REVISED EDITION: Indonesian Journalists Technographics Survey Report 2013

TABLE OF CONTENT

PART 1 HOW INDONESIAN JOURNALISTS USE THE INTERNET 04

PART 2 HOW INDONESIAN JOURNALISTS FIND INFORMATION ONLINE 10

PART 3 INDONESIAN JOURNALISTS’ TECHNOGRAPHICS PROFILE 15

PART 4 INDONESIAN MAINSTREAM MEDIA’S VIEWS ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND NEWS PRODUCTION 17

INdONEsIAN jOuRNALIsTs TEChNOgRAPhICs REPORT 2012-2013

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The results of our research show that social media play an increasingly significant role in influencing public discourse. Social media have established themselves as the extension of a journalist’s eyes and ears. From monitoring issues, identifying shifts in public opinion, to facilitating discussions among fellow journalists. In other words, social media have become the veins that facilitate the intensifying vitality of the journalists role in this democratic era.

With this, I would like to congratulate my fellow lecturers from Paramadina University Communications Program and Maverick’s Team for the hard work in completing this research.

Anies Baswedan, Ph.d, Rector of University of Paramadina


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We were curious. That was the reason why in 2011, we came out with our first Indonesian Journalists Techno-graphics Report. The goal was simply to find out how Indonesian journalists consume the Internet and social media—both for personal and professional use.

In 2012, together with The London School of Public Relations Research Centre in Jakarta, we launched a more or less similar report, but the main focus is a bit different. We were trying to find out about media organizations’ social media policies and strategies—and whether they had been integrating social media or even mobile apps into their business strategy.

This year, hand in hand with University of Paramadina, we’re back to find out the answers behind one of the most intriguing questions we had in the back of our mind: is social media actually THAT powerful it can even influence mainstream media’s agenda setting[1]? How much does it affect mainstream media in produc-ing news?

We know that some celebrity Twitterers’ followings even rivaling or surpassing the circulation of Kompas, the nation’s largest circulating daily. But do they matter much for our mainstream media? Do volumes of con-versations in social media about a certain issue influ-ence the news that is going to be published on tomor-row’s paper or the topic for tonight’s TV talk show?

FOREWORd

These past few months, we had conducted a survey involving 363 Indonesian journalists as respondents. They came from various desks and from different areas in Indonesia: Sumatera, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, and as far as Ambon and Papua. To complement this survey, we had also interviewed the “Newsroom PIC” in nine media organizations, namely Plasa MSN, Kompas.com, Hardrock FM, Sindo Trijaya FM, Trans TV, Metro TV, Rolling Stone Indonesia, Tempo and The Jakarta Globe.

The result is this report you are about to read. What we found through our survey and series of interviews may be a little bit unnerving for some of you—but it will, indeed, become a great base for further debate and discussions. Which is good. We’re cool with that. We urge you to debate and discuss about this. Be curious. We believe that questioning about something is a great way to learn about something and to know where you stand. That’s exactly how we started out in conducting this research anyway; and that’s how we approach our business as well: we are a curious bunch.

Anyway, without further ado, go ahead. Dive in.

Ong hock Chuan.Technical Advisor, Maverick.


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PART 1 HOW INDONESIAN JOURNALISTS USE THE INTERNET

A. general usage

6 out of 10 journalists spend more than 5 hours on the Internet every single day, and 8 out of 10 access it more than 4 times a day.


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PART 1

B. Personal usage


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PART 1

Interestingly, 8 out of 10 journalists nowadays use social media for self-development. This includes learning or acquiring knowledge about something that will help them grow—both as a person and as a journalist. An appealing take on this would be closely related to our so-called ‘journalist class’.

For years, brands and companies have been holding special classes for journalists as a part of their communi-cations strategy. The objective is to help journalists learn or deepen their knowledge about a specific issue or the latest trend in related industries. Equipped with this knowledge, it is expected that the journalists can cover the issue later on with an additional depth. However, one of the biggest challenges in conducting journalist class is indeed: time. With tight deadlines and constant pres-sure, journalists find it hard to allocate 3 - 4 hours of their working time to sit in a class and learn.

