. The researchers hope that this study may assist the readers in pinpointing subtleties in author’s tone and tendency.


INTRODUCTION
Currently, the world is in an uproar with the spread of the new virus named Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) that occurs in many countries in various parts of the world.As of April 17th, 2020, more than two million confirmed cases were reported globally, resulting over 140,000 deaths and counting (World Health Organization, 2020).The news about this pandemic is scalable to the global nature of this now-called pandemic disease.On top of that, the revolutionary shift from paper-based to online newspapers accelerates the spread of news in the matter of minutes.The ubiquitous nature of digital news affords everyone to access information in these digital newspapers covering the pandemic updates whenever and wherever they are in the world.The influx of information regarding the COVID-19 issues may leave the readers overwhelmed by them thereby scrutinizing these news is made secondary thus the readers' reality is shaped by what is told by the digital prints.Vatsa & Kumar (2005) confirm that information in the media has the potential to shape a person's personality and the way he sees the world.For instance, it is not anecdotal when there was a high number of reports about the negative impacts of COVID-19 on the health, economic, and social aspects of the people.That kind of news created a mass panic where people were anxious about running out of food supplies, medicines, and other needs, which at one point they were in competition to buy medical-grade masks, for instance.This yielded a serious imbalance between the supply and demand then it drove the masks' prices sky high and left the paramedics, those who are front and center in combating this virus, vulnerable.
Indeed, there are commendable values to its fast-paced news spread, however a certain rhetoric which may imbue certain messages must be brought into question.The pressing question now is whether the information in the media is packaged based on reality, or there were some discourse choices that may lead to fear or alertness upon reading the news.If so, which linguistic elements in the text have the potential to cause fear in the reader.Therefore, this research was conducted to find answers to the following questions:

'How do the linguistic elements signal fear in the Jakarta Post online newspaper regarding COVID-19 news coverage?'
This research aims to find out the linguistic elements that tend to fear in the Jakarta Post online newspaper articles.In order to answer the above question, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) comes as a tool to explore lexical choices, discourse uses, and general rhetoric underpinned by ideologies within a social context (Ghanizadeh et al., 2020;John Paul O'Regan, 2006;Widuna, 2018).Critical Discourse Analysis by Teun A. Van Dijk (1993) enables readers to see the relationship(s) between texts to the social contexts, social cognition.This framework is especially useful for this analysis due to its allowance to elaborate major elements of discourse structure: Macro, Super, and Micro and how they communicate implicit patterns or imbued messages that feed into the socioideological underpinnings.This study centers itself on investigating texts from the three most viewed Jakarta Post online newspaper articles on April 17th, 2020, regarding COVID-19 in Indonesia.The researchers used online news articles from the Jakarta Post because the Jakarta Post is one of the media that keep abreast of the latest developments in the case of the spread of COVID-19 in Indonesia in the fields of economy, education, and politics, which at the time, the issues were still hotly discussed.The three articles include Indonesia's latest official COVID-19 figures (News Desk, 2020), Indonesia now leads Southeast Asia in confirmed coronavirus cases (Loasana, 2020), and COVID-19: State Palace braces for social unrest (Adjie, 2020).
This study fundamentally rests on Critical Discourse Analysis model backed by theories and principles of power and its ability to alter one's views on a discourse given (T.Van Dijk, 1995;T. A. Van Dijk, 2008).This study is well expected to be used as a reference for beginning researchers who wish to conduct research using CDA.Rovino (2019), as well as Ghofur (2016), are in agreement that research that uses the interpretation of CDA can expand knowledge in the acquisition of meaning.The topic is considered to be fresh and relevant to the current state of the world.The researchers expect a swift dissemination of this study in order to both increase awareness to, along with ensuring close analytical reading competence which lead to critical thinking skills (Holt et al., 2015).

