Media Must Play Greater Role in Building Public Understanding, Says ANTARA Chief

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The President Director of the National News Agency (LKBN) ANTARA, Benny Siga Butarbutar, believes mass media must enhance its role in efforts to build public understanding through fact-based narratives. “From a journalist’s perspective, we are no longer just tools or executors of agenda-setting, because I consider that concept outdated. It can make the media view the public as passive,” he said at the Kick Off for the 2026 Indonesia Public Relations Convention at the ANTARA Heritage Center, Jakarta, Saturday. “Shift the agenda-setting role to a more advanced one, namely how we can construct reality,” he added.

According to him, mass media needs to play a more active role in helping to build public understanding through the presentation of information and narratives based on facts. To enhance this role, he said media must strengthen collaboration with communities, social media activists, and other elements of society to fill the public sphere with quality information. “Therefore, be more active in enabling communities, homeless media, and social media activists to collaborate. Because in this era, there is only one formula I consider still strong, and that is collaboration,” he said.

He added that collaboration between professional organisations and national media is also crucial to strengthening public communication capabilities. “Collaboration between professional organisations and national media is very important so that the public sphere is filled with quality information, builds optimism, and strengthens national unity,” he said. The Kick Off event for the 2026 Indonesia Public Relations Convention marks the beginning of a series of activities leading up to the convention, which will be held in Surakarta on 17 and 18 October. Deputy Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs Nezar Patria attended the event, which carried the theme “Public Relations as a National Force, Weaving Trust, Mobilising the Nation.”