University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2013 Indonesian women blogging: from Serambi Mekka (Aceh) to Batawi (Jakarta) and in between Endah Triastuti University of Wollongong Recommended Citation Triastuti, Endah, Indonesian women blogging: from Serambi Mekka (Aceh) to Batawi (Jakarta) and in between, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication, University of Wollongong, 2013. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/4169 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Faculty of Arts Indonesian Women Blogging: From Serambi Mekka (Aceh) to Batawi (Jakarta) and in Between Endah Triastuti "This thesis is presented as part of the requirements for the award of High Degree Research of theSchool of Social Sciences, Media & Communication University of Wollongong" May, 2013 ABSTRACT All around the world, women are still facing gender digital divide due to their absence in the internet infrastructure establishment. The Web 2.0 technology helps women to catch up with men in adopting the internet. After the introduction of free blog providers in 2000, a significant number of Indonesian women embrace digital communication through blogging practice. Having a resemblance with women bloggers in general, Indonesian women bloggers tend to use blogging to document personal experiences. However, my thesis refuses to see Indonesian women as single entities, thus I take up de Certeau’s idea in ‘The Practice of Everyday Life’ (1984) to explain that within the circulation of power in media discourse (Couldry, 2004) Indonesian women bloggers apply contextual tactics to reclaim their sense of agency in the Indonesianmale-dominated public sphere. Employing multidisciplinary approaches, my study aim to answer the questions“what kind of things people do in relation to media”? and also “how is the complexity of users’s engagement with media embedded in everyday life cultures”? (Takahashi, 2010; Couldry, 2005; Bird, 2003) within Indonesian women’s context. My study shows that blogging is not a universal practice, nor simple, limited or fixed. That is, in their engagement with blogging, Indonesian women make out by ‘poaching’ blogging in their own contexts and reconstruct blogging for their own social, economic, political and cultural benefit. Thus within Indonesian women’s context that were subjected to national ideology of state ibuism, a blog can be understood as a medium of negotiation for Indonesian women not only for joining public sphere, but also to create their sense of agency. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Guru Nanak said, ‘Without a Guru none can cross over to the other shore.’ I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisors, Philip Kitley and Mark McLelland for helping me crossing over to the other shore by supporting me with their academic excellence. Special thanks for Philip. If he did not keep challenging me from the beginning and pushing my boundaries I could not have learned as much as I did. I wish also to thank Heather Jamisson for her generous offer to help me with technical and editorial insights and especially for her ongoing friendliness and academic as well as personal encouragement. I would especially like to thank a number of Indonesian blogger communities and their members: Loenpia Semarang, Anging Mammiri, Aceh Blogger Community, Bali Blogger Community, Kayuh Baimbay, and Bertuah, for their support and friendships. We have witnessed that William Gibson is wrong, that Cyberspace is NOT a consensual hallucination. I am indebted to my father, mother, and sisters for their encouragement. I have been fortunate to have their support and unconditional love in all its forms. From them, I understand what Jim Butcher meant when he said ‘When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching - they are your family.’ I share the credit of my work with good friends I have met throughout this journey. I would like to thank them for their good company and support: Inaya Rakhmani, Scott, Trish, Amelita, Nan and Pop, Old Man, Siew Lie, Robyn, Pieter, Michael, Frank, Paula, Didut, and Wedhouz. Emily Montague correctly said it: ‘Certainly, my dear, friendship is a mighty pretty invention.’ Finally, I dedicate this thesis to Gita. Thank you for your patience, understanding, acceptance, forgiveness and wonderful company. We did it, Apple! ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………… ii TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………………... iii LIST OF FIGURE ………………………………………………………….. vii LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………………………. viii INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………. x 1 INDONESIA'S INTERNET BLUEPRINT, AN 17 INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………… 1.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………….. 