Me generation unfriends politics
Despite a
small readership Indonesian newspapers are setting the political agenda. Television and radio pick up print stories
and amplify them. The issues then get
into the social media and impact voters.
“I used to
think it was the other way around, and that comments on the Internet determined
the response of the mainstream media,” said US-educated political scientist Dr
Djayadi Hanan (right).
“However
further research has changed my view. Around 80 per cent of Indonesians still
rely on national television for political information, though news and current
affairs stations are not popular.
“For
example, Metro TV (owned by NasDem Party founder Surya Paloh) attracts an
audience on only three per cent. TV One (linked to Golkar chair and
presidential hopeful Aburizal Bakrie) has five to six per cent. The popular channels are those that telecast
sinetron (soap operas).”
Dr Hanan,
40, a lecturer in international relations at Paramadina University in Jakarta,
was speaking at a forum on development and democracy held at the Indonesian
Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand last week. (W/end 30 Nov).
His speech
used statistics, which he said were reliable, up-to-date and compiled from
surveys across the nation by his university and other researchers. He told an
audience of academics, students and diplomats that only between 11 and 13 per
cent of the population used the print media.
That number
appeared to be declining. However
on-line Internet sites run by newspapers were winning readers.
“The
Internet is a democratizing and democratic media, but access is still limited,
unlike television which is widely available throughout the Archipelago,” he
said.
“This is
largely because the administration of former President Soeharto put up the
Palapa satellite,” he said. (Palapa One was launched in 1975)
“About 45
million are using the Internet, but few have high speed broadband outside
Jakarta. Most have social media contacts, which is why President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono used Twitter to directly reach electors and comment on the Australian
spying revelations.
“This is
something Australian commentators, critical of a national leader using Twitter,
could not understand. Fifteen per cent of global tweets are sent in the
Republic, probably because we like talking about ourselves”.
The problem
for politicians trying to get their names in front of the public is that
Internet users are an exclusive group.
“Their
Internet content includes opinions, expressions and stories of an urban
middle-class culture, its lifestyle and problems,” Dr Hanan said. “Most
Facebook groups are about brands and products, entertainment and celebrities –
not politics.
“Social and
political concerns exist but are event-driven and short lived. They mimic the taste and bias of the
mainstream media. The more contact
users have with politics the more they are alienated from politicians.”
Dr Hanan
said he didn’t like to follow Australian political scientists and give
“counsels of despair”, even though Indonesia did have serious problems with
corruption and education; for example few students used the Internet at school
or university.
However
research showed almost 70 per cent believe democracy is the best system for
Indonesia – though this support lagged behind public opinion in South Korea and
Taiwan.
Although
the public was generally satisfied with their experiences with democracy, that
approval rating had slipped from a high of 75 per cent in 2009 to just over
half this year.
Freedom of expression
and freedom of the press were highly regarded with well over 90 per cent
approval. Education and public health remained as the most important issues
facing voters as they head into next year’s elections.
(First published in The Jakarta Post, 1 December 2013)
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