Symbolic Power: Pierre Bourdieu’s Thoughts of Public Relations Studies in a Democratic System
Dr. Widodo Muktiyo
(Faculty Staff at the Department of Communication Studies,
Faculty of Social Science and Politics, Sebelas Maret University)
Abstract
One branch of communication studies which is currently developing very rapidly is public relations. Public relations presents in human’s organizational life and democratic system of which spectrum and perspective are getting more and more complex. However, there have not been many studies that relate public relations to the recent social theory review such as the Symbolic Power Theory from Pierre Bourdieu. The Symbolic Power Theory is closely related to the phenomenon of public relations in democratic system at individual, organizational, as well as general community level.
Symbolic power is related to language problems. According to Bourdieu, language is not merely a value-free means of communication between humans. Language is a device of authority, or in other words, language shows power. Some people even believe that language is the building blocks of reality. Language may play different roles in various interactions. In reality, Indonesian society seems to be having polarization in playing the role of communication, so that the disordered use of language can be clearly observed. Symbolic power is sustained by three types of capital: economic capital, cultural capital, and social capital. Each type has different dimension in the order of political and democratic system applied by the society.
As an illustration, professional public relations officers who play their role in various sectors are required to own symbolic power such as the mastery of acceptable symbolic language in forming an image of themselves as well as that of the institution they represent. Public relations officers who master all three capitals will build good reputation for his/her institution. The more capitals they master, the higher the reputation will be. Individuals and organizations which are present in society will play important role in forming reputation in line with the more egalitarian and more open democratic system.
The implementation of various regulations in organizations and political systems will create symbolic power of each member of society that has essential dimension, including in the legal order in the system of organizations and society.
- A. Introduction
For more than two decades, public relations studies have been developing very rapidly. Not only have the applied theories become more complex, but the practice of public relations in society has also developed and become more various. This is due to the developing socio-economic civilization level of the society and the increasingly sophisticated revolution of information technology that ultimately change people’s way of thinking and behavior. People’s tastes, expectations, desires, and even the position of good and bad, right and wrong, have been fallacious for the recent two decades and are no longer applicable. If they need to be applied in present life, we need to modify them at certain parts.
The changes in society, such as those in political, legal, and other social systems will ultimately change the style, modus operandi, dimension, and technology in the running organization. The so-called modern society is one consisting various types of organization, such as private, governmental, and semi-governmental organizations which can be either profit or non-profit oriented, at local, national, or international level. These organizations perform different functions of public relations, but they all have the same objective which is to create understanding and satisfaction of their stakeholders and to maintain the harmony in society.
Even though public relations studies are becoming broader and more profound, if it is fully understood, it has not included a lot of the recent social science theories. Therefore, it can be clearly seen that public relations as a discipline is moving away from its main subject: social science. If this continues to happen, public relations studies will increasingly become too technical and monotonous that it can threaten the existence of public relations as a branch study of social science. This case happened to economics which had ever been considered extinct because it was becoming more technical and abstract, not in line with the essence of social science.
Ann Haugland (1996) also considers that there is a superficial tendency towards the study of public relations which is too oriented to the relationship between organizations and publics. Moreover, when it is compressed, the most commonly performed study is a study which is client-oriented. Furthermore, Haughland said:
“So far, the majority of current research in public relations theory is concerned with defining the field and setting forth various models of the relationship between the organisation and its publics. Perhaps because the study of public relations is closely linked to its public relationsactice – in which, of course, the strategic interests of the organisation are of public relationsimary importance – most public relations research also places the organisation in the centre and focuses on the ways that the organisation can better communicate with and respond to the individuals and groups who are defined as its publics”. (Haugland, 1996).
This symptom is quite reasonable. However, the public relations researchers should not be satisfied. They can explore this study with broader contexts, such as introducing a political theory, especially in a democratic society or a social theory in their study so it will become more significant. Then Haugland stated:
“Very little work has attempted to place either public relations public relationsactice or research in a broader context. Although the important role of public relations in a democratic society is ritualistically invoked by public relationsactitioners, textbook authors, and researchers, I have found little evidence that public relations theorists have explored what that role might be or how it might change in various situations”. (Haugland. 1996).
The narrow scope of public relations study is also felt by Ihlen and his colleagues. They complained and questioned about the study of public relations lately:
“At that time, we felt rather unhappy with the development of theory within the field of public relations. Or to be more specific, we felt that the instrumental bias in public relations was too limiting. So long as public relations is a powerful source of infl uence in society, why are there so few attempts to study this social activity in its own right?” (Ihlen, et. al, 2009).
In addition to the field of the study, the rapid development of society gives an effect in the need of adjusting the application of public relations in conducting every day functions. This adjustment requires adequate guidance from the study of public relations theory to refer to the modern social theories. One of the popular contemporary social theories is the symbolic power theory which consists of three basic elements: cultural capital, social capital, and economic capital. Unfortunately, there have not been a lot of researches conducted to analyze what modern social theories are suitable to support public relations practice.
This paper discusses how much is public relations studies relevant with the modern social theory “symbolic power” developed by French scientist Pierre Bourdieu in the era of democratization in the order of life in the fast-moving society.
To discuss the issue, this article is divided into three sections. The first section discusses about the contribution of public relations as a profession in building a more civilized society. The second section discusses the figure of Pierre Bourdieu, and the last section is a review of Bourdieu’s thoughts on the phenomena of public relations in relation to the system of democracy.
- B. Public Relations as a Profession
Public relations is a relatively new study in social sciences. However, the activities which are currently known as public relations have actually been being performed since the Ancient Greek and Rome Periods, particularly in the activities related to propaganda. The practice of public relations began to develop in Britain during the World War I and II in association with propaganda activities to mobilize the mass to fight against Germany. Similarly, the countries involved in the wars were competing propaganda in addition to gunfire. At that time, the practice of public relations was dominated by the government. After World War II ended and the economic activities recovered, private companies started to perform public relations practice. In the past, public relations has not been used to provide space and right for every member of society to be able to participate in democratic system which is currently being built in the order of political system in Indonesia.
Public relations has various definitions so that even sometimes it creates vagueness and confusion. The development of the definition of public relations is also influenced by the development of public relations practice, mainly due to the development of information and transportation technology which enables the mobility of ideas and physical quickly and instantly.
British Institute of Public Relations (BIPR) stated that the main substance of public relations is to develop understanding between organization and general public. Furthermore, it is said that: “public relations as ‘the deliberate planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its publics.” (Olusegun, 2006). The understanding does not only include the organization’s understanding towards its public, but also include general public’s understanding towards the organization.
Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) stated: “Public relations is concerned with or devoted to creating mutual understanding among groups and institutions.” (Olusegun, 2006). This definition emphasizes that groups and institutions have important role in public relations process. Similarly, the concept of ”mutuality” of the definition above illustrates that people who work as public relations officer will become the link between organization and the public. Therefore, a public relation officer must be able to accommodate the two parties in order to create mutual benefit.
Another definition from Frank Jefkins is that: “Public relations consists of all forms of planned communication both inward and outward between an organisation and its publics for the purpose of achieving objectives concerning mutual understanding.” (Jefkins, 1992). Based on this expert’s definition, in addition to communication, mutual understanding is the most important point in public relations, especially two-way communication which occurs both inside the organization and between different organizations and various forms of public affairs.