What if brands and companies can provide an online version of ‘journalist class’, thus the journalists can take these classes on their most convenient time? Think of something like Coursera®[2], an education company that partners with top universities and organizations in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free. Their technology enables them to teach millions of students rather than hundreds.

And knowing that 7 out of 10 journalists actually try to boost their credibility via social media, can we provide a certain certification they can put up online to equip—for instance, their LinkedIn profile? What about a LinkedIn testimonial from the online class’ mentor in the journal-ists’ profile page? A rating system to show which journal-ist is most credible or knowledgeable in covering which industry.

C. Professional usage

*Answer can be more than one

YesNo


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PART 1

Most Indonesian journalists use social media to find story ideas (8 out of 10 journalists) and to find support-ing data/numbers for their news reports. Apart from that, they plunge into social media to see public opinion and monitor a particular issue.

Despite the debate on its lack of reliability, 6 out of 10 journalists are still using social media to validate informa-tion. Thus your Internet footprints are still quite impor-tant in determining how half of Indonesian journalists look at your brand/companies.

In April 2012, Journalism.co.uk published a piece of writing by Rachel McAthy on how to verify content from social media[3]. She talked to Craig Silverman[4], an award-winning journalist and the founder of Regret the Error (now part of Poynter Institute[5]), a blog that reports on media errors and corrections, and trends regarding accuracy and verification.

Silverman encourages journalists to take a step back when they find themselves getting caught up in the ‘need for speed’ when news is breaking, and ask them-selves ‘is this photo, or this video or piece of informa-tion, really so essential or urgent that we can’t wait and investigate other avenues with it?’

“I would caution journalists in that moment to sit back and ask whether it’s essential you go without taking an extra step here or there. I think a lot of the time it’s probably not. There are definitely times I’m sure when news organizations have to make a call, e.g. everything we’ve looked at tells us this is accurate even though we have a barrier to getting hold of a person. Take a dis-tance and evaluate—do we need to put this out now, or can we take an hour or two and figure out what more we can provide to confirm or deny this? You also need to evaluate why you can’t talk to that person. Have you exhausted all avenues?” [CRAIG SILVERMAN]


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PART 1

9 out of 10 journalists are actually using social media to leverage their networks of experts, spokesperson, or news sources. Brands and corporate people should start looking at this trend of ‘online networking’—instead of the usual offline media gathering.

The good thing is, once you are in the journalist friends or following lists, they’ll be exposed to your thoughts and activities (and vice versa) on a daily basis. And we’re not only talking about your so-called professional thoughts or activities, but also your personal ones—which is just as important: because it makes you look human.

When you are a company’s spokesperson, you know that you need to have three qualifying traits: Authority, Credibility, and Likeability. If authority and credibility has very close relationship with your work experience and professional standing, the likeability part is something that you can work on through online relationship with your journalist friends—be it on Twitter or Facebook—where they’ll see you as a fellow human being with families and kids and flaws and soft spot for cute kittens instead of a cold and faceless corporate spokesperson. Think about it. This, in turn, could be the basis of a flour-ishing relationship.


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PART 1

6 out of 10 journalists are starting to use social media to identify opinion leaders for a certain issue or topics. If you were a company’s spokesperson, it would be good for you to also channel your thoughts, comments and updates on industry-related issues through your social media accounts. Equipping these thoughts, comments or updates with similar hashtags or keywords used by media or news outlets will also increase your chance of

being heard or identified by the journalists. Furthermore, think about having a ‘commentary box’ on your cor-porate website; where spokesperson, CEO, or experts can put their comments or standings on a certain issue or circulating news in the industry. This will serve two purposes: one, to keep your website contents’ alive and updated; and two, to get your voices heard and increase your chance of being quoted.


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PART 1

PART 2 HOW INDONESIAN JOURNALISTS FIND INFORMATION ONLINE




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PART 2

Twitter, Facebook and blogs are still the top-three social media outlets where journalists go to find news ideas. Mostly, they monitored cataclysm and the development of prominent issue, as well as capturing public opinion. Instagram is also used as a supporting tool for sourcing news by Indonesian photojournalists.

