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Tv vs Audience: Unboxing the Relationship
The state of the countryâs TV industry and the way Indonesians enjoy TV programs are examined and described in recent research conducted by the Center for Innovation, Policy and Governance (CIPG)
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The state of the country's TV industry and the way Indonesians enjoy TV programs are examined and described in recent research conducted by the Center for Innovation, Policy and Governance (CIPG).
The sun had set on Ende Island in East Nusa Tenggara. By that time, two children were already in front of their TV, knowing that within minutes the electricity would come on.
'Turn on the TV!' Dini, 8, and Kenny, 5, begged their parents.
Their father Malik, who is a retired fisherman, allows the two children to spend the night watching TV until they fall asleep, and, most of the time, they sleep together on the thin mattress right in front of the TV.
On the isolated island, where electricity is only available from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., and local radio broadcasting is hard to receive clearly, local TV channels win the place as the main source of information and entertainment for the residents.
TV not only helps to keep children entertained and calm, it also shapes Malik's opinion of an ideal wife.
'All wives should be like Hana,' Malik said, referring to the female protagonist of Catatan Hati Seorang Istri (Diary of a Wife), a sinetron (soap opera) broadcast on RCTI.
In the hit drama, the pregnant Hana is terrorized by her husband's mistress Karin 'Hello Kitty', who is also pregnant. Hana falls into depression, causing her to have a miscarriage.
Malik's wife, Nurul, has a dissenting opinion. 'Hana is a crybaby. She'd cry over the smallest thing,' she said.
Malik's family TV watching behavior was highlighted as part of recent research by the Center for Innovation, Policy and Governance (CIPG), entitled Unboxing Television in Contemporary Indonesia.
The research aimed to understand the state of the TV industry in the country, which reaches 91.5 percent of the Indonesian population above 10 years old, according to Central Statistics Agency (BPS) findings in 2012.
Funded by the Ford Foundation Indonesian Office, the research was carried out under the guidance of policy management expert Yanuar Nugroho, who was also former presidential chief of staff Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan's deputy for management of the government's priority programs.
The research project's leader, Dwitri Amalia, said that between May and September 2014, the researchers stayed with 12 families in urban and rural areas to monitor their TV watching habits.
Two families, she said, were each chosen from six regions ' Jakarta, Tangerang, Karawang, Bandung, Kupang and Ende.
'We documented their activities between three to six weeks,' she said.
Families living in urban areas, such as in Jakarta and Bandung, have more ability to control the way they consume TV contents. For examples, parents block specific channels that broadcast content they deem inappropriate for their children.
Their ability to apply strict rules on watching local TV channels is supported by the presence of other entertainment sources, such as pay TV and the Internet.
In contrast, audiences in suburban areas 'are left quite powerless against the mighty television', according to the CIPG report.
Hendri and Tari, a couple in Tangerang, just outskirt of Jakarta, observed that their 5-year-old son Eka often imitated the excessive emotional expressions he saw on TV, leading them to forbid him from watching Indonesian drama.
But their efforts often fell short as Eka would go and watch the forbidden drama series in the neighboring house.
Similar conditions are also found among audiences living in rural areas.
'Since television is so central to their lives, most of the time their ability to enforce the rules is limited,' the report cited.
For some, TV content significantly affects the way they perceive the world ' or at least the faraway Jakarta.
'I don't want to live in Jakarta,' said Sarah, a housewife on Ende Island. 'Jakarta is intimidating, with many hoodlums and thieves.'
'Jakarta is safe and even NTT [East Nusa Tenggara] is safe, but on TV everything becomes scary,' added Yoyok, Sarah's husband.
Alongside making observations, the researchers also interviewed stakeholders of the TV industry ' ranging from advertisers, media strategists and rating agencies to executives of production houses and TV stations.
The interviews confirmed the familiar facts ' most of the media producers use rating data in designing their shows, as TV shows with good ratings attract a flood of advertisements.
'Media producers are only willing to innovate within certain commercial limits ' there must be some form of financial assurance when trying to invent something new.'
Among the few who dare to make a difference is MetroTV with its mockumentary, Segelas Cerita Keluarga Kusuma (A Glass of Kusuma's Family Story).
In cooperation with Unilever, MetroTV hired Aris Nugraha Production (ANP), known for hit sitcom Bajaj Bajuri, to produce the mockumentary, which centers on a family addressing all kinds of problems and issues typically faced by Indonesians.
Unlike other production houses, which are often dictated to by TV stations, ANP has the freedom to choose the cast, write the script and edit the whole series.
'It provides educative content, such as on political education in the lead-up to the 2014 legislative and presidential elections,' Dwitri said.
'Aris Nugraha holds his idealism in the show. He does take account of the ratings in determining the show's content.'
The show, however, failed to lure a significant audience. It came to an end early this year.
The research suggests the government step in and change the game, such as by setting new rules under the flag of the so-called Network Broadcasting Scheme.
'The move will force the industry to create variety in its content and hence enact its internal capacity to innovate.'
By paving the way for the provision of more diverse content in TV stations, the government could indirectly educate audiences. The research also noted the urgency of having knowledgeable actors, within and outside the industry, to actively shape a better structure for the TV industry.
'Given the access provided, the audiences will have more room to feed their hunger for information.'
' Photos courtesy of CIPG
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