Based on the definition above, public relations is the bridge between the organization and the public. Therefore, people involved in the practice of public relations are the representatives of the organizations in dealing with public affairs. Newsom and his colleagues clearly said:
The public relations practitioner serves as an intermediary between the organization that he or she represents and all of that organization’s publics. Consequently, the PR practitioner has responsibilities both to the institution and to its various publics. He or she distributes information that enables the institution’s publics to understand its policies. (Newsom, et. al, 2000).
Based on the explanation above, public relations officer has a complex domain. Therefore, Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) limits 14 activities which are related to the public relations (Newsom, et. al, 2000). The activities are: publication, communication, public affairs, issues management, government relations, financial public relations, community relations, industry relations, minority relations, advertising, press agency, promotion, media relations, and propaganda.
Nowadays, public relations studies and practices have developed as the impact of the development of information and communication technology and the blowing-out of globalization phenomenon. This condition encourages the public relations profession to be highly considered in every field of works and even in management conflict in organizations and society.
The word “profession” itself can be defined as “a vocation requiring knowledge of some department of learning or science”. There are five indicators showing that an occupation can be categorized as a profession. Those indicators are: 1) specialized educational preparation for entry into the field, 2) a body of theory-based knowledge, 3) codes of ethics and standards of performance, 4) autonomy in practice and acceptance of personal responsibility by practitioners, and 5) community recognition that the field offered a unique and essential service. (Bey-Ling Sha, 2011).
Now, the question is “Can public relations be categorized as a profession?” However, this question is still disputable. Some experts state that a worker can be considered as a professional when he masters certain knowledge related to his profession. The knowledge possessed must be obtained from a standardized education curriculum which is strictly controlled to expel or accept someone in the profession.
Based on the definition above public relations cannot be categorized as a profession. It is also because public relations has very large spectrums in conducting the job descriptions, from one place to another from the lowest position to the Manager of public relations. Certainly, its large spectrums make it difficult to determine the standards to be done by public relations professional. Even in another discussion, this is always mentioned that the practice of public relations is actually attached to every member in a society, with or without their awareness an individual plays PR functions himself. The obvious example of practicing public relations rules can be seen in the competition of politicians to win public sympathy.
Though everyone works in public relations field will have specific duties and responsibilities, they will have a basic skill: communication skill both oral and written skill. Cutlip states:
“public relations assignments and responsibilities vary from one organization to another, but writing is considered as the common task that is seen as important all through one’s career. Besides writing, ‘being good with people’ or being a ‘friendly person’ has also been associated with public relations” (Cutlip, 2000).
Therefore, the role of public relations can be played by everyone to represent themselves or the organization they are in. By applying public relations rules, everyone is strategically able to develop the assessment to create a credible, civilized and dignified democratic order.
C. The Figure of Pierre Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu was born in 1930 within a lower middle class family. His father was a peasant which then became a postal officer in Lasseube, south west of France. Bourdieu spent his childhood in Bearn, a small village and he was able to speak with this local dialect. Because of his academic achievements, he got a scholarship to continue his high school study in Lycee de Pau from 1941 to 1947.
In 1948-1951, again, he got a scholarship to study in a well-known school Lycée Louis-Le-Grand in Paris. This school gathered talented students to study philosophy and to prepare themselves before studying in elite universities in Paris. Soon after, Bourdieu successfully entered the École Normale Supérieur (ENS) from 1951 to 1955. ENS was the most prestigious teacher school which had created famous thinkers such Durkheim, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Foucault, and Derrida. In this school Bourdieu studied philosophy under the supervision of Alexandre Koyré, Louis Althusser, Gaston Bachelard, Georges Canguilhem, and Henri Gouhier. Jacques Derrida was his classmate and Louis Althusser was his teacher. Beside studying in ENS, Bourdieu was also studying in Literature Faculty in Paris at the same time.
After graduated from ENS, Bourdieu taught philosophy in a high school in Lycee Banville, Moulins (1954-1955). However his activities in teaching were stopped because he was sent to Algeria for civil military service where there were riots occurring. His experiences in Algeria were very important for his intellectual and career development. These experiences changed his direction from philosophy to social science, from anthropology to sociology. After 2 years serving in military, Bourdieu decided to stay and teach in Algeria University (1958-1960). At the same time, he conducted several field-researches. In this Algeria riots, Bourdieu trained himself as an anthropologist and sociologist while he was also learning Arabic and Berber language. Some of his books were written based on his research in Algeria. Some of them are the researches on Kabila peasant community which were then collected in his first book, Sosiologie de l’Algerie in 1958.
As well as other French intellects, Bourdieu rejected French colonial wars. He left Algeria and obtained a scholarship as a fellow in Institute for Advanced Study and in Pennsylvania University in the United States. In this university he met Erfing Goffman, a symbolic interactionist who developed the dramaturgy approach. Because of the similarity point of view with Bourdieu, Goffman encouraged him to stay and teach in Pennsylvania University. However, Bourdieu rejected his offer because he felt he could not develop critical sociology as what he had planed if he stayed in Pennsylvania. His return to France, Bourdieu introduced Goffman’s thoughts and managed the translation of his works to French.
Soon, Bourdieu was elected to be an assistant lecturer for Raymond Aron in Sorbonne University (1961-1962) and then he moved to teach in Lille University until 1964. In 1964 he became a study director in Ecoles des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris. Because of private reasons, he rejected to finish his doctoral government grant which was the main requirement to teach at university. Thus, Bourdieu was more comforted with his works as a researcher, trainers, journal writer than lecturing in class.
Firstly, Raymond Aron did help him in his research career. However, because of a massive student demonstration 1964, the relationship of them was loosened and even their point of views was going against each other. Together with Jean-Claude Passeron, Bourdieu wrote a book which criticized the class structure represented by the population of students in French university which was influencing the culture of students.
After Michael Foucault passed away in 1984, Bourdieu became the famous scholar who seemingly taken Foucault position. He spent the energy to develop study center, sociology journal and establish researcher networks. Later on, this research network institutionalized and legitimated Bourdie’s vision to develop sociological research. In 1993, because of his efforts in developing sociological research, he got a golden medal from Centre National de Recherche Scientifique/CNRS.
In 1970, Bourdieu changed his focus to cultural topics. In 1970s he conducted a sequence of researches on consumption, cultural tastes, life styles in French community. He also performed further study on his data obtained in Algeria and he tried to reformulate his theory and practice in Le Sens Pratique (1980).
At last, he achieved the French intellectual world’s peak even though he kept thinking that he was the outsider of French intellectual’s community. He felt like being grabbed from his root and thrown into an alien-but-admired world. Because of his local dialect, he felt isolated in front of his friends in ENS which were mostly coming from royal and bourgeoisie family. Smart-intellectual spoken was not his mother tongue. His footprints can be found in his full of paraphrase, diffident, and a desire not-to-be misunderstood. His experiences as a newcomer in French intellectual’s world encouraged him to conduct a sequence of critical research to higher school system in France.
Bourdie works were always critical and rebelling against social dominated mechanisms. He was always on the minorities and inferiors’ side. Only in his last time, Bourdie was involved in practical politics activities. Bourdie criticized the negative impact of socialist government in France and encouraged people to be back in leftish.