When it comes to using social media as references, 10 out of 10 Indonesian journalists prefer referring to individuals’ social media account—this would mean a certain people with credibility, an expert, an official representatives from the government or a company, or trusted news source from their own network. 8 out of 10 are referring to other online media’s social media accounts. Only around a half of Indonesian journalists

refer to a public figure’s accounts or corporate/organiza-tions’ official social media accounts. What about those ever-popular ‘social media celebrity’ who gain huge followings on Twitter or Facebook despite not being that well-known offline? Only 1 out of 10 journalists actually considers them as their reference. Popularity alone could not beat credibility in this case.

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INdONEsIAN jOuRNALIsTs TEChNOgRAPhICs REPORT 2012-2013PART 2

Journalists from radio, television, magazines/tabloids are most likely to interview sources based on the opinions they expressed in social media. 7 out of 10 journalists are actually using popular conversations or trending topic on social media for news stories.

8 out of 10 journalists still consider mainstream media as their most-trusted information source by far.

8 out of 10 journalists still consider mainstream media as their most-trusted information source by far.

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When journalists are looking for some information about a company or organizations, 6 out of 10 journalists are still referring to the company’s official website as their first attempt. If they could not get the information they want on the company’s website, they’ll go to find related news or information about it in other news sites, and then give the company’s official social media account a try.

Last year, the number were actually higher, with 8 out of 10 journalists referring to a company/organization’s web-site as their first attempt in obtaining information. Most probably, it was due to the obvious reason: how many corporate/organization’s websites have their contents updated regularly, making sure that there is updated information from their side on the hottest issue or the latest industry-related regulations? If corporations could not adjust their websites with today’s fast-paced nature of getting information, it would definitely be their loss. The company will lose a precious opportunity of getting their side of the story out when a journalist could not find the information he/she is looking for in the website.

What about your company/organization’s website? Do you think it’s journalist-friendly? Do you have updated information there? If the journalist visit the site, will they get excited or yawn? Do you know the latest industry issue mainstream media is covering and have some contents related to these issues on your website? Do you have your spokesperson’s quotes on the website when a new regulations related to your industry is being passed? Do you have dark-site that you can activate right away during crisis situations? Sounds like a lot of homework, but you can start working on it one at a time. It’s worth the investment.

Interesting to find out that Indonesian journalists think of television as the least credible information outlet—even less credible than corporate/organizations official social media accounts. Online news portal is being considered as the most credible information outlet, with print media comes in second place.

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This year, Kompas.com pops up as the most credible online media according to Indonesian journalists. Detik.com—which held the 1st position last year, comes second.

When it comes to mainstream media’s official social

media accounts, most Indonesian journalists (surprisingly) mentioned Kompas’ social media account (@kompascom with +2,390,000 followers) as their refer-ence, followed by Detik.com at the 2nd place (@detikcom with +489,000,000 followers), and Tempo.co at the 3rd place (@tempodotco with +307,000 followers)

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PART 3 INDONESIAN JOURNALISTS’ TECHNOGRAPHICS PROFILE

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Most Indonesian journalists occupy Creators, Spectators and Conversationalists in the Technographics ladder. Most of the Creators are photojournalists, while photo editors turn to be the most passive by only becoming

Joiners and Spectators. Reporters, editors and editor-in-chiefs/managing editors/producers are also quite active as Collectors.

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Television

METRO TV“social media is now becoming our potential news source.”An interview with Wayan Eka Putra, News Service Manager.

An interesting issue for Metro TV is one with news value, most importantly when it involves public interests, policy and high politic. High politic is mainly important considering current situation and their position as a news station. When an event has to do with human interests, it has news value. Responses for international news are not as high from Metro TV’s audience. When an issue has a high level of importance to the public, that is news.

