Formulating the Kompas Way: Content Analysis on the Jubilee’s Special Edition of the Most Influential Daily Newspaper in Indonesia

• In Event: Media, Politics, and Social Change in Contemporary Indonesia

Abstract

In June 28th, 2015, Kompas daily newspaper celebrated its 50th birthday, making it the oldest, the biggest and definitely one of the most influential newspapers that manage to survive different political regimes from the twilight of the authoritarian Old Order era (1965-1966), to the rise and fall of the authoritarian New Order era (1967-1998), and to the current democratic reformation era which has been started since 1998. Given the fact that Kompas has been among the very few number of newspapers that survived the authoritarian periods, question has been raised as to: what is the secret behind its survival? What are the sets of value this newspaper carries to endure the regime’s change? What can we learn from Kompas’ story about Indonesian media in general? In the very same day of its birthday, Kompas published a special edition that covers the reflection of its founder, Jakob Oetama, as well as its readers about the values, strengths and weaknesses of this newspaper, providing insider perspectives on Kompas’ values. This paper offers an analysis of the content of those reflections to answer the aforementioned questions and to provide a preliminary examination on “the Kompas’ way”.

Key words : Kompas, regime changes, authoritarian regime, value

Author

• Wijayanto Wijayanto, Leiden University Institute for Area Studies