He boosted movements against neoliberalism intellectuals. He stated the reasons:
“Saya sendiri adalah korban moralisme bebas nilai, seakan yang ilmiah tidak boleh mempunyai implikasi politik. Lalu saya menahan diri untuk tidak terbawa kepada konsekuensi penelitian saya, dan ternyata keliru. Melalui pengalaman dank arena tekanan urgensi politik, saya didorong untuk campur tangan dalam ranah politik. Seakan-akan tanpa terlibat dalam politik orang bias berbicara tentang ranah social”. (Haryatmoko, 2003).
”I, myself, was the victim of free moralism, as if science is not allowed to have political implications. I hold myself not to be thrown to the consequence of my research. But I’m mistaken. Because of my experiences and the urgent of political pressure, I was pushed to get involved in political fields. As if without getting involved in politics, people can talk about social fields.” (Haryatmoko, 2003).
The context of intellectual debate in France at that time encouraged Bourdieu to process ”text” so that it becomes real actions. Bourdieu’s thoughts tried to connect to dichotomy of individual-society or doer-structure.
- C. Symbolic Power Overview towards Public Relations Phenomena
Power is a concept in social science study. This concept is usually associated with the material world and something concrete. For Bourdieu, symbolic power is “an unseen power that can only be done with the involvement of people who do not want to know that they are the target, or even that they run” (Aunulah, 2006, 19). Symbolic power smoothly works; even people who are involved do not realize that they are actually involved in this kind of power circle.
Symbolic power is related to language problems. In Bourdieu’s analysis, the language is not merely a means of communication among people which is free in value. Language is the tool of power, or in other words, language shows the power and there is even more extreme assumption that language is the reality former.
Symbolic power will be effectively done if it is supported by three kinds of capitals: economic capital, social capital, and cultural capital. Any parties/doers will continue to strive to accumulate capitals and to invest them to obtain maximum benefits. Thus, capitals are social energy for the doer; the more energy he gains, he will gain social legitimacy easier.
Each doer, either individual or organization, will definitely try to continue seeking and gaining capitals. This happens due to the limited available resources and because they will never be able to satisfy the urge of all parties. For example, companies producing goods and services which are similar or the same have to compete to get the limited market segments if they want to exist.
In this world, resources are not evenly distributed. People have to compete to gain what they want. A politician will compete to other politicians to gain the votes from the people. A Non Governmental Organization (NGO) will compete to other NGOs to raise public and private funds. A singer will compete to other singers to get the sympathy from the audiences. In brief, competition is the requirement to gain something expected. Thus, organizations, especially companies, will develop the strategies to surpass their competitors in order to get their market segments.
In order to maintain its existence, each party must continue to develop the capitals which can be in the form of economic capital, social capital, or cultural capital. Economic capital is the most tangible or concrete capital which can be exchanged. This capital can be in the form of money or other valuable material stuffs which can be used to influence other people as the owner of capital expects.
Different to economic capital, cultural capital is inherent in a person. This capital will be lost if the person died. Sometimes people do not understand that they have talent and are able to perform in particular activities. As the impact of their ability, they will gain recognition and in turn, their ability will bring benefits both materially and symbolically.
Public relations officers have been trained in certain period and have passed through specific curriculum so they have knowledge and expertise in their field. Knowledge and skill are called as cultural capital used by public relations officers to deliver the message and to get public’s feedback about the goods and services produced by their organizations/companies. In other words, any organization will depend on the cultural capital possessed by its public relations officers. Conversely, not all Public relations officers have sufficient cultural capital so that many organizations/companies are not able to deliver the message to customers/public and of course they cannot get the feedback from public as they expect.
The next capital type is social capital which is the network or connection held by certain party, in this case is the public relations officers. Bourdieu defines social capital as “the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition” (Wikipedia). The more connections they have, the more symbolic capitals they master so they will have reputation in their network. Reputation is an important step to create credibility both inside and outside their network. Furthermore, Bourdieu asserts that “the network of relationships is the product of investment strategies aimed at … Establishing that or reproducing social relationships are directly usable in the short or long term” (Dahlberg, 2010).
Building a social network requires time and effort. This is the task of public relations officers. They have to focus on creating the image and reputation, so the organization they represent can gain trust and thus it will be easier to build partnership with other organizations and communities.
The mechanism of social capital in public relation plays role in creating image and popularity. The more to be known by public, the more the social networks gained by the doers and the organization that they represent can be known more by public. Extensive social network will be more effective than advertisement.
Accumulation of social capital is a daily non-stop work for the public relations officers. Like the politicians, when they occupy political office, they immediately build strategies to expand their network to be re-elected in the next service period. Similarly, public relations officers are also demanded to expand network and connection to maintain the existence of organization/company that they represent. The image of organization is as if attached to Public relations officers. Currently, in the public’s perspective, the image of state institution cannot be raised by public relations officers, so there must be something wrong.
Cultural capital and social capital, as explained above, are closely associated with language. In other words, language can be used to obtain those two capitals and to gain power for the institution. In other words, power can be achieved by playing the symbol (language) without having to use violence or physical force. Furthermore, Bourdieu explains “symbols are the instruments par excellence of social integration: as instruments of knowledge and communication, they make it possible for there to be a consensus on the meaning of the social world, a consensus which contributes fundamentally to the reproduction of the social order” (Dahlberg, 2010).
Based on the quote above, language is a symbolic power which can construct the reality in accordance with the space and time specifically. Symbol is the knowledge instrument and communication which can be used to obtain consensus about the meaning of social world reality. This consensus can reproduce the expected social order.
The most obvious example on how symbol can be used to obtain consensus about expected social order is the event of the collapse of the twin tower, World Trade Center (WTC) in New York on September 11, 2011. WTC was the symbol of capitalist world located in the center of the USA. It was destructed by terrorists hijacking the planes. The twin towers were hit by planes. Thousands of people became the victims and Americans were in grief and rage. It never happened before in the history that USA was surprisingly attacked by enemies, except the event of Pearl Harbor in 1942 that dragged USA into Pacific War.
President George W. Bush with his administrative staffs immediately conducted public relations activities by intensively doing campaign against terrorism and war against Iraq. Bush decided to increase the defense budget for military operation; to persuade and to ask the support from American citizens to execute his goal. He used the language to ensure that US was under the threat of terrorism; Osama bin Laden was the culprit and Saddam Hussein was the devil behind that event. Solution offered by US was to fight against Iraq and to topple down the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Public relations done by Bush successfully created the consensus among American citizens, made public opinion, and constructed social reality that what US did was precise. As known, US sent thousands of troops and war machines into Iraq and successfully topple down the regime of Saddam Hussein. Whether the reality created by Bush was right or wrong, that was different matter. And in fact, after it turned over time, the reality was actually wrong.
The problem that arose was why American people trusted very much of what Bush proposed. There were several factors that shaped reality created by Bush. Firstly, it was social context. American people were being overwhelmed by emotion, sadness, and anger over the event of the collapse of the WTC. Secondly, the most prominent, was symbolic power possessed by Bush in which he mastered the economic capital, cultural capital and social capital.
If the content symbol presented Bush as ordinary citizens, it definitely would not succeed in forming consensus and social reality. Because the person who said was Bush as president of superpower nation, the impact would be different. Related to personal figure of Bush who was highly educated, son of a former president, and president; there was no reason not to believe him. This example illustrates that if public relations activities are not supported by the symbolic power, those activities will not be able to achieve the expected goals. Symbolic power of organization (in this case is the USA) was manifested in Bush as a public relations officers. In other words, personification becomes important in public relation activities. The image of organization will appear first on public relations officers.
