Radio Singapore on Blogs in Indonesia

In the hours just after the 2004 Asian tsunami struck, the earliest ground reports from Indonesia did not just come from the news wires but also from Indonesian bloggers who even provided photo evidence of the disaster.

This week in Indonesian Media Watch, we feature bloggers from Indonesia as they describe the growth of blogging in the Republic and how it has changed their lives.

The phenomenon of blogs in Asia is nothing new.

Blogs have been ever present since the late 1990s and early 2000.

Today, the social and cultural impact of blogs is stronger than ever.

Budi Putra from Tempo magazine describes this transformation of blogs in Indonesia.

“The tsunami in Java is only a case in point that the strength of blog reporting cannot be underestimated.

Previously, blogs were considered a forum for channeling narcissistic concerns.

Since their initial appearance in the mid-1990s, blog owners had only written about their daily activities, something still in vogue even at this time.”

Blogs started booming when content management systems or CMS, such as blogspot or eblogger arrived.

In the past, CMS were used by large companies as they were expensive and complicated for home users.

Yayan Sopyan, a blogger who runs Detik.com, explains the difficulties in blogging during the early years.

“I had to make my own CMS for the Detik.com portal.

But now anyone can publish their writings or pictures without having to understand any programming.”

The ease of use has led to thousands of Indonesians into pouring their creativity and thoughts online in blogs.

So how popular are blogs in the archipelago and what do they write about?

Budi Putra from Tempo magazine.

“There are about 30,000 bloggers in Indonesia at this time whose blogs can be found at several blogging websites such Blogger.com, Multiply.com, LiveJournal.com, Indosiar Blog and Boleh.com.

They write about all sorts of things from recipes for brownies, to love stories about House of Representative members and criticisms of the government.

Teenagers are not the only ones interested.

Indonesian Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono and House of Representative member Angelina Sondakh are just some of the eager bloggers in the Republic.”

For the online community, one of the greatest impacts blogs have brought is citizen journalism.

The speed at which bloggers disseminate local news and photos have even got established news agencies worried.

While blogs are unlikely to put news agencies out of business since credibility of some blogs is still questionable, they do provide alternative view points that could prove more factual or less biased.

Cahyo Junaedy explains in Tempo magazine.

“An Iraqi blogger called Raed inspired many bloggers to follow in his footsteps.

In 2004, Raed’s daily diary about the American invasion there became an alternative source of information among the many reports coming out of the international news agencies.

Raed’s integrity and idealism in reporting these events did not go unnoticed to them.

Reuters news agency and the Guardian newspaper from England recruited him as their employee.”

Stories of bloggers like Raed have inspired Indonesians to do likewise.

Fatih Syuhud started blogging as he wanted to give the local perspective of news about Indonesia just as Raed had done so for Iraq.

He tells Tempo magazine.

“I believe each individual blogger can serve as an ambassador for his country because in a blog, we self-publish.”

Due to his dedication to the Indonesian blogging community, Fatih was selected as a contributor to Global Voices Online, a non-profit organization founded by Harvard University.

Another blogger who has gained a following is model Tiara Lestari.

She started blogging due to the misinformation written about her when she was featured in adult magazines but now her blog focuses on her career and interests.

Cahyo Junaedy describes the success of Tiara’s blog which has attracted 250,000 readers so far.

“The blog has unexpectedly supported her career in the entertainment field.

Realizing the blog’s enormous potential, this oldest of three siblings started some new blogs each with its own focus.

The blogs for her female fans are called ‘Tiara Lestari’s 4 Women Only.’

Now Tiara’s early blog postings are being collected into a book.

Another new business is born from her blog.”

While blogging has moved from just being a hobby into profitable work for some Indonesias, many others in the Republic see blogs as a means to express their thoughts, voice their concerns or perhaps to share a happy moment in their lives.

We’ve come to end of Indonesian Media Watch this week.

If you would like to read more stories on Indonesia, visit us at rsi.sg.

Courtesy: Radio Singapore International
Link: rsi.sg/english/indonesiamediawatch/view/20060916103456/1/.html (this link as well as the domain from August 1st 2008 no longer available)

Tags: radio singapore

This entry was posted on September 24, 2006 at September 24, 2006 and is filed under Blogger Indonesia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.