ABSTRACT
The internet era is described by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel (2012) as an era of information flooding, so that people are confused about finding accurate information. In the current context, this statement is relevant because Indonesia is facing an outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. The coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak is breaking news throughout the day since early March 2020. It is difficult for the public to distinguish which news is accurate and which are hoaxes released by the media, including online/cyber media. The April 2020 Press Council notes show that much of the news about COVID-19 is sensational in nature, causing panic and fear in the community because the media continues to exploit the suffering of corona patients. Objectives: To describe the quality of reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak released by Antaranews.com LKBN ANTARA, as the only state-owned news agency in Indonesia since 2007, with the obligation to disseminate the government’s interests (PSO – public service obligation), and also sell it to various media. Methods: using descriptive content analysis with seven elements of news quality Lacy & Rosenstiel (2015) and McQuail (2005) namely presentation-quality, trustworthiness, diversity, depth and breadth information, comprehensive, public affairs, objectivity, with an analysis unit of 50 COVID-19 news items in DKI Jakarta. Implication: whatever the position of a journalist, in a press company, or in a state-owned company, it is necessary to professionally present quality news according to the social function of mass media which is the right of the public.
Keywords: news quality; online media; objectivity