International Communication Gazette

http://gaz.sagepub.com Indonesia's Underground Press: The Media as Social Movements

Victor Menayang, Bimo Nugroho and Dina Listiorini International Communication Gazette 2002; 64; 141 DOI: 10.1177/17480485020640020401 The online version of this article can be found at: http://gaz.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/64/2/141

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GAZETTE: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR COMMUNICATION STUDIES COPYRIGHT 2002 SAGE PUBLICATIONS LONDON, THOUSAND OAKS & NEW DELHI, VOL 64(2): 141156 [0016-5492(200204)64:2;141156;022393]

INDONESIAS UNDERGROUND PRESS

The Media as Social Movements

Victor Menayang, Bimo Nugroho and Dina Listiorini

Abstract / This article analyses the performance of Indonesias underground media in the period leading to the fall of the Suharto dictatorship. Analyses are based on interviews with media activists as well as a qualitative study of the contents of these media. Constructs of media frame analysis and movements rhetoric are used to gain an understanding of the struggle between the ideology of the Indonesian regime and the ideology of the social movements. The rst part of the article describes the organizational and individual histories of the people running these underground media; the second part scrutinizes the rhetoric and the recurrent media frames. The frames for looking at Indonesian problems that were proposed by the underground media gained resonance with the public at large, eventually contributing to Suhartos downfall. Keywords / Indonesian underground media / media frames / social movements

Introduction
During the last years of the New Order regime in Indonesia, particularly in the months that preceded Suhartos downfall (1998), various underground news media were emerging and gaining resonance with the public. These were generally established in opposition to the Suharto regime, although their rhetoric was primarily emphasizing freedom of the press. The current study assesses the context and content of such underground media. It argues that, at least in the Indonesian case, the underground media are in fact a sort of social movement themselves. While the selection and treatment of issues are necessarily done differently as compared with the mainstream media, it is more important to see that the common goal of these alternative media is to challenge the status quo. Accordingly, they are considered as the representation of the movements ideology in ghting the New Order regime. It is expected that a better understanding of these alternative media will lead to a better description of the 1998 Indonesian revolution as a whole. However, our analysis does not dwell on causal relationships (for instance, how the underground media inuence public opinion). It attempts instead to describe the ideal elements put forward by those at the forefront of the movements. In May 1998, when the resistance movements to the New Order regime were at their peak, the various alternative media contained predominantly news and
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information about the social movements and the governing situation. They described rally activities and clashes with the authorities, and analysed the political and economic situation of the country. Since these media differed in approach and specic objectives, they presented news that could not be found in the mainstream media. Non-mainstream media can be classied into two types: the alternative media and the underground media. Alternative media refer to content, scope and style of reporting that are consistently different from those of the mainstream. Alternative media are not always clandestine media. In many democratic countries, alternative media are silenced more through market mechanisms than political intervention. The print media examined in this study were circulated without a licence despite legal requirements to the contrary, and their creators gave out only vague identication; this is the reason why they are called underground media rather than alternative media in this article. However, both terms are used interchangeably here to refer to underground, clandestine print media. Due to the strict regulations imposed by the New Order,1 in its last few years there was an intensication of underground media publications, which had existed long before the social movements to oust Suharto. However, these medias reach was less important than that of those published during the rst half of 1998. Therefore, distinguishing between the various media existing during that Reform era might be necessary. This study identies three types of underground media. They are campus and student media, pro-democracy nongovernmental organization (NGO) media and the underground media targeted at the general public. While the distinction is admittedly loose and more like an academic exercise, it is made to assist our understanding of the various alternative media, which often vary on the basis of their compliance to journalistic rules, range of issues and news treatment. This study looks at the history and organization as well as the content of these underground print media in order to understand how, in the end, the ideal elements they proposed in their media became the truths accepted by the public. The questions raised in this study are as follows: What kinds of rhetoric are used in the underground media? What is the ideological stance framing the rhetoric as suggested by the contents of the media? What is the historical situation and both the internal and external contexts of these contents?

Theoretical Framework
The current research adopts constructs from studies on media frames and movements rhetoric. Additionally, the analytical framework considers three interrelated factors: the conict between mainstream and underground media; the ideological elements put forward by the social movements; and the determinants of a frames success. First, there is the triangular relationship between the public, the mainstream media and the underground media. A widely accepted description of the relationship between the mainstream media and the public is the ability of the media to set what is considered important by the public. This theoretical relation is known as the agenda-setting function of the media
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(McCombs and Shaw, 1993). The underground media, being an integral part of the social movements, exist mainly to set the public agenda, leading to a conict situation with the mainstream media. The relationship between mass media and social movements is generally regarded as negative in liberal-democratic countries such as the United States. Stewart et al. (1994: 6; see also Gitlin, 1980) stated that mass media do not offer much to emerging social movements:
The mass media devote little space or air time to social movements, are rarely favorable toward them (unless success appears near), are rarely controlled by social movements (although some social movements are adept at manipulating media to attain coverage), and provide exposure only when a social movement does something spectacular or stupid.

