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E-ISSN: 2828-335x
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405
HANS GEORG GADAMER'S HERMENEUTICS FOR NEWS ANCHOR
Reni Sara Indrawati, Fitzerald Kennedy Sitorus
Pelita Harapan University
renisaraindrawati@gmail.com, fiksitorus@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Globalization has a significant impact on increasing the need for information through the media in society.
Television is one of the means of information that is trusted and easily accessible to the public. News
anchors or news anchors on television carry an important role in disseminating information to the public.
News anchors are an important part of broadcasting news information on television in realizing pre-planned
news show programs. It doesn't stop there, television news anchors play an important capacity in influencing
thoughts, persuasion, and shaping public opinion through the information they present to the public. In
addition to proper expression and word selection, they are also obliged to deliver news in a language that is
easy to understand, and understandable to television viewers. News anchors prepare themselves with
information, knowledge, and competence before breaking the news. This paper presents an explanation of
how the concept of understanding news texts can be seen from the perspective of Gadamer's hermeneutic
philosophy. The research method used in solving the problem is the Hermeneutic analysis of a German
philosopher named Gadamer. The news material in a news text is analyzed to bring out a new understanding
by the process of mixing two horizons between the text of the news writer and the horizon news anchor
along with the theory of communication competence and the study of hermeneutics. Hermeneutics helps
news anchors present news well through preconceptions so that there is a melting of horizons and a history
of influence that results in an understanding of dialogue or conversation with individuals, groups, and
communities in this case the television audience so that a new horizon is reached.
Keywords: Gadamer, News Anchor, Hermeneutics, Philosophy of communication, Understanding
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
INTRODUCTION
The era of globalization has had an important and meaningful impact in all fields such as
culture, technology, economics, and politics in society. Scholte (2008) says globalization is
understood as the spread of cross-territorial relationships. This can be seen from the increasing
independence relations between countries on a universal scale, then social relations in a society
increase sharply influenced by the larger dimension of social relations on the universal scale of
the world. The process is supported by the development of human resources and technology.
Thus such a vast world in globalization is not a limitation in obtaining information and
communicating.
In this era, the growth of technology and communication has become the main thing in
industrial change. Business competition globally, especially in the media industry, is
competing to provide information quickly, accurately, and creatively. This becomes
complicated when various media compete with each other in attracting public interest. As
reported by https://bisnisnews.id/ industry competition is getting tighter and more competitive.
So it is a good opportunity for media producers, to increase their popularity and business profits
and compete in global culture.
The media industry, especially broadcasting, that has received the spotlight in society is
the television industry. Based on a survey by the Katadata Insight Center and the Ministry of
Communication and Information, as reported by https://databoks.katadata.co.id/ the public
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406 2., 2., Januari 2023
believes that the information is accurate on television. Television at the top of the list is
believed to be the most trusted for information. Therefore, television as a media of public trust
must have a positive impact and uplift the cultural values of local communities and make a
positive contribution globally.
The trust in public information in the television industry can be seen through the growth
of television news programs. Television news is a program containing coverage of various
phenomena or events and explanations related to phenomena that occur in the local and global
environment. In addition, news programs can also contain sports news, weather forecasts,
traffic situations, audience responses to events, talk shows, and interactive discussions by news
anchors with their audiences. Individuals who appear in front of a video camera and deliver
news texts from a broadcast studio room are called television news anchors or news anchors
(Latief & Utud, 2013) and usually have melodious voice assets to be heard, are competent in
their fields, have extensive knowledge and are rich in vocabulary. So it can be said that the
news anchor managed to bring the news of his show to the audience, as can be seen from the
high ratings of the show and the number of people who watched the program.
News anchors use nonverbal communication in conjunction with verbal communication
when delivering news information on television. According to (Aqili & VAKIL, 2016) this
happens because news anchors as the last role in the news production process play an important
capacity in influencing thoughts, persuasion, and shaping public opinion. Thus language skills
greatly contribute to the fluency of the task of a skilled news anchor carrying the broadcast
news.
