* Corresponding author: taufik_fspkom@yahoo.com

Digital Media Literacy in Samin Indigeneous PeopleTurnomo Rahardjo1, Hapsari D. Sulistyani1, Taufik Suprihatini1

1Department of Communication, Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang, Indonesia,

Abstract. As an ethnic group, Samin community has values and rules that differ to the dominantIndonesian culture. Negative stereotypes that are embedded in the word of Samin has made thecommunity prefer to be called as Sedulurur Sikep. In Baturejo village, a village that has a large numberof Sedulur Sikep, the monograph data shows that 70.74 percent of the population does not attendjunior high school. The data indicates that many members of the population do not fully participatein formal education. On the other hand, the data also signifies that the community has in a wayexposed to an outside (formal) mode of education particularly at the level of elementary school. Thesimilar phenomenon also occurs in the terms of digital media. Some of the Sikep community haveconsumed mass media, even though the way they perceive mass media differ to that of the dominantculture. Thus, it is necessary to conduct a media literacy education to Sikep society icluding digitalmedia literacy. The media education have to be adapted to local thinking and understanding of themedia's contents. The result of media literacy observation indicates that, while still maintaining itscultural values, Sikep community does not become completely exclusive to digital media exposures.Communication activities that are using mobile phones can be found in their daily lives.They alsointeract with those who have different cultural backgrounds with them. The mobile phone has becomea relatively prominent gadget in the society. Therefore, the Sikep community is vulnerable to thevarious contents of messages offered by the media.

Keywords: media literacy, ethnic group, minority, digital literacy, socialization

1 Introduction

Indonesia has thousands of islands around 17,000islands. Because there are so many islands, Indonesia hasvarious ethnicity. But not all ethnic groups can be reachedwith the media. This is affected by the surroundingenvironment and geography. Indonesia has a diversegeographical environment there are still many areas inIndonesia that have not been achieved by technology andmedia. Because they keep their culture and nature.This paper focus on media literacy education in Sikep(Samin) ethnic group. The convergence of mediatechnologies enable the media users to instantly establishinteraction. However, most often the digital media usersare still lack of communication competencies.Consequently, in terms of digital media, people'scommunicating behaviors tend to be more reactive thanproactive. Many people do not have the ability to perceivemedia contents critically. Communication is not just howmessages are exchanged between one parties to another,but communication requires particular practical skills andethical sensitivity. In terms of digital media literacy, thereare two basic principles in communication that must beconsidered. First, communication is not simple. Thisprinciple signifies that everyone needs the ability to

communicate appropriately and effectively. Second,communication is influenced by ethics. Communicationinvolves ethical considerations in the dichotomy of good-bad, right-wrong, and responsible-irresponsible.Interaction is expected to be done honestly, respectingeach other's rights and being responsible for the actionstaken.

The media accessibility, especially internet-basedand mobile devices, has a direct impact on the users. Theimmediacy nature of new media has changed theperception of time and space. The new media penetratesall aspects in social life. The new media exposure hassurpass the geographic boundaries including urban andrural areas, the boundaries of different levels of education,and even stretching the age limit of the audiences[1].The effects of new media, especially the new media in theform of smart phones and mobile gadgets, change thepattern of social behaviors. New media contents alsoinfluence the mindset, orientation, attitude, and behaviorof media users. Therefore, in order to improve the qualityof media consumption, it is necessary to conduct thesocialization of media literacy and digital literacy. Thetwo terms refer to a process in generating the media userswho are able to use new media critically and consumevarious media contents consciously. Conceptually,

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© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Potter[1] mentions that there are more than twentydefinitions of media literacy. In general, it can be said thatthe definitions of media literacy that are put forward byindividuals or a group of media researcher indicate theimportance of media literacy. Media literacy encouragesthe emergence of critical thinking from the communitytowards the contents presented by the media. On the otherhands, media literacy also evokes the ability tocommunicate mindfully in all forms of media, be moreproactive than reactive in understanding media contents.

