CAUSINDY Live Blog: Day 1 – History, Media and Public Opinion

Posted on by Tim Cooke

11:00 – 

wrap

And that’s a wrap for day one!

Delegates have just finished their dinner at the Australian Ambassador’s residence, and they’re heading back to the Mandarin Oriental for a good rest before a busy day two of CAUSINDY 2014.

Finally, an interesting thought for the evening:

See you on day two, it’s going to be great!

(Thanks to Liam Gammon for the photo)

4:25 –  Questions from the floor! Check out our Twitter (@CAUSINDY) for individual questions and answers, but here’s a taste:

4:15 –

4:10 – Ross Tapsell asked about media ownership in Indonesia and Australia. First point is the axing of the Australia Network and how the loss of the channel leads us into uncertain terrain in terms of cooperation between Australia and Indonesia.

Tapsell outlines recent (and almost final) work of the Australia Network in getting Australian news content in mainstream Indonesian media (television, print and online), says Australia Network/ABC International worked very hard at getting this done. With the demise of Australia Network, Sky News Australia has announced they’re launching an international service – its motives are unclear however.

Bachelard pivots the discussion to an Indonesian context and examines Prabowo’s friendly media organisations in the recent election, and TVONE in particular. Influence was obvious. But just how important is it in social media crazed Indonesia?

The mainstream media’s portrayals of candidates continue to influence elections, but this is changing with large scale adoption of social media (especially in Indonesia).

4:50 – Bachelard on Bali: Rightly or wrongly it dominates Australian media coverage of Indonesia.

Bachelard questions why you hear more about Australians getting into trouble in Bali, than you do in say, parts of Thailand.

“If I get a phone call in the middle of the night, its because Channel Nine wants me to talk about a Bali story on breakfast television. 

Bachelard continues: more Australians die in Thailand, but Phuket (and other places) doesn’t dominate the coverage in the same way as Bali does for Indonesia.

4:40 – The panel is well underway! Fairfax Media’s Michael Bachelard: “My job is to ‘translate’ events in Indonesia which will interest Australians – from sublime to ridiculous”.

A single day can span from an in-depth profile on Jokowi to the latest news on Schapelle Corby’s boyfriend.

Bachelard also takes aim at criticisms from Canberra on the reporting of various Australian-Indonesian affairs. He concludes, it shouldn’t be expected that journalists have to prioritise unproblematic diplomatic relations over good reporting.

4:30 – ANU’s Ross Tapsell is first up, followed by Tempo’s Purwani Diyah Prabandari. 

4:20 – CAUSINDY Co-Founder and Director, Karina Akib launches CAUSINDY 2014 and welcomes delegates and guests to the first session at SCTV HQ.

4pm (Jakarta time) – Delegates and guests are meeting before our first panel this year, on portrayals in the media and public opinion.

Welcome to the first instalment of this year’s CAUSINDY live blog! We’ll be sharing updates and observations from this year’s conference, including commentary, notes and quotes from our speakers and delegates.

To open, some background information on CAUSINDY 2014:

  • This year’s conference is taking place at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Jakarta, with events also hosted at Salt Grill and the residence of the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia.
  • It’s the second Conference of Australian and Indonesian Youth, and the first to be hosted in Indonesia.
  • This year’s theme is “Right time to reset: Learning from the old and bringing in the new” — it recognises the contribution particular young leaders like this year’s delegates can make in charting a new course in the Australia-Indonesia relationship.

We’d also like to acknowledge the generous support of our sponsors — especially UTS:INSEARCH, RMIT University and the Australia Awards.

 

Tim Cooke,

Tim is a member of CAUSINDY's communications team.