Penelitian ini berusaha menemukan posisi khalayak ketika memaknai pelaku pembunuhan dalam film The Act of Killing/Jagal dengan pendekatan reception analysis Stuart Hall yang memposisikan 3 (tiga) “posisi hipotesis” decoder: dominan, negotiated, dan oposisi. Jagal adalah film dokumenter yang mengisahkan kehidupan sehari-hari mantan pelaku pembunuhan massal pemberantas anggota Partai Komunis Indonesia pasca peristiwa Gerakan 30 September 1965 (G30S) dengan tokoh sentral Anwar Congo dan Adi. Sampling penelitian terbatas pada komunitas interpretatif dengan kriteria: lahir setelah tahun 1980, pernah menonton film Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI dan Jagal, pernah mengunjungi museum dan monumen bersejarah terkait G30S, dan memiliki konstruksi tentang PKI sebelum menonton film Jagal. Peneliti melakukan wawancara mendalam terhadap 6 (enam) informan dengan beragam latar belakang. Wawancara dilakukan untuk mengetahui pemaknaan komunitas interpretatif terhadap 8 (delapan) adegan yang dinilai relevan dengan penelitian. Peneliti juga menghimpun informasi mengenai encoding sutradara. Dengan reception analysis, peneliti menemukan bahwa keragaman latar belakang dan pengalaman menyebabkan khalayak juga meng-encode teks media dengan beragam. Posisi khalayak tidak konsisten di satu posisi tertentu pada tiap adegan. Ada kalanya cenderung berada di posisi dominan pada adegan tertentu namun cenderung berada di posisi negotiated atau oposisi pada adegan lain.

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This research tried to find audiences‟ position when they interpret murderer showed in The Act of Killing/Jagal film with reception analysis approach from Stuart Hall which had 3 (three) “hypothetical position” of decoder: dominan-hegemonic position, negotiated position, and oppositional position. Jagal is a documentary film that told us the daily life of a mass murderer who did massacre of Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members after September 30th Movement (G30S) with Anwar Congo and Adi as the central role. The sampling were limited to interpretive community with general criteria: were born after 1980, watched Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI and Jagal film, and had construction about PKI before they watched Jagal.

Researcher did depth interview with 6 (six) informants that came from various backgrounds. The aim of the interview was to revealed the meaning of the interpretive community towards 8 (eight) scenes that relevant to the research. Researcher also gathered information about the encoding that the director‟s wanted to present in the film. With reception analysis, researcher found that diversity of backgrounds and experiences caused the audiences encoded media texts in various ways. Audiences positions are not stick to one position for all relevant scenes. There were times when they are dominant on particular scenes but negotiated or oppositional on another.