For Metro TV, there are two ways to get news: first, based on an event; and second, based on agenda set-ting. They’ll have people contacting them should there is something happening, and they also have reporter-on-duty to find information regarding such occurrence. They relay their editorial meeting to develop an editorial agenda on certain issues they’d like the public to know better.

Social media is now becoming one of Metro TV’s potential news source, because it provides them pictures on how society thinks about certain affairs. Now every-

one can tell their own story or share their thoughts on Twitter, they can also chat about certain issues on other social media platforms. For Metro TV, it’s good to know what the public is thinking about certain things. Howev-er, social media is not being considered as one of Metro TV’s main source. They prefer to use social media only as their reference.

“There’s no policy for our journalists to monitor Twitter or any other social media platforms,” said Wayan Eka Putra, News Service Manager of Metro TV. “When our reporters monitor their timeline, for instance, it’s most likely because they have the need to understand what’s really happening in our society. Our journalists follow some social media accounts because they need to monitor some prominent figures—based on their interests or desk. However, it will not have any effect on our editorial meeting.”

Any kind of information obtained via Twitter—or any other sources, must be verified before being broadcast-ed. It’s the journalists’ responsibility to ensure that the information presented is factual. Issues that are circulat-ing on Twitter do not automatically become a top story in Metro TV. “We can create news and then it becomes an issue on Twitter,” said Wayan. “We could also follow what’s happening on Twitter, and use it as our reference, but not as often. Often times, we do not even refer to Twitter.”

PART 4 INDONESIAN MAINSTREAM MEDIA’S VIEWS ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND NEWS PRODUCTION

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PART 4 INdONEsIAN jOuRNALIsTs TEChNOgRAPhICs REPORT 2012-2013

There are some continuous issues, for instance corrup-tion case or cataclysm events like earthquake, floods or wildfire. For Metro TV, as long as an event is still devel-oping and still having a certain importance for the pub-lic, they need to continue running it. Metro TV, though, will not rely on Twitter or other social media platforms to monitor the continuity of some events. “Twitter is only our reference, but not our main source,” Wayan high-lighted this point once again. “There could be a certain case, however, when we got the photograph from Lion Air’s mishaps from social media users which became a visual in our social media. But of course, we clarified the truth first.”

Being asked which one is more important between be-ing actual or factual, Metro TV said they prefer factual-ity upon actuality. Understanding the importance of confirmation and verification in journalism, Metro TV applies this principle in their routine before broadcasting any information. “For us, it’s better to be late as long as we can get the confirmation from our source; although we understand that it’s not good for television to broad-cast an overdue event,” said Wayan.

In terms of actuality, Metro TV does not rely on social media either, as they believe that social media can-not be used to confirm or verify information. “Social media does not throw actual issues, it throws anything. Whether the issue is relevant and important, the filter is our editorial team.”

Everything or everyone can be treated as news sources for Metro TV as long as they can be confirmed and

verified. However, Metro TV said they cannot quote someone’s status from social media as news, but only as illustration. Metro TV has their own guidebook in news production, and they also conform to government regu-lations such as P3 SPS from Indonesia’s Broadcasting Commission and Code of Conduct in Journalism.

For Metro TV, social media does not change the pro-cess or principle in their news production, but it does increase their team’s knowledge.

TRANs TV“social media is our supporting source.”An interview with Tifanny Raytama, News Anchor

Issues that are related to human interest and have a certain elements of drama in it are considered interesting issues for Trans TV. Generally, more into human interests and side-bar. Side-bar is more about packaging different news angles about a certain issue. The TV station has two ways in gathering news. First, they develop their own editorial agenda, planned by their producer or producer’s assistant. Second, when a big occurrence is taking place.

They find interesting issues from their reporter-on-duty and research team. Social media is used in a supporting function when it comes to researching. Trans TV fol-lows several social media accounts and monitors them to know about current events, especially Twitter. “We follow information from Detik.com, Kompas.com and

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Vivanews.com, and some public figures who are in the spotlight at a particular moment,” said Tifanny Raytama, News Anchor of Trans TV. “Online media’s social media accounts are more updated. However, when we’re talking about social media, just because they are fast, doesn’t mean they are accurate.”