Language skills are the result of the collaboration of listening or listening, writing, and
reading skills. How can a news anchor present news well without understanding the text of the
news it conveys? Of course, the 21st century is the latest century in the phase of truth, language
becomes an attractive conversation that stimulates thinking and curiosity. The discussion of
language is not free from hermeneutics, because hermeneutics discusses words or content.
Many philosophers evaluated language as an important theme in their contemplation, one of
which was the German philosopher Hans Georg Gadamer.
In examining the task of news anchors in reading news stories raises the question of how
the concept of understanding is viewed from the perspective of Gadamer's hermeneutic
philosophy helps news anchors present news well. This paper discusses Gadamer's
hermeneutics in his contribution to news anchors so that there is a fusion of horizons and the
history of influences that result in an understanding of dialogue or conversation with
individuals, groups, and communities in this case the television audience so that a new horizon
is achieved.
METHOD
The research method used in solving the formulation of research problems is Hermeneutic
analysis by the German philosopher, Gadamer. The news material in a news text is analyzed
to bring out a new understanding by the process of mixing two horizons between the text of
the news writer and the horizon news anchor along with the theory of communication
competence and the study of hermeneutics. Hermeneutics helps news anchors present news
well through preconceptions so that there is a melting pot of horizons and a history of influence
that results in an understanding of dialogue or conversation with individuals, groups, and
Hans Georg Gadamer's Hermeneutics for News Anchor
407 2., 2., Januari 2023
communities so that a new horizon is achieved. The approach taken is a qualitative approach,
Raco (2018) in qualitative, hermeneutics supports researchers to position themselves in context
and reveal the true meaning of a piece of writing as understood by individuals, communities,
and society.
In researchers' observations, hermeneutics is a process of translating a language or
written text. Hermeneutic procedures such as a technique used in hermeneutics become a
method to explain something to be deeper in meaning. This is realized through the
interpretation of writing or empirical that is useful in finding the essence, using and considering
the position of a historical saga, a tradition, capability of knowledge, and proficiency or
experience. Researchers are the main devices or devices based on qualitative research. The
nature of inductive data analysis and qualitative research outputs confirms the primacy of
meaning in the data analyzed by researchers using Hermeneutic analysis techniques by the
philosopher Gadamer.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Hermeneutics
The etymology of hermeneutics (hermeneutic) is derived from Greece, the verb hermeneutic
means to describe (Sumaryono, n.d.) the object is hermeneia, meaning translation or
interpretation. The ancient Greek adab of hermeneutics is rooted in three meanings, namely (1)
expressing (2) interpreting, and (3) translating. Drawn conclusions in English are called: to
interpret. Interpretation or interpretation rests on three points: oral articulation, logical
illumination, and rational understanding of language. Thus the etymology of hermeneutics has
an understanding of the attempt to understand and interpret a text.
Historically, hermeneutics refers to Hermes, the messenger of Greek mythology, serving as
a link between Zeus and the most high-degree living being, that is, man. Hermes had the
responsibility of explaining to people at the command of their god. Steiner (1995) Hermes
connects the communication between the world of good and man.
Related to human communication in the 21st century, there are two hermeneutics, namely
hermeneutics as a tool for understanding writing (text hermeneutics) and as a tool to explore
the social culture (social/cultural hermeneutics) Writing is interpreted as something that can
be observed and studied. Fitria (2016) this study is interpreted as part of the process of
translating that seeks from general to special things and vice versa commonly called the
hermeneutic cycle. Understanding or understanding a news anchor from a hermeneutic point
of view is considered a device for understanding the text of the news.
Hermeneutics deals with understanding, and explaining the language, verbally or in writing
that are contradictions so that they are understood and there are no doubts or doubts,
difficulties, and errors for those who hear them. So that in subsequent changes, hermeneutics
as a philosophical discipline can develop, one of which is the philosophy of Hans Georg
Gadamer.
