User:Tash/grad thesis outline2

Thesis Outline Draft 2

Format:

2) An analytical essay exploring related artistic, theoretical, historical and critical issues and practices that inform your practice, without necessarily referring to your work directly.

• plus separate annotations written from a personal point of view, to situate the research within my own context and practice
• or written into the essay in one flowing style

Key topics:

• Social & networked media as democratic or emancipatory tools
• Freedom of speech / freedom of connection / freedom of religion
• The rise of alternative media / pop culture and its role in contemporary nation-building
• (Self-)censorship, cultural regulation and revisionism (“New media, Old wounds”)
• Meme culture as a mode of civic engagement, a way of imaging dissent
• Archiving (remembering) as an active political practice (and post-colonial tool?)
• Alternative ways of sharing knowledge, and their social aspects (“We publish to find comrades!”)
• Weaponization of the internet, propaganda wars in the comments section

Structure:

I. Introduction
Background: As a publisher and a digital native, I have always been interested in the way netizenship informs citizenship (and vice versa). Growing up in Indonesia in the 1990s, I saw a positive correlation between the two – where the arrival of the Internet seemed to both coincide with and contribute to the country’s transition into democracy. Indeed, the first few years of the new millenium was a volatile but also hopeful time in Indonesian civil society. After decades of military rule, the media landscape was opening up.

However, recent trends in Indonesian politics – which is not unrelated to the global political climate – lead me to believe that there is a rising problem of censorship in the country. In the last 10 years alone, “over hundreds of Internet users have been reported to the police and arrested for expressing their opinions freely on the Internet, and in some cases, detained for raising their voices against corrupt government officials.” (Hapsoro, 2018). In 2016, the incumbent governor of Jakarta, a progressive politician by the name of Ahok, was charged and jailed for ‘blaspheming’ against the Qur’an. Cases like these, which play out both online and offline, create immense pressures on freedom of speech and expression in Indonesia.

To counter this trend of suppression, I believe there is an urgent need for more alternative digital platforms and modes of discourses. At the same time, I see how engaged young Indonesians already are with social media and meme culture, often using them as forms of political participation. Following this, I’m intrigued by the participatory potential of memetic media, and want to explore how it could be used as a democratic tool in present-day Indonesia.


Thesis Statement: While in Indonesia today, social media offers valuable alternative spaces for political discourse, more activism is needed to resist the rising pressures of (self-)censorship in the country.

II. Body
1st chapter: Introducing the media landscape in Indonesia

Point A: Historically, mainstream Indonesian media has tended to represent government interests, and has done little to challenge political hegemonies in the country.

• Argument 1: In the Suharto era, government had control of mass media (print, radio & tv)
• Argument 2: Continued revisionism of certain events, like the 1965 genocide
• Argument 3: Continued use of film and television as propaganda

Point B: In the late 90s, the emergence of alternative networked media in Indonesia represented new opportunities for democratic discussion and debate.

• Argument 1: Web 2.0. and social media use flourished in post-colonial contexts like Indonesia, expanding freedom of speech in these countries. Note the reasons why: anonymity, participatory quality, velocity, spread
• Argument 2: These tools also enabled freedom of connection, mobilizing new networks and communities. Refer to ‘visual bonds’ in Hito Steyerl’s In Defense of the Poor Image and Balaguer & Cramer’s Moral of the Xerox
• Argument 3: Global impact: following this, new media has had a pivotal role in recent political processes around the world. The result is two-sided: positive (discussion, emancipation) and negative (polarisation, weaponization)

2nd chapter: On the current state of censorship in Indonesia

Point A: Government censorship has escalated over the past decade, mainly as a result of creeping conservatism and political Islam.

• Argument 1: Legal mechanisms include anti-pornography law, blasphemy law
• Argument 2: Technological mechanisms include web blocking


Point B: Self-censorship is a less obvious but increasingly influential force in Indonesian society.

• Argument 1: Censorship is outsourced to social media platforms: content moderation policies
• Argument 2: Censorship is outsourced to media companies: corruption in news & tv stations
• Argument 3: Censorship is outsourced to the people: using fear, shame, social pressure

3rd chapter: Responses and tactics to censorship

Point A: As a way of negotiating these pressures, social media and meme culture has become a fundamental new mode of civic engagement for Indonesian citizens.

• Argument 1: Discuss examples of recent political memes in Indonesia and their impact
• Argument 2: Discuss examples of social media activism in Indonesia, e.g. KPK case, OurVoice.id platform for LGBT, but also discuss examples of those that failed

Point B: In a counterpoint, the digital sphere is becoming a more dangerous place for activists, especially in Islamic countries

• Argument 1: Weaponization of social media by political parties, taking advantage of the population’s low media literacy e.g. Duterte in Philippines, buzzers in Indonesia
• Argument 2: Attacks on social media personalities and journalists e.g. Tara Fares in Baghdad, Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, defamation law in Indonesia

Point C: Artists and publishers can and should intervene in social media’s mechanisms to challenge modes of censorship online

• Argument 1: Artistic examples – Iraq War Wikihistoriography by James Bridle, Blind Spot by Miao Ying, An Anthem to Open Borders by Petra Milički
• Argument 2: Practical examples – comment section activism, cases for editing wars, trolling for good, publishing platforms like Bibliotecha or Ethira, NewsDiffs

III. Conclusion

As Indonesian mainstream media becomes more and more sensitive to dissent, social and memetic media offer valuable spaces for civic engagement. However, under the increasing pressures of state and self-censorship, more deliberate digital activism is needed to turn these platforms into safe and meaningful sites for communication and connection.