Public relation officers become the main link between the organization and the public. Because of this important role, a public relation officer is required master symbolic language to obtain the symbolic power whic consists of three capitals: economic, cultural, and social. Without those capitals, it is impossible for public relation officers to do their job profesionally.
Nowadays, symbolic language has been growing very rapidly along with the development of sophisticated techonology. Therefore, public relations officers are required to master both literal and non-verbal language as well as information technology. The mastery of language and information technology will certainly have to be trained at university or public relations training. This mastery will enable someone to gain good reputation and social capital easily and quickly. This will appear when a person is using blog, Twitter, Facebook, or other media as means of delivering messages to audiences. In short time, he/she will be well known and will gain good reputation from the public. Moreover, he/she can create consesus and lead public’s opinion to execute an act. An example is the coins campaign for Prita Mulyasari published in media such as Facebook that can liberate Prita from criminal court.
- D. Conclusion
Nowadays, study and practice of public relations have been developing very rapidly. There are several factors that influence the development. The first factor is economic growth. Even though some countries are undergoing economic crisis, the economic situation generally increased compared to the condition 25 years ago. Economic development encourages organizational activities both profit and nonprofit, governmental and non-governmental. The second factor is the development of communication and information technology that brings new changes in the practice of public relations.
The development of public relations practice encourages other studies which are deeper and more technical, but rarely related to the basic of social theory in which public relations is a social phenomenon. One of the recently growing social theories that rarely become the concern of public relations reviewers is the theory developed by Pierre Bourdieu.
Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power is closely related to public relations study and practice. Symbolic power is related to language problems. In Bourdieu’s analysis, the language is not merely a value-free means of communication between humans. Language is a device of authority, or in other words, language shows power. Some people even believe that language is the building blocks of reality.
Symbolic power is sustained by the mastery of the three capitals: economic, cultural, and social capital. Economic capital is the most concrete capitals and it can be interchanged. Mastering capital economi can create power in general sense, but it may not necessarily have symbolic power. Cultural capital contains knowledge, the experience of one’s social structure in reality through a dialectic process of habits with the surrounding environment. Whereas, social capital is a networking/social connections owned by a principal.
Professional public relations officers or anyone who play role of public relations in the community is required to have a symbolic power that is the mastery of language symbols in forming their image and reputation as well as those of the organization they represent. The more capitals they master, the higher the reputation will be.
- E. Daftar Pustaka
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Media Globalization: Culture Imperialism Rotation in Indonesia
DR. Widodo Muktiyo
It is undeniable that globalization now is one loud word heard in the entire world in this 21st century. Even pro-contra phenomena also give color to the globalization trip. The change that is conducted entirely is felt collectively, and influence many people (cross all the countries) that influence the life style and our environment. World really change and globalization is a connected world unlimitedly; or it borrows the McLuhan’s term as global village (Fakih, 2006; McLuhan, 1994).
One of the interpretation towards globalization is said that globalization is” both a journey and destination: “both a journey and destination: it signifies abd historical process of becoming, as well as an economic and cultural result; that is arrival at the globalized state. Actually, globalization intrinsically has brought culture nuance and value that influence taste and society life style. Through the media that are more open minded and reachable, the society gets various information about that modern civilization from all over the world. While, we realize that not all citizen can evaluate yet where we are as a nation. That it is, for example, information flood and new culture that is brought by is often strange from life attitude and operative norm.
The Mass Media Roles
Before discussing about media globalization, we will try to review the mass media role that affirms the tendency of the global condition. As known, the mass media roles in social life, especially in modern society are undeniable, according to McQuail in his book Mass Communication Theories (2000: 66), there are six view perspectives about the media role. First, looking at mass media as a window on event and experience. Or media is being looked at as window that make possible public see what’s going on outside there. Or media is a study tool to detect various event.
Second, media is also often assumed as a mirror of event in society and the world, implying a faithful reflection. The mirror of various event exist in the society and in the world which reflects what it is. Therefore media managers often felt innocent if the media contents are full of violence, conflict, pornography and other various wickedness, because according to them that it really is, media is only as a fact reflection whether like or dislike. While actually, angle, direction and framing from contents that are assumed as reality mirror are decided by media professionalism, and public not thoroughly free to detect what they want.
Third, mass media as a filter or gatekeeper that selects all things to be given attention or not. Media always choose issues, information or other content form based on standard of the managers. Here, public are chosen by media about anything proper known and get attention.
Fourth, mass media is often also viewed as a guide, signpost or interpreter, which translate and show direction on various uncertainty, or a various alternative.
Fifth, mass media as forum to interpret a various information and ideas to public, so that it allow the happening of conception and feedback.
Sixth, mass media as an interlocutor, which is not only merely a place of the passing information, but also as a communication partner that allows the happening of communication interactive.
From here, it can be seen that the media role in social life is not merely a diversion tool, stress reducer or entertainment, but the contents and information that are presented, have a character significant in course of social. The mass media contents is brain consumption for the public, so that what is in mass media will influence subjective reality of social interaction member (Defleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1989; curran et. al, 1979).
The description about reality that is formed by this mass media contents will later provide response and public attitude towards various social objects. The wrong information from mass media will also show the wrong description towards that social object. Hence mass media is demanded to submit information accurately and completely. This information quality is ethical demand and mass media presentation moral.
Media Globalization: Culture Imperialism Practice
According to the great role of mass media in affecting the public idea, of course the mass media development in Indonesia in the future must be thought again. Even in facing the mass media globalization which are not avoidable again. The mass media globalization is a process according which is naturally happen, as the sunshine, as the rain or meteor falls.
Globalization makes a difference in countries in the space dimension, time and culture reduced. If, in 1970s to the last 20 century era, we cling with the American term, so in this 21 century the term replaced with globalization.
How big the influence of this globalization at least it can be seen with the tendency, for example the market and economy production in different country are being dependable to each other as a result from the international trading. The increasing of the problem, for example in environment area, multinational crisis, multinational crisis, regional inflation and others. And undeniable again that globalization influence most of all aspect that exist in society.
Actually globalization has happened since long time ago. When Hinduism, Buddha or Islam arrived in the archipelago, that process can be called as globalization. In case, that time, the limits that exclude the archipelago area and culture is open and finally mix with values that exist in those religions. However, in globalization context in the world of communication, globalization grows along with the technology development. In other word, the fast communication means growth makes globalization is also more faster (Briggs and Burke, 2006).
The same opinion is also revealed by Pawito (2010: 12) that as long as the decade 1980-an mass media experiences great transformation with new invention and completing at technology information-communication including the digital technique (in television, radio and printer machine), integration between computer and satellite then followed with internet use widely and also hand phone. The development in the mass media world obviously facilitate globalization processes like as that proposed.
By using Internet/ hand phone which has internet facilities, for example, access for information (almost about everything) and all entertainment from outside world is easy acquired. In the same time, other mass media service like television, radio, newspaper, magazine, domestic books, at least to many matters, are global culture product. Because of this tendency so it can be said that culture type in many aspects that develop in society, including Indonesia society, is the globalization penetration result that carried or facilitated by mass media.
Marshall Mcluhan in 1962 in his article the guttenberg galaxy: the making of typographic man that be the basic of the appearance of technological determination theory. The basic idea of this theory is that the change in various communication ways (most influenced by media mass) will also form human existence. Technology forms individual how to think, take a part in society. And the technology finally aim human to move from one technology century to technology century other. McLuhan confirm that we make device to communicate and device to communicate that we use that finally form or influence our life itself (Nurudin, 2007: 184-185). At least the description from Mcluhan also amplificates anything about the influence of that mass media.
