Mapping Digital Media: Indonesia

MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA: INDONESIA Mapping Digital Media: Indonesia A REPORT BY THE OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS WRITTEN BY Kuskridho Ambardi (lead reporter) Gilang Parahita, Lisa Lindawati, Adam Sukarno, Nella Aprilia (reporters) EDITED BY Marius Dragomir and Mark Thompson (Open Society Media Program editors) Graham Watts (regional editor) EDITORIAL COMMISSION Yuen-Ying Chan, Christian S. Nissen, Dusˇan Reljic´, Russell Southwood, Damian Tambini The Editorial Commission is an advisory body. Its members are not responsible for the information or assessments contained in the Mapping Digital Media texts OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM TEAM Meijinder Kaur, program assistant; Stewart Chisholm, associate director OPEN SOCIETY INFORMATION PROGRAM TEAM Vera Franz, senior program manager; Darius Cuplinskas, director 13 January 2014 2 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA INDONESIA Contents Mapping Digital Media ..................................................................................................................... 4 Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................... 6 Context ............................................................................................................................................. 10 Social Indicators ................................................................................................................................ 11 Economic Indicators ......................................................................................................................... 13 1. Media Consumption:  e Digital Factor ................................................................................... 14 1.1 Digital Take-up ................................................................................................................. 14 1.2 Media Preferences ............................................................................................................. 17 1.3 News Providers ................................................................................................................. 21 1.4 Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 25 2. Digital Media and Public or State-administered Broadcasters .................................................... 26 2.1 Public Service and State Institutions ................................................................................. 26 2.2 Public Service Provision .................................................................................................... 30 2.3 Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 32 3. Digital Media and Society ......................................................................................................... 33 3.1 User-Generated Content (UGC) ...................................................................................... 33 3.2 Digital Activism ................................................................................................................ 35 3.3 Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 40 OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2014 3 4. Digital Media and Journalism ................................................................................................... 41 4.1 Impact on Journalists and Newsrooms .............................................................................. 41 4.2 Investigative Journalism .................................................................................................... 45 4.3 Social and Cultural Diversity ............................................................................................ 48 4.4 Political Diversity .............................................................................................................. 51 4.5 Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 52 5. Digital Media and Technology .................................................................................................. 53 5.1 Broadcasting Spectrum ..................................................................................................... 53 5.2 Digital Gatekeeping .......................................................................................................... 58 5.3 Telecommunications ......................................................................................................... 59 5.4 Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 59 6. Digital Business ......................................................................................................................... 61 6.1 Ownership ........................................................................................................................ 61 6.2 Media Funding ................................................................................................................. 67 6.3 Media Business Models ..................................................................................................... 68 6.4 Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 69 7. Policies, Laws, and Regulators ................................................................................................... 71 7.1 Policies and Laws .............................................................................................................. 71 7.2 Regulators ......................................................................................................................... 77 7.3 Government Interference .................................................................................................. 81 7.4 Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 84 8. Conclusions .............................................................................................................................. 86 8.1 Media Today ..................................................................................................................... 86 8.2 Media Tomorrow .............................................................................................................. 87 List of Abbreviations, Figures, Tables, and Companies ....................................................................... 88 4 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA INDONESIA Mapping Digital Media  e values that underpin good journalism, the need of citizens for reliable and abundant information, and the importance of such information for a healthy society and a robust democracy: these are perennial, and provide compass-bearings for anyone trying to make sense of current changes across the media landscape.  e standards in the profession are in the process of being set. Most of the eff ects on journalism imposed by new technology are shaped in the most developed societies, but these changes are equally infl uencing the media in less developed societies.  e Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and infl uence change. At the same time, this research creates a knowledge base, laying foundations for advocacy work, building capacity and enhancing debate.  