So, whatever their other differences, it is hardly surprising that media corporations, mass communications departments and their socialist critics find such a metaphor and its mythologising natural and congenial. A very senior civil servant advised me that President Yudhoyono made a point of viewing Negeri Impian to know what issues were being aired. Mistik programmes were democratic: a broad cross-section of society from wealthy householders to peasant farmers was equally susceptible to being disturbed or even possessed. So, to create an ostensibly viable object, the study of the mass media requires excising or negating both the circumstances of their use and how different participants understand and articulate them. If the aim is to measure the efficiency of Indonesian television against Euro-American criteria, maybe the study is informative.
nest...