In the other side, globalization gives profit in global interaction context that mean it allows every person endures the life in global domain village. However, it is important to remember that it is a period development within reason double-edged knife. Dedy N. hidayat remind that through the globalization it will appear a global consensus that makes products of west as a power project, domination, and local manipulation. All of this involve power projects that the historic trace span from third world conquest era (belongs Indonesia), imperialism distribution, and capitalism domination west, up to contemporary efforts toward homogenizes and global consensus achievement towards various idea and modernity product ethics west (Hidayat, 1992).
The one of the imperialism form is in a cultural context. By globalization there is a kind of tourism that makes us feel many things from different culture. Added by being inspired of the development of the communication technology so the appearance of a culture globalization development will not able to be avoided.
Return to the mass media context as principal channel from globalization process where in global context, it is controlled by giant companies based in America and England. There are at least five giant companies that dominate global media i.e. News Corp, Disney/CapCities, Time Warner, Viacom and TCI.. These companies has its branch companies so that genuinely rooted. News Corp, for example, has various newspaper companies, television station and broadcasting satellite system in all over the world including Star TV and Sky TV; and Time Warner’s is the owner of Turner Broadcasting which is the founder and the owner of CNN. This fact evokes a vast concern and also the hits culture imperialism (cultural imperialism), belong study hits culture imperialism as media imperialism (cultural imperialism media axis imperialism) (clearer, read, for example, tomlinsonm 2002: 223-226).
About this cultural imperialism, it is not just an issue. Before 21st century, it is very rare that Indonesian television showing many programs from other countries except AS. But, nowadays in the television, we can see many TV programs non-America. They are from Indian, Japan, Korean, China, Taiwan, Mexico, etc. The world more integrated based on market in capitalism market circle.
More countries compete for marketing its television. Indonesian television to be more colorful with involvement of TV programs from other country. They are TV serial from Japan and Korean, Telenovela from America and film from Indian. Is it negative or positive? Like a coin, everything has positive and negative side. In the positive side, we know about other culture and increase our knowledge, while in the negative side our local culture is more faded because of the influence of foreign culture. This is a practice of cultural imperialism added by this problem, it can be happen because we less appreciate our culture.
In the contexts of third world, it is very known that until now this inferiority still dominate so everything that come from West country always considered more beautiful, more interactive, more advance compare with everything from East country.
The involvement of internet and television which is act as bridge for almost countries in the Earth makes distributing culture more quick, the leak of one culture from countries that consider superior enter to countries that inferior unconsciously. In the television, many people in behind the screen, such as the employees of home production, producer, director, until the owner of television station usually only people who chase financial profit for themselves, so they showing many programs from countries that consider the superior, for interest more audience, it means that it will increase the rating, it means that the entering of advertisement is increase, without caring that this problem means that they did a real act for shatter nation culture itself slowly.
By looking all problems, Have we blame our young generation who may more appreciate if they called as MTV generation? Have we blame them who don’t know each local language, leather puppet, traditional dances, etc? Have we blame them who prefer spend their spare time to window shopping at the malls, eating in fast food restaurant which is franchise product from foreign country? Is it them actually the victims of the modal owner egoism, and older generation from them who try foreign culture by media?
Nowadays, globalization more feel than Americanization, because information and media trend are not monopolized by US. Now, all countries in the world can participation in marketing the information. Although in fact AS and other west countries still dominate the information trend. Globalization of media ownership that really show up showing practice the high culture imperialism (Morley, 2006; Straubhaar,et. al, 2009).
Indonesian culture can’t incontrovertible was contaminated global culture from America. As the result there are stresses because of smashing inter advance global culture, with local culture that representative of nationalism spirit or regionalism, but also the traditional impressed. That should be note is that the worry or refuse of globalization usually called Americanization; it is show up not only in advance country or third world country.
By showing the study of cultural imperialism in the same manner as said by Tomlinson (2002) was proper we must increase the alertness to cultural imperialism. Moreover main thesis from this study that is said that more power the penetration and hegemony culture of society advance country (west county) to advance society culture or third world so this problem is global capitalism success. It means globalization processes in fact it was strengthen hegemony capitalism circle, which in the next the fact carry economic systems neo-liberalism that pointed on subordination, exploitation, poverty and alienation in the society of advance world.
Alternative Solution
As expressed by Gramsci that is well known with the hegemony theory that said that to escape from foreign culture grip, the participation of the intellectuals who have to give the clear understanding for the society, especially the rising generation, not class traditional intellectuals who exactly legitimate the foreign cultures (Gramsci in Bocock, 2007: 39-40).
However it is not so easy to make competitor product to shifted import presentations from outside, so that more interesting the rising generation if they don’t have capital enough strong? According to my observation during the time, this organic intellectual class is slimmer, so that the load extradite to watch over the young generation from globalization negative influence are not wise.
At least the alternative way is needed to quickly socialize and realize the media literacy movement to take over the bad effect of media globalization. James Potter definite media literacy as : ”A perspective that we actively use when exploring ourselves to the media in order to interpret the meaning of the messages when we counter. We build our perspective from knowledge structure. To build our knowledge structures, we need tools and raw material. The tools are our skills. The raw material is information from the media and the real world. Active use means we are aware of the messages and are consciously with them” (Potter, 2001). It is important because it will push individual to actively transferred the message and confirm individual in face or access media.
The one of positive or negative effects from globalization is definite from our attitude in using media. Because of that, it needs media literacy, in order to we can see good side and bad side from media content so we flow in globalization current.
Bibliography
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Jalasutra.
Briggs, Asa dan Peter Burke. 2006. A Social History of the Media. Terj. A.
Rahman Zainuddin. Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia.
DeFleur, Melvin L. and Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach. 1989. Theories of Mass
Communication, fifth edition. New York: Longman.
Fakih, Mansour. 2006. Runtuhnya Teori Pembangunan dan Globalisasi. Cet. 4.
Yogyakarta: Insist Press dan Pustaka Pelajar.
Ferguson, Marjorie. 2002. “The Mythology About Globalization” dalam Denis
McQuail (ed.) McQuail’s Reader in Mass Communication Theory. London:
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Hidayat, Dedy N, “Globalisasi, Pascamodernisme dan Dunia Ketiga”, Kompas, 18 Desember 1992.
McQuail, Denis. 2000. Mass Communication Theories, Fourth edition. London: Sage
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McLuhan, Marshall. 1994. Understanding Media: The Extension of Man. London: The MIT Press.
Morley, David. 2006. “Globalisation and Cultural Imperialism Reconsidered: Old Question in New Guide” dalam James Curran and David Morley (ed.). Media and Cultural Theory. New York: Routledge.
Nurudin. 2007. Pengantar Komunikasi Massa. Jakarta: RajaGrafindo Persada.
Pawito. 2010. Media Massa, Globalisasi dan Identitas Nasional. Pidato Pengukuhan
Guru Besar disampaikan di Surakarta 7 Januari 2010. Surakarta: Universitas
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Potter, James W. 2001. Media Literacy. New Delhi: Sage Publication.
Straubhaar, Joseph D; Robert LaRose and Lucinda Davenport. 2009. Media Now:
Understanting Media, Culture and Technology. Belmont: Wadsworth.