When it comes to continuity issues, Trans TV will publish it as long as it is still relevant for the public. To monitor continuous events, Trans TV does not rely on social media. They believe that their reporters, local con-tributors and research team will provide more prominent information rather than those circulating in social media.

Although the growth of social media usage is increas-ing significantly, it will take time for Trans TV to look at it as their news source. The uncertainty when it comes to confirming and verifying information obtained via social media creates a sense of distrust. The TV station monitors social media to find out what’s happening in the society, but cannot rely on it to find relevant issues for their audience.

“We prefer to air an actual event, but it must be sup-ported by factual information,” said Tifanny. “We do not have to be the first, we can be the second or the third as long as we can offer a different point of view.”Social media is used only as a supporting source. When Trans TV needs to monitor social media for actual events, they will monitor online media’s social media ac-counts such as Detik.com, Kompas.com and Vivanews.com. Trans TV has their own network of news sources, ranging from contributors/correspondents, other print

media as well as social media. The station has bureaus in ‘rating cities’—cities where Trans TV is most popular. These bureaus are capable of selecting suitable informa-tion for their audience

Similar to Metro TV, Trans TV adhere to government regulations such as P3 SPS from Indonesia’s Broadcast-ing Commission and Code of Conduct in Journalism.

The emergence of social media has no effect on Trans TV’s news production process by far, and it is only being viewed as a supporting source.

Radio

sINdO TRIjAYA FM“social media is a woodpecker.”An interview with Gaib Maruto Sigit, Station Manager

An interesting issue for Sindo Trijaya FM should have a significant effect for the public: corruption, terrorism, security/safety, law and economy. The radio station by far relies on getting information from their sources, journalists, online media and invitations for covering events. When they need to find interesting issues to be broadcasted, Sindo Trijaya FM prefers to rely on their journalists-on-duty. Social media is used only to find out what’s happening out there, and they prefer to read up-dates from online media’s social media account like Ok-ezone.com or Detik.com, or prominent figure’s account

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like Marzuki Alie or Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. They also monitor their competitors Twitter account, Radio Elshinta. “We allow journalists to quote a statement from Twitter, as long as it’s an official account,” added Gaib.

Sindo Trijaya FM, however, requires their journalists to follow accounts that are relevant with the journalists’ designated desk. “There are a lot of issues coming from Twitter, thus we require our journalists to have their own Twitter account and follow other accounts related to their work,” said Gaib Maruto Sigit, the Station Manager of Sindo Trijaya FM.

Continuity events will be broadcasted by Sindo Trijaya FM as long as it is still relevant to their audience. When they need to monitor the development of such events, they go to social media. “Social media is like a wood-pecker,” said Gaib. “They create information faster than any other media.”

Factuality weighs more than actuality to Sindo Trijaya FM. They believe that they need to deliver the truth of information, not the speed of it. Though speed plays an important role, they prefer to present the truth. Sindo Tri-jaya FM considers credible and competent individual in a certain field as their trusted news source. However, they also use social media as long as the information comes from verified accounts.

There are several main rules for Sindo Trijaya FM when it comes to delivering information to their audience. First, anchor has to develop an introduction before bridging it to the information itself, to provide the audience with certain familiarity with the issue. Second, when they de-

liver sensitive issues, they need to consider both the truth of it and the impact it will have on their audience.

According to Sindo Trijaya FM, social media has not re-ally affecting the way they produce news, but it becomes an alternative source for them in finding information.

hARdROCK FM“social media needs to be monitored.”An interview with Sahil Mulachela, Producer

Any issues that are valuable for their audience will always become an interesting issue for Hardrock FM. Mostly, they find these issues on online media and social media. There’s the need to monitor social media as this channel publish different issues rapidly. The radio station does not have any specific accounts they should monitor, but they admit that social media is a prominent news source for them, especially Twitter. Continuity issues, for instance, is interesting for Hardrock FM and they can actually moni-tor the development of it through social media.

