A day with a TV newscaster
Nova Poerwadi, 27, began his career in the newsroom of TVRI in his native Surabaya, from where he moved to SCTV in Jakarta. He can currently be seen on RCTI's morning news program Indonesia Today. Having just returned from a stint at CNN's Atlanta center, he's setting his sights on further developing his skills. Nova lives with his parents in Cipayung, East Jakarta, and spoke to The Jakarta Post's contributor William Furney.
JAKARTA (JP): "My day is usually pretty twisted as it starts about midnight. I spend a while reading and sending e-mails and get to work between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. As well as being a newsreader, I'm also assistant producer of the program, so I have to do a lot of the editing, writing and everything else. Thursday and Friday are my days for presenting.
I come in and look at what we have in terms of material and also what's on the (news)wires and help mould it into a show, which is about 25 minutes long, plus ads. Fortunately, it's only five days a week.
In terms of ratings, our viewership is pretty stable and is mainly made up of expats. We limit our content to what's going on in Indonesia and make a point of explaining things that maybe Indonesians already know, such as acronyms. We go out of our way to explain (them). Before the whole reform thing, English news had an added edge: it could get away with more, as the viewing audience is of a particular education (level). But even today, we can say a lot of things that may rub people the wrong way on other programs. In terms of sectarian conflicts, we mention the religion of the warring groups, whereas Indonesian-language programs wouldn't mention them, as it would cause problems.
I still feel there is a lot of aftertaste from the Soeharto era. There are a lot of paradigms that should have been washed away with the regime that are still there. So in terms of reporting on conflicts, people prefer suppression of information rather than showing that suffering is actually universal, whether you're a Christian or Muslim in Ambon. When people kill your family, it hurts, whether you're a Christian or Muslim. But the tendency here is always to suppress the information, and that's a paradigm of the old era. But we're just beginning the conversion process to democracy as it's really about introducing a new set of beliefs. And there's a vast improvement now in people being able to report without looking over their shoulder. I think, though, that the Indonesian media needs to move away from sound bite reporting to human-oriented reporting. But Indonesian reporters, I think, are still reluctant to ask questions. We have a special word for it that isn't really in the English vocabulary, sungkan -- fear of offending someone.
On days I'm presenting the show, other people will take care of the dubbing, writing and so on. Half an hour before the program airs, at 7 a.m., I go to make up. This is a time for me to disconnect, because the adrenaline of the production process doesn't really sit well with the calm and collectiveness I need to anchor. I think the nervousness has left me now. I tend to get more nervous if the script or a package is not ready, and I'll have a look at the script one last time.
The whole presentation aspect for me is that I'm going to talk to the home audience about what's just happened. So I treat it like a conversation of sorts. When the show is being counted down, I'm thinking that I'm knocking on the door of someone's home. When the intro music is playing, I'm moving into the living room. And when I'm on air, I'm in the living room and say, 'Hello, good morning,' and take it from there.
A few times when I've been presenting, the autocue restarted and I had to read from the script. At some stations I worked at, the script wasn't ready because it was the midday news and news items kept being slotted in all the time. So I had nothing to refer to. It was a case of winging it, keeping the 'conversation' with the viewers going. They're not going to accept any excuses. But reading the news is easy as the studio is a sterile environment. You need to have a degree of make-belief, though. You have to know you're talking to someone, as opposed to a cold, steel camera.
After the show, the production team and I go to the cafeteria and have breakfast, or rather lunch. I'm overweight right now, so I'll just have vegetables. But they've just installed an ice cream machine, so it's an uphill struggle. Then there's some planning for the next day's program, which can involve going out on interviews. It can sometimes be a 20-hour day.
Usually I get home at about 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. One of the good things about working at nighttime is that you can use the day for errands. I'm very big on sitcoms. Murphy Brown is one of my favorites. It's one of the things that really excited me about TV. I've found out that the TV news industry is exactly like what it is on Murphy Brown. There are people who are perky for the camera one minute and the ultimate nightmare the next. You have to learn to be centered in this business or you'll go crazy. My afternoons are taken up e-mailing, watching TV and making phone calls. But I get very tired. Sometimes I feel I'm missing out as I've been doing nothing but work. Right now, I'm doing what I call "reclaiming my social life," because as much as I'm passionate about my work, I need to become more than my job. So I'm making the effort to go out more.
What I'd really like to do in a few years is have my own talk show, preferably in English because you can get away with more. But I'm happy for now.
Sometimes I'm so tired I fall asleep in front of the TV. But then I wake up angry, because I'm a very regimented person -- my father was in the Navy. I always find things to tinker with before I get to bed. I have aquariums and I'll tinker around with them. I'll watch some sitcoms and then sleep about 4 p.m. I'm very drained at that time but oddly fulfilled."