| Critical Discourse Analysis has highlighted negative representations of others and overlooked their positive attributes. In particular, previous research has neglected the positive attributes and the roles of Asian values embedded in constructing the discourse. This study attempts to investigate the government’s positive representations in the COVID-19 articles. Through Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach (2001), Martin’s Positive Discourse Analysis (2004), and Shi-Xu’s Asian discourse characteristics (2009), the study analyzes 40 articles on COVID-19. The findings reveal that the Jakarta Post employs various referential or nomination strategies which were characterized by using collective nouns, deixis, proper names, professional anthroponyms, professional anthroponyms with a proper name, and noun phrases to address the government as social actors. The referential or nomination strategies above are attributed with positive evaluations with include explicit predicates and adjectives. The study suggests that the predication strategies attribute positive qualities toward the government as the social actors and their efforts in curbing the positive COVID-19 cases. In addition, Asian discourse characteristics are prevalent in the articles during the pandemic. They include the role of leader figures (e.g., government), which is essential during the crisis, and values associated with Asian communities. The study provides a reference of how referential or nomination strategies associated with social actors can be an effective public tool of communication during a crisis. |