The situation in Indonesia, at least on the surface, was very similar. The authorities were very repressive and those media giving much coverage of the movements were at risk of losing their licence. At a more ideological level, however, there may not be much difference between the underground and mainstream media as the regime was despised by middle-class Indonesians, including those running the mass media. Second, analyses of the underground media, much like the analysis of social movements, are important because they inform us about what ideological elements are being fought over among the camps as well as how those elements are being placed strategically in the media. An important concept in explaining these ideal elements is the media frame concept (see, for example, Gamson and Modigliani, 1989; Gamson and Lasch, 1983). A media frame is dened as the way the media select aspects of a perceived reality and the emphasis given to certain aspects of that reality so as to suggest a way of looking at that reality (Entman, 1993). Thus, describing the underlying frames is more important than describing independent factual elements of the news. Both the regime and the social movements tried hard to ensure that their frames of reality were adopted by the public. The government did that by repressing and censoring the mainstream media, by offering ofcial frames of every event and story, and tightening the media licensing regulations. In the last years of the regimes life, it also tried to dominate the media frames through ownership of print and electronic media. The underground media were the movements weapons against the ofcial frames, providing strategic agitation rhetoric (see Bowers et al., 1993; Stewart et al., 1994). Lastly, the research literature considers factors that determine the success of media frames. Based on Gamson and Modigliani (1989), three such factors in the Indonesian reform movements are as follows: cultural resonances of the movements frames with the cultural themes as experienced by the public; the activities of the social movement proponents aiming to ensure that the frames gained importance among the public; and the relationship among the organizations and individuals of underground and mainstream media.

Methodology
This research analyses three underground media. The rst two are periodicals aimed at the general public: Xpos (Expose) and Kabar dari Pijar (News from
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Pijar). The third is a student media outlet, Gugat (Accuse). The analysis was based on the nature of their set-up and the description of their organizational characteristics, including the description of journalistic routines, organizational structure, journalistic backgrounds and perception of workers. The objective of the analysis is to map out the media frames and tactics of such media through an understanding of their contents, history and mechanics of operation. We selected print media outlets that were circulated widely well beyond the area or city where the social movements had originated that reported news and analysis of national affairs and could usually be obtained through the Internet. Xpos and Kabar dari Pijar both come in this category. These were selected because they are published more or less consistently and are relatively well known. In an interview with Jennifer Gaynor (1997), senior journalist Goenawan Mohamad mentioned three underground media he considered important: Kabar dari Pijar, Suara Independen (Independent Voice, which later became Xpos) and SiaR. The last is excluded from this study, due to the difculty of accessing their archives. Kabar dari Pijar could be dened as a pamphlet engineered by a pro-democracy NGO, PIJAR. On the other hand, Xpos could be seen as targeted at the general public, but forced to go underground due to judicial and political barriers. In addition, this study also looks at a student outlet that was published as the result of the need for information on the campus-based activities. This is called Gugat and is published by a group of students at Gajah Mada University, Yogyakarta. The study is based on primary data obtained through interviews with the workers of the underground media under scrutiny. A qualitative content analysis was also carried out on a number of issues of Xpos and Kabar dari Pijar published during the rst half of 1998 and the period prior to that. It is necessary to note that these media often changed their format, time of publication and even their title. The analysis of Xpos, for example, began when it was still called Independen (and then Suara Independen), while Kabar dari Pijar was studied by also analysing Reformasi as well as KdPNet on the Internet. Media practitioners at Gugat also once published Majalah Balairung.

The Need for an Alternative

Under the New Order regime, the media were on a short leash, becoming increasingly critical of the government. Further, the initially idealistic Indonesian press now emphasized the primacy of the economic goals. As David T. Hill puts it (1994: 144):
The trend towards increasing commercialization and capital concentration within the industry may also be linked to a decline in the pull and inuence of the primordial loyalties of ethnicity, religion, and political afliation.