News as a Type of Discourse
Discourse is more than structure and part of the language.This relates to the context and what effects will occur when someone reads and knows about the discourse (O'Regan, 2015).Not only that, the discourse that was made for whom, from whom, and who delivered it will also affect one's response when reading and understanding the discourse.That means the language in this discourse will express, conjure, and manage psychological aspect of an individual (van Dijk, 2008).When this discourse is spread according to standard practice, it becomes a toll of reproducing inequality, because it does not only have an effect on emotions but will also identify with each other what the discourse means (Liu & Jiang, 2019;van Dijk, 2008).
According to Hamad (2007), a discourse has a diverse understanding.Discourse can be interpreted as a construction process of reality.Other means of constructing reality is through a unidirectional speech to a particular audience through which the illocutionary acts persist (Nurkhamidah, 2020;Sumedi & Rovino, 2020).Through discourse, people can understand the reality of where reality is constructed into form text, speech, action, and artifacts.Fairclough (2013;1995) posits that discourse is articulated as a language and part of practice social.That discourse does not just study one particular aspect (text or context) but as a whole to understand the meaning.
It is no secret, though oftentimes regarded as anecdotal, that media is granted with, as well as within power to, instilling influences which then tips the scale into the power asymmetry verticals where the audience demographic would be (in)directly affected (Curran, 2002;Entman, 2007;Kwak et al., 2010;Meyrowitz, 2008;Robinson, 2001).The Liberal media history is telling how the process of democratization with two key arguments "the media struggle successfully to become free of government" and "the press represented the expanding group of the new commercial and industrial society primarily."In the context of freedom and empowerment of media, the media expand politics by making information to the public how the political situation is going (Mohideen & Mohideen, 2008;Putra & Triyono, 2018).The media acts as a channel between the public and the government for critical oversight and represents public opinions.
The media's certain power has inspired many critical studies in many disciplines: linguistics, semiotics, pragmatics, and discourse studies.Content analytical, including a biased, stereotypical, sexist, or racist image in the text, illustration, and photo (Van Dijk, 2008).

Rhetoric of Fear
Fear is the natural human instinct, which can advise us to become aware of the danger so that we distance ourselves from it.Mostly, fear will affect emotional conditions, such as anxiety or avoidance.Fears triggered by emotional states tend to be more subjective and not always realistic.For example, fear of socializing with people.News reports are merging with television "reality programs" and crime that allow us to look at everyday life.The expanding interest in fear and victim also contributed to an audience that played with repeated reports as their dramatic effect of fear and dread in our lives (Altheide, 2006).
Battistella, Allan, & Burridge (1993) refer the number of specific fear such as death, disease, corruption, less of the loved ones, war as 'the great taboo subject'.Fear has affected the human mind, a long attachment to our belief surrounding disease and death.Relating to these two subjects, euphemistic language is used in discourse as figurative language.
At the social level, language has several functions.Some language is also used to play a role in social identification function by providing indicators of linguistics, which can be used to strengthen social stratification.Hymes inside Saville-Troike (1982, pp. 15-16) states that at the individual level and interacting groups, functions of using language as a tool communication directly depend on the goals and desires of language users.
There is a connection between uses certain expressions based on the speaker's choice of words, namely euphemism, dysphemism, and orthophemism.Euphemism is an expression sweet, very smooth, or more expression worth mentioning to maintain communication and maintain the face of the speaker, and listener.Dysphemism is a negative expression and rarely used in a news text.Orthofemism is a more neutral expression without meaning to sweeten, or too polite like a euphemism, but also not rude and hurts speakers, and listeners.Therefore, euphemism and orthophemism connote positive for speakers, and third-party listeners (Allan & Burridge, 2006).
Orthophemism and euphemism are words or phrases used as alternatives used to avoid inappropriate expressions (Abrantes, 2005).Both are used to prevent lost face in communicating, fine between speakers or people who are a listener.It can be concluded that orthophemism and euphemism are strategies to express politeness.Battistella et al. (1993) concluded that orthophemism and euphemisms arise both from consciousness as well as self-sensory unconsciousness.Both are used by speakers to avoid embarrassing treatment or hurt the speaker and the third person who is a listener, as a speaker effort in maintaining politeness.
The difference between the two terms as follows: Orthofemism is more formal, direct, straightforward, and explicitly than euphemisms.At the same time, euphemisms are more implicit, indirect, or metaphorical and contain meaning metaphors.Allan (2016) as well confirms that impoliteness is easier to see than politeness.Because Disrespectful behavior tends to hurt, then called dysphemistic.In contrast, dysphemism is the opposite of euphemism.Dysphemism does not guard the face, but rather it damages the face of the speaker and person-third who listens.
David L also stated that the media is one of the most significant contributions to fear's current discourse."No fear without a victim" in all fears, there will be victims both biochemically (hormones) and emotionally.Victim means someone who feels suffering from various aspects such as personal, social, and physical.In this day and age, fear has become a closely related culture to humans, especially when the COVID-19 pandemic appears in popular culture, the news media, and public discourse.Culture of fear is not only in discussion, public circumstances, fear frames in media, and symbolic of fear or awareness.But we have also seen from experience in everyday life.
Unfortunately, the study of rhetoric of fear is yet to be explicitly addressed in the literature.However, a number of findings indicated some relevance to the given phenomenon are summarized as follows: Panay (2017) in his research entitled Fear Appeal Construction in the Daily Mail Online: A Critical Discourse Analysis of 'Prime Minister Corbyn and the 1000 Days That Destroyed Britain' in 2015 discussed how fear appeals are used as a media framing technique by author which is also a political strategy to generate certain emotional responses from readers.Through Critical Discourse Analysis, the researcher found the use of myths to construct the attraction of fear.The findings showed that there are two political myths, namely declination and utopia / anti-utopia, which are used by the author to construct the discourse in the article.
Moreover, a previous study entitled Children and the Discourse of Fear (2002) by David L. Altheide which used three major newspapers published between 1987 till 1996 as a research data, found that children become part of the discourse of fear in the news media.He emphasized that past news has the potential to shape future news.

