IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/meanco/v9y2021i4p52-61.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Media Control in the Digital Politics of Indonesia

Author

Listed:
  • Masduki

    (Department of Communication, Universitas Islam Indonesia, Indonesia)

Abstract

In transitional democratic countries with significant digital media user bases, the “authoritarian turn in digital media” has resulted in new forms of media control designed to counter critical media exposure. This article investigates the ongoing digital pressures experienced by Indonesian media organizations and investigative journalists by the partisan supporters of the country’s new authoritarian political leaders. This article provides a critical review of the forms of media control that have emerged in Indonesia within the past five years (2015–2020), giving special attention to the doxing allegedly faced by several news media and journalistic projects: IndonesiaLeaks; Tempo magazine; and WatchDoc. Applying qualitative methods (observation, semi-structured interviews, review of documents), this study finds that the rise of non-state and societal control over critical media leads to self-censorship amongst media and journalists. This study shows that online trolls, doxing, and hyper-partisan news outlets are used as new forms of media control. Control is also exerted by paid-social media buzzers, whose online identity is established by their use of digital and social media platforms to manipulate information and counter critical news regarding incumbent and oppositional political leaders. This article contributes to the academic debate on the intended forms of media control in digital politics of transitional democracies.

Suggested Citation

  • Masduki, 2021. "Media Control in the Digital Politics of Indonesia," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(4), pages 52-61.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v:9:y:2021:i:4:p:52-61
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4225
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas P. Power, 2018. "Jokowi’s Authoritarian Turn and Indonesia’s Democratic Decline," Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(3), pages 307-338, September.
    2. Persada, Pena & , Ismaulina, 2019. "Raskin Distribution In Islamic Economic Perspective," Thesis Commons pwstj, Center for Open Science.
    3. Nooreen Mujahid & Azeema Begam & Nargis, 2019. "SMEs Output and GDP Growth: A Dynamic Perspective," Journal of Asian Business Strategy, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 9(1), pages 53-65, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abate, Gashaw T. & Abay, Kibrom A. & Chamberlin, Jordan & Kassim, Yumna & Spielman, David J. & Paul Jr Tabe-Ojong, Martin, 2023. "Digital tools and agricultural market transformation in Africa: Why are they not at scale yet, and what will it take to get there?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    2. Blind, Knut & Niebel, Crispin, 2022. "5G roll-out failures addressed by innovation policies in the EU," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    3. Kim, Hyung-Min & Kim, Seongcheol, 2022. "The show must go on: Why Korea lost its first-mover advantage in Esports and how it can become a major player again," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    4. Olga Dovbysh & Esther Somfalvy, 2021. "Understanding Media Control in the Digital Age," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(4), pages 1-4.
    5. Fouquet, Roger & Hippe, Ralph, 2022. "Twin transitions of decarbonisation and digitalisation: a historical perspective on energy and information in European economies," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115544, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Barzegar, Maryam & Rajabifard, Abbas & Kalantari, Mohsen & Atazadeh, Behnam, 2021. "A framework for spatial analysis in 3D urban land administration – A case study for Victoria, Australia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christopher Hoy & Russell Toth & Nurina Merdikawati, 2020. "How does Information about Inequality Shape Voting Intentions and Preferences for Redistribution? Evidence from a Randomized Survey Experiment in Indonesia," Working Papers 517, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    2. Roestamy, Martin & Martin, Abraham Yazdi & Rusli, Radif Khotamir & Fulazzaky, Mohamad Ali, 2022. "A review of the reliability of land bank institution in Indonesia for effective land management of public interest," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    3. repec:thr:techub:10021:y:2021:i:1:p:446-458 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. David Hudson & Claire Mcloughlin & Anna Margret & Yolanda Pandjaitan, 2020. "Leadership, Identity and Performance: The Nature and Effect of ‘Prototypicality’ in Indonesia," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 201-213.
    5. Nurul Listiyani & M. Yasir Said & Afif Khalid, 2023. "Strengthening Reclamation Obligation through Mining Law Reform: Indonesian Experience," Resources, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-14, April.
    6. Kareem, Olayinka Idowu, 2022. "Fruit safety regulations in the transatlantic region: How are Africa’s exports faring with the regulations?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 886-902.
    7. Andi Andi & Anang Sujoko & Wawan Sobari, 2021. "Oligarchical Populism; The Analysis of President Joko Widodo's Political Communication," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 21(1), pages 446-458, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v:9:y:2021:i:4:p:52-61. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.