17 1.2 Indonesia media before the internet ………………………............. 21 1.3 The scholar's period: from PUSILKOM UI to UNInet (1972-1989) ………………………………………………. 24 1.4 The hobbyist period: Skunkworks in radio-package based internet connection (1980s-2004) ………….. 28 1.5 The bureaucrats’ period: From IPTEKNET to the first ISP policy (1983-1997) ………………………………. 31 1.6 The Entrepreneurs Period (1994-recently) ………………………... 35 1.7 Early 2000s: The first Indonesian women's blogs …………............ 42 1.8 Conclusion ………………………………………………………… 50 2 INDONESIAN WOMEN'S SITUATED CONTEXTS: A STEPPING STONE ………………………………………………….. 53 2.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………….. 53 2.2 Women's role: a negotiated public/private sphere ………………… 54 2.3 State ibuism: domestication of Indonesian women………………... 58 2.4 Indonesianwomen's efforts to enter the public sphere…………….. 63 2.5 Indonesian women in education and the waged labour force………………………………………………………… 65 2.6 Conclusion ………………………………………………………… 67 3 A GENDER PERSPECTIVE ON INDONESIAN WOMEN'S BLOGGING PRACTICES………………………………… 70 3.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………….. 70 iii 3.2 Theoretical framework…………………………………………….. 72 3.2.1 Research on women and the internet ……………............. 72 3.2.2 Domestication technology or domestic technology ……... 77 3.2.3 The internet self-efficacy ………………………………... 80 3.3 Methodology ………………………………………………............. 81 3.3.1 Methods ………………………………………………….. 81 3.3.2 Feminist standpoint approach as a framework …………... 82 3.3.3 Sample ………………………………………………........ 84 3.3.4 Research instrument ……………………………………... 85 3.3.5 Data collection and data procedures …………………….. 86 3.4 Result …………………………………………………………........ 86 3.4.1 Respondent profiles ……………………………………... 86 3.4.2 Blogging activities and the internet attitude …………….. 88 3.4.2.1 The internet attitude …………………………………....... 88 3.4.2.2 Gender disparities in the internet attitude ……………….. 90 3.4.2.3 Blogging activities ………………………………………. 93 3.5 Conclusion ……………………………………………………........ 99 4 INDONESIAN WOMEN BLOGGERS WITHIN BLOGGING COMMUNITIES ……………………………………........ 102 4.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………….. 102 4.2 Theoretical framework ……………………………………………. 105 4.2.1 Revisiting the concept of community …………………… 105 4.2.2 Banal nationalism within imagined community ………… 108 4.3 Indonesian blogger communities as a cultural artefact …………… 111 4.3.1 The culture ………………………………………………. 111 4.3.2 Communities' blogs and Wikis ………………………….. 114 4.3.3 Communities' mailng lists ……………………………….. 115 4.3.4 Kopdar - KOPi DARat: offline gatherings ……………… 117 4.3.5 Official community's Twitter and Facebook accounts ….. 121 4.3.6 Collectivistic traditional and group cohesiveness ……….. 121 4.4 Women within communities ………………………………………. 124 4.4.1 Women's role in Indonesian blogger communities ……… 124 4.4.2 Men's domination and women's resistance within iv blogger communities ……………………………………. 127 4.4.3 Indonesian women's blogs: crossing the borders, from online intimacy to offline civic engagement ………. 129 4.5 Conclusion ………………………………………………………… 139 5 INDONESIAN WOMEN'S BLOGS: A CONTENT ANALYSIS ……………………………………………………………. 142 5.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………….. 142 5.2 Indonesian women's blog: content, interactivity and connectivity ……………………………………………………….. 143 5.2.1 Content ………………………………………………….. 145 5.2.2 Interactivity ……………………………………………… 147 5.2.3 Connectivity ……………………………………………... 149 5.2.4 Hypotheses……………………………………………….. 150 5.3 Methodology ………………………………………………………. 151 5.3.1 Research population: Indonesian women's blog ………… 152 5.3.2 Data set ………………………………………………….. 155 5.3.3 Data analysis ……………………………………………. 158 5.4 Findings …………………………………………………………… 159 5.4.1 Indonesian women's blog contents ……………………… 159 5.4.2 Comments and interactivity ……………………………... 164 5.4.3 Connectivity ……………………………………………... 168 5.5 Conclusion ………………………………………………………… 171 6 INDONESIAN WOMEN'S BLOG FORMS: WOMEN’S INVESTEMENT IN TECHNICAL FEATURES ………………………. 173 6.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………….. 173 6.2 Theoretical perspective ……………………………………………. 175 6.2.1 The paradigm shifts ……………………………………… 175 6.2.2 The hybrid nature of a blog: blog's formal form ………… 181 6.3 Methodology ……………………………………………………… 184 6.4 The form of Indonesian women's blogs …………………………… 185 6.4.1 Hosting method and why they matter …………………… 186 6.4.2 Replacing blogroll: cross social media platform integration ……………………………………………….. 196 v 6.4.3 Connectivity issues: geographical and political constraints ……………………………………………….. 201 6.4.4 Blog awards: declaring intimacy online ………………… 204 6.5 Conclusion ………………………………………………………… 206 7 INDONESIAN WOMEN'S BLOGS: PRACTICES …………………… 208 7.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………….