B. Gadamer's Hermeneutic Theory
The German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002) was the founder of
"philosophical hermeneutics" whose work was very influential for the world. Gadamer, a
student of Martin Heidegger, was among those awarded longevity, died aged 102, and
completed many books. One of them, Gadamer's 60-year-old adikarya, Gadamer wrote a book
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entitled: Wahrheit und Methode: Truth and Method: Outlines of a Philosophical Hermeneutics.
His work successfully elevated Gadamer as a world-class philosopher Matheson (2009) The
very interesting thing, if we follow how the intellectual career of philosophers in Europe has
progressed, we become less pessimistic about the rise of age, where someone who is in his
twilight years has maturity in thinking and is increasingly productive in writing, for example
besides Gadamer is Jurgen Habermas who throughout his life even until the age of 90 is still
actively writing his thoughts in a book. It requires the collaboration of thoughts, feelings, and
imagination in producing a written work.
For the philosopher Gadamer, hermeneutics is not a matter of methodology of interpretation,
but understanding is part of human cognitive life. This is an effort to know the truthfulness of
the text, all kinds of writings, texts of art, and sagas. The philosopher Gadamer explains that
every understanding is one of the historic monumental passages, dialectic events, and linguistic
events. Then this became an opportunity for more widespread hermeneutics. The essence of
understanding is participation and incoherence, neither abuse nor control, related experience
nor just knowledge; relating to reason in dialogue is not just methodology.
Hermeneutics teaches us to open up to the meaning of truth and to discover the true core.
The perspective of the philosopher Gadamer concludes and captures the text, like a
conversation, and seeks synthesis, the territory of the creator of the essay and the territory of
the reader. The region of the text, the region of the world of the creator of the text, and the
region of the reader became vital goals in the hermeneutics of the philosopher Gadamer.
There are four core things that the philosopher Gadamer demonstrates: (1) Hermeneutic
Prejudice (Prejudice): that is, in deciphering and understanding writing, it is done carefully and
critically. Reading and comprehension are pre-existing and shaped parts of human cognition.
Formed in the area of a new area of thought and embodies new understanding. Gadamer
emphasizes the existence of a critical mind in the interpretation carried out. So it is not free
with various translation skills or past interpretations related to writing. But forming prejudice
into an interpretation of the writing of the interpreted text.
(2) Hermeneutical Circle: Gadamer says understanding as a round process, in terms of
realizing the goal of understanding, must begin with understanding. For example, to understand
written material or text, one must have a preconception of the written text material. Naturally,
a hermeneutic cycle means that the written material or a text must be interpreted in a scattered
and thorough manner, that is, it must be seen as a piece of writing and the whole. On the
contrary, the whole should be viewed also according to the pieces of its share. The
understanding process takes into account the strong relationship between the entire writing and
its pieces.
(3) A dialogue conversation with text writing is seen as productive in terms of subject and
object formulation. Understanding can be achieved through understanding, a meaning that is
exactly in the thinking of equal understanding.
(4) The philosopher Gadamer gave the assertion that understanding is always a historical
saga, a conversational event or phenomenon, and an event in language. Therefore, universal
hermeneutic disaffection is widespread. Text can be meaningful and animated when
understood, tested, and conversational with one another. A text's written material becomes
meaningful when given meaning.
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Overall, Gadamer concludes, understanding is an autonomous activity of historical events
or the confluence of the past and presents fused together. Understanding is thus what Gadamer
calls "influential or effective history" (Wirkungsgeschichte), that is, history is secretly present
in the work we study, our understanding of it, and our prejudices that urge us to become aware
of the working methods of history. This understanding consists of: (a) we must realize critically
that we are determined by history; (b) but at a time of balance, and no less critical, we must
become aware of the limits of consciousness. Our historical condition requires that we can
never achieve self-transparency and achieve perfect self-knowledge.
C. Hans Georg Gadamer on language
Communication theory is relevant to philosophical Hermeneutics, which is an invitation to
openness and dialogue. The communicative nature of hermeneutics is sustained on the
fundamental, linguistic nature of our understanding. The integration of mind and consciousness
in Gadamer's philosophical understanding can be realized in language. Gadamer reveals two
important things:
1. Understanding has linguistic personality; and
2. Something understood is linguistic.
The explanation is as follows: The first part: is understanding is formed linguistically. No
act of "intellectual" understanding is translated into words, such as understanding and linguistic
interpretation in two different stages, but this goes hand in hand: Understanding has the
meaning of placing text, just as seeking understanding is examining words. The examination
for understanding is basically a search for words and vice versa.
