User:Tash/grad project proposal2

04.10. 2018 Project Proposal Draft 2

What do you want to make?
I'm interested in exploring the way social media is used as a democratic tool in present-day Indonesia. Ultimately I'd like to create a platform or tool which allows for the sharing of knowledges still considered precarious or dangerous in the context of Indonesia / other emerging locales in Southeast Asia. A space for publishing information which exists in the grey area of what is allowed or accepted. Or an interaction which challenges current modes of knowledge production and encourages young people to explore the social and cultural potential of networked media.

Why do you want to make it
As a publisher who plans to return to Indonesia in the near future, I feel a need to open up the media landscape there. In 1998, when I was 8 years old, Indonesia's military regime fell, making way for our first democratically elected government. At the same time, we saw the rise of networked media and internet culture. As such, the first years of the new millenium saw significant advances in freedom of expression, and freedom of connection. As the country's economy strengthened, and its young democracy developed, tens of millions of Indonesians joined the new middle class. Mobile phone and internet usage skyrocketed, cinemas proliferated, and so did the consumption of alternative and pop culture.

However, these new freedoms did not immediately equal a more engaged and empowered civil society. Though access to knowledge has increased, other forces, both national and trans-national, continue to impede meaningful discourse on more difficult subjects. The rise of religious extremism is one of the most influential cultural forces in Indonesian society, resulting in not just censorship by way of the law but also self-censorship and a mob mentality which suppresses debate and discussion. For example, questioning Indonesia’s muslim identity has become taboo – and has even resulted in the 2016 incarceration of the incumbent governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, an Indonesian of Chinese descent who was charged for ‘blasphemy’ against the Koran. While social media runs rampant with political memes about this situation, mainstream Indonesian media still struggles to image any kind of meaningful dissent.

This is why I want to explore the potential that networked media has in promoting democratic discourse. I think we need to find alternative ways to connect with each other and share films, books, thoughts about things we’re (apparently) not supposed to talk about. I like the idea that in the right hands, propaganda can also be a ‘progressive and emancipatory tool’.