A balance between profit, readers' needs and idealism
A balance between profit, readers' needs and idealism
Ati Nurbaiti, Jakarta
The performance of the Indonesian media is pleasantly surprising,
if we can believe the Asia Democracy Index of 2005. Published by
the Alliance for Reform and Democracy in Asia, based in
Singapore, the survey covers 16 countries and was conducted
between February and June 2005.
The sample was small, with a mere 100 respondents in
Indonesia, but the surveyors claim they were from a variety of
professions and located in Jakarta, West Java, Banten, Pontianak
in West Kalimantan, Central Java, South Sumatra, Jambi, East Java
and Aceh.
Among six indicators of political freedoms, the results for
the media were as follows:
Perceptions of the media Percentage
1.The media is free and independent from
government and other sources 58.25
2. Journalists and the media present a diversity 73.75
of political views
3. The media contributes positively to democracy 76.50
4. Journalists have adequate access to public
information 59.75
Source: Asia Democracy Index 2005 by Alliance for Reform and
Democracy in Asia, with country partner Indonesia Research and
Strategic Analysis.
So the general picture of our media is not all bad, with press
freedom still relatively high compared to other nations in Asia.
The Philippines, followed by Indonesia, is ranked highest among
the 16 countries.
But to improve ourselves we need to take into account the
things that need attention. Obviously, of the above respondents
asked about media independence, 42 percent did not perceive the
media to be free and independent of the government and "other
sources." Surveyors cite widespread bribery of journalists (the
"envelope culture"), the buying of air time on talk shows and
other forms of advertisements by high profile figures in politics
and business, and the efforts of both political parties and big
business in setting up their own media or buying into media, in
order to influence public opinion.
Media practitioners are also wary of what they see as "signs
of returning state control" over media content, such as indicated
by the four new government regulations on broadcasting.
But even without this, the media has plenty to worry about.
While it is encouraging that over 70 percent of the above
respondents say that the media represents a diversity of
political views after the far more timid times under the New
Order regime that ended in 1998, those in the business strongly
sense the apathy resulting from this cacophony of voices.
Scampering for answers on how to increase both audience and
advertisers, blame has been pointed to a lack of professionalism
among journalists, to universally decreasing attention spans and
the Internet, and increasing competition from existing and new
local and foreign print and broadcast media.
The answers have been a mixture of: Increase professionalism,
avoid getting sued, wake up to the changing times, don't be too
serious regarding content, brighten up presentation, make costs
more efficient, diverse products ("Should we produce a tabloid
paper or just dumb down the existing paper? Should we get into
the hotel business? What are other media-related businesses?"),
get the audience while they're young, cater better to
advertisers' needs, etc.
We could look to the experience of the media in other
countries who have tested some measures in facing up to the
competition. In the United States, from which numerous books on
self criticism of the media have come, "amusing ourselves to
death" has been one recipe, in the form of either funny or
ghastly reality shows. Television journalists have related how
costs have been cut to make news presentation shorter and more
cost efficient; but on the other hand, money was splurged on
expensive equipment such as helicopters. Since the repeated
broadcast of police tailing OJ Simpson in his white Bronco, every
other station now wants to ensure they have this same capacity to
produce exciting aerial cops and robbers news shows.
Senior American journalists said it was ironically the
disaster of Sept. 11, 2001, that returned pride to their
profession, compared to what they referred to as the embarrassing
coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.
Ten years ago a newspaper reader wrote that with fewer
lengthy articles, it was the print media that should be blamed
for shortening attention span rather than television news, which
provides for "very long, very shallow" attention spans.
But then, those in the media business note that it is mostly
old journalists and old readers who are complaining. A study
conducted last year in the United States showed that young people
were using both the Internet and the print media. Nonetheless,
media executives here are nervously watching declining readership
and increasing competition for advertisers.
As state censorship and threats become less relevant, the
outlook for next year is that the Indonesian media will continue
to compromise in the search for balance between profit and
quality journalism. Some have even confidently decided that it's
not quality journalism that their audiences need. In
compromising, we are not always going to tell you explicitly when
an advertisement is an advertisement, because that makes the
advertisers squirm, and we need them.
If you feel a bit indignant, resentful or mad at this, yours
would be a rare voice. In the absence of public pressure, the
media here, like media elsewhere, will continue to compromise
because it is necessary. We would rather stick around and have
criticism hurled at us than evaporate along with all the other
enterprises that have collapsed around us. There's not only local
competition, there's now foreign-owned media to deal with. For
example, Rupert Murdoch has taken up shares in Astro TV, and is
due to air quite soon.
In this environment of tight competition, pandering to the
advertisers is one quick-yielding way to survive. In the long
term, however, such a strategy risks loss of credibility, with
media outlets selling out too much to advertisers at the expense
of loyal readers and viewers.
The life of a media company could thus depend on its ability
to balance "good business" with maintaining credibility,
regardless of whether readers protest or not regarding dubious
content. Easier said than done -- once credibility is lost,
you're dead.
That is the general rule of the media; it's a business of
trust not unlike banking. But in Indonesia, this may not
necessarily be the case.
The Ambon Express was a new publication of the Jawa Pos group
launched during the height of the brutal communal conflict in
Maluku province, in which communities were split along ethnic and
religious lines. The group faced allegations that it was
profiting immensely from the conflict, which started in 1999,
with high sales for both its newspapers; the new Ambon Express,
was quickly labeled a "Muslim" daily, and the established paper,
Suara Maluku, was considered a "Christian" paper.
It did not make sense that one story could have versions that
satisfied both warring communities, clearly indicating an absence
of quality control through the reinforcement of a single
editorial policy.
Almost all media in Maluku at that time were accused of taking
sides. The CEO of the Jawa Pos group, Dahlan Iskan, denied the
allegations that the group was exploiting the conflict, saying
that he had to find a way to accommodate the Muslim journalists
who could not even reach the Suara Maluku office in a Christian-
dominated area given the real danger of getting killed.
The puzzle remained of how two newspapers of one group often
seemed to print different versions of the same story -- but such
questions, if any, were quickly forgotten. Thus the credibility
of this media group remained solid, and it was able to shrewdly
identify a community's needs in a given region. This might not be
the kind of credibility preached by media idealists but the group
is still alive and growing.
There is much homework still to be done in the media after we
gained all this freedom after 1998. Media enterprises that know
for sure that they would lose audiences once they throw out
"quality journalism" out the window need to invest more in
increasing professionalism through training; but this is still
limited to a few companies.
Getting to know their audiences is another big task, with many
media people trapped in the old mind-set of "we know best". The
fear that the Internet will kill off print media could become a
self-fulfilling prophesy, with readers surfing more and more
searching for what is absent in their morning news.
The author is a staff writer of The Jakarta Post.