Closer Look to Critical Discourse Analysis in Teun A. van Dijk
Discourse is one of the triangle's conceptual frameworks between society and social cognition (can be applied practically).Critical Discourse Analysis by Van Dijk (Van Dijk, 1993) stands on three main foundations, namely macro, micro, and superstructure also stated in Rumata et al. (2019).

Schematic
Schema of the text In the table, there is a discourse structure, observed matters, and elements of van Dijk (Van Dijk, 1993).In the first structure, there is a macrostructure, which means it is a large structure in a text.Macrostructure explains the topic (thematic), which explains the topic of discourse theoretically and has an important role in social awareness.The second structure is the smallest of the elements it is microstructure.Microstructure consisting of semantics (meaning) which reflects the relationship between sentences, propositions to build the meaning that will be conveyed in the discourse, syntax (way of delivery) word selection, use of pronouns and sentence statements that connect between parts will affect the understanding of the reader, stylistic (choice of words used) put more emphasis on the style of language used in a text or oral, and rhetorical (language use strategies) the speaker strategy presents himself or his writing with the use of persuasive language and repetition styles.Lastly, there is a superstructure, schematic (schema), which explains the correct text framework.The linguistic structure contained in the text reflect communicators to convey discourse (Van Dijk, 2008).
Critical Discourse Analysis is commonly encountered in conversation analysis, social semiotics, and argumentation analysis (more focused).It confronts social forces rather than elite groups and institutions resulting in social, political, cultural, class, racial, and gender inequalities (Santosa, 2020).The relationship between discourses with dominant social forces is enforced, reproduced, or legitimated through texts or dialogues from dominant groups or institutions.Understanding CDA is a discourse that plays an important role in controlling other individuals' minds and certain social groups (social cognition).Access to discourse and public communication is an important dimension.Media discourse is not only about a text, but it has a context.In this case, the situational context is prominent (Van Dijk, 2008).The context of the situation means the situation in which the text is uttered and expressed (Sobur, 2007).
In mass communication, the dominant group has access to journalists, interviewees, or opinions from experts who can influence the public.Tallapessy (2015) soundly notes that each of the parameters has the potential to activate specific meaning and wordings.These meanings and wording are ideational, interpersonal, and textual meaning potential that relate to the most general function of language.

Research Design
In conducting this research, the researchers virtually employed a qualitative study which focuses on collecting data obtained from various sources.It is generally in relation to an exploration and evaluation to the possible meaning embedded in a particular social phenomenon that occur in social life (Creswell, 2009).Research studies in a qualitative design typically run non-numerical data and largely descriptive in analysis.Another trait of qualitative research is that it typically observes data that are smaller in size compared to those of quantitative studies.However, the findings are typically rich.

