Hanny Vitri Hartono Phd Thesis.Pdf
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Research Portfolio of Hanny Savitri Hartono Collated for Examination for PhD (Posthumously) by Supervisors: Graeme MacRae, Massey University; Sharyn Graham Davies, Auckland University of Technology; and Barbara Andersen, Massey University The attached portfolio includes the chapters of Vitri’s partially-completed PhD thesis, as well as several articles published in refereed journals, and other minor publications and unpublished work. The PhD Thesis The topic of the thesis is the way in which Muslim mothers in Java, Indonesia, negotiate a media landscape dominated by un-Islamic material and values, while trying to live their own lives and bring up their children in a properly Islamic way. Research was conducted both in the city of Semarang and by way of a closed Facebook group. The topic lies at the intersection of media studies and anthropology, Islamic studies and parenting studies, and is informed by wide reading of literatures from all these fields. We estimate the PhD thesis to be around around 80% complete: • Six substantive chapters are complete, amounting to a total of approximately 70 000 words. • The introduction is partly written and the conclusion is not written. • Abstract and references are included. We have presented this material as it stands, rather than proofread and edited. Publications The primary publications included are four journal articles, directly related to her PhD research. Three are published in peer-reviewed journals, the fourth is under review: 1. “Muslim mothers and Indonesian gossip shows in everyday life”, Indonesia and the Malay World 43 (126), pp. 298-316. 2015. 2. “'How Funny (This Country Is)': A Moral and Religious Debate Through the Lens of an Indonesian Film”, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 17 (1): 79-96. 2015. 3. (co-authored with Sharyn Graham Davies) “The Pretty Imperative: Handcuffing Policewomen in Indonesia”, Intersections: Journal of Gender and Sexuality, issue 37. 2015 4. “Virtually (Im)moral: Pious Indonesian Muslim womens’ use of Facebook”. Under review for forthcoming special issue of Asian Studies Review. School of People, Environment & Planning Private Bag 102 904, Albany, Auckland 0745, New Zealand. T +64 9 414 0800 F +64 9 414 8162 http://pep.massey.ac.nz Secondary works include: 1. Another article in NZ Journal of Asian Studies, written and published during the period of her PhD but based on her MA research. 2. Two published book reviews. A list of presentations at conferences, ranging from local student conferences to international anthropology and Asia studies ones. School of People, Environment & Planning Private Bag 102 904, Albany, Auckland 0745, New Zealand. T +64 9 414 0800 F +64 9 414 8162 http://pep.massey.ac.nz ___________________________________Abstract_________ Since the fall of the New Order regime in 1998, the Indonesian media landscape has been radically transformed. The country is now a densely saturated media space in which people are exposed to numerous media from television programming to social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Although Indonesia is the country with the highest Muslim populace in the world, its media do not necessarily reflect the growing resurgence of Islamism in the region. With heavy media exposure, which is mainly secular, Muslim women, consciously or not, seek to negotiate the media they are exposed to in the context of their everyday lives within the frame of their Islamic understanding. As media become increasingly contested, their engagement with media becomes more critical. This thesis explores the centrality of Muslim parenting and media in the everyday lives of Muslim mothers in Semarang and Jakarta and seeks to unravel the meanings of media and their strategies for dealing with these media. The focus is on Muslim women and mothers and their negotiations with media around them and how their parenting and Muslim-ness are not merely influenced by the media they use but also impact the media they embrace. In the process, they too are struggling to mediate the media around their children. Hence, reflexive media engagement takes centre stage. In this research, I combine ethnographic fieldwork in Semarang, Central Java and online discussions on a closed Facebook group of which participants mostly reside in Jakarta. Through in-depth interviews, diary studies, conversations, online discussions, field notes and other pertinent resources, I delve into the ways in which Muslim women and their children deal with television, especially celebrity gossip shows, and children’s programming, social media particularly Facebook, and billboards. By considering the notions of agency and piety through the lens of Islamic tenets, and the particularities