DEPOK – Awang Ruswandi officially holds the 145th Doctor of Communication Science degree from the Universitas Indonesia on Thursday, July 4, 2024 at the Mochtar Riady Auditorium thanks to his dissertation entitled “Local Media Freedom in the Era of Democratic Decentralization (Study of Power Relations between Local Media and Local Government)”. The dissertation writing was guided by Dr. Ade Armando and Dr. Hendriyani as promoters and Dr. Agus Sudibyo as copromoter. The promotion session was chaired by Prof. Dr. Semiarto Aji Purwanto and examined by Prof. Dr.rer.soc Masduki, Dr. Irwan Julianto, and Dr. Camelia C. Pasandaran.
Armed with Vincent Mosco’s political economy theory, Awang attempted to examine whether the cooperation between local media and local government affects the freedom of local media in reporting issues related to local government policies and activities. He sees that there is an economic transaction between the media and the government that has the potential to blunt the critical power of the media and ignore the public interest. Specifically, he focused on commodification, spatialization, and structuration in two local online media in West Java.
As a result, the transactional relationship that occurs between local media and local government presents an imbalance in power relations, thus eliminating the media’s function as a means of controlling the government and providing balanced information for the public. Local media is used as a mouthpiece for the government that presents news with a positive image instead of a space that voices the public interest. Thus, local media are unable to exercise media freedom properly.
Awang hopes that his dissertation will shed light on the condition of media freedom and democracy in Indonesia; encourage democracy activists to develop regulations and pay attention to media development; and advocate for journalists, local media, and local governments in upholding democracy at the local level. (SAC)
