APPRECIATION IN JAKARTA POST’S ARTS AND CULTURAL NEWS: APPRAISAL PERSPECTIVE Soraya Grabiella Dinamika University of Sumatera Utara soraya.dinamika@gmail.com Abstract This research explored the attitudinal meaning, subsumed under the notion of appreciation by means of appraisal theory (Martin & White, 2005) used in the arts and cultural news discourse which retrieved from the Jakarta Post online site. This research employed qualitative descriptive method. The data of this research was obtained from the whole appreciation items found in the five arts and cultural news discourse. The objectives of this research were twofold: (a) to identify the lexical strategies conveyed by the news writer, and (b) to examine how appraising items reflect the news writer’s attitude towards the news discourse. The results revealed that the writer used both positive and negative evaluation items. The data conveyed that the writer predominantly used positive appraising items with account for 80.89 % in which valuation constituted of 47%, followed by reaction (23.47%) and composition (10.43%). Meanwhile, the writer used negative appraising items with account for 19.11% in which valuation constituted of 12.17%, followed by reaction (5.21%) and composition (1.73%). The predominant appraising items applied in the arts and cultural news, conveyed that the writer tend to use positive evaluation items to appreciate arts and cultural news as newsworthy phenomenon which has aesthetical value for the readers to read. Keywords: Appreciation, Appraisal Theory, Arts and Cultural News. Introduction In this era of advanced technology, mass media has largely impacted people’s interpretation towards the world around them. Mass media may vary in content, such as, news, advertisement, stories and etc. Bednarek (2006:5) states that media language is very complex in terms of its socio-economic and communicative context. The language which is used would convey the news writer’s intention, message, and mission by presenting the material in the content of media. The complexity of news which is offered by media turns news as an important part of people’s life. Martin & White (2005:73) argue that news is regarded as positive appreciation, since it is used to refer to newsworthy information that is valuable enough to print. Therefore, the presence of newspaper is highly demanded nowadays. The newspaper is published in the form of two, printed and online. Newspaper provides the readers with a lot of interesting issues of the world, such as, social, economic, politic, lifestyle, culture and art. Arts and cultural issue has become particular news which can always successfully attract