Indonesian Television: Politics, Parody and The Quest For Quality

28/02/2008 - 15:30

28 February 2008
15.30 - 17.00 hrs

Seminar by Dr Edwin Jurriëns, University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia.

Organised in cooperation with KITLV

Venue: KITLV, Reuvensplaats 2, 2311 BE, Leiden
Room 138, 15.30 - 17.00

Since 14 August 2006 the Indonesian commercial television channel Metro TV has broadcast a weekly show called Newsdotcom. The name refers to a news agency of a fictional country called Republik Mimpi (Republic of Dreams), which provides the setting for critical but humorous discussions on Indonesian politics and the media. The show is a recent sequel to a television trend that started in late 2005, featuring mimetic representations of Indonesian politicians and other high-ranked social figures. This trend can be seen as the product of the enhanced freedom of speech in Indonesia since the fall of the authoritarian New Order regime of President Suharto in 1998, and the start of the subsequent process of social, political and economic reform known as Reformasi. In this seminar, I will analyse the format of Newsdotcom, discuss part of the discursive tradition it both derives and deviates from, and address some aspects of the controversy it has caused.

Edwin Jurriëns works within the field of Indonesian Language and Culture/ Media Studies. He is an Affiliated Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies from 1 January - 1 April 2008. During this time he focuses on two research topics: Radio Active: Broadcast Journalism and the Dialogical Public Sphere in Indonesia and Reflections on the Screen: Televisual Metadiscourse in Australia, Indonesia and the Netherlands.

For more information on this seminar please contact Saskia Jans at s.jans@let.leidenuniv.nl or 071-527 5490