2 Methodology

The method used in this research is qualitative, wherethe data were collected using library data collectiontechniques and documentation studies. Baran[2] definesmedia literacy as an inherent skill within us or assomething given (taken for granted). However, like anyother skills, the skill of media literacy can be improved. Ifwe assess the importance of mass media in creatingcultures and defining our lives, then media literacy skillsshould continuously be enriched. Devito[3] defines medialiteracy as the ability to understand, analyze, and producemass communication messages (television, film, music,radio, billboards, advertising, public relations,newspapers and magazines, books, websites and blogs,newsgroups and chatrooms). Devito argues media literacyis a form of empowerment because it can help the mediausers to use the media wisely; the users will be able tounderstand, analyze, and evaluate media messagesproperly. Media literacy also enables the users to createpositive and empowering messages by using social mediamindfully.

Thus, media literacy is an instrument for educatinghow to use media including new media in society. Bothadults and children in every community are vulnerable tothe negative effect media messages. They need to beeducated on how to control their media consumptionbehaviors. Based on the considerations of media effects,the minority community including Sikep community isalso vulnerable to the negative effects of the media.Therefore, it is important to look at media consumption inthe area of Sikep community particularly on how thechildren use the new media gadgets. The result of theanalysis will provide the data for implementing thesocialization of digital media literacy in Sikep communityin particular Baturejo Village, Sukolilo District, PatiRegency.

Sikep community is a group of people who haveunique cultural characteristics that are still maintained andpracticed in their everyday life. Sikep has a specificperspective on how they live their lives. They have specialrules about marriage, work, and education. The rules andperspectives of Sikep community on education aredifferent to the perspective of the formal education. Thedifferences has made the participation of Baturejo’sresidents in formal education relatively low. Themonograph data shows that 70.74 percent of thepopulation does not go to junior high school. Theseconditions indicate that many people in the population donot attend to formal education. On the other hand, the data

also indicates a slight openness to the concept formaleducation. Even though they still interpret formaleducation in the context of their local educational values,some of the parents sent their children to formal education(in particular at the level elementary school). The similarphenomenon also occurs in the media context. Some ofthe Sikep community members has consumed mass mediaand internet-mediated communication. Based on thisphenomenon, it is necessary to conduct media educationto Sikep community which is already exposed by massand social media. The media education will, of course, beadapted to local interpretation and understanding of themass media.

3 Discussion

While still maintaining its cultural values, Sikepsociety is not completely secluded. They interact withthose who have different cultural backgrounds. Some ofthem use mobile phone in their daily lives. Therefore, ina way the Sikep community is also vulnerable to theexposure of various contents offered by the media. Thepresence of new internet-based media through the use ofsmart phones, tablets, and other internet-based gadgets,has evoked a serious impact on people's cognition andbehavior, including the Sikep community group members.In view of the excess effects that may arise from theinappropriate use of this new medium, it is necessary tounderstand the media penetration in Sikep community.

According to Potter[1], the activities of media literacyrelate to three main issues: the media, the meaning ofliteracy, and the purpose of media literacy. There aredifferent point of views in looking at the first issue (themedia). Some perspectives emphasize only on one media(for example television or computer), other views payattention to one of the media categories (for example printor broadcast), and other perspectives focus on all forms ofinformation-sharing activity. The different views ofinterpreting the media also emerge in the second issue (themeaning of literacy). Some thoughts understand medialiteracy in the context of skill enhancement. Otherperspectives emphasize on the efforts of buildingknowledge, and other standpoints place on integratingskills and knowledge development. In the third issue (thepurpose of media literacy), most authors point to this issueby saying that the purpose of media literacy is to improvethe lives of individuals. They usually assert the need forcontrolling the negative effects of media. A number ofauthors also argue the importance of media literacy to beincorporated in the educational curriculum, while otherssay that media literacy needs to be manifested in socialmovements.

