Media power in Indonesia : oligarchs, citizens and the digital revolution

203 Pages·2017·1.092 MB·English

by  Tapsell, Ross

Media Power in Indonesia
Media, Culture and Communication
in Asia-Pacific Societies
The Asia-Pacific region houses some of the richest and most diverse cultural,
media and social practices in the world, with much of it yet to be analysed
or uncovered. At the same time, there is a growing scholarly interest in
understanding the breadth and depth of culture and media/communication
practices in Asian societies. The aim of this series is to support this quest by
enabling high-quality accessible and emergent scholarship on culture, media
and communication in the Asia-Pacific to be published. It showcases inno-
vative research produced in the region to a global readership with an eye to
generating dialogue that will spark new ideas and enhance social and cultural
understandings.
Series Editors:
Terence Lee, Associate Professor, Communication & Media
Studies at Murdoch University, Australia
Susan Leong, Research Fellow, School of Media, Culture
and Creative Arts, Curtin University, Australia
Titles in the Series:
Media Power in Indonesia: Oligarchs, Citizens and the Digital Revolution,
by Ross Tapsell
Activism and Digital Culture in Australia, by Debbie Rodan and Jane
Mummery (forthcoming)
Willing Collaborators: Foreign Partners in Chinese Media, edited by
Michael Keane, Brian Yecies and Terry Flew (forthcoming)
The Tastes and Politics of Inter-Cultural Food in Australia, by Sukhmani
Khorana (forthcoming)
Media Power
in Indonesia
Oligarchs, Citizens and the
Digital Revolution
Ross Tapsell
London• NewYork
Published by Rowman & Littlefield International Ltd
Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26–34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB
www.rowmaninternational.com
Rowman & Littlefield International Ltd. is an affiliate of Rowman & Littlefield
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706, USA
With additional offices in Boulder, New York, Toronto (Canada), and Plymouth (UK)
www.rowman.com
Copyright © 2017 Ross Tapsell
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: HB 978-1-78660-035-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Tapsell, Ross, author.
Title: Media power in Indonesia : oligarchs, citizens and the digital revolution /
Ross Tapsell.
Description: London : Rowman & Littlefield International, Ltd., [2017] | Series: Media,
culture and communication in Asia-Pacific societies | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017015136 (print) | LCCN 2017016760 (ebook) | ISBN
9781786600370 (Electronic) | ISBN 9781786600356 | ISBN 9781786600356 (cloth :
alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Digital media—Political aspects—Indonesia. | Mass media—Political
aspects—Indonesia. | Online journalism—Political aspects—Indonesia. | Mass
media—Ownership—Indonesia. | Oligarchy—Indonesia.
Classification: LCC P95.82.I5 (ebook) | LCC P95.82.I5 T37 2017 (print) |
DDC 079.598—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017015136
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: Digital media in Indonesia ix
1 The medium and the message 1
2 Digital conglomerates 25
3 Media oligarchs 59
4 Counter-oligarchic media 95
5 Digital ecosystems 125
Conclusion 149
Bibliography 159
Index 169
v

Acknowledgements
My sincere gratitude goes out to all those who took the time to meet me and
agreed to be interviewed for this research, all of whom did so at no financial
benefit. Thanks to my colleagues at the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
for their support, in particular those colleagues at the ANU’s Indonesia
Project. Thanks to Edward Aspinall and David Hill for providing comments
on earlier drafts. The support of Indiana University and the people at the
ANU-IU Pan Asia Institute, where I spent a sabbatical writing this book, was
crucial. Thanks also to the late Dedy Hidayat (University of Indonesia) and
Rachma Ida (Airlangga University) and their staff for their assistance and
support while I was a visiting fellow at their respective media and communi-
cations departments.
Finally, terima kasih banyak to my friends in Indonesia for their support,
assistance and hospitality to me over the seven years researching this topic.
Particular mention to Ele Williams in Yogyakarta, Luthfi Nur Rosyidi in Sura-
baya, Ratih Permanasari and family in Bali, Nobert Leatemia in Ambon and
Arius Jhon Mebri in Jayapura for all their hospitality and assistance. In Jakarta
particular thanks to Andrew Henderson and Dyah Pandam Mitayani, Lydia
Ruddy, George Roberts, Harry Wicaksana, and Tony and Rennie Gooley.
vii

Introduction
Digital media in Indonesia
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, or ‘Ahok’ as he is popularly known, is an anomaly
in Indonesian politics. An ethnic Chinese in a land where his descendants
have stayed away from political positions. A Christian in a majority-Muslim
nation. A Sumatran, where the most prominent politicians in Indonesia are
from the most populous island of Java. A man who speaks bluntly, curses reg-
ularly and gets visibly mad, leading former president Megawati Sukarnoputri
to comment, ‘if only we had some magic tape to put [over his mouth]’.1 Yet
despite all these traits, Ahok managed to become the governor of Indone-
sia’s capital city, Jakarta. He did so because his predecessor, Joko ‘Jokowi’
Widodo, was elected as Indonesia’s president in 2014. The pair were a prod-
uct of Indonesia’s decentralisation policies, which allowed for direct election
of local mayors and regents instead of them being hand-picked by political
parties. They were selected as star performers with solid track records in their
respective local political roles, and were nominated by major political parties
to run for Jakarta governor (Jokowi, PDI Party) and vice-governor (Ahok,
Gerindra party) in 2012. Despite being clear underdogs to the incumbents,
they won. They did so with the help of many young, urban Indonesians with
internet access, who used digital technologies as part of their campaign.
Jokowi went on to ride this populist wave all the way to the presidency.
As governor, Ahok continued to be an anomaly. In 2014 he withdrew from
the Gerindra party when the party wanted to abandon local direct elections,
the very avenue that allowed local politicians like Ahok and Jokowi to rise
to power. Disliked by much of the political elite, he was described by The
New York Times as someone whose ‘target is a political system run by aloof
oligarchs’.2 Many of these oligarchs own national media companies, and their
news stations regularly depict Ahok as unstable, rude and untrustworthy. In
ix