By Adinda
Nusantari[1]
Abstract
As a pluralistic country, Indonesia has a set of different customs
and character in every area. Multicultural
society is a society that has different ethnic groups
in culture, language,
values, customs and behavior patterns which is recognized as a positive way
to create tolerance
in a community (Alo
Liliweri, 2009).
As a result,
the ethnic community
is able to create their own local wisdom
in dealing with problems that occur in their everyday life. For example is how Balinesse manage to keep their forest through Balinese
tradition namely “Tenganan Pegrisingan”
using their local
knowledge. While the society
in Bunaken, Manado are using local wisdom to
run the spatial and
resource management of natural disasters. In
a more simple context, Keboromo
community manage their local wisdom to tackle
the corruption problem in this village (Prabandani 2011: 31).
Problems arise because Indonesia has different ethnic cultures
with different patterns
in each region.
Inter-ethnic interactions sometimes lead to conflict which threatens national
unity. For example, is the conflict
between the Sampit and Dayak some years ago. Or conflicts between organization
that does have different norms according to their specific characters. For example, conflict between the two
social organization called Pemuda
Pancasila (PP) and Buah Batu Corps (BBC) in
Bandung, 2013.
In these circumstances, multicultural communication needs to take
place. Inter-ethnic conflict which still
often plagued our
beloved country indicate that
diversity education is still far from
what is defined by Bung Karno in Pancasila. Pancasila placed plurality as the
basis of social life. However,
what happen nowadays shows that we
tend to reject the
existing plurality. Heterogeneity
that exist in this
country requires an interaction and tolerance
space. Existing diversity needs
to be communicated to form a
circle of understanding between two or more existing diversity (Suara Merdeka, June 21, 2008).
The role of
communication is to provide information as well as intelligent interpretation to the public, so they do not get caught up in the prejudice that ultimately
triggered the conflict itself. This is because, the media has a role in shaping
public opinion. Meanwhile, our society is not strong
enough to do self-filter toward mass media
content. So, they often rely blindly
on mass media logic which is often called as "secondhand reality".
If we look at the practice of multicultural communication in the media, we
still often find how
the media deepened the conflict, rather than encourage
a settlement. For example,
conflicts involving group Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), Shia, Koja Conflict
(2010), which indicates a problem in terms of accuracy
and balance in the
media.
This can happen because
the media itself is not a value-free medium. Media’s
orientation in shapping public opinion is determined
by at least 3 things
(Curran, 2000). First,
the media owners who
need to maintain audience
tastes in order to get many viewers.
Second, owners and
editorial staff who
want to gain public
legitimacy in order to avoid the social punishment. Third, the media strongly
influenced the professional personality
of its staffs.
On the other hand, the media is
very much lacking in elaborating
the strength of the community's local wisdom. Therefore, the mass media should
be encouraged to strengthen local
knowledge, using a multicultural
perspective in order to accommodate the existing cultural diversity. How to minimize the so-called "stereotype" and "prejudice" and strengthening local wisdom in the media frame.
This paper
aims to discuss some
of the questions that are
relevant to the role of
communication in a multicultural society,
which is why mass
communication (through the media)
should accommodate cultural diversity? How its association with culture
and local wisdom? And how multicultural
communication perspective can give a solution to generate ideas about ideal forms of multicultural communication in a mass media to
strenghten local wisdom.
Keywords:
multicultural communication, conflict, local wisdom.
Reference
Curran, J.
2000. `Rethinking Media and Democracy',
in J. Curran
and M. Gurevitch
(eds) Mass Media
and Society,
pp. 120—54. London: Arnold
Prabandani,
Hendra Wahanu. 2011. Pembangunan Hukum
Berbasis Kearifan Lokal. JDIH Edisi 01 / Tahun XVII / 2011
http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2013/05/07/058478487/Konflik-Antar-Ormas-di-Bandung-Kian-Memanas Selasa, 07 Mei 2013 | 09:00 WIB, diakses pada 15 Agustus
2014 pukul 14.00 WIB
Harian Suara
Merdeka. 2008. Gagalnya Komunikasi,
oleh Adinda Nusantari
[1]
Government officer in Coordinating Ministry For People’s Welfare; Alumnus of Communication
Department FISIPOL UGM 2011