In understanding, there is no form of nonlinguistic understanding. Understanding can be
described linguistically. Gadamer talks about the breadth of language. This discussion occurs
because philosophical hermeneutics is useful not only to claim the universality of language, it
can be recognized that all thoughts on the linguistic nature of understanding must be formulated
linguistically. The second part is: Language does not only determine the hermeneutic process,
that is, our understanding, which fundamentally determines its object. We must understand in
this process in the case of written texts or linguistic events studied by the human sciences,
having the meaning that the object of understanding itself is always linguistic. It is the language
that makes the object to be comprehensible. In other words, a language that makes all objects
visible and distinguishable, as well as allows us to have a free relationship between objects and
language.
D. Gadamer's hermeneutic relations in news anchors
News anchors can present news well by understanding the text of the news they convey
through understanding based on presuppositions or preconceptions that are traversed by
traditions based on history. In the view of the philosopher, Gadamer’s understanding is a
portion of the past, the present past the future. Differences are seen as the product of time-
patterned distances that influence us to anticipate future events. Therefore, historical events
and objects are multiplied by history. As a detail of the meaning of the philosopher Gadamer,
understanding is a conversational product of the meaning that belongs to the present and the
meaning that resides in the writing material of the text in historical literature. The flow is
contradictory because the other side releases the text as meaningful and animate, while the
other side does not recognize the text as separate from the prejudices and presuppositions we
have. The philosopher Gadamer believed expertise and experience were closely related to
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language. The cultural view understands everything about the content and meaning of the world
contained in words. Hence language is a method of capturing our experiences. In another sense,
the communication carried out by news anchors in the reading of news and their understanding
of the content of the text of the news material, relationship carried out is not only interpersonal
interaction but the relationship of interpersonal interaction and language.
A news anchor in reading news is not enough to understand the content of the text but must
have good communication competence. This notion of competence was initiated by David
Hymes in the 1960s to explain that knowledge of language regulation skills must be mastered
and understood as an effort to speak and communicate well (Rickheit & Strohner, 2008).
(McCroskey, 1984) The view of communication competence from the very beginning was
introduced by many communication scientists in the 1970s. Communication competence is a
continuation of several centuries ago that has long existed, as a guide on how to communicate
effectively.
Communication competence is required in a news anchor in adapting and communicating
effectively both in interactive dialogue and the ability to act which is influenced by motivation
by the individual. (Hymes, 1972) said the concept of communication competence is not only a
theoretical need but also a practical need. Therefore, communication competence can be seen
from its performance and competence. Performance to see the extent to which communication
competence can be carried out and become part of the evaluation of a news anchor.
The importance of this concept must continue to be fostered by a news anchor in
maintaining its existence in news broadcasting. According to (Spitzberg & Cupach, 2012) the
concept of communication competence consists of skills, knowledge, and motivation to be
assessed by those who observe the performance. So understanding the content of the news text
is not enough without the collaboration of skills, extensive knowledge, and correct motivation
in delivering news.
CONCLUSION
Every hermeneutics of Gadamer has a strong ethical understanding value.
Understanding the content of the text by news anchors in Gadamer's hermeneutics is about
fulfilling the interpretation of truth and understanding that is closely interconnected. The
special ethical value of a news anchor is to understand the idea of good or correct interpretation
so that the information/news conveyed opens up new horizons in society. In Gadamer's
hermeneutics, the linguistic action in understanding and development toward better
understanding is carried out through the repetition of hermeneutic circles. The concept of
communication competence complements news anchors in understanding texts and
interpreting news content to the public. Through this, news anchors recognize the limits of their
abilities and recognize the value of understanding and then always try to understand and
interpret better and open up a space where the horizons of understanding can meet viewers or
viewers of news on television.
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