Review of 'Journalism and Conflict in Indonesia: From reporting violence to promoting peace', Steve Sharp: Routledge Contemporary Southeast Asia Series

Abstract

This is a detailed, comprehensive, erudite book, examining how the reporting of violence can escalate that violence, and how journalists can alter their reporting practices in order to have the opposite effect and promote peace. ... There are fascinating insights into power and the political culture in Indonesia in the period examined - both how it was presented at times in a romanticised way as an extension of the village structure, and how this notion was abused to allow successive presidents discretion but not accountability. There was seemingly a normalisation of violence and criminality as state practices, through a presentation of the state as a guardian agent against constant threats from 'subversive forces'.