"In every disaster, problems of information and communication distribution always occur. The communication channel is very dependent on various supporting facilities. Electricity, transmitter towers, broadcasting stations, to human resources. In two big disasters in Indonesia in 2018: the Lombok ear
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thquake; and the earthquake, tsunami and liquefaction in Palu, there were issues of the information and communication channels. Local people do not know the conditions that occur in their area and the situation of their families. While outsiders, the government, and rescue teams did not get detailed information from the affected areas. In countries with high intensity of natural disasters, emergency broadcasting policies have been long practiced. The simplest device for emergency broadcasting is radio. This kind of media can immediately air with simple facilities. Regardless, the initiative of emergency radio has not yet adopted into regulation in Indonesia. Therefore, the emergency radio initiator limited to a handful of organization like in Lombok earthquake"
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"Indonesia, the state with the largest Muslim population in the world, is in a process of continuous societal transformation. From the perspective of Media and Communication Studies, recent political developments towards an increasingly consolidated democratic system are of great interest. The compa
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rison with Germany may seem unusual and asymmetrical. The countries differ with regard to the religious and cultural practices, and media and social developments are neither intertwined nor similar at first glance. A closer look, however, reveals structural similarities between Germany and Indonesia: dynamics and regressions of political transformation under pressure from radical political movements; hyper-modernization in parts of the economies and social life-worlds of post-modern urbanization; a heritage of genocides and cultural struggles over the multi-ethnic and multi-religious fabrics of society. The book deals with the role media play in the course of these political, economic and cultural transformations. Do they ‘follow’ or ‘lead’ the changes in political systems and societies? What can countries learn from each other if they step outside the usual ethnocentric comparisons and engage in a more intense global dialogue? The book is a groundbreaking endeavour in comparative Media and Communication Studies and brings together well-known researchers from hitherto largely separated academic communities." (Publisher description)
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"This article essentially shows how the development of commercial television in Indonesia has conflicted with the country’s media democratization, as illustrated by the growth of local media in the past 15 years. Compared to print media and radio, which are decentralized, Indonesia’s television
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industry is dominated by five large media corporations that are all based in the capital city of Jakarta. As a consequence, this fails to leave much growing space to television stations at a local level, which would be needed to strengthen Indonesia’s democratization. Media owners have successfully influenced the government in establishing a set of policies that sustain their dominance of the industry. Players within the television industry have even successfully swayed the direction of the broadcasting decentralization mandated by the Broadcasting Bill during Indonesia’s early political Reform period. The influence of these ‘Jakarta television stations’ stunted the development of television stations outside of Jakarta. Not only it deprives local actors of the economic value of developing their own television industry would bring, it also has resulted in the the loss of television's potential in functioning as a public sphere facilitating social control over democratic processes. Although the Reform era promised a new age of media democratization, the centralization of commercial television actually worsened media monopolies that were thought to have been done away with in post-Suharto Indonesia." (Abstract)
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