Online Journalism in Indonesia: the Use of Interactive Technology in Indonesian Online Newspapers

Online newspapers are often viewed as the answer to a long tradition of dissatisfaction regarding the limited one-way communication focus of the mass media. Nevertheless, these newspapers have been slow in recognising that the fundamental condition for effective web communication is interactivity. While the industry has been given some cause for optimism, online newspapers still offer only limited interactive options on their sites. This book provides a description of the use of this technology by six selected Indonesian online newspapers. A content analysis of these sites reveals that they do not optimally utilise the interactive elements at their disposal. There is therefore, a similarity in the nature of their news delivery to printed newspapers. Consequently, interactive technology has not transformed the limited one-way communication process of the traditional newspaper into an interactive communication process. For mass communication students and researchers, this book gives an idea for conducting further research on online newspapers and online journalism in particular, and on the internet in Indonesia in general.