AMBIGUOUS NEUTRALITY: KOMPAS’ POSITION AMID THE WAVE OF POLITICAL POLARIZATION DURING THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2014
Main Article Content
Abstract
This study aims to examine the position of Kompas daily newspaper amid the wave political polarization during Indonesian presidential election 2014 and explain the underlying reason behind it. Based on six months on site observation within the daily’s newsroom as well as content analysis to 278 of Kompas’ article during the presidential campaign, this study found that the actual position of the daily has been ambiguous. On one hand, it claimed to be neutral in its editorial policy, but on the other hand, most of its editorial elites as well as its reporters had personally supported Jokowi. Furthermore, even though the daily has managed to be in a relative balance in term of space in its coverage, it has favored Jokowi in term of tone. This study argues there are political, economy as well as cultural reasons underlying this ambiguous position. Politically, Kompas took position to be neutral to stay close, and to avoid conflict, with whoever might win the election. Economically, this position was taken to maximize its economic interest to maintain its readers whose supports were also divided to the two pairs of candidates and to keep the chance to get advertising revenue from both candidates. Finally, this position has been justified by the shared cultural values among the journalists that this is important to remain neutral to avoid direct confrontation with either Presidential candidate. This values has been embodied as part of the habitus of the journalists which its development primarily took place under the previous authoritarian era. This situation is surprisingly similar with the case in the post authoritarian South American countries, in which the legacy of the authoritarian past still takes hold to the current state of its journalism.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
References
Deloire, C. & Hugo S. 1996. Handbook for Journalists during elections. Paris: Reporters Without Borders for Freedom of Information and Organization Internationale de Francophonie.
Hanitzcsh, T. (2005). Journalist in Indonesia: Educated but Timed Watchdogs.’ Journalism Studies, Volume 6, Number 4, 2005, pp. 493-508.crossref
Hanitzcsh, T. (2006). Mapping Journalism Culture: a Theoretical Taxonomy and Case Studies from Indonesia’, Asian Journal of Communication Vol. 16, No. 2, June 2006, pp. 169-186.crossref
Haryanto, I. (2011). ‘Media Ownership and Its Implications for Journalists and Journalism in Indonesia’ in Krishna Sen and David T. Hill (eds), Politics and the Media in Twenty-First Century Indonesia: Decade of Democracy, pp. 104-118. New York: Routledge
Hill, D.T. (1994). The Press in New Order Indonesia. Perth: University of Western Australia in Association with Asia Research Institute on Social, Political and Economic Change.
Hopmann, N.D Aelts, P.V & Legnante, G. (2011). Political balance in the news: A review of concepts, operationalizations and key findings. Journalism, 13(2), 240-257. crossref
Kovach, B. & Rosentiel, T. (2001). The Elements of Journalism : What Journalists Should Know and the Public Should Expect. New York: Crown Publisher.
Lim, M. (2011). @Crossroad: Democratization and Corporatization of Media in Indonesia. Partcipatory Media Lab, Arizona State University and Ford Foundation.
Marquez-Ramirez, M. (2012). Change or continuity: The culture and practices of Journalism in Mexico(2000–2007) (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Goldsmiths University, London.
Patterson, T.E., & Donsbach, W. News Decision: Journalists as Partisan Actors. Political Communication, 13, 1996, pp. 455-468. crossref
Sambrook R. J. (2012). Delivering trust: Impartiality and objectivity in the digital age (Working Paper). Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford.
Semetko, H. A. (2010). Election campaigns, partisan balance, and the news media. In P. Norris (Ed.) Public sentinel: Media and governance reform. Washington DC: The World Bank.
Sen, K., & Hill, D.T. (2000). Media, Culture and Politics in Indonesia. South Melbourne : Oxford University Press
Tapsell, R. (2012). ’Old Tricks in a New Era: Self-Censorship in Indonesian Journalism’, Asian Studies Review, June 2012, Vol. 36, pp. 227–245. crossref