- 13/01/2021
- Category: Press Release
In this era, some segmented parts of the society had rarely consumed entertainments or information contents from the television broadcast. The platform to obtain such content is currently more diverse and can be tailored to each customer’s preferences. With this shift of consumption pattern that aligns toward contents that are available digitally, how do conventional media and the government respond to such transformation? Through Difussion #34 (18/9) themed “Old vs. New Media: The Transformation of Digital Culture, Theodore Great and Mira Ardhya Paramastri, as CfDS Researchers, will discuss the changes in digital culture due to the development of media. The event was held on Friday (18/9), through Google Meet, and it was broadcasted live via YouTube.
The Government and Digital Media Regulation
According to Great, the steps towards the transformation of the digital revolution in Indonesia started with media centralization through TVRI. It was proceeded by decentralization when conventional media channels were the only platforms providing entertainment and information. Currently, with the existence of social media, the broadcasting of entertainment and information has become more distributed and varied. Conventional broadcasting media in Indonesia is regulated under UU No. 32/2002. However, this regulation does not extend its scope to definitions or rules regarding new media such as streaming platforms, which have widely become the preference for many people. According to Great, the new media also needs to be regulated as it would be impacted by misinformation, hoax, and cyberbullying, which are harmful to society. Giant digital firms such as YouTube and Google are also influencing people worldwide on a massive scale to the extent that social media can be a tool for intervening political interest.
However, in designing regulations for digital media, the government is also faced with several dilemmas. Firstly, the scope of digital media is very wide to be regulated. Secondly, there is a problem of deciding who should be responsible for this regulation and what kind of qualifications are needed for the job and how much the workforce is needed to monitor digital media activity and contents. According to Great, these challenges can be mitigated by solutions such as collaboration between government and digital media institutions, education and the involvement of digital media users to monitor contents, and the development of technology to monitor the contents’ quality.
Mobile Gaming and Social Interaction
In this discussion, Mira takes us to see the different side of mobile gaming. Through her research, Mira wants to prove that social interaction is not always about meeting in a physical state. Other than this, mobile gaming can also be the platform for the users to seek acknowledgment from society and online interactions are now an inseparable part of being in a society. The chatting features provided within the mobile gaming also became the catalyst in changing online interactions through gaming. According to Mira, mobile gaming becomes alternatives for affordable entertainment that is preferred by people.
In mobile gaming, there is some interaction or relationship pattern that can be formed. Firstly, the in-game relationship where people play online games to get to know strangers, looking for new or ideal personas that fit their imaginations. Besides, some adults play the game to take off some load in their shoulders. The second type of relationship is the outside game relationship, where mobile gamers look for friends to ‘mabar’ or playing together rather than just playing alone. This pattern continues until a gaming community is formed with more intense communication and sometimes accompanied by a physical meeting to bond over.
According to a survey conducted by Mira, it can be concluded that most mobile gaming players are adults with ages ranging from 18-28 years old with the last education of high school or a bachelor’s degree. Still, results from the same survey, most mobile gamers think that playing together with friends or other people is more fun than playing by themselves only.