Data
The data are comprised of the three most viewed Jakarta Post online newspaper articles that covered topic of COVID-19.Those are entitled "Indonesia's latest official COVID-19 figures" (News Desk, 2020), "Indonesia now leads Southeast Asia in confirmed coronavirus cases" (Loasana, 2020), and "COVID-19: State Palace braces for social unrest" (Adjie, 2020).These three online newspaper articles were published on 16 th and 17 th April 2020.A. Van Dijk (1993) describes Critical Discourse Analysis to have three layers: the actual text, discourse practice, and social practice.In this research, the researchers show how those levels can be related to discourse text elements.Text and intertextual analysis are targets for methodological papers in discourse analysis.The case for text analysis using discourse analysis not only uses argumentation techniques but also close analysis of the text that is significant to social scientific analysis, culture practice, and process.

Teun
An intertextual analysis is a dialect and dynamic concept and also draws attention to how text transforms into society and history within the order of discourse (discourse genre).The intertextual properties of a text are manifested in its linguistic features such as macrostructure (Thematic), microstructure (semantic, syntax, stylistics, rhetoric), and superstructure (schema of the text).Intertextual analysis necessary resolve that the connection between language and social context, text, and context refers to the framework's dimension (Fairclough, 2013).
Researchers indicated earlier that intertextual analysis has a relating role in linking text to context.The intertextual analysis draws attention to is the discourse practice, producers, and interpreters' text.CDA's primary function is to reveal how power, domination, and inequality are practiced, reproduced, or opposed by written texts and conversations in social and political contexts.Thus, the CDA takes a nonconformist position or opposes the current of domination within a broad framework to fight social injustice.

Data Analysis
The researchers established an analysis matrix akin to that of Table 1 upon close reading the three articles of Jakarta Post online newspapers in their entirety.Close reading entails note-taking and highlighting phrases that are the potential to communicate a certain symbolic meaning.Upon close reading completion, the researchers immediately performed an analysis by using the analysis matrix based on Teun A. Van Dijk's Critical Discourse Analysis (1993) based on the three elements of discourse structure: macro-, supra-, and microstructure.Compared to critical discourse analysis theories from other experts such as Norman Fairclough, Van Leeuwen, Sara Mills, and many others, Teun A Van Dijk's model of CDA is the most widely used in analyzing discourse on news considering that this method uses a socio-cognitive approach which means that discourse cannot be separated from the ideology of the speaker or writer.Upon tabulating the analysis in the matrix form, researchers began to lay out the findings by describing them and connecting the findings with those of previous ones in order to see patterns that were conformist, non-conformist, or ambivalent.The whole analysis process took about a month to complete.
As the research ethical code measures, the researchers firmly upheld the scientific conduct to understand the benefits and risks of research.This research aims to determine how news can affect our lives, whether it is good news or bad news.In this study, researchers did not take sides, insult, and promote any party because the researchers' goal is only to study.This research focused on news of COVID-19 to analyze the rhetoric of fear.

Findings
According to Van Dijk (1993), the initial data generally observed were Text.By reading a text we can find the general meaning of discourse.Van Dijk divides text structure into three levels, including Macrostructure, Superstructure, and Microstructure.Based on the results of analysis of Van Dijk (1993) of three of the Jakarta Post's online newspaper articles regarding the COVID-19 case in Indonesia, it can be concluded as follows:

Macrostructure (Thematic)
This structure allows us to observe the topic elements contained in a discourse.The topics in the three news stories have something in common, namely the COVID-19 case in Indonesia.However, each story has a different focus.The first news focused on the latest figures on COVID-19 cases; the second news focuses on data that supports a large number of confirmed cases in Indonesia, which causes the total COVID-19 cases in Indonesia to exceed other countries in Southeast Asia.The third news focuses on government efforts to overcome the economic downturn and security threats during the outbreak.

Superstructure (Schematic: Schema)
Based on the scheme, generally, every news begins with a headline.At the same time, the lead provides an overview of what will be discussed further in the news and leads the reader to the core discourse.Based on the news I's analysis framework to news III, it can be seen that each news begins with a headline.The headline of the first news was "Indonesia's latest official COVID-19 figures;" the headline of the second news was "Indonesia now leads Southeast Asia in confirmed coronavirus cases;" and the headline of the third news was "COVID-19: State Palace braces for social unrest." Microstructure (Semantic: Settings, Details, Intentions, Presuppositions, and Nominalization) Microstructure elements such as setting, detail, Intention, presupposition, and nominalization are found in all three online news.Although all three online news has the same theme, each news has its setting, and the detail, intention, and presupposition in each news may also vary.

