Communication experts must publish more

Communication experts must publish more

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Forty years after Indonesian universities
began communication science courses, the amount of research
conducted and published is lamentably low, a scholar says.

Sasa Djuarsa said here Saturday that Indonesia's
communications experts have not conducted much research and have
published even fewer books.

"Even translated books on communication written by foreign
experts are rare," the expert from the Jakarta-based University
of Indonesia said in a seminar co-sponsored by The Jakarta Post,
Kompas and Gadjah Mada University.

He said only a few universities have communications experts
that are active in the field and that most local scholars are
very unproductive.

"This is lamentable because one thing that makes experts well-
known to the public is their scientific works," Sasa said.

The one-day seminar featured communications specialists Alwi
Dahlan from the University of Indonesia; Astrid Susanto, also
from the University of Indonesia; Bambang Setiawan from Gadjah
Mada University and Jalaludin Rakmat from Bandung's University of
Pajajaran.

Low productivity is to blame for the little progress made in
Indonesia's communications field, Sasa said.

To make things worse, both lecturers and students have a poor
grasp of English and have trouble reading books written by
foreign experts, who dominate the field.

"That explains why universities produce communications experts
whose knowledge is limited to the information contained in the
handouts they give out in class," he said.

Research activities, he said, are mostly done when there is a
sponsor, of which there are very few, he added.

"The scapegoat for lack of research and development activities
is predictable: inadequate university funding. Besides, experts
find it difficult to get sponsors both at home and from abroad,"
he said.

Bambang Setiawan proposed that universities shift their
orientations away from producing experts for the government to
producing talent for companies in the fast-growing private
sector.

He argued that rapid economic development in Indonesia has
given rise to the establishment of private enterprises which
require communications experts.

But he acknowledged that such a reorientation in their
curriculums won't be easy, mainly because of the money needed.
(har/pan)