Analysis 2

Indonesia

In order to take a deeper look into Indonesia’s unique media culture environments, it is important to recognize and analyze where and how media power is distributed, what tensions or rifts it causes religiously and politically, and the accessibility to and limitations of freedom as it relates to media. The first important piece of information to consider is Indonesia’s dominate media technology (DMT). A countries DMT is defined as the form of technology that is used to communicate important messages to the largest portion of the population, and for Indonesia that technology is the television. Though some could make cases for radio or internet through mobile phone, the television remains the country's most effective way of communication to its people. Therefore, looking into media power means uncovering those underneath the screen and the popular television stations. With so many people dialed into this one medium, the messages have a widespread impact on the country, so who controls those messages? The content that fills Indonesians TV screens is certainly worthy of examination, as knowledge monopolies play a huge role in Indonesia’s media. Through my research and discussions with those living in Indonesia, it is pretty clear that large corporate media companies and politicians run the show. So in other words, those with the big bucks. About 12 large groups make up the Indonesian media ownership, and about half of them are controlled by businessmen-turned-politicians with the goal to benefit personally and politically by running a profitable media business. This sort of invasion of authentic journalism is typical in Indonesia. It makes journalists uncomfortable, but they continue to keep their job. It is threatening freedom of the press. These types of media companies also create a hostile environment for independent journalists. First, to be an independent journalist in Indonesia, one must have enough money to successfully take on the challenge. However, even if they do have a successful company going, it is very hard to be heard over the rest of the large media groups. This situation has reached this extreme due to lack of regulations and enforcement of regulations. The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission has regulations, but they are not strictly enforced. In fact, they are known for being wishy-washy on cross-ownership of broadcast media. Furthermore, a press law in Indonesia outlines newsroom independence but it is not enforced. Another interesting twist on knowledge monopolies and media freedom in Indonesia is the idea of citizen journalism. Especially with the huge use of Twitter in Indonesia, this is low-budget way of reporting on events as they occur. It will be interesting to see how or if this affects large media corporations as Twitter grows. I expect that media freedom will increase with more usage of media convergence, however it has the potential to pose more threats as well. The five key definers of the state of media freedom in Indonesia are: “increased conglomeration, increased political affiliation from media owners, increased role of social media and citizen journalism in the mainstream media, changes to regulation pertaining to media freedom and changes to journalist professional practice.” Convergence is an important to trend to consider when discussing media freedom in Indonesia, because it could change the game drastically in coming years. The conversation of media freedom and knowledge monopolies in Indonesia got even more interesting when speaking with Muhammad Jufrianto and Emma Liskowski. Jufrianto explained that the idea of a Democratic bias in media is in the mind of society. This is caused by the leader of that political party owning the TV program. He explains that due to this, other TV programs are mostly funded by people who are against the government. For example, people who are watching metro TV which is owned by the leader of Indonesian Democratic Party will always broadcast any TV shows that can blow up all good things done by the government. Liskowski also made some interesting observations about the media power environment in Indonesia. “Money talks in Indonesia,” is how she put it. She said that you can pay a journalist to cover your story the way you want it covered. She also told a very interesting story about how two of the teachers and cleaning staff at her school (Jakarta Intercultural School) are in prison for a crime that was never committed due to increasing misrepresentation in the media. Also, she explained that people will pay others a small fee ($1-$2) and promise them food and they will show up to protest to create a news spectacle about any topic. She elaborated on how this happened recently in Jakarta during the protest of the Christian governor. Many of the protesters were there because they were being paid, not because they actually felt strongly about the topic at hand. Furthermore, this manipulative shaping of public perspective is worsened by the paying of big media outlets to cover their protest. This leads into tensions and rifts happening in Indonesia religiously and politically. Even though Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, the government is responsible for protecting the people’s right to religious freedom. Though Islam is the most practiced religion in the country, a number of other religions such as Christianity, Catholicism and Hinduism are also present. This makes for a lot of tension and discrimination mainly between Muslims and Christians. For example, a ministerial decree was created in 2006 that made it difficult for Christians to build churches, but there were no hurdles when it came to a mosque. Some Muslims took this as an excuse to violate Christians when they were worshiping illegally. This religious tension in the country leads to political tensions as well. For example, recently in Jakarta tension between Muslims and Christians rose to the surface when thousands of Islamists protested demanding that the city’s Christian governor be jailed for blasphemy. Conservative Islamists were upset by Basuki Tjahaja Purnama’s, otherwise known as Ahok, earlier comments about the Quran, so they took to the streets to let their voices be heard in attempts to lessen his power in the upcoming re-election of governor. However, after hearing the voice of an “inside man,” it is hard to know what to believe is the real perspective of the people as a whole on these issues. Another important factor to consider in this mix is media access. Liskowski explained that in more rural villages, which is where a lot of Indonesians live, there is limited access to roads and infrastructure that would provide consistent electricity and phone coverage. As a result, they also have very limited access to instant media coverage. So even though Indonesia seems to be moving forward with media and technologies, the majority of people are living rurally and continue to receive media stories through the newspaper is a village member happens to go into town.

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