Even though business orientation was becoming stronger among the media, demand among the public for critical political news remained high. This was conrmed by the publication of the tabloid Detik in March 1993. Since the
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tabloid carried very few advertisements, its income mainly depended on subscribers and purchasers. It proved very lucid and straightforward in its criticism of the authorities. The public seemed to have been waiting for just such a media outlet, as proven by its increasing circulation, from 7000 (rst edition) to 180,000 by the end of 1993, and to 450,000 by April 1994. When the tabloids licence was revoked by the government in June 1994, its circulation had reached 500,000. The gure set a record of mass media circulation in Indonesia. Detiks commercial success as an opposition paper encouraged other media to follow in its footsteps. The Indonesian press appeared to be trapped in an illusion of transparency that might make for the return of press freedom. But eventually, on 21 June 1994, the authorities revoked the licences of three media outlets (Detik, Tempo and Editor), accusing them of playing government ofcials one against another.2 From then on, political news critical of the government became uninteresting, and eventually just disappeared. The importance of this censorship in the history of the alternative press cannot be overemphasized. Young journalists and activists could no longer accept such repression, and this was congruent with readership expectations, which resulted in the alternative media stepping in to provide much needed critical news. It was Independen magazine that then began to publish news and opinion pieces critical of the government, but still in compliance with the journalistic requirements of objectivity and balance. It made this move because its staff included journalists who had suffered from censorship working in various mainstream media. According to Mr Santoso, the general secretary of Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (Alliance of Independent Journalists; AJI), who was also the coordinator of Independen, the magazines circulation reached 10,000 copies and it sold out every single issue. One of its issues, which reported on Suhartos wealth, even went to a reprint of 13,000 copies. The circulation gure excluded copies printed outside Jakarta such as in Yogyakarta and Surabaya (the magazine allowed reprinting by interested parties), as well as a great number of photocopies. The Xpos bulletin took over from the monthly Independen,3 but was published more frequently. It was expected that by publishing a weekly paper, more social events could be covered. Xpos grew alongside the reform movements4 that eventually forced Suharto from ofce. At the peak of the students movement (May 1998), Xpos had a sold out a print run of 20,000. The real circulation is unknown owing to the large but uncountable number of photocopies.

Suara Independen: An Underground Journalistic Career

While Independen/Suara Independen only became visible after Detik, Tempo and Editor were banned, it actually came into existence a few months before the infamous ban. It started out as a FOWI (Forum Wartawan Independen the Independent Journalists Forum) bulletin.5 This bulletin was published in the open, with real editor names and real addresses.
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After the ban, the journalists and activists protesting against this policy gathered in the Tempo Guesthouse in Sirnagalih, West Java. One of the gatherings outcomes was to increase the circulation of the FOWI bulletin and to increase the staff and funds needed for running the publication. This is how Independen magazine came into being. In its early issues, the words Forum Wartawan were still part of the title in small type size, while the emphasis was on the word Independen. In later issues, these words were omitted. According to coordinator Santoso, this was necessary, for three reasons: (1) to emphasize the publications independent spirit; (2) to acknowledge the fact that its content came not only from journalists, but also from activists, intellectuals, lawyers, etc.; and (3) because the media were no longer owned by FOWI Bandung, but also by journalists from other cities who later joined the AJI.6 The circulation of Independen kept soaring and this obviously worried the regime. Things came to a head with a report in Independen of a rumour that Suharto was ill. As a result, the police arrested the chair of the AJI, Ahmad Tauk, on 16 February 1995, and broke into the AJI premises, seizing all documents related to the AJI and Independen magazine. Another AJI member, Eko Maryadi, who had come to the ofce in the hope of hiding such documents, was arrested as well. Independen magazine was subsequently banned and Ahmad Tauk, Eko Maryadi and AJI member Danan Kukuh Wardoyo were charged with the distribution of unauthorized pamphlets as well as contempt of a legitimate government. But the publication of Independen magazine did not stop there. Santoso remained in charge of its management and a few changes were made: the title was changed to Suara Independen, the publishers name and the address were no longer obvious, publication was no longer done on behalf of the AJI but by MIPPA (Masyarakat Indonesia Pecinta Pers Alternatif, the Indonesian Community for Alternative Press). Despite the name change and other precautions, the police managed to uncover the organization of Suara Independen by tracing its distribution channel. The Suharto government seemed utterly determined to close the magazine down, especially after it published reports on the raid of 27 July against the headquarters of the Partai Demokrasi Indonesia (Indonesian Democratic Party) by government-backed hoodlums. The police intensied its investigations of the magazine. Andi Syahputra, the printer of the magazine, was arrested but would not reveal the names of his clients. However, Syahputras arrest scared off the publishing staff of Suara Independen. Editorial coordinator Santoso was exiled to Malaysia and moved around between Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. However, Suara Independen was still run from a distance through email and other Internet applications. When the police investigation died down and the government turned to other political issues, the magazine resumed its regular monthly publication. Its management was improved and circulation increased from 10,000 to 20,000 copies, not counting the unofcial but encouraged distribution of photocopies. It even managed to obtain a loan to purchase its own printing machine. It was then that Suara Independen experienced an internal conict. The management was transferred from Santoso to Satrio Arismunandar and then to
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Heru Hendratmoko, a journalist with the magazine Jakarta-Jakarta. Herus team managed to put out two issues of Suara Independen before publication ground to a halt, owing to the staff failing to fully dedicate their time to the magazine (they were also working for mainstream media). As the political situation heated up, the government was forced to loosen its stranglehold on the press, so that the output of the mainstream media became not that much different from that of the clandestine press. Some staff members of Suara Independen also thought that issues were too extensive and took too long to produce. In the period around Suhartos downfall the public especially needed quick access to clear, uncensored information, and Suara Independens format was not particularly conducive to such immediate reporting. Some of its staff then launched a new underground weekly, which they called Xpos. It initially had only eight pages, later to be increased to 12 (on cheaper paper).