Tomlinson, John. 2002. “The Discourse of Cultural Imperialism” dalam Denis
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Sage Publication.
Tue, May 10 2011 » Penelitian » No Comments
Etika Religius dalam Komunikasi
DR. Widodo Muktiyo
Abstrak
Artikel ini membahas berbagai persoalan etika secara umum dan upaya menarik pemahaman etika dalam bingkai Islam. Etika sebagai bagian dari filsafat moral yang berada dalam realitas kehidupan manusia tidak dapat dilepaskan dari nilai-nilai religius. Agama itu sendiri (Islam) merupakan petunjuk bagi manusia (huda li nas) untuk mengatur dirinya beserta alam seisinya agar terjadi interaksi yang saling menguntungkan dalam kerangka beribadah kepada sang Khalik, maka etika dalam bingkai religius ini diharapkan mampu memberikan pemahaman yang lebih menyeluruh dengan perspektif dan orientasi yang lebih luas (dunia dan akhirat).
Peradaban modern yang dipenuhi dengan berbagai lompatan teknologi informasi dan komunikasi tidak serta merta menjadikan berbagai bentuk komunikasi mengalami perubahan nilai yang seiring atau selalu bersandarkan pada orientasi etika yang berdimensi Ilahiah. Yang kerapkali terjadi justru bahwa perkembangan peradaban manusia yang makin maju diikuti dengan kemerosotan moral dan perilaku komunikasi yang serba manipulatif sehingga pegangan etika sulit diterapkan.
Pemahaman etika religius seseorang dengan ditopang keyakinan dan keimanan kepada agamanya diharapkan dapat menjadi solusi yang mendesak dilakukan agar komunikasi sebagai sarana penting dalam kehidupan senantiasa berjalan sesuai dengan koridor menuju ke arah kaffah yang senantiasa diridhoi Alloh SWT.
Keyword: etika, etika religius, komunikasi
Etika ditinjau dari etimologi atau asal kata berasal dari bahasa Latin (ethicus) dan bahasa Yunani (ethicos) yang berarti kebiasaan. Etika dikatakan baik apabila sesuai dengan kebiasaan masyarakatnya. Namun dalam perkembangannya etika dipandang sebagai ilmu yang membicarakan perbuatan atau tingkah laku manusia. Pada situasi tertentu ia dapat dinilai baik dan juga dapat dinilai tidak baik. Namun demikian etika berkembang menjadi ilmu normatif yang berisi ketentuan-ketentuan (norma-norma) dan nilai-nilai yang dapat digunakan dalam kehidupan sehari-hari (Wursanto, 1987).
Sementara itu, K. Bertens dalam bukunya Etika (1994), mengungkapkan bahwa etika merupakan niat, apakah perbuatan itu boleh dilakukan atau tidak sesuai pertimbangan niat baik atau sebagai akibatnya. Etika bersifat absolut, artinya tidak dapat ditawar-tawar lagi, kalau perbuatan baik mendapat pujian dan yang salah harus mendapat sanksi. Etika juga berdimensi nurani (bathiniah), bagaimana harus bersikap etis dan baik yang sesungguhnya timbul dari kesadaran dirinya (Bertens, 1994).
Pada tataran yang lebih tinggi, etika dipandang sebagai cabang filsafat moral atau filsafat susila (Aristoteles, 384 – 322 SM) sehingga ia melakukan penyelidikan filosofis mengenai kewajiban-kewajiban manusia, baik dalam hal yang baik ataupun yang buruk. Lebih jauh lagi etika bukan bicara manusianya tetapi membahas bagaimana manusia seharusnya bertingkah laku secara benar. Hal ini senada dengan apa yang diungkapkan oleh Franz von Magnis (nama asli sebelum berubah menjadi Franz Magnis-Suseno saat menjadi warga negara Indonesia) dalam bukunya Etika Umum bahwa etika adalah filsafat moral, filsafat praxis tentang manusia (von Magnis, 1975).
Hal ini senada dengan apa yang diungkapkan oleh Rafik Issa Beekun, bahwa etika dapat didefinisikan sebagai seperangkat prinsip moral yang membedakan yang baik dari yang buruk. Etika adalah bidang ilmu yang bersifat normatif karena ia berperan menentukan apa yang harus dilakukan atau tidak boleh dilakukan oleh seorang individu. Demikian halnya diungkapkan Hamzah Ya’qub dalam Etika Islam (1978), dimana ia kembali menegaskan bahwa etika merupakan salah satu cabang filsafat, maka pengertian etika menurut filsafat adalah ilmu yang menyelidiki mana yang baik dan mana yang buruk dengan memperhatikan amal perbuatan manusia sejauh yang dapat memperhatikan amal perbuatan manusia sejauh yang dapat diketahui oleh akal pikiran (Ya’qub, 1978: 12; Beekun, 2004: 3). Kemudian istilah “etika” itu sendiri sering digunakan dalam tiga perbedaan yang saling terkait, yang berarti; merupakan pola umum atau jalan hidup, seperangkat aturan atau “kode moral” dan penyelidikan tentang jalan hidup dan aturan-aturan perilaku. Atau merupakan penyelidikan filosofis tentang hakekat dan dasar-dasar moral (Abelson, 1972: 82; Taylor, 1975: 1).
Sementara itu, usaha manusia untuk mencapai kesempurnaan hidup dengan berbagai tanggung jawabnya, mendorong dirinya untuk menggunakan kemampuan akalnya. Perbuatan manusia itu tidak pernah terlepas dari sifat baik, buruk, harus dilakukan, harus ditinggalkan, atau boleh dilakukan dan boleh ditinggalkan, kesemuanya itu erat kaitannya dengan masalah etika. Maka oleh karena itu, tidak mengherankan jika hampir semua ahli pikir (filosof) pernah menulis masalah etika (Suseno, 1997: 5).
Kaitan dengan Kelahiran Islam
Islam yang lahir pada abad ketujuh di Arabia, tak diragukan lagi merupakan salah satu dari reformasi agama yang paling radikal yang pernah muncul di Timur. Qur’an sebagai tulisan autentik yang paling awal dari peristiwa besar ini, menjelaskan istilah-istilah konkret dengan gamblang bagaimana dalam periode penting tersebut terjadi konflik yang banyak menumpahkan darah antara norma-norma suku yang saat itu dihormati. Pandangan baru tersebut berjalan terhuyung-huyung dan setelah usaha pertahanan yang sia-sia dan melelahkan, akhirnya menghasilkan hegemoni kekuatan yang baru. Arabia dari masa penyembahan berhala pra-Islam sampai permulaan munculnya Islam, adalah masa yang sangat penting bagi siapa saja yang berkepentingan dengan masalah-masalah pemikiran etik, karena masa itu memberikan materi khusus yang bagus sekali untuk mempelajari lahir dan tumbuhnya peraturan moral (Syukur, 2004: 183-184).
Tentu kita masih ingat bahwa zaman itu dikenal dengan zaman jahiliyah yakni periode pagan sebelum datangnya Islam, adat istiadat dan pandangan aneh yang berkaitan dengan kepercayaan musyrik merajalela di kalangan orang Arab nomadik. Adat istiadat dan kepercayaan tersebut ditolak oleh Islam karena bertentangan dengan wahyu. Adat istiadat yang mampu bertahan hidup di tengah-tengah munculnya Islam mengalami perubahan bentuk dan substansi sehingga berhasil mewujudkan gagasan-gagasan moral yang digabungkan dengan peraturan etika yang baru (Izutsu, 1993: 19).