of Muslim women in Semarang and Jakarta, this study takes a close look at the daily dealings with media of urban mothers. The discussion falls into four main topics: an investigation of the experiences of Muslim mothers who are exposed to television gossip shows and how they negotiate these programmes in terms of their understanding of the Islamic prohibition of gossip; an examination on how Muslim women are actively shaping piety through Facebook in the midst of the debate surrounding its use by Muslim clerics; an investigation of how Muslim women who are surrounded by street billboards cope with their possible effects on their children; and an exploration of the way Muslim mothers negotiate their children’s media consumption within the context of their religious and moral appropriateness. At the core, this is a study of Muslim mothers’ engagement with media in their everyday lives as mothers and as women. I argue that active agency and constant negotiations have led many participants to examine their piety as Muslim women and mothers since the space around media, in their consumption and media talk, provides a platform for engaging with public discourses of religion, gender, and motherhood. Media become sites in which Muslim mothers discuss Islam, voice their views and Islamic understandings, embrace their piety, as well as give judgements to others whose opinions or experiences are not similar to theirs. There are indeed multiple ways of understanding Islam in Indonesia, which have coexisted within a secular context for centuries and these women are negotiating their way through Indonesia’s opposing forces of secularism and Islamism. __________________Table of Contents__________________ Abstract Complete Acknowledgements Not complete List of Maps and Tables Not complete List of Figures Not complete Note of Transcription Not complete Chapter 1: Introduction (1827 words, semi-complete) Muslim Women, Mothers and Piety Media as Practice and Reflexive Media Engagement Solid draft of this section. Chapter Outline Chapter 2: Fieldwork at Home (12, 179 words, complete) The Agent of Scholarship Media Engagement: A Self-reflexive Recollection The Field Sites and Field Experiences Semarang, Central Java The Fieldwork Facebook Closed Group Semarang and Its Muslim Community Chapter 3: Muslim Mothers and Parenting (11, 926 words, complete) Family Dynamics in Java Bearing responsibilities: From breastfeeding to Islamic education Good Mother = Pious Woman Summing Up Chapter 4: Muslim Mothers and TV Gossip Shows (10, 856 words, complete) Indonesian Television Landscape Indonesian Infotainment: History, Format and Content The (Moral) Debate Muslim Mothers and Infotainment Shows Summing Up Chapter 5: Social Media and Muslim Mothers (12, 295 words, complete) Mapping Internet and Social Media Facebook and the Debate in Indonesia From Jealousy to Gossip Shaping Piety Through Social Media Summing Up Chapter 6: Billboards and Muslim Mothers (12, 188 words, complete) Billboards in Semarang From Cigarettes to Wedding Shows Tobacco Advertising, Health Risks and Fatwā Wedding Billboard and Sex Appeal Muslim Mothers’ Reflexivity: “Critical Mindfulness” Summing Up Chapter 7: Children and Media (6, 815 words, mostly complete) Children’s Television Programming Muslim Mothers’ Dealings with Children’s Programming Children and the Internet Summing Up Chapter 8: Conclusion (not complete) References (3, 821 words, mostly complete) Appendices (not appended here but as per ethics application) Appendix A – Human Ethics Approval Letter Appendix B – Information Sheets Facebook Closed Group Facebook Closed Group (Bahasa Indonesia) Interview Interview (Bahasa Indonesia) Diary Study Diary Study (Bahasa Indonesia) Appendix C – Interview Questions Interview Questions Interview Questions (Bahasa Indonesia) Appendix D ̶ List of Infotainment Programmes (2013) Glossary (not complete) Alternate Titles: Mediating Piety in Contemporary Urban Indonesia: Muslim Women, Parenting and Media Media Consumption in Contemporary Urban Indonesia and Everyday Life: Muslim Women, Parenting and Media Muslim Women, Parenting and Media Consumption in Everyday Life in Contemporary Urban Indonesia Total word count: 71, 000 (approximately) Reflexive Media Engagement We live in a world where media are very much of part of our everyday life. As Silverstone (1994) underlines media are profoundly and intimately embedded into the fabric of our daily lives (p. 2). With the availability of electronic media, and more so with the Internet, mass media and other traditional media “transform the field of mass mediation” because they offer new resources “for the construction of imagined self and imagined worlds” (Appadurai, 1996, p. 3). “Because of the sheer multiplicity of the forms in which they appear (cinema, television,