Kabar dari Pijar

While Suara Independen and Xpos were merely underground media, Kabar dari Pijar (KdP, News from Pijar) was designed from the start as a ghting machine against repression. This media outlet was rst published in 1990 as an internal tool for reporting activities of PIJAR, Pusat Informasi dan Jaringan Aksi untuk Reformasi (the Information Centre and Action Network for Reform), and carried pro-democracy and human rights statements. Its coverage was constantly improved by incorporating news and articles from various NGOs in the form of a bulletin and a monthly publication. After the banning of the three periodicals that were considered the barometer of critical stance against of the government, KdP eventually became a daily. The decision was related closely to the ban because KdP was in fact primarily about the struggle against censorship. The decision to publish daily hinged on the need to report on the almost daily protests that were being staged. The PIJAR activist who managed to publish the magazine regularly was Tri Agus Susanto Siswowihardjo (better known as TASS),7 who said: reporting on the demonstrations [by the mainstream media] was considered insufcient, so we decided that KdP should ll those gaps. At the time, KdP was published daily for about one-and-a-half months and known as an evening paper. PIJAR, the publisher of KdP, had many members with a student press background. They were familiar with the nitty-gritty of the press and journalistic standards. TASS himself had previously worked for the banned Editor, and declared that he and his colleagues wrote without a sponsor, and without hesitation. In the end, KdP was seen as the medium that pushed the limits of the free press in Indonesia. Later on, not long before Suharto stepped down, KdP was published actively on the Internet, and quickly became one of the main outlets distributing anti-Suharto information and opinion pieces. KdPs Internet edition apparently reached larger audiences throughout Indonesia. Time magazine even considered KdP as one of Indonesias two most inuential information sources on the Internet.
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Presenting the Student Movements to the General Public

Writers for Gugat (the student newsletter of Gajah Mada University) considered their newsletter as serving the same functions as KdP. Sold at Rp.400 per copy a mere US$0.03 at the time, nevertheless showing the publics willingness to pay for the information Gugat also extensively reported on the protests and announcements of the student movements agenda. The Gugat writers saw themselves as agitators, presenting the struggle of their peers in order to encourage the more passive among students to become active participants. Although Gugat activists, putting much stock in the value of journalistic independence, always tried to distinguish themselves from the rest of the student activist groups, they became the mouthpiece of the student movement at large. In terms of their relationship to the mainstream media, the students told stories of how their friends in the media provided them with information and photographs that could not be published in the mainstream media. They had friends who were alumni of the student press and were working for mainstream media. This led to the perception that within the mainstream media, a group of journalists actually supported the social movements, as one campus media activist in our interviews put it:
In the beginning, the mainstream media in Yogya were rather cynical towards the students activities. Although this was not true for their reporters. The latter were sympathetic to our cause.

The main difference between campus and mainstream media was the latters lateness in reporting shifts in the students protest themes. While the campus media were already concentrating on the risky issues of military intervention in civilian political life and Suhartos succession, the mainstream media were still reporting them as ghting for the relatively safe issue of food security. And when (March 1998) no mainstream medium reported on the burning of a statue of Suharto, the students came to the conclusion that they had to be more active in informing the public about campus events.

