Analysis 1

Indonesia

As with countries all around the globe, Indonesia has a unique cultural environment that is greatly impacted by the creation, use, and implementation of media and technologies. As a developing country, it is crucial to take an analytical eye to how all different kinds of media are influencing art, family life, education and literacy, and disaster management. Although the numbers are always on the rise, media definitely has a presence in Indonesia - a presence that makes a difference. The cultural environment created by media arts may seem less important in the grand scheme of things media could influence, but it certainly shouldn’t be overlooked. Media arts such as movies, actors/actresses, music, musicians, performers, entertainers, act as a way of identification for a country. A country's ability to create and produce media arts within their country rather than just watch what is being created around them, creates an important sense of culture definition, appreciation and pride in one's own country. When I spoke with a couple people living Indonesia about this topic, they (Emma Liskowski and Muhammad Al-Amin) both had similar responses. They explained that American movies and American pop culture are very popular in Indonesia, but they have their own movies and pop culture as well. So while they do air some content produced elsewhere, they have created their own media culture within their environment as well. When I researched this further, I discovered that Indonesian pop culture, also known as Indo pop, is greatly influenced by other countries such as America, Britain, Japan and Korea, but it also captures the attitude and personality of modern Indonesian life. And in return, Indo pop has an influence on neighboring countries like Malaysia. Media and technologies also have a huge impact on the intertwined cultural environments of family life and education in Indonesia. This impact makes it’s way into households by way of music, movies, television, radio, newspapers, and more. However, the largest impact seems to be made through television, with 65.38% of households having a television. And education is directly affected by implementation of computers and internet connection into classrooms. These two cultural environments go hand in hand because family life has a direct impact on education and vis versa. For example, a child’s home life impacts where they attend school, and their schooling affects the quality of their future. When speaking with Muhammad Al-Amin, a 15 year old who works at Instinc - Media Indonesia, he mentioned that media plays a huge role in family life because this is how they receive their news, and educate their children. He then expanded on how technology is incorporated into education in a couple of different ways. One way being that students are able to find tips and tutorials on the internet to help them learn different things. And they also use technology as a tool in the classroom to assist in educating youth. Emma Liskowski, a teacher at an international school in Indonesia, also had a lot to say about media and technology in education and family life. She does not believe that local, public Muslim schools have major technology access for educational purposes due to poor funding and lack of resources. She also believes that there is much bias in the media, and the children are not taught to question this, but rather just accept the media. She mentions that education is not free for anyone, and the subjects taught at the public school are limited to mostly religion and Indonesian. However, if families can afford it, they will send their kids to a Christian school or an International school. She explains the same observation can be made for media and technology with families. If they can afford it then they will likely have access to internet and TV, but the more rural families may live with limited or no access to electricity, education, service, etc. An important trend to recognize based on what Liskowski discussed is that media and technologies seem to be available to those fortunate enough to afford it. I also spoke with Muhammad Jufrianto, a teaching assistant in Indonesia, and he explains that technology is a huge help when it comes to education because they use it to promote programs that encourage people to better their education. He also explains that media is a great way for families to connect with each other easily whether it be over phone, but also TV and newspaper act as talking points during morning tea time. After speaking with people who live in Indonesia about the educational media environment, I did a bit of research to find out more. I found that most rural schools in Indonesia lack access to computer and internet resources (as Liskowski mentioned), but some parts of the country are pushing to incorporate the “IT environment” into the classroom. In 2013, IT classes were removed when the new curriculum was implemented in Indonesian schools. However, this was reversed in 2014 when Anies Baswedan, Indonesia’s new education and culture minister instructed schools to use the old curriculum that included IT classes. This brings up an interesting twist because not only are Indonesian students learning other subjects through the use of technology, but they are learning about the technology itself as well including classes in programming and coding. Another important role of media in Indonesia that cannot be ignored is its effect on disaster management. Indonesia is vulnerable to natural disasters such as occasional floods, severe droughts, tsunamis, earthquakes, and forest fires. But Indonesia is also home to the most volcanoes of any country in the world with about 76 active lava-filled eruptive mountains. There is no doubt that in light of any of these given catastrophes media and technology plays a role. Indonesians are the worlds most active users on Twitter, and they take advantage of that in these unfortunate life-threatening situations. The use of mass media plays a very important and powerful role in disaster risk reduction and it is crucial for communication during all stages of a disaster including pre-disaster phase, preparedness phase, response and immediate relief phase, and post-disaster phase. Overall, media use across Indonesia is ever-present and ever-growing, and it continues to greatly impact the country’s identity, family life, education and disaster management.

Analysis 1:
Indonesia’s Distinctive Media, Arts and Cultural Environments

Analysis 2: Indonesia’s Media Power, Rifts, and Freedom

Analysis 3: Indonesia’s Media Compared

Analysis 4:
Indonesia Communicating to the World