Actuality is more important to Hardrock FM compared to factuality. Information is being published in such a fast-pace nowadays, and people receive these informa-tion at the same time. To find actual information, social media is also being used. The radio station understands that they cannot rely on social media in finding the truth. Hence, they will refer to online media when it comes to fact-checking.“At least, in social media, we can get the issues,” said Sahil

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Mulachela, the Producer at Hardrock FM. “We follow funny accounts like @radiogalau, or a financial plan-ner or career coach’s account. When we’re on-air, the producer will monitor social media to find out about our listeners’ response.”

Nowadays, online media and social media are the main news source for Hardrock FM. When it comes to regu-lations in producing content, Hardrock FM believes that when an anchor delivers information, they need to align their perception with the audience; so that they can communicate in the same wavelength. Thus, the when the news is being delivered, the listeners can relate to it better.

Social media has not changed the way Hardrock FM produced news, but it had changed the diversity of information received by their crews.

Print media

jAKARTA gLOBE“social media is an alert sys-tem.”An interview with Bhimanto Suwastoyo, Head of News Services

An interesting issue for Jakarta Globe is the one suitable to their readers’ needs, mostly

about education, tolerance, and social knowledge. Television, radio, online media, social media, and their network are Jakarta Globe’s news sources. They con-sider their network as their most effective news source. As long as the source can be confirmed and verified, it can be a news source for the paper.

Social media plays a role as an alert system for Jakarta Globe. It gives them a hint on what’s happening some-where. The journalists need to follow up on this and find information about it from more prominent sources. Social media doesn’t have the quality of accuracy. Every information obtained from this channel must be veri-fied and confirmed. However, journalists are allowed to quote a statement from an official account.

Continuity issues are considered interesting for Jakarta Globe. “If we cover an issue, we have to cover the pro-gress of that issue,” said Bhimanto Suwastoyo, Head of News Services from Jakarta Globe.

Jakarta Globe values factuality more than actuality. When it comes to actual events, they can use social media to find out public sentiments and publish the event on their online media. Their printed version offers a more in-depth look on certain issues. Jakarta Globe’s journalists need to create a complete story surrounding an event or issue. Incomplete stories are not accept-able.In Jakarta Globe, social media does not change their news production process, but it does change their news-sourcing process.

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TEMPO MAgAZINE“social media is like splashes of water on the river’s surface.”An interview with Arif Zulkifli, Executive Editor

An interesting issue for Tempo magazine is an issue that is suit-

able to the public’s needs and also a newspack—where there’s a correlation between an issue or event with social, political, cultural, or economical context. Usually, Tempo will bring up issues from their network of sources, conversations with people, online media, and social media; but the later is used mostly as an alarm for the editorial staff.

“Social media is like a market where anyone can say any-thing,” said Arif Zulkifly, the Executive Editor of Tempo magazine. “One tries to get other’s attention by posting a kultwit (series of Tweets; kultwit can be literally trans-lated into ‘Tweet lecture’) in a proper style. However, one cannot avoid negative responses about their kultwit from others.” Seeing social media as a market where anyone can say anything, Tempo does not see social media as a reliable source. They do not go into social media to find interesting issues as well.

“How can we rely on them? For instance, what makes @triomacan2000 has loads of followers though they do not have the credibility?” questioned Arif. “Well, they provide random information, a combination between fact and fiction; probably from 100 tweets about Bank Century, only 10 of them are correct—and I had heard about those things from more trusted sources. For those

who do not have an in-depth knowledge about the issue, it would look as if the whole tweets are correct. I guess it’s pretty naïve to rely on social media.”

Factuality weighs more than actuality for Tempo. They see themselves offering “a story” and not merely “news” to their readers. Thus, most of the times, they need to find in-depth information about a certain issue. “Social media is splashes of water on the river’s surface,” said Arif. “Tempo is the sediment. One has to swim down the river to get to the bottom of it, the sediment.”

Tempo sees social media as a platform for citizen journalism—however, social media can still be useful to monitor trends and current events. This is the role served by social media for journalists.