Media literacy is a popular topic, not only amongacademics but also society in general, such as parents,teachers, social activists, and policymakers. Academicsdevelop various thoughts on media literacy. They assertthat media literacy should be treated as a public policyissue, a critical cultural issue, a set of pedagogical toolsfor primary school teachers, parental advice or a topic ofscientific study.

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This paper focuses on describing the way in whichchildren consume media including mobile phones orgadgets. In other words, the data in this study explainchildren’s media consumption behaviors. The situationanalysis of this study was conducted by observing themedia consumption behaviors of elementary schoolchildren. The findings indicate that the mediaconsumption of children ages 7 to 11 (at the area of Sikepcommunity) has shifted from watching television intoconsuming internet-based media. However, particularlyfor children who are a part of Samin community, eventhough some of them are already exposed by the newmedia, the community still use television as the mainsource of entertainment and information. Based on the in-depth interviews with Sikep parents, many of them do notperceive television as a harmful media. They do not awarethe negative effects of television on their children. Manyof them rely on television as the media that educate theirchildren about the situation outside the community. ManySikep children learn how to write and read fromtelevision. The irony is while many researchers argue thenegative effect of television, Sikep community usestelevision as the main source of information andentertainment. In terms of digital media, some children inSikep community use the digital media to get thereference about the lifestyle trend from the outside of thecommunity particullarly fashion. This study usinginterpersonal communication to evoke the awarenessabout the potential negative effect of television and digitalmedia. The interpersonal communications to the parentsin Sikep community create the awareness about thenegative effect of media. The interpersonalcommunication method of socialization is prominent inconnecting with Sikep community due to its uniquecultural characteristics.

This study also conducted in-depth interviews inschool environment (students, teachers). The interviewssignify that there is a tendency of excessive use of gadgetsby students including the students from Sikep community.The digital media literacy socialization, then, wasconducted for raising the awareness about the negativeeffect of media. Hopefully, the awareness will motivatethe students to consume the media selectively and use thegadgets wisely. The socialization was conducted in aschool that has students from the Sikep community. Themain target of the socialization was students and teachers.The important step of socialization was creatingmultimedia materials that covered: the basic rules of usingmedia gadgets, teaching material on media literacy, andthe restrictive guidance in consuming the media. Aftersocialization, focus group discussions were conducted forteachers and students. The result of focus groupdiscussions signified that both the teachers and thestudents aware about the ideal duration of daily gadgetusage, and also recognize the classification of mediacontent rating system. Because this is an early step ofdigital media literacy, the success indicator of this activityis the awareness of students and teachers in SDNBaturejo, Sukolilo Subdistrict, Pati Regency about thevarious risks (physically, mentally, and socially) ofexcessive use of media gadgets (mobile phones,smartphones, tablets). Furthermore, another success

indicator of digital media literacy socialization is the wayin which the teachers participate in controlling the use ofgadgets in order to reduce the potential negative risks ofexcessive use of gadgets. The teachers then become theagent of change by incorporating digital media literacydiscussions in their teaching materials.

4 Conclusion

The digital media literacy socialization in this study isstill in the early stages. Therefore, the main aim of thesocialization is evoking awareness about the risks ofexcessive use of gadgets. Interpersonal approaches wereused for evoking the awareness about the negative effectsof television and new media particularly for parents thatare a part of Sikep community. The adoption of newbehaviors takes a relatively long time. Therefore, in termsof adopting digital literacy behaviors, the socializationprogram still requires a series of activities that focus onthe positive attitude toward the proper use of mediagadgets and selecting the appropriate media contents. Thesocialization also emphases on how to enjoy, understand,and give appreciation to media content. Media literacydoes not lead to overly critical behaviors or theperspective that always look at media contents as negative(the damaging effects, cultural degradation). Learning toenjoy, understand, and appreciate media content is anindication of the media user’s competency incomprehending various forms of media content. The finalstep of the socialization is establishing digital literacyeducation as a social movement.

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3. J. A. Devito, Essentials of Human Communication,Sixth Edition, Boston, Pearson Education, Inc. (2008)

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