The Movements Rhetoric: A Content Analysis

With such a background, Xpos, and even more so Gugat and KdP, were difcult to study using the usual journalistic standards. The objectivity criterion proved unsuitable for evaluating the underground media output. Greater editorial freedom and a more partisan approach are the essence of such underground media. Their output may all be categorized as opinion pieces and editorials, making the media package more explicit and easier to identify (Gamson and Modigliani, 1989: 17). Generally speaking, the differences with the mainstream were as follows: 1. Selection of issues: what is regarded as appropriate for publication, after various considerations. The analysis of non-news is very important, and often overlooked when researchers only study the mainstream media. Such
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non-news or underreported issues and events can be seen only when the media content is compared with other media or other information sources, such as personal experience or police reports (see Cohen and Young, 1981). 2. Selection of news elements: the kind of information selected for publication. Even when all media consider an issue as deserving of a report, they may differ on those elements they eventually choose to highlight. This was the case with reports on the demonstrations. Gugat and KdP staff stated that violent acts against activists were the issues they reported on in detail because these were often disregarded by the mainstream media. 3. Writing style: although each media outlet has its own style, the underground media tend to use a very aggressive writing style. They consider the pursuit of truth as more important than niceties of language, as conrmed by KdP activists, who were proud of their inammatory writing style. In the New Order era underground media were just one element of the social movements, similar to tools such as demonstrations, political rallies or civil disobedience, and used to increase support for the movements, to break authoritarian control and to generate social change. It is thus interesting to observe how the underground media tried to achieve their goals through their editorial material. Their ultimate goal being social change, or more specically the overthrow of Suharto and the establishment of a regime that would have to be open, nonmilitaristic and democratic, they chose to eschew journalistic standards such as objectivity. Ultimately, all media, mainstream or underground, whether intentionally or not, can be regarded as propaganda tools. In the hands of the mainstream media, such commonly accepted journalistic standards as objectivity, accuracy and critical reporting on state activities only served to conrm the states denition of reality. Here, the critical reports voiced by the mainstream media were no more than what Hallin calls the sphere of legitimate controversy (Hallin, 1986, in Shoemaker and Reese, 1996), i.e. differences and conicts which the regime considers as appropriate in the realm of public discourse. In general, the mainstream media did not side with social movements, at least not initially. This is true in the history of most social movements, even in the more liberal West (see Stewart et al., 1994; Gitlin, 1980). It is of course possible that in Indonesia the situation might have been different since the media silence was the result of fear of coercive powers rather than submission to a hegemonic ideology. Certainly, the underground media organizers had a networking association with workers of the mainstream media, as stated by TASS of KdP in our interview with him:
Pijar was established by student press activists. So, those alumni who were press activists on their campus generally become journalists. Pijar workers are everywhere, they also work in the mainstream media. Therefore, we often exchange important information. If our peers in the mainstream press have information that they cannot publish, they will pass it on to us for publication in our media. So we actually complement each other.

In the study of social movements, resistance groups are seen as groups striving to legitimize their demands. However, in the case of the resistance in
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Indonesia, the issue was more complex because, as stated earlier, their legitimacy was actually high while that of the authorities was low. As a result, we cannot solely depend on the legitimacy criterion. A more accurate measure may be the intensity of agitation likely to shake the public from its submission to the authorities and encourage them to join those movements calling for social change. The core strategy adopted by the social movement leaders was thus a combination of both elements: increasing their own legitimacy (to the detriment of the establishments) and cultivating unrest among the population. As stated by TASS:
Issues selected at that time were those that led towards subversive action, because we wanted to ignite the movements. As many people may already know, KdP wanted Suharto to step down immediately. Basically, one of the topics was always Suharto. So how did we select an item? Firstly, because it was subversive. There might be other issues, but we selected only those related to the ruling authorities.

In other words, eroding the legitimacy of the New Order and Suharto was done by publishing subversive news. KdP issue No. 012 (Year VIII, November 1997), for instance, featured articles criticizing the IMFs US$23 billion nancial aid package and the liquidation of banks. In essence, these said that instead of solving the problem, any efforts involving the IMF would further burden Indonesia with debts. Several other stories in the same issue focused on the corruption of Suharto, his family and cronies. Others suggested solutions to the problems by giving examples of resistance. In its issue No. 01 of January 1998,8 KdP focused on the opinion that Suharto was no longer accepted by the people. The main article of the edition was titled Majority Rejects Suharto, while the nut graph, or standrst, said:
President Suhartos proposal to listen to the voice of the people about his candidacy to the presidency has been answered. The people have spoken: reject Suharto!

