Apa kabar? Extracting sociological data from masses of Indonesian newspaper

clippings

What if?In 4th largest nation in the world…

… with its chaotic bureaucracy…

… but its vibrant press…we could extract vital sociological trends automatically from its dozens of digital/ digitised newspapers?

Elite network shifts during regime changeA digital humanities approach to network analysis using Indonesian language

electronic newspaper archives

Regime change

194519651998

Elite shiftsOld regime

Decays internallyCrumbles rapidly

Creative & destructive ferment

New ruling coalition

Sociology and computersHistorical sociologists know a lot alreadyKITLV catalogue

1945 - 457 titles on “Indonesian revolution” 1965 - 643 titles on “PKI” (Indonesian

Communist Party – destroyed after putsch) 1998 - 1042 titles on “Reformasi”

But too many elite actors to follow – trees and forest

Can digital humanities show us global patterns?Mountains of data, mathematical modeling, complexity

NetworkNode (vertex)

IndividualOrganisation

Line (edge)Undirected Directed (polar)

AnalysisPolarity (friend/ foe)Authority (no. incoming)Small world (shortest dist.)Cohesion, centrality,

brokers, cliques…. over timeEtc etc etc!

Normal elite networksCentralised Decentralised

AuthoritarianCohesive national

ruling class, cosmopolitan (weak

ties)

Locally rooted cliques (strong ties), little

rotation

DemocraticPlural national elites/ fragmentation/ intra-

elite competition

Locally rooted cliques, frequent

rotation

Elite network shiftsCentralised Decentralised

Authoritarian 1998 1945

Democratic 1965

Digital humanitiesAutomatically read digital/ digitised Indonesian

newspaper archives for 1945 and 1998KITLV, NIOD, KB, WayBackMachine

Extract names (individuals, organisations, places)

Build elite networksUndirected (related if in same article)Polar (sentiment analysis - friend/ foe)

Analyse networks - actor-centred, context-oriented

Analytical boundariesWho is “elite”? What is an elite “network”?

Positional, decisional, reputational, or relational?

Influence (foxes), or domination (lions)?National, regional, or community?

What do newspapers (not) reveal about elite networks?They “manufacture consent” (highly filtered)

Lots of discussion needed!

InterdisciplinaryKITLVNIODInformatica UvAInformatika ITBDANSErasmus Studio,

Erasmus U Rot

Research objectivesIndonesian PhD – read newspapers,

produce networksPostdoc 1– interrogate networks

sociologicallyPostdoc 2– interrogate networks

mathematicallyProduce demonstrable prototype softwareBasis for future collaboration