Sebelum berbincang lebih lanjut, sebagaimana diketahui etika sebagai filasafat moral nampaknya tidak secara gampang ditarik dalam wilayah agama (religius). Universalitas tatanan nilai ketika dihadapkan pada doktrin agama kerap kali menjadi persoalan tersendiri. Dua hal yang relatif mengalami perbedaan tersebut tatkala nilai-nilai kebaikan itu senantiasa diorientasikan pada nilai-nilai tentang kesempurnaan hidup yang berdimensi dunia dan akhirat.
Kemudian dalam konteks alam religius inilah yang menjadi perhatian tersendiri. Ia berada dalam wilayah ’tetap’ dari kitab sucinya. Sehingga kita akan diajak memaknai berbagai tatanan nilai yang jauh lebih dalam dan sempurna sehingga nalar saja tidak akan cukup dalam menangkap fenomena etis dalam khasanah agama. Di Islam dalam mengambil nilai-nilai religius dikenal adanya pendekatan atau cara pandang bayani, burhani ataupun irfani. Bayani lebih mendasarkan diri pada nash-nash yang saling menjelaskan. Teks-teks resmi Al Qur’an dan Ash Sunnah menjadi landasan dalam melakukan pemahaman terhadap sebuah nilai ataupun aturan yang hendak dikonstruksi dalam alam nyata. Sementara itu cara pandang burhani lebih menekankan pada adanya bukti-bukti yang bisa diformulasikan dalam sebuah dalil ilmiah. Nilai-nilai Islam secara empiris dapat diuji dan dibuktikan sehingga lebih mudah dipahami dalam kehidupan yang nyata. Sedangkan cara pandang irfani lebih menekankan adanya unsur nurani, dimana sebuah nilai Islam dapat dimasukkan dalam qalbu dan dicerna secara emosi dan mengedepankan pertimbangan perasaan. Sehingga baik dan buruk dapat direfleksikan dalam tataran kehidupan yang lebih humanis.
Ketiga sumber penafsiran terhadap sebuah nilai religius (Islam) menjadi lahan yang senantiasa lahir dan terus berkembang dalam pergulatan alam sadar manusia. Meskipun secara jelas nilai Islam sudah diyakini sebagai ”kesempurnaan pedoman dalam kehidupan bagi pemeluknya namun dalam mengimplementasikan pada ranah empiris mengalami dinamika yang tinggi.
Etika Religius dalam Komunikasi
Berbicara mengenai etika dalam islam tidak dapat lepas dari ilmu akhlak sebagai salah satu cabang ilmu pengetahuan agama Islam. Oleh karena itu, etika dalam Islam (bisa dikatakan) identik dengan ilmu akhlak, yakni ilmu tentang keutamaan-keutamaan dan bagaimana cara mendapatkannya agar manusia berhias dengannya dan ilmu tentang hal-hal yang hina dan bagaimana cara menjauhinya agar manusia terbebas daripadanya (Fakhry, 1996; Syukur, 2004: 3). Salah satu tokoh kunci dalam etika religius adalah Abu al-Hasan al-Mawardi dengan karya besarnya, dalam bidang etika Adab al-Dunya wa al-Din. Ia hidup di abad klasik (974-1058) satu zaman dengan al-Ragib al-Isfahani. Buku al-Mawardi tersebut paling tidak mengandung tiga isu pokok: moralitas duniawi, moralitas ukhrawi dan moralitas individual. Al-Mawardi dalam karyanya berusaha menganalisis ketiga isu pokok yang berlandskan Qur’an dan hadis dengan memberikan keistimewaan akal untuk mengikat ketiga isu pokok tersebut. Misalnya mengenai permasalahan “Truth and Falsehood”, al-Mawardi berusaha mengekspresikan idenya bahwa akal selalu menuntut kejujuran. Menjelang abad klasik al-Mawardi telah merintis untuk mendemonstrasikan sifat yang sebenarnya tentang pentingnya akal. Dimana ia telah memperbincangkan tentang kesadaran akal praktis (reasoned on practical considerations) (Donaldson, 1953: 85; Syukur, 2004: 8-9). Etika religius sendiri masuk dalam salah satu ranah dari tipologi etika Islam. Selain etika religius, yakni ada etika teologis, moralitas skriptural dan etika filosofis (Fakhry, 1996). Perbedaan mencolok yang dimiliki oleh etika religius terutama berakar dalam Qur’an dan Sunnah, dimana di satu sisi cenderung melepaskan kepelikan “dialetika” atau “metodologi” dan memusatkan pada usaha untuk mengeluarkan spirit moralitas Islam dengan cara yang lebih langsung (Syukur, 2004: 196).
Spirit yang diusung oleh etika religius ini menjadi sangat penting bagi ranah komunikasi. Sebagaimana kita ketahui, komunikasi merupakan kegiatan yang sangat mendasar dan vital sehingga tidak dapat dipisahkan bagi kehidupan manusia. Sejak bangun tidur sampai tidur lagi secara kodrati senantiasa terlibat dalam komunikasi. Dengan kata lain, dapat dikatakan bahwa komunikasi berhubungan dengan seluruh kehidupan manusia, dan setiap studi terhadap aktivitas manusia harus menyentuhnya (Wright, 1989; Effendy, 2000: 3, Chalil, 2005: v; Littlejohn dan Foss, 2005: 2).
Komunikasi mempunyai peran yang sangat penting dalam kehidupan manusia. Dimanapun manusia berada, komunikasi senantiasa dilakukan untuk memenuhi kebutuhannya sebagai makhluk sosial yang selalu hidup berkelompok dan berhubungan dengan manusia lainnya. Setiap pesan yang berwujud lambang-lambang diformulasikan manusia agar maksud dan tujuan yang ingin dicapai dan disampaikan dapat dimengerti oleh sesamanya. Komunikasi menumbuhkan persahabatan, saling pengertian sekaligus bisa menyebarkan perpecahan dan menghambat informasi (Wright, 1989).
Apalagi komunikasi memegang peranan penting dalam ranah kehidupan sehari-hari, dimana fungsi yang melekat padanya begitu penting yakni menginformasikan (to inform), mendidik (to educate), menghibur (to entertain) dan mempengaruhi (to influence). Apabila ditilik dari ranah Islam, jika kita mau melongok sejarah Islam, ternyata 14 abad silam, baginda Rasullulah SAW sudah memberikan contoh yang sangat nyata tentang pentingnya komunikasi dalam mendakwahkan Islam. Rasullulah pernah bersabda, “Berbicaralah kepada mereka sesuai kadar akalnya” (Effendy, 1993: 55; Chalil, 2005: 5). Sehingga dapat dipastikan jika komunikasi tidak didasarkan atas prinsip-prinsip luhur etika religius tentu akan menimbukan suatu implikasi yang buruk akhirnya.
Sebagaimana diterangkan dalam Qur’an bahwa manusia menurut kejadian asalnya (fitrah-nya) adalah makhluk mulia, tetapi karena berbagai hal yang muncul akibat kelemahannya sendiri, maka manusia akan menjadi makhluk yang paling hina. Bersama itu pula ia kehilangan fitrah dan kebahagiaannya. Manusia akan selamat itu, jika ia mempunyai “semangat ketuhanan” (rabbaniyyah atau ribbiyyah) dan berbuat baik kepada sesamanya (Madjid, 1992: 104).
