Media Political Bias in Indonesia : An Introductory Essay
Introduction essay of Media Bias and It’s Impact on The Views of Community Politics in Indonesia.
Media affects the lives of today’s society in many approaches. From print media to radio to television to social media. In the process of communication and internalization of ideology carried out by the media, politics is the subject of media that often becomes the main spotlight. Media and politics are two things that cannot be separated, at least if viewed from the perspective of today society. The factor of public demand for political publications is one of the main factors why politics and mass media have a close relationship. People who are hungry for information and political development are inseparable from the view of the importance of their involvement in democratic politics, people believe that political decisions will have an impact directly or indirectly on their lives, this can include impacts on the economy of society, social systems, law, and so forth. In addition, many people are also interested in politics because they treat it like a football game, where they irrationally choose teams, support the team, and defend it no matter how badly the value they may struggle for. Strong public interest in politics and high demand for political publications, making mass media become one of the main sources of channeling political information to the public, and agree or not, this has given rise to political bias in which mass media often no longer publish actual political information occurring in the field, but also used as a means to internalize certain political ideologies.
Media bias in practice sometimes persuades our opinions on certain issues — such as religion, racism, and of course politics. In political practice in Indonesia, cases of political bias and the media can be clearly seen, especially in the era of the Soeharto government, which was marked by the strong power of government actors in all political infrastructure. The practice of the media at that time could be said to be an extension of the authorities who were misused for the sake of deceiving citizens with the intention of guarding the stronghold of the authorities. The media utilized its strength in politics because of its strong ability as an agent of change. Political bias that occurred during the Soeharto era was a process of suppressing the dominance of state power where political leaders at that time restricted and regulated the freedom of the press with the intention of maintaining the ideology of the ruler. Media bias during the Soeharto era was only one of many examples of the many times in history where political stakeholders exercised control of the people by internalizing political values through the use of media politics.
Today, the practice of biased media can hardly be seen in plain view. Reduced media bias influenced by the power of the highest political stakeholders was marked by the revocation of Permenpen Number 01 of 1984 concerning the Press Issuance Business License/ Surat Izin Usaha Penerbitan Pers (SIUPP) conducted by President BJ Habibie. Although the practice of media bias has been dropped to the lowest level, the practice of abuse of the press and mass media with the aim of political interests is often found by exploiting legal gaps or with subliminal messages, not to mention the practice of collaboration between certain media publications and certain political parties that occur behind the scenes . Many Indonesians today, especially old people aged 45 years and over, do not realize that the media has influenced the way they think, especially in the dissemination of political information through social media which is characterized by a high percentage of this age group in spreading hoaxes/ fake news that are political in social media , as said by the Head of the Public Relations Bureau of Communication and Information.
Today, a mass media institution, especially an official and widely known institution, cannot be fully controlled by political actors to convey certain unilateral information they want. But this can be tricked by politicians and political parties with advertising cooperation. In addition, by utilizing media freedom in presenting the information they want, political actors often conduct media political bias by selecting what news will be published and which ones are inappropriate for publication. In this case, information published by certain media is based on valid data / facts, but has been previously selected regarding what information they will publish, this might explain why some mass media agencies publish events from either a political party or certain parties and when they talk about other political parties, they only publish their bad events.
The media can play a very strong role, especially during the transition political stage. The media will strongly influence the views of the wider community on the subject of politics through the information they receive. For example, media that carry out confirmation bias on social media can produce individual thoughts that are closed to alternative views. This is done by controlling the information entered on the social media homepage/timeline of a particular individual according to his thoughts. If an individual is surrounded by the same understanding and opinion of the surrounding environment, and the stages of receiving this information are carried out repeatedly, even if it is limited to what he witnesses on social media, it will produce the illusion that people think the same as a subject. This eliminates the tendency of an individual or group to consider alternative perspectives and often produces an intolerant attitude towards other parties with different views.
The media has the right to manage the information they receive, as well as managing and selecting the information they will publish. Their strength in covering a political subject gradually creates a reaction to the wider community about how to react and act on political information. In practice, political bias in the use of the media not only produces destructive effects but also produces constructive impacts, for example in its constructive impact, a political party often describes their identity in the media as an ideologically diverse group, where this bias creates positive encouragement to the community and its supporters. However, on the destructive side, political media can be used as an internalization of unilateral values with the aim of maintaining the power order, or black politics by obstructing the freedom of opinion of others and unilateral information control. Media bias has become part of Indonesian politics as far as history is concerned. Whether or not, the bias of the media has shaped the views of Indonesian society about how to engage in politics and channel votes in political suffrage.