There is no such thing as ‘a sensitive issue’ for Tempo, even if it’s political. Tempo has the need to convey any issue, no matter how problematic it is, to the public. In Tempo, all journalists adhere to the idea of freedom in journalism.

So far, social media has no effect whatsoever in Tempo’s news production process.

ROLLINg sTONE INdONEsIA“social media provides us any kind of information.”An interview with Adib Hidayat, Editor in Chief

Issues about music and lifestyle 22


are at the core of Rolling Stone magazine. Since it’s a franchise magazine, most issues are driven from Roll-ing Stone in the US—print and online. Social media is used to find interesting issues or events. Usually, they get these information from CNN, BBC or Rolling Stone US’ Twitter accounts. Another channel of information is the Twitter accounts of their fellow music journalists and artists.

As a magazine, Rolling Stone Indonesia prefers factual-ity over actuality. When covering a story, the need an in-depth and detailed information. Social media can be used as a news source, as long as the information can be confirmed and verified. When it comes to regulations in news production, to them it’s really simple: as long as the news contains 5W+1H principle of what, when, who, where, why and how.

Social media does not change Rolling Stone Indonesia’s news production process; but it does change their news-sourcing pattern.

Online media

KOMPAs.COM“Twitter broadcasts information every second.”An interview with Taufik Mihardja, director

A trending topic, something that is unique, and have a direct impact to the readers are the ingredients of an interesting issue for Kompas.com. The news portal relies on mainstream media as well as social media (especially Facebook and Twitter) to find interesting issues. The news portal even asked their journalists to have Twitter accounts and monitor what’s happening—including find-ing out the popular conversations among social media users.

“Our readers are digital natives,” said Taufik Mihardja, Director of Kompas.com. “They use social media a lot. Hence, it’s also important for us to familiarize ourselves with social media. Some actual issues can also be cap-tured through social media. Sometimes, they are faster than us, especially for circulating photos about a certain event.”

Social media becomes one of Kompas.com’s news source, and they monitor social media to find interest-ing issues. When it comes to producing a story, Kompas.com journalists are warned not to push spokesperson, news source, or organizations. Continuous issues are still considered interesting as long as they are being pub-lished at the right moment and still becoming the topic of conversations in public. Actuality and factuality carry similar weight for Kompas.com.

Social media has changed the news production process in Kompas.com. As an online media, they now have to produce their news as fast as possible, as the audience demands information faster.

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PLAsA MsN“social media is an early warning system.”An interview with Wicaksono, Editor-in-Chief

For Plasa MSN, an interesting issue is one with news value, become a trending topic, and have good visuals (photographs). Plasa MSN is a news aggregator. Their content partners are the ones who create the news that will be published in Plasa MSN. Although they do not produce their own news, they still monitor social media to know current trends.

“Twitter is an early warning system or alarm,” said Wicaksono, the Editor-in-Chief of Plasa MSN. “When the alarm rings and my content partners do not cre-ate a story about that yet, I would echo the alarm by

retweeting that issue—thus my content partners will be notified about it and write an article about that certain issue. Lately, when an issue becomes a trending topic because of social media, its news value becomes higher as well. Photograph has a very important role for Plasa MSN, to the extent that we can not publish continuous issues if we do not have good photographs to support them. And we will prefer to cover news that shows a female figure, because the majority of our readers are male.”

Plasa MSN prefers factuality over actuality. “We pro-duce story of the day, not story of the moment,” said Wicaksono. Content partners are the only news source for Plasa MSN. The main regulation in news produc-tion includes having good photograph for each article. As a news aggregator, social media doesn’t affect Plasa MSN’s production process.

________________________________________[1] Agenda setting theory itself describes a very powerful influence of the media and their ability to tell us what issues are important - http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Mass%20Media/Agenda-Setting_Theory.doc/[2] https://www.coursera.org/about[3] http://www.journalism.co.uk/news-features/how-to-verify-content-from-social-media/s5/a548645/[4] http://www.poynter.org/author/craigsilverman/[5] http://about.poynter.org/

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REVISED EDITION: Indonesian Journalists Technographics Survey Report 2013

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