Observer: Citizen Journalism Can Serve as a Security Early Warning System
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Political and intelligence issues observer Boni Hargens stated that citizen journalism can serve as a source of open information that security institutions, including law enforcement agencies, can utilise for analytical purposes.
“This information originating from the wider community, if managed with the appropriate methods, can become a strategic instrument in mapping potential threats, challenges, obstacles, and security disturbances (ATHG),” Boni said in a statement received in Jakarta on Monday.
Boni explained that the ATHG framework is an analytical instrument commonly used in national security studies. According to him, by utilising citizen journalism as an input source, ATHG analysis can be conducted more comprehensively, based on actual field data, and reflecting the conditions experienced by the community.
He believes this view aligns with the statement made by the Chief of the Indonesian National Police, General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, regarding how public grievances are increasingly easily spread through citizen journalism, acting as an early warning system for the police.
Social media platforms, online video channels, and digital chat groups, according to the Chief of Police, have become spaces for individuals to record, report, and disseminate events around them in real-time, thereby forming a new information landscape.
Boni considers the Chief of Police’s statement to reflect a modern policing mindset that seeks to adapt to rapid and dynamic changes. “The digital era, characterised by the amorphism of information in cyberspace, should bring changes to the paradigm of law enforcement in evaluating and redefining the meaning and execution of their roles and functions within society, the nation, and the state,” he said.
The term ‘information amorphism’ used by Boni refers to the condition of information in digital spaces which, according to him, is easily altered, spreads in various directions, and is difficult to control centrally. In such conditions, he continued, law enforcement institutions cannot rely solely on conventional approaches.
He noted that a more responsive and adaptive paradigm is required, capable of intelligently and structurally utilising various open information sources. He added that in a healthy democracy, the relationship between security apparatus and civilians is not a one-way hierarchy, but rather dialogic and mutually reinforcing.
“Citizens who actively report and participate through digital journalism are strategic partners in maintaining national security,” said Boni.