Microstructure (Syntax: Sentence form, Coherence, Pronouns)
A deductive writing pattern is the pattern of paragraph writing used by the three online news.The writing pattern is marked by placing the core of the discussion at the beginning of the sentence, followed by a set of sentences supporting the topic sentence.Coherence, in the form of repetition, is found in the news content.In contrast, the most commonly found pronouns are 'we'.

Microstructure (Stylistic: Lexicon)
Overall, three online texts did not display explicit lexicons where fear is embedded into.This is proven by the fact that there seems to be an absence of word choice stylized to the discourse of fear found in all three texts.This may lead to an understanding that the news journalists attempted to maintain an element of neutrality and accountability in the news delivery.On top of that, this is perhaps due to the authors presupposing to directly convey the news content using common words to accommodate their readers' reading comprehension.However, this begs a question whether seemingly common lexicons were strategically placed within context upon a closer look.It turned out that the researchers have found elements of euphemism in the second news, along with finding dysphemism and personification traces in the third news.

Microstructure (Rhetorical: Metaphor, Expression, and Graphic)
The graphic element is found in the three news in the form of photos used by the news writers, and writing uses a different color in the text that aims to emphasize the authors' intent.Online news formatting is no stranger to a variety of font sizes and colors in a Mondrian or color-block tradition.The use of color blocking, literature points, may suggest an element of seriousness and class thereby heightening an element of trustworthiness as well as suggesting an element of accountability to the text (Rorong et al., 2020;Rovino et al., 2020).On top of that, the use of metaphors in all three news was also found, which suggests subtlety in meaning transmission.
The following tables provide some indepth analyses on all three news articles: The setting element discusses COVID-19 confirmed cases.The detail element discusses the number of deaths, patients recovered, and new cases of COVID-19 infection nationwide.The Intention element informs the current condition of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia.The presupposition element explains that coronavirus has spread throughout provinces in Indonesia.The nominalization element was not found in the text.

Syntax: Sentence form Coherence Pronouns
The sentence form element explains the use of a deductive pattern because it displays data on the coronavirus's spread nationally at the beginning of a sentence, then followed by supporting sentences.The coherence element can be seen from the statement of Health Minister Achmad Yurianto about the number of people who died due to exposure to the coronavirus, followed by a statement of the number of patients recovered.The pronoun element indicates the health minister is a pronoun from Achmad Yurianto.

Stylistic: Lexicon
The lexicon element explains that no specific word choices were found in discourse.

Rhetorical: Graphic Metaphor Expression
The graphic element explains the Minister of Health's concerned look in the photo provided by the media.No metaphor element was found.The sentence form element explains the use of a deductive pattern because it displays data on the coronavirus's spread nationally at the beginning of a sentence, then followed by supporting sentences.The coherence element can be seen from the statement of Health Minister Achmad Yurianto about the number of people who died due to exposure to the coronavirus, followed by a statement of the number of patients recovered.The pronoun element indicates the health minister is a pronoun from Achmad Yurianto.

Stylistic: Lexicon
The lexicon element explains that no specific word choices were found in discourse.

Rhetorical: Graphic Metaphor Expression
The graphic element explains the Minister of Health's concerned look in the photo provided by the media.No metaphor element was found.The setting element explains the government's efforts to deal with increased crime that can disrupt public order and security.The detailed elements discuss the steps that need to be taken to ensure stability during the COVID-19 outbreak.The intention element explicitly explains the efforts that the government has made by the government in overcoming the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.The presupposition element describes riots and crime potential in some areas amid the economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The nominalization element is not found in discourse.

Syntax: Sentence form Coherence Pronouns
The sentence form element explains the use of deductive patterns.It displays a discussion of the government's efforts in preparing for an increase in crime and security threats then followed by supporting sentences.The coherence element explains the repetition of the words security and stability, repeatedly indicating the discourse formed a unity to discuss economic and security measures that need to be improved during the outbreak.The pronoun element explains the word 'we' is a pronoun from Police.

