Presidential Election, Metro TV and TV One

News Giant Battle Credit: Pulsk.com

As the presidential election draws closer, observing some major media in Indonesia has become a very interesting activity to do. By doing such a thing, one can really learn how media actively engages in the nation’s political environment.

This post was written as a simple result of observation in some online media. I observed the twitter accounts of television stations Metro TV and TVone.

Metro TV belongs to the Media Group owned by businessman Surya Paloh, who happens to be the chairman of the National Democratic Party (NasDem). In this presidential election, the party sides with presidential and vice presidential candidate Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Jusuf Kalla, or known as JK.

Meanwhile, TV One belongs to the Viva News group owned by businessman Aburizal Bakrie, who chairs the Golkar Party. The party chooses to support presidential and vice presidential candidate Prabowo and Hatta Rajasa.

I once wrote in this blog about media’s role in politics. I reasserted existing opinions that those who control media control the nation. And there is no more vivid period than this time to observe that opinions. 

Although both the Media Group and Viva News Groups have pledged to maintain their independence regardless their owners’ political affiliations, the reality speaks differently. They cannot avoid bias reporting in their news, each group supporting a certain presidential candidate.

I observed twitter posts of the two media published throughout the whole day on May 30, 2014. During the period, I noted tweets and news concerning presidential candidates. Some difficulties encountered included the two media’s activeness in Twitter. Metro TV’s account @Metro_TV is very active but TV One, @tvOneNews,  is not. Within one hour, Metro TV can post between 9-13 tweets, while TV One can only post between 2-5 tweets.

TV Station’s Twitter Account	News on Jokowi – JK	News on Prabowo – Hatta
Metro TV	11	11
TV One	4	9

Now, based on the figure above, Metro TV gave equal amounts of news of both Jokowi-JK and Prabowo-Hatta. Meanwhile, TV One, during the observed day, only ran 4 news on Jokowi-JK, nearly half of news on Prabowo-Hatta it ran. Reflecting from this figure, I could argue that TV One is more bias than Metro TV in terms of quantity of news of both presidential candidates.  This bias can probably be influenced by the fact that TV One is owned by Bakrie, who was promised a special position in the cabinet if Prabowo was elected as a president.

Aside from looking at the quantity, I also observed the theme of the news ran by Metro TV and TV One in their twitter accounts. Based on my own notes, I could classify the news they presented on May 30, 2014 in their twitter accounts in two major themes.

The first theme concerns on how each presidential candidate gathers supports from various members of society. Metro TV ran a couple of news on how Jokowi was endorsed and supported by youth groups, women’s group, businessman, farmers and fishermen and religious group. It only published one news on people from Makassar that chose to support Prabowo. Meanwhile, in its twitter account, TV One ran two news on Prabowo that received supports from former athletes and youth groups. It did not run any single news on groups that declared their supports on Jokowi.

Looking at this news theme, it can be argued that Metro TV tried to strengthen Jokowi’s image as a pluralist leader who can embrace various layers of society from farmers to businessman, youth  groups to women as well as religious group. Likewise, TV One attempted to shape Prabowo as a leader who cared for neglected group like former athletes and appealed to young generations. In this construction, it can be seen that both tv stations no longer apply their ‘non-bias’ views. They try to foster the good image of one particular presidential candidate to influence their viewers. So, imagine if you only watch Metro TV, then you will be brainwashed with all of the goodnews on Jokowi. Likewise, that will happen in you only watch TV One, you will be brainwashed by Prabowo.

The second theme concerns on exploiting the weaknesses of each presidential candidate. As an illustration, both of the presidential candidates have some grey areas in their past that can be exploited to attack them. Prabowo, a former military commander, is suspected as one of the masterminds behind various human rights abuse in Indonesia during Soeharto regime. Jokowi, current Jakarta governor, is allegedly implicated in a graft case concerning the procurement of Transjakarta buses. Both media, as predicted, use these allegations to attack the presidential candidates they are not favor of.

Metro TV, for instance, ran one news on statement from human rights activist, Haris Azhar of Kontras, who demanded that the government should open the reason why Prabowo was fired from the Indonesian Military Army. The news stated that Haris alleged Prabowo was fired due to his involvement in the forced disappearance of activists in 1997-1998 who criticized Soeharto, who was Prabowo’s former father in law.

Meanwhile, TV One, run three news that in my opinion discredited Jokowi. One news video, titled “Jokowi on leave, Jakarta Still Has Abundant Problems”, narrates that Jokowi still leaves various problems lingering in Jakarta. They include floods, traffic jam, social disparity and others. Uniquely, the video does not have a voice over in it. Rather, the video is built up of many old images and video footages. The other two videos tells a group of 1998 activists who complained to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) because they thought that Jokowi’s way of fund raising for presidential election opens door to gratification. And one last video tells that the Attorney General Office (Kejagung) never summons Jokowi although he has been rumored to be implicated in the Transjakarta graft case.

The two tv stations exploited the grey and uncharted side of each presidential candidate to attack them. And imagine if you only watch Metro TV, then you will not really pay attention to the graft case allegation that implicates Jokowi. Similarly, if you only watch TV One, then you will not know that Prabowo is still believed to be responsible for serious human rights abuse in this country. This grey area,  I believe, will always be exploited to attack them if one of them wins the election. 

The observation on the twitter accounts of Metro TV and TV One, although conducted in a very short time and simple manner, has proven that they are not independence as they promised. They are politically engaged with the presidential candidate that is endorsed by their owner. Each television station tries to foster good image of a certain presidential candidate, and likewise, each also tries to shatter the image of a particular presidential candidate.

I believe that those who read this post are critical thinkers. My simple and not so scientific writing here proves that media can direct and control you if you are not critical. Thus, I encourage you to be more critical in reading media in Indonesia during these determining times. Do not be consumed by blatant fanaticism to a particular presidential candidate just because based on media representation.  You have to have valid arguments as to why you choose a certain presidential candidate as well as why you do not want to choose the other presidential candidate.

What is so good in knowing one candidate so much but not knowing a single thing about the other candidate? Well, anyone you choose, I just want to remind you to be considerate because he (sadly no she this time) will lead Indonesia for the next five years.