Amid Social Media Push, Television Is Still the King in Indonesia

Amid Social Media Push, Television Is Still the King

By Kennial Caroline Laia on 11:40 am Mar 29, 2014

1.  Indonesians have long been famous for their embrace of social media platforms — Jakarta was last year identified as the Twitter capital of the world, and Indonesia is the fourth most active country on Facebook.

So it was only natural that candidates running in this year’s elections would take to social media, in addition to traditional media such as television and newspapers, to reach out to voters.

Gita Wirjawan, the former trade minister and a presidential hopeful from the Democratic Party, is one such candidate. His Twitter account has amassed more than 580,000 users, and his Facebook page has more than 1.3 million likes.

Social media, says Adi Nagara, the digital director of Gita’s campaign team, has proven effective in raising the public’s awareness of the candidate.

“For the past month, we’ve been more active in our efforts to improve Gita’s popularity and it has proven effective from a survey that we held,” he says.

“It is really important for people to know about Gita from social media, but also to know about his vision and mission platforms and his ideas for Indonesia.”

Gita is not alone in his foray into the world of social media, as other politicians, both seasoned and aspiring, have also made use of these platforms.

Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo, the runaway favorite for the July 9 presidential race, is on Facebook and Twitter, as is his closest challenger, Prabowo Subianto of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra). Anies Baswedan, the popular former rector of Paramadina University and a Democratic presidential hopeful, also regularly engages followers on Twitter.

In praise of social media

There’s a strong reason for the focus on social media, which makes the campaigning for this year’s election markedly different from last year.

Some 54.2 million registered voters, or 29 percent of the total 186.5 million, are 29 or younger, and 21.8 million of them will be voting for the first time, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

And to mine that valuable youth vote, says Cecep Hidayat, a political analyst at the University of Indonesia, political parties and candidates need to turn to social media, which is largely the domain of the country’s technology-savvy youths.

“With a significant number of young voters, the strategy of political figures competing on the Indonesian political stage has also changed,” he says.

“They have to follow the flow of technology development.”

Of the estimated 63 million Internet users in the country, according to data from the Communications Ministry last November, 95 percent go online to access social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter.

The ministry does not break down the number of users by age group.

Yunarto Wijaya, a political expert from Charta Politika, a think tank, says the interactive and real-time nature social media offers more advantages compared to conventional media.

“Social media does not only function as [a platform for] advertising, but it has also become a tool in a more interactive way,” he says.

“With cheaper costs and more flexible penetration, the political candidates are using this platform to campaign because it is simply borderless and independent. That’s where the role of social media lies: to create interaction between the candidates and their followers.”

Eko Maryadi, from the Alliance of Independent Journalists, or AJI, says the way this year’s election is playing out is very different from the lead-in to the 2009 polls in terms of the media being used by political parties and candidates to reach out to voters.

He says the rapid development of the Internet in Indonesia, particularly news portals and social media, has “greatly influenced the political campaign patterns” by allowing digital campaign managers to keep track of public reactions and sentiment toward their party or candidate, and adapt their response accordingly in real-time — an advantage that conventional media like print and broadcast don’t offer.

“You can see the transition from conventional media to new media happening now through the campaign patterns of the legislative and presidential candidates,” Eko says.

“With a vast area and a large number of people, the most effective way of reaching all citizens throughout the archipelago is radio. But it’s being left behind. Nowadays, more and more people are watching television and using the Internet, and that’s what the political hopefuls are taking advantage of,” he says.

There’s the rub

But for all the buzz around the social media phenomenon, campaign managers and observers alike agree that engaging with voters online will only give the parties and candidates “access to a segmented group of voters,” as Cecep puts it.

“Not all Indonesians have access to the Internet,” he says, referring to the 190 million or so people without a Web connection and hence no exposure to social media.

Yunarto concurs, noting that the highest social media adoption rates are in the big cities like Jakarta, whereas the bulk of the country’s voters live in the rural Java hinterland.

“Young people and urban residents might be familiar with social media platforms, but what if we’re talking about the people living in rural areas? That’s where the conventional media shows its power,” he says, adding that television will still be the most important medium for candidates to get noticed by a wider audience.

Adi says he is fully aware that social media engagement will only target a limited audience, which is why his team is also going heavy on conventional media.

“Radio and television and flyers are tools we use to complement what we do on social media,” he says.

“We can’t hope that followers on Twitter or Facebook will automatically put their trust in Gita. That is why we also hold an off-line meeting sessions between the public and Gita, especially in rural areas.”

Political TV

Television is top of the heap for the sheer number of people it serves and for the effectiveness of getting the message across, observers say.

Some 91.7 percent of all Indonesians over the age of 10 watched television in 2012, compared to 18.57 percent who listened to radio and 17.66 percent who read newspapers and magazines, according to the BPS.

But political coverage on Indonesian television can be a minefield.

Press freedom advocates have long denounced the use of television stations as de facto mouthpieces for their owners’ respective political purposes, and the problem is amplified by the fact that most of Indonesia’s free-to-air channels with nationwide coverage are controlled by political party leaders.

Metro TV, the leading news channel, is part of the media empire of Surya Paloh, the founder and chairman of the National Democrat Party (NasDem), who is regularly covered giving speeches to party members around the country.

TVOne, another news channel, and sister channel ANTV are controlled by the family of Aburizal Bakrie, the chairman of the Golkar Party and a presidential candidate.

The country’s most popular general entertainment TV channels — RCTI, Global TV and MNC TV — and leading pay TV operator Indovision are owned by Hary Tanoesoedibjo, one of Indonesia’s wealthiest individuals and a vice presidential candidate for the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura).

“The media, especially traditional ones, should be a pillar of democracy. They should not be taking sides,” Cecep says.

“Unfortunately what’s happening today is that the media are being used for political interests, both in boosting popularity and in presenting a positive image for the candidates and the parties running in the elections.

“Ideally it should be the media who should be the watchdog for the democratic process, but that won’t happen because of the heavy media ownership by political parties and candidates.”

Eko says “certain political figures” are using their television stations “to attack rather than to debate their rivals.”

“They even attack their personalities, not only their political views,” he says.

Scores of complaints have already been filed with the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) about political ads on TV deemed to be in violation of campaign rules, but anyone expecting the democratic nature of social media to open up a level playing field is asking for too much, Yunarto says.

“Social media has no filters, so everybody has free access to it,” he says, adding that it can backfire on candidate by serving as a channel for attacks or abuse.

“A lot of political figures fall not because of reports on television, but because of social media ‘bullies.’”

Even if candidates manage to reach a wide audience through a combination of conventional and social media, name recognition alone won’t guarantee votes, Eko says.

“Being popular is one thing, but being elected is another thing,” he says.

What the parties and candidates should be focusing on, be it through television or Twitter, is their message to the voters, he says.

As for the media, Eko says, their role should be as custodians for responsible campaigning, but cutting through the political spin and educating voters.

“The most important role for the media is to inform people about each candidate’s track record and about how many of their programs that they’ve campaigned on in the past have been implemented,” he says.

“The media need to have the courage to carry out this function of social control because it’s an important function in the democratic process, especially for giving the public a clear picture of political candidates.”

Cecep says that with fair and balanced reporting on the candidates, the media can contribute to building a better-informed electorate.

“And it will be the job of that electorate to punish candidates campaigning unfairly by not giving them any trust, attention or votes,” he says.