Stylistic: Lexicon
The lexicon element explains the use of words that have the same meaning (synonym) as 'unrest' and 'riot.'The text also uses the personified figures in the word 'hit…' and the word 'put…', and the use of dysphemism as in the word 'disrupt' in the sentence "….there was a risk of an increase in crime that could disrupt public order and security".

Rhetorical: Graphic Metaphor Expression
The graphic element explains data such as the amount of money of IDR 436.1 trillion (the $26.36 billion) and equivalent to 2.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product.The metaphor element explains the discourse using expressions such as stand on the front line.

Discussion
Generally, the analysis indicated that there may be more than one imbued message within all three texts if evaluated on the thematic, stylistic, and lexical decisions of the writers.Based on the news text analysis above, it shows that there are traces of euphemism uses in the stylistic element in the second news to express slight satire.Journalists use the words "despite the country being one of the last in the region to confirm the existence of COVID-19 in its territory," which uses these words more subtle than using the word "Indonesia is less responsive in tracking the presence of coronavirus in its territory."This language (euphemism) style is the language strategy used by The Jakarta Post in delivering news so that readers easily accept the news as well as attempt to avoid explicitly offensive statements.The use of euphemisms in this discourse aims to avoid using words that can cause panic or fear in a discourse by using more polite words without eliminating fear itself.This is supported by Laili & Wijana (2012), as well as Liu & Jiang (Liu & Jiang, 2019), who explains the euphemism function contained in environmental discourse in the mass media in Indonesia, including avoiding words that cause panic, disgust, or trauma.
The stylistic element in the second news also shows the use of taboo expressions.The use of the word 'dead' in the sentence "Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, the ministry's disease control and prevention director-general, Achmad Yurianto, added that fifty-three more people had edited from the disease, bringing the death toll to 3,089" was considered taboo because the word it tends to be vulgar.The word 'dead,' which is a neutral word (orthophemism), can turn into negative comments and can be offensive (dysphemistic) when used in the news.Because some words or talks related to body parts, diseases, bodily functions of death, etc. others are still considered taboo in certain contexts.In this context, the word 'dead' refers to death caused by disease so that the term is regarded as a negative expression that can cause panic for the reader.This was revealed by Allan & Burridge (Allan & Burridge, 2006), who argue that the use of the word 'dead' can be offensive in specific contexts and if the listener or reader also considers it to be so.In this case, the language element that tends to make fear is used by journalists through a dysphemistic language style.Dysphemic language style is also found in the third news.The writer chooses words with negative tendencies such as the word 'dispute,' which is considered an element of fear tactics, where the word 'affect' is considered more subtle and neutral to use.In addition, the third news item also found the use of personification figures such as the words "hit" and "put" in the news text.The word 'hit' is usually used for oppressive human behavior, for example, in the sentence "He hit me with a broomstick" or "the man was hit by a fast-moving vehicle" so that the verb has power asymmetry where if something hits something other, usually refers to something destructive.
In the Schematic element, journalists use titles that are considered to tend to cause fear, such as "COVID-19: State Palace braces for social unrest."That is due to the use of the word 'unrest' which refers to a crime.While crime is a situation that can endanger a person's life as mentioned by Altheide (2009), it states that crime and violence are part of the "fear story."

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
This study shows that mass media, including the Jakarta Post Online Newspaper, are sources of public information.Critical Discourse Analysis proposed by Van Dijk (Van Dijk, 1993) helps uncover how fear is subtly instilled in the three online newspaper articles by the Jakarta Post.The researchers analyzed discourse based on the three elements of discourse structure such as macros, micro, and supra-structure.
The result of this study showed that the linguistic decisions, such as lexicon choices and strategies on sentence construction, were subtly evident not only to impose fear but at the same time to dispose it, to the readers.This is strengthened by the common uses of euphemism inserted in all three texts observed.It can be concluded that euphemism is classified into five uses, there are (1) euphemism to avoid the use of words that can cause panic or fear; (2) euphemisms to refine speech so as not to offend, insult or humiliate someone; (3) euphemisms for diplomacy or rhetorical purposes; (4) euphemisms to replace words that are forbidden, taboo, vulgar or have a negative connotation; (5) euphemisms for sarcasm,