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New app available for viewers to slam 'bad' TV shows
Tired of an endless barrage of celebrity gossip on your TV? Now you can complain about it from the palm of your hand
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T
ired of an endless barrage of celebrity gossip on your TV? Now you can complain about it from the palm of your hand.
A new Android app, Rapotivi, was launched on Saturday for anyone with a smartphone who wants to report negative content on their TV.
Rapotivi can also be accessed at rapotivi.org.
'It's designed to make it easier for people to report bad TV shows,' Rapotivi program manager Septi Prameswari said in a statement. 'The app is based on the fact that most TV channels in Indonesia today fail to fulfill the rights of people to quality, healthy and beneficial content.'
According to data from Remotivi, a television watchdog that launched Rapotivi, even when a sinetron (drama series) is rated R for remaja (teenagers), it still contains lots of violence.
Article 37 Point 4A of the Broadcasting Standard Code says that shows should not promote inappropriate behavior.
For example, three episodes of popular teenager series Ganteng-Ganteng Serigala (Handsome Wolf) from Oct. 27 to 29, 2014, contain four physical violence scenes and 13 scenes of verbal abuse.
Another TV series, Manusia Harimau (Tiger Man), in the same period contained 33 scenes of violence and one scene of verbal abuse.
Data from Remotivi also shows an imbalance between child content and gossip shows.
For example, 11.66 percent of the content on SCTV is deemed to be gossip, while only 0.83 percent is for children.
The same goes for RCTI, with 16.15 percent gossip and 11.53 percent for children.
With such levels of negative content, people may be confused where to report.
'If people don't know where to report and they already have smartphones, why don't we utilize that situation?' said Remotivi director Roy Thaniago.
'With this app, we want the public to develop a new habit of reporting problematic content.'
While there is already a public institution tasked with monitoring broadcasting, the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI), it often fails to act quickly on people's complaints.
'Besides not being widely known, its performance also leaves a lot to be desired. That's why Rapotivi is here to act as a bridge the public and the KPI so that it can work faster and be more responsive,' Septi said.
Therefore, every report made via the app would be forwarded to the KPI.
'We will verify first whether reports actually happened or not. Then we will send the reports once a week to the KPI and go to the KPI once a month to have a dialogue with them,' Roy said.
As feedback to the public, Remotivi will give updates on the status of the complaints to whoever sends the reports.
'We will inform you of the status of every sanction that the KPI issues. We can guarantee that the public's complaints will have an impact,' said Roy.
Besides that, Remotivi will also publish infographics and data based on complaints it receives from the app.
'Every month we will know which show, which program and which TV station receives the highest number of complaints,' Roy explained.