Oleh karena itu, komunikasi harus ditempatkan pada koridor yang benar apabila manusia tidak ingin kehilangan fitrahnya. Nurcholish Madjid pernah menegaskan bahwa dalam kenyataan historis, perjuangan memperoleh dan mempertahankan harkat dan martabat kemanusiaan merupakan ciri dominan deretan pengalaman hidup manusia sebagai makhluk sosial. Sebab dalam kenyataan, manusia lebih banyak mengalami kehilangan fitrah dan kebahagiaan daripada sebaliknya, karena mereka meninggalkan sesuatu yang sangat urgen yakni unsur emansipasi. Melalui perilaku yang emansipatoris, berarti menghargai keberadaan orang lain, karena orang lain memiliki kelebihan dari dirinya sendiri (Madjid, 1992: 93).
Hal ini senada dengan konsep etika filosofis yang telah dikembangkan sarjana Barat mazhab Frankfurt Jurgen Habermas dengan “Etika Komunikatif”, yang menekankan unsur emansipatoris dengan pendekatan strukturalis melalui cara yang bersifat dialogis. Habermas, dengan pendekatan itu, ingin mempertahankan karakter kognitif norma-norma moral dengan pijakan yang dibangun oleh Kant, dengan demikian ia disebut neo-Kantian (Clement, 1989: 159).
Pada sisi lain, pendekatan itu berarti Habermas ingin mengembalikan nilai-nilai kemanusiaan kehidupan modern tidak sekedar menilai baik dan dikehendaki lepas dari pertanggungjawaban normatif, akan tetapi diperlukan struktur-struktur rasional kehidupan bermasyarakat dimana perlu ditemukan syarat-syarat transendental sebagaimana dikehendaki Kant. Pemahaman seperti inilah kiranya dapat menepis anggapan bagi kebanyakan masyarakat Muslim, bahwa wacana transendental bukan saja hal-hal yang berhubungan dengan ketuhanan belaka, akan tetapi di dalam berbagai dinamika yang terjadi di dalam struktur masyarakat sarat dengan nuansa transendentalis.
Hal ini sejalan dengan salah satu prinsip etika komunikasi dalam piagam Madinah yakni prinsip ummah. Dimana merujuk pada pola komunikasi yang saling menghargai dan menghormati (Mahfud, 2008: 10). Ditambah domain komunikasi Islam yakni dakwah, tabligh, amar ma’ruf nahi munkar, akhlak/adab Tujuannya adalah perubahan sikap, pendapat, perilaku sosial guna terbentuknya khairu ummah (Taufik, 2007).
Dalam realitasnya memang perspektif sosial ini erat kaitannya dengan agama. Keterkaitan yang dinamis antara agama dan sosial, menurut Meredith B. McGuire, seorang sosiolog, paling tidak ada dua alasan. Pertama, agama sangat penting bagi manusia. Praktek-praktek keagamaan merupakan bagian penting bagi kehidupan individual. Nilai-nilai keagamaan ternyata mempengaruhi tindakan manusia, dan makna keagamaan dapat membantu dalam menginterpretasikan berbagai pengalaman mereka. Kedua, agama merupakan objek paling penting dalam kajian sosiologis karena pengaruhnya terhadap perkembangan masyarakat, di samping adanya unsur yang kuat pengaruh dinamika masyarakat tersebut terhadap agama (McGuire, 2002: 1). Apa yang diungkapkan McGuire ini menguatkan bahwa sejatinya, agama tidak boleh dipisahkan dari konteks sosial yang melingkupinya atau dijauhkan dari perkembangan ilmu pengetahuan.
Dalam perkembangan lanjut, nilai-nilai etika religius ini dekat dengan komunikasi profetik karena nilai-nilai di dalam Qur’an dan Sunnah diderivasi melalui semangat kenabian sehingga dapat dikatakan memiliki irisan yang sama. Selain itu, karena komunikasi profetik bukan hanya persoalan dakwah, melainkan persoalan kemanusiaan secara luas. Dimana didalamnya terkandung komunikasi yang berorientasi pada humanisasi, liberasi dan transendensi. Tujuan humanisasi adalah memanusiakan manusia setelah mengalami dehumanisasi. Manusia dilihat secara parsial, sehingga hakikat kemanusiaan itu sendiri hilang. Sementara tujuan liberasi adalah membebaskan manusia dari struktur sosial yang tidak adil dan tidak memihak rakyat lemah. Sedangkan transendental bertujuan membersihkan diri dengan mengingatkan kembali dimensi transendental yang telah menjadi bagian dari fitrah kemanusiaan. Upaya humanisasi dan liberasi harus dilakukan sebagai manifestasi keimanan kepada Tuhan karena Tuhan memerintahkan manusia menata kehidupan sosial secara adil (Kuntowijoyo, 1991).
Sebagaimana diungkapkan Haryatmoko (2007: 44), bahwa etika komunikasi memiliki tiga dimensi yang terkait satu dengan yang lain, yaitu tujuan, sarana dan aksi komunikasi itu sendiri maka dapat dikatakan bahwa komunikasi profetik yang merupakan derivasi dari etika religius sudah memuat berbagai elemen tadi.
Dimana komunikasi profetik menginginkan praktik prinsip yang membebaskan manusia dari segala bentuk tekanan negara, pasar (iklan) dan apa pun yang dapat merendahkan martabat kemanusiaan, apalagi yang jauh dari nilai transenden. Hal ini bukan berarti komunikasi profetik anti dan berada dalam posisi bertentangan dengan negara, pasar, dan berbagai produk industri lainnya. Iklan, negara, dan pasar dapat saja menyajikan pesan melalui media dengan cara menampilkan pesan yang lebih memanusiakan manusia, memberikan pembebasan psikologis dan bila perlu memberikan pesan dengan muatan transenden. Dengan demikian, komunikasi profetik bukan menjadi ancaman bagi pelaku media, pasar, atau pun negara (Syahputra, 2007: 154).
Selama ini ada kecenderungan bahwa media telah berfungsi sebagai penyebar kabar bohong atau tepatnya distorsi makna budaya oleh kepentingan politik kepada publik. Karena itu, misi komunikasi profetik adalah membebaskan manusia sejauh mungkin dari praktik komunikasi yang menimbulkan syak wasangka, kebohongan publik, penyebaran fitnah, kebohongan dan dusta. Komunikasi profetik tidak menoleransi segala perilaku yang dinilai mempraktikkan kebohongan (Syahputra, 2007: 153). Karena memang tidak jarang harkat dan martabat kemanusiaan yang seharusnya menjadi kekuatan otonom yang mengisi public sphere, dirampas oleh pasar atau negara melalui kerja media.
Renungan Bagi umat Islam, etika yang dijadikan dasar adalah nilai-nilai moral yang terdapat dalam kitab suci Qur’an dan Sunnah Rasul. Sebenarnya kalau kita mau jujur, Qur’an sebagai wahyu Allah telah memberikan prinsip-prinsip dasar yang melandasi etika komunikasi, termasuk komunikasi massa. Dalam konteks komunikasi, maka etika yang berlaku harus sesuai dengan norma-norma yang berlaku. Berkomunikasi yang baik menurut norma agama, sudah tentu harus sesuai pula dengