Kunci helps create critical, smart TV viewers<\/p>\n
When asked if their TV monitoring was tightly monitored, students
\nat the Al-Munawwir Islamic boarding school in Krapyak, on the
\nsouthern outskirts of Yogyakarta, cried in unison, "No!"<\/p>\n
When asked why, however, they said it was because there was no
\ntelevision at the boarding school. Still, the students were able
\nto reel off the names of their favorite television programs with
\nlittle prompting.<\/p>\n
"We watch them at a friend's boarding house or at the wartel
\n(public phone kiosk)," the santri, students at an Islamic
\nboarding school, said during a one-day discussion and workshop on
\ntelevision for teenagers. The discussion was held at the boarding
\nschool last Sunday.<\/p>\n
Some 40 santri, all female and most university and high school
\nstudents, attended the workshop organized by the Yogyakarta-based
\ncultural study center Kunci, as part of its media literacy
\nprogram for teenagers.<\/p>\n
"This shows that television is so powerful that even students
\nat an Islamic boarding school like this have a way to watch
\ntelevision in secret," Antariksa, an instructor at Kunci, told
\nThe Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the workshop.<\/p>\n
Introduced earlier this year, Kunci's program is designed to
\nhelp teenagers build a critical attitude in selecting and
\nwatching television programs, and to use the images and
\ninformation they get from TV for their own benefit.<\/p>\n
"We do not deal with the content of programs. There are lots
\nof organizations involved in that. What we are more concerned
\nwith is how to develop a certain attitude toward the programs,"
\nAntariksa said.<\/p>\n
Every community, according to Antariksa, has its own way of
\nconsuming television programs. Within a santri community like the
\none at Al-Munawwir, for example, most students see that many
\nprograms, reality shows, for example, are morally wrong,
\naccording to the teachings of Islam.<\/p>\n
"Watching it on television is like approving the concept of
\npacaran (having a special relationship with someone of the
\nopposite sex), which is against Islamic teaching," a participant
\nat the workshop said after being exposed to Playboy
\nKabel, a reality show broadcast by a private TV station.<\/p>\n
"I think this kind of program violates the idea of privacy. It
\nbroadcasts things that belong in the private domain. It is just
\nnot decent to show it in public," another participant said.<\/p>\n
Yet, for lots of the students at public school SMU 6
\nYogyakarta, where the same workshop was held the previous day,
\nprograms like Playboy Kabel are among their favorite shows on
\ntelevision.<\/p>\n
"What we are doing, in this case, is making consumers more
\nmedia-literate. That way teenagers will develop critical
\nattitudes toward programs that many parents consider morally
\ndestructive by, for example, looking at the other side of the
\nprograms," Antariksa said.<\/p>\n
Simply telling teenagers they cannot watch a TV program,
\naccording to Antariksa, will not prevent them from being
\ninfluenced by the programs or from developing consumeristic
\nattitudes.<\/p>\n
What is more important, he said, is giving them the knowledge
\nthat what is shown on television is not always the same as
\nreality, regardless of whether such programs are called "reality
\nshows". They are just entertainment.<\/p>\n
"They must also learn that there are interests behind every
\nprogram," said Antariksa, who is Kunci's program manager.<\/p>\n
Underlining the urgent need to make people in the country more
\nmedia-literate, Antariksa expressed hope that one day the sort of
\nprograms offered by Kunci would be included in the curriculums of
\njunior high schools and high schools around the country.<\/p>\n
"There is still a long way to go, but when more and more
\ngroups start doing the same thing we are doing, the impact will
\nbe accelerated," he said.<\/p>\n
It is worrying, according to Antariksa, that at a time when
\nmore and more parents are expressing concern about the programs
\non TV, almost nothing is being done about it, especially with
\nregard to educating the viewing audience.<\/p>\n
"We have to make people aware that watching TV is like eating.
\nThere are times when we have to avoid junk TV programs, just like
\nwe have to leave unhealthy junk food behind," Kunci's director,
\nNuraini Juliastuti, said.<\/p>\n
Established in 1999 as a nonprofit organization for the
\ndevelopment of cultural studies, Kunci, according to Nuraini, has
\na special interest in teenagers.<\/p>\n
"This is because teenagers are a very big market for the mass
\nmedia and they also have the potential to become active, critical
\nconsumers," Nuraini said.<\/p>\n
Through Kunci's programs, participants are actively involved
\nin discussing, among other things, the meaning of media literacy,
\ntheir concerns about TV programs, how they usually watch TV, etc.<\/p>\n
They are also exposed to recorded TV programs and then are
\nasked to discuss the programs and express their opinions on what
\nthey have seen.<\/p>\n
In order to reach a wider group of teenagers, Nuraini said,
\nthe workshops will be held in September in the East Java town of
\nGresik. Previously, a similar program was held in Sumbawa, West
\nNusa Tenggara, involving students from six high schools.<\/p>\n
"It is basically a new format for our annual campaigns, which
\nare No Shopping Day and Turn Off TV Week," Nuraini said.<\/p>\n
No Shopping Day was held to promote critical attitudes in
\nyoung people toward consumer culture. The Turn Off TV Week was
\nheld to promote a critical attitude toward the mass media. Both
\nprograms were held in cooperation with Canada-based non-
\ngovernment organization Adbusters, which supplied Kunci with the
\ncampaign materials.<\/p>\n
--JP\/Sri Wahyuni<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/kunci-helps-create-critical-smart-tv-viewers-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }