[;;, ABSTRAK
Penelitian ini berusaha menemukan posisi khalayak ketika memaknaipelaku pembunuhan dalam film The Act of Killing/Jagal dengan pendekatanreception analysis Stuart Hall yang memposisikan 3 (tiga) “posisi hipotesis”decoder: dominan, negotiated, dan oposisi. Jagal adalah film dokumenter yangmengisahkan kehidupan sehari-hari mantan pelaku pembunuhan massalpemberantas anggota Partai Komunis Indonesia pasca peristiwa Gerakan 30September 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 danJagal, pernah mengunjungi museum dan monumen bersejarah terkait G30S, danmemiliki konstruksi tentang PKI sebelum menonton film Jagal. Penelitimelakukan wawancara mendalam terhadap 6 (enam) informan dengan beragamlatar belakang. Wawancara dilakukan untuk mengetahui pemaknaan komunitasinterpretatif terhadap 8 (delapan) adegan yang dinilai relevan dengan penelitian.Peneliti juga menghimpun informasi mengenai encoding sutradara.Dengan reception analysis, peneliti menemukan bahwa keragaman latarbelakang dan pengalaman menyebabkan khalayak juga meng-encode teks mediadengan beragam. Posisi khalayak tidak konsisten di satu posisi tertentu pada tiapadegan. Ada kalanya cenderung berada di posisi dominan pada adegan tertentunamun cenderung berada di posisi negotiated atau oposisi pada adegan lain.

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ABSTRACT
This research tried to find audiences‟ position when they interpretmurderer showed in The Act of Killing/Jagal film with reception analysisapproach 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 didmassacre of Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members after September 30thMovement (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 hadconstruction about PKI before they watched Jagal. Researcher did depth interviewwith 6 (six) informants that came from various backgrounds. The aim of theinterview was to revealed the meaning of the interpretive community towards 8(eight) scenes that relevant to the research. Researcher also gathered informationabout the encoding that the director‟s wanted to present in the film.With reception analysis, researcher found that diversity of backgroundsand experiences caused the audiences encoded media texts in various ways.Audiences‟ positions are not stick to one position for all relevant scenes. Therewere times when they are dominant on particular scenes but negotiated oroppositional on another]