e Media Program of the Open Society Foundations has seen how changes and continuity aff ect the media in diff erent places, redefi ning the way they can operate sustainably while staying true to values of pluralism and diversity, transparency and accountability, editorial independence, freedom of expression and information, public service, and high professional standards.  e Mapping Digital Media project assesses, in the light of these values, the global opportunities and risks that are created for media by the following developments: the switch-over from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting; growth of new media platforms as sources of news; convergence of traditional broadcasting with telecommunications. Covering 60 countries, the project examines how these changes aff ect the core democratic service that any media system should provide—news about political, economic and social aff airs. OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2014 5  e Mapping Digital Media reports are produced by local researchers and partner organizations in each country. Cumulatively, these reports will provide a much-needed resource on the democratic role of digital media. In addition to the country reports, the Open Society Media Program has commissioned research papers on a range of topics related to digital media.  ese papers are published as the MDM Reference Series. 6 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA INDONESIA Mapping Digital Media: Indonesia Executive Summary  e emergence of digital media in Indonesia coincided with the country’s transition to democracy beginning in 1998. In some ways, digitization has catalyzed the development of diverse and independent media. Market reforms in favor of liberalization have gone hand in hand with convergence and proliferation to produce a radical increase in the number of media outlets.  e number of national television channels has doubled since 1998; commercial radio stations have tripled; and the number of print newspapers has more than quadrupled.  is has occurred alongside and in tandem with a rapidly growing online news sector populated by a mixed ecology of established brands and new entrants. In other ways, however, digitization has merely helped to shift the locus of concentrated power from the state to an increasingly consolidated media elite. Despite the growing number of outlets, new entrants in conventional sectors have been rare and have been hampered by policies that have tended to favor commercial incumbents.  e government’s plan for digital switch-over in the television sector is particularly problematic. Imposed through controversial ministerial regulations issued in 2011, it allowed for a simulcast and transition period spanning six years leading to switch-over in 2018. But the plan has been criticized on a number of fronts and by a range of stakeholders. Some questioned its legitimacy from the outset in light of the government’s apparent eff orts to sidestep the legislative process; others highlighted the absence of a clearly defi ned schedule or guidelines for existing broadcasters (both private and public) and the seemingly empty promises of support for underprivileged households: a subsidy scheme for set-top boxes (STBs) announced in 2012 did not materialize in the state budget the following year. From the government’s perspective, the new rules enhanced the transparency and accountability of the broadcast licensing process, requiring initial bids to be sealed and anonymous, and restricting any single operator from owning licenses in more than one regional “zone.”  is did not deter civil society activists, who mounted a successful judicial review of the new licensing rules in 2012.  e Supreme Court ruled that digital licensing should be suspended pending a review of the rules, and that all digital licensing tenders since OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2014 7 February 2012 should be declared void. But the government dismissed this on the grounds that the court’s decision could not be applied retrospectively. Beyond the television sector, digital media are taking hold in Indonesian society via a plethora of devices. Ownership of household personal computers (PCs) trebled between 2005 and 2010, and the proportion of the population with regular access to the internet rose from 5 percent in 2005 to 32 percent in 2012. Although internet penetration remains low compared with other South-East Asian countries, those who are online have shown a tendency to eschew conventional platforms for news and information, with the exception of television. In the big cities, even television is losing its edge and online news sites are rising up the ranks of the most popular websites.  e volume and range of news sources have also been boosted by the growth of social media.  e proportion of internet users participating in social networks is second only to Brazil in global rankings. Indonesians have also demonstrated a relatively strong appetite for both consuming and participating in news through social media platforms.  ere is a vibrant blogging culture refl ected partly in regular offl ine conferences and gatherings of blogging communities around the country. Participation in mainstream news is also increasing, as established providers widen opportunities for user-generated content. Somewhat counterbalancing this, the supply of professional news services has been bolstered by the development of public service broadcasting since the early 2000s. In 2008, the public service broadcaster announced four new digital channels that promised to widen its spectrum of national and local programming, alongside websites with streaming facilities. However, its online presence remains underdeveloped and it has failed to attract more than a marginal share of the television audience. Hampered by fi nancial struggles and accused of religious bias and culturally backward programs, public service broadcasting has failed to keep pace with the growing commercial sector. A closer look at television content suggests that the proliferation of channels has not produced a corresponding increase in the diversity of output. Herd behavior among broadcasters is a particular problem in news programming, according to several recent studies. In the print world, diversity has been constrained by intense market concentration. Nevertheless, the rise of the local press has marked a tendency toward decentralization of print news, which has helped to reduce the traditional focus on Jakarta in setting the news agenda for the country as a whole. At the same time, news websites have demonstrated a tendency to diversify their content—albeit in favor of food, entertainment, and health-related topics rather than hard news. Social media have also demonstrated the potential to weaken the gatekeeping power of professional news editors. Perhaps digital media’s most meaningful contribution to diversity is found in the widening space for representation of and expression by women, religious and political minorities, and rural