‘It is unfortunate that it cannot be resolved by peaceful means!’ : How the Dutch media represented the atrocities committed in Indonesia during 1945-1949.

Abstract: This thesis explores the representation of atrocities committed by the Dutch in Indonesia between 1945-1949 in a Dutch mainstream newspaper in the Netherlands. This timeframe represents the decolonisation war between the Netherlands and Indonesia, which is referred to as the Indonesian National Revolution.  From the theoretical angle, this study was created based on the foundations of Hall’s representation theory and postcolonial theory, both theories were supported by the concept of othering. The combined theoretical framework was created to uncover the representation of the committed atrocities by diving into the employed preferred and dominant meaning of the atrocities, the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’. The methodological aspect of this thesis consists of a qualitative content analysis, semiotic analysis, which includes Hall’s denotation and connotation toolkit, and discourse analysis. The methodological framework enabled a thorough analysis of the representation and the employed discourses. For the corpus, 159 articles revolving around signs of atrocities and disruptive events within the mainstream newspaper Het Vrije Volk were chosen to thoroughly analyse the representation of the chosen preferred meanings and other discourses. The findings show that Het Vrije Volk predominantly embraced a discourse of colonial pride, which relates to the Netherlands not wanting to let go of its past colony. However, the newspaper did represent a counter-hegemonic articulation by making use of critical discourse as well from time to time. The representation of atrocities committed by the Dutch in Indonesia between 1945-1949 in a Dutch mainstream newspaper in the Netherlands is not black and white and requires a critical lens at all times.