(Source: indonesiamatters.com)
One of Indonesia's top news weeklies has apologized about the cover of its latest issue, which depicts former president Suharto and his children in a composition mimicking Leornado da Vinci's Last Supper. In the cover of Tempo, was a featured sketch of Suharto, who died recently, taking Jesus Chris's central place at the table surrounded by his three daughters and sons instead of apostles, triggering complaints from Christians. When Suharto passed away, he left behind a mixed legacy in Indonesia, bringing economic stability to the sprawling nation but the controversial part is, he was also accused of massive corruption and rights abuses for which he was never brought to justice. Tempo chief editor, Toriq Hadad, said that he had no intention of hurting Christians and he was only inspired by the composition of the Leornado painting, and not in the concept or context of the event told in the Holy Bible.
By analyzing the picture above, there are some factors that we can consider. According to Kress and van Leeuwen, newspapers, magazines, company reports, school textbooks and many other kinds of texts are no longer just written, but 'designed', and multimodally articulated. The salient part of the picture would be clearly the former Indonesian President, Suharto, because he was placed in the middle of the table, taking Jesus Christ's place. Salience can create a hierarchy of importance among the elements, selecting some as more important and more worthy of attention than others. (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006)
I personally think that this cover page for a magazine is quite controversial as it touches on religion. According to Haynes(2007), what exactly is considered blasphemy can vary between religious groups and people.
References
Kress G., van Leeuwen T., 1998, Front Pages: The Critical Analysis of Newspaper Layout, Blackwell, Oxford.
Indonesian weekly apologizes over Last Supper Suharto cover, The Media Report, viewed 13th November 2008.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/06/2156269.htm
By analyzing the picture above, there are some factors that we can consider. According to Kress and van Leeuwen, newspapers, magazines, company reports, school textbooks and many other kinds of texts are no longer just written, but 'designed', and multimodally articulated. The salient part of the picture would be clearly the former Indonesian President, Suharto, because he was placed in the middle of the table, taking Jesus Christ's place. Salience can create a hierarchy of importance among the elements, selecting some as more important and more worthy of attention than others. (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006)
I personally think that this cover page for a magazine is quite controversial as it touches on religion. According to Haynes(2007), what exactly is considered blasphemy can vary between religious groups and people.
References
Kress G., van Leeuwen T., 1998, Front Pages: The Critical Analysis of Newspaper Layout, Blackwell, Oxford.
Indonesian weekly apologizes over Last Supper Suharto cover, The Media Report, viewed 13th November 2008.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/06/2156269.htm
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