The article reported that many groups were saying the same thing: Suharto should not be allowed to become once again the president of the Republic of Indonesia. This agitation strategy is commonly known as promulgation (Bowers et al., 1993: 20), which includes tactics used to increase popular support for a given thesis. Here, the media were saying that this argument had already won the support of major groups. It pointed out that since the presentation of the state budget by Suharto in a parliamentary session, many groups had made the same point: Suharto should not be re-elected. Those mentioned in the article ranged from youth social organizations of the Professional Society for Democracy to elderly groups of Sukarno supporters, in addition to a statement by 19 scientists belonging to the government research institute (LIPI) who could be considered as legitimizers.9 Two other stories one comparing the republic with the Titanic, and the other describing a plan of extensive evacuation from Indonesia (Get Ready to Leave Indonesia) completed the framing of Indonesia as a ship that was sinking because of its captains mistakes. In May 1998, KdP was published under a new title, Kabar Reformasi
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(Reform News). The title change was made to anticipate repression by the government. As was the case for other underground media, Kabar Reformasi adopted guerrilla tactics, being transferred from one activists house to another in order to avoid raids by state goons. The news reports aimed at a solidication strategy among those already supporting the movements. The content of Kabar Reformasi therefore incorporated reports of the movements and demonstrations conducted on campuses as well as by other social groups. Here the underground media were functioning similarly to the student publication Gerak, which focused on information that the mainstream mass media chose to ignore. Kabar Reformasi, which tried to appear daily, proclaimed bluntly that Suhartos last day was approaching. Using only KdP/Kabar Reformasi to disseminate subversive news stories was becoming insufcient. Consequently, having realized that the Internet was relatively free from censorship, PIJAR activists began using this medium in their attempts to undermine the Suharto regime (in June 1996). During the May 1998 political crisis, KdPNet10 presented economic and political news obtained from alternative publications and foreign media that criticized the New Order regime.11 KdPNets tough editorial stance made it one of the main international news references. Besides presenting news on politics, KdPNet also functioned as an open discussion forum on Indonesias political and economic situation. According to W. Scott Thompson, a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tuft University: This was the rst revolution using the Internet. Thompsons statement in the Boston Globe (Marcus, 1998) was based on an analysis of the May Revolution which resulted in Suhartos downfall. KdP, both in its print and Internet versions, was without doubt a political pamphlet. Its rhetorical strategy was confrontational, its objective being to undermine the legitimacy of the government and the dominant social order (Stewart et al., 1994: 138). This strategy was in tune with the strategy of its parent organization, PIJAR, which adopted the following slogan: Ragu-ragu pulang saja! (If you have doubts, just go home!). PIJAR indeed launched a polarization process right from the start, demanding instant allegiance from the parties involved, who could either be part of the solution or part of the problem. KdP played this confrontational game to the hilt, and therefore did not appear to set much store by common journalistic standards. Things were different with Xpos. As its rst edition (No. 01/I, 39 January 1998) editorial indicated:
Following in the footsteps of our predecessors in the alternative press, who see the SIUPP [publishing licence] as a tool for limiting press freedom, Xposs editors are launching this product without asking for a permit from anyone. We believe in freedom, and that it is up to human beings to determine the limits of their own freedom. A freedom that does not encroach on other peoples freedom, a freedom that is the basis of mutual understanding, of a decent society, of the advancement of humankind.

Thus this publications main objective was to break the restrictions on press freedom, which presupposed that it would conform to universal journalistic
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TABLE 1 Signature Matrix in Several Issues of Xpos Package Core Frame Core Position Metaphors/ Visual Imagesa
The Unt
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Exemplars

Catchphrases

Depictions

Roots

Consequences Appeals to Principle

What has to be the main issue is that the regime in power can no longer overcome its own problems. This regime is corrupt, repressive, and incompetent. How on earth could the people trust those who are apparently confused themselves? (No. 15/I, 11 18 April 1998: 2)

Suharto and his regime should not be allowed another opportunity to lead the country.

Photographs showing state violence (No. 15/I, 1118 April 1998: 6); people hungry (No. 16/I, 18 24 April 1998: 1); demonstrations to reject Suharto (No. 19/I, 915 May 1998: C); confused Cabinet members (No. 14/I, 410 April 1998).

The story about how even in a period of economic crisis the Cendana palace cronies still tried to sabotage the IMF aid package (No. 16/I, 1824 April 1998: 4). Moral of the story: The Cendana regime is too corrupt and there is no hope that it can get any better.

IMF reform, Goro monopolizing (a news title No. 15/I, 11 18 April 1998); corruption, collusion, and nepotism (widely known with the acronym of KKN in Indonesia); violation of human rights.

Depicting Suharto, the regime and its cronies as fascist (No. 14/I, 410 April 1998); untouchable by law The Fall of the Palace Banks, No. 15/I, 1118 April 1998); greedy (Will Cendana take over all State companies?, No. 15/I, 11 18 April 1998).

The economic crisis and the nations failure were caused by the fact that Suharto is no longer trusted by the people because he is not worth trusting.

What was being offered outcome of the continuance of Suhartos leadership. The negative or positive impact regime was not emphasized. Great uncertainty for the future (see issue 21/I, 239 May 1998, published after Suharto stepped

It is high time to act in order nation from destruction. The nation has been suffering for too long and it can wait no

Regime

was the negative to save the

of the fall of the longer.

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down for instance the article Suharto has stepped down, Reform has not been completed).

Gamson and Modigliani (1989) distinguish between metaphors (usually in the form of cartoons) and visual images (usually in the form of photographs and pictures).

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principles. Xpos was intended as an impartial, mainstream media outlet, but one that was conned to the underground owing to unfair regulations. However, Xpos saw itself also as part of the explosion of social movements, as pointed out in the same editorial:
In this transition period, Xpos will not be content just to report from the sidelines, as though the Indonesian problems were no more than an object. We are here to be part of the efforts to free the people from ignorance, to give power back to the people in order to help democratize this country and to achieve a more just society. Thats why Xpos is here.

In the same edition, Xpos also provided frames that questioned the legitimacy of the Suharto administration. These frames eventually became Xposs template for reporting. As stated in the editorial, there was much more to Xpos than mere concern for press freedom. Table 1 is a summary of the issue frames offered by Xpos with respect to events and news in the run up to Suhartos downfall. The approach used in this study is the Signature Matrix, introduced by William Gamson, an expert of social movements in the United States.12 While the frames described here were not the only ones offered by the social movements for the May 1998 Revolution, they were widely used to promote the movements agenda. As summarized in the table, the ideal elements being proposed by the activists in Xpos could be called The Unt Regime, suggesting that the Suharto regime should be seen as no longer appropriate to lead the country. At that time, one of economic and nancial crisis in Southeast Asia, Suharto was quickly losing his core power base: the countrys economic development. Supported by metaphors of violence and peoples suffering, as well as charges that Suhartos cronies remained as corrupt as ever while the times were hard for everybody else, The Unt Regime package gradually gained resonance with the public at large. Without crediting the underground media as the main reason for the wide use of this package, it is clear that many issues were seen by the public as a sign that Suharto and his regime should relinquish power. In the end, no group could solely claim ownership of the issue frames and package, but it became apparent that social activists and the public at large were in agreement in their analysis of the countrys problems.

Conclusion: The Victory of the Resistance Ideology

The 1998 peoples revolution took place in a comparatively short time. A comparison of the mainstream media output with that of the underground media in May 1998, when the New Order was on its way out, clearly shows that similar news frames were used and in the end even similar content was provided. There are at least two alternative explanations for this merging of underground and mainstream media frames, especially in terms of the selection of issues and news ingredients. The rst explanation claims that the ght between two ideologies the establishments ideology vs the movements ideology was eventually won by the latter. In this approach, those in the mainstream media are considered as genuinely different from their underground counterparts in terms of their views
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on which political system was best for Indonesia. However, increasing resonance between the frames used by the alternative media and the public forced the mainstream media to abandon their initial frames. Support for such an approach comes from the fact that the alternative press was dominated by young journalists who had not had to learn submission as a necessary component of a successful career. Had they been socialized in the mainstream media path, they might not have been as rebellious in their thinking. The second approach is more interesting because it hinges on the fact that there are strong networks among students, movement activists and (mainstream) media practitioners. Thus, the second approach claims that, ideologically, there was no signicant difference between those working in the authorized press and those working underground. The cause of grievances was considered the same by both groups, but one group decided to take action about it, while the other did not. For various reasons, the mainstream media bowed to the demands of the New Order regime. Only when the regime almost fell, and repression of the press was gradually lifted, did both types of media become similar in terms of openness of their reports about the common cause of grievances. Such an explanation, of course, does not redeem the mainstream media workers from the accusation of being free riders (Turner and Killian, 1987). Any social movement always includes people who recognize the problem (such as the corruption of the Suharto regime) and even agree to the proposed solution (to overthrow Suharto and to establish democracy), but who are not prepared to change their career schedule and take risks in order to ght the problem until it becomes safe for them to do so.

Notes
1. To publish, print media businesses needed to have a so-called SIUPP (Surat Ijin Usaha Penerbitan Pers, Press Publication Business Licence), that was granted only to those selected by the government. 2. The issue was the purchase of a second-hand German ship, agreed to by Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie, but challenged by Finance Minister Marie Muhamad. 3. After some of its activists were jailed, the AJI decided to publish Independen as a fully clandestine paper. The title was changed into Suara Independen and was now published by the Indonesian Community for Alternative Press (Masyarakat Indonesia Pecinta Pers Alternatif, or MIPPA). This decision was made at an AJI congress in Yogyakarta, taking into consideration the fact that AJI is a legal institution while the Independen magazine is not. 4. Suara Independen was used by the activists to mobilize the masses while the movements provided Suara Independen with news items about their activities. 5. The Forum was established by some young journalists in Bandung, West Java, as a response to the repressive New Order press system, which forced every journalist to become a member of the only authorized journalists organization, the Association of Indonesian Journalists (Persatuan Wartawan Indonesia, or PWI). Such sentiments were shared by young journalists in Yogyakarta (who established Forum Diskusi Wartawan Yogyakarta; [FDWY] or Discussion Forum for Yogyakarta-based Journalists), in Jakarta and in Surabaya. 6. This organization was also one of the outcomes of the Sirnagalih gathering. AJI was chaired by Ahmad Tauk, a Tempo journalist. Santoso, a journalist of Forum Keadilan, was the general secretary. 7. TASS was later imprisoned for his piece titled Adnan Buyung Nasution: This Country is Messed up by Someone Named Suharto. He was charged with violation of Article 134 regarding contempt of the head of the state.
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8. The date of the copy indicates that this edition was intended to circulate in the period of 1023 February 1998. 9. Legitimizers are individuals who endorse, from within the establishment, some parts of the agitators ideology (Bowers et al., 1993: 22). The LIPI researchers being all government employees, can be viewed as representing the establishment. The report also quoted one of the 19, Hermawan Sulistyo, who said that it was time for state-employed scientists to realize that they were paid by the people, not by Suharto. 10. Our data about KdPNet are from A Brief of KdPNet: Guerilla in Cyberspace, an unpublished paper by PIJAR, as well as discussions with Andriyanto, editor in chief of KdPNet. 11. Through KdPNet, Internet users could access various articles on Indonesia written by Indonesian activists at home and abroad, as well as those written by foreign observers. A few examples include an analysis by Ben Anderson, the testimonial of Adam Schwarz in the US Congress, and Congressional Human Rights Report on Indonesia. KdPNet also stored various investigative reports by George Junus Aditjondro, who exposed Suhartos and Habibies wealth in other countries. 12. See Gamson and Lasch (1983) and Gamson and Modigliani (1989). A so-called Signature Matrix is an approach to identify and summarize frames used to detect issues. Any such frame is a package that can be further specied into core frame and core position. In order to detect such frames, we can analyse some condensing symbols which include framing devices (metaphors, exemplars, catchphrases, depictions and visual images) as well as reasoning devices (roots, consequences and appeals to principle).

References
Bowers, J.W., D.J. Ochs and R.J. Jensen (1993) The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control, 2nd edn. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. Cohen, S. and J. Young (eds) (1981) The Manufacture of News: Deviance, Social Problems and the Mass Media. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Entman, R.M. (1993) Framing: Toward Clarication of a Fractured Paradigm, Journal of Communication 43(4): 518. Gamson, W.A. (1992) Talking Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press. Gamson, W.A. and K.E. Lasch (1983) The Political Culture of Social Welfare Policy, pp. 397416 in S.E. Spiro and E. Yuchtman-Yaar (eds) Evaluating the Welfare State: Social and Political Perspectives. New York: Academic Press. Gamson, W.A. and A. Modigliani (1989) Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power: A Constructionist Approach, American Journal of Sociology 95: 137. Gaynor, J. (1997) After the Crackdown: An Interview with Goenawan Mohamad on Politics and Journalism in Indonesia, The Journal of the International Institute 4(2); available at: www.umich.edu/~iinet/journal/vol4no2/mohamad.html Gitlin, T. (1980) The Whole World is Watching. Berkeley: University of California Press. Hill, D.T. (1994) The Press in New Order Indonesia. Jakarta: Pustaka Sinar Harapan. Marcus, D.L. (1998) Indonesia Revolt was Net Driven, 23 May. Boston Globe. McCombs, M.E. and D.L. Shaw (1993) The Evolution of Agenda-Setting Research: Twenty-Five Years in the Marketplace of Ideas, Journal of Communication 43(2): 5867. Shoemaker, P.J. and S.D. Reese (1996) Mediating the Message: Theories of Inuences on Mass Media Content, 2nd edn. New York: Longman. Stewart, C.J., C.A. Smith and R.E. Denton, Jr (1994) Persuasion and Social Movements, 3rd edn. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. Turner, R.T. and L.M. Killian (1987) Collective Behavior, 3rd edn. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Victor Menayang is the chair of the Department of Communication, University of Indonesia. He graduated from the Department of Mass Communication, University of Indonesia. He obtained his masters degree in journalism and PhDs in communication at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include social campaigns, social mobilization and social movements.
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Bimo Nugroho nished his undergraduate education in the Department of Economics, University of Gadjah Mada. He is an alumnus of the Human Rights Studies Programme, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok. He worked as research coordinator at the Institute of Information Flow Study (Institut Studi Arus Informasi, ISAI) in Jakarta, and is currently working towards his masters degree in communication at the University of Indonesia. Dina Listiorini nished her undergraduate education in the Department of Communication at the University of Airlangga Surabaya. She currently works as a lecturer in the Communication Science department of the University of Atmajaya and is working towards her masters degree in communication at the University of Indonesia. Address University of Indonesia, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Communication, Kampus UI, Depok 16424, Indonesia. [email: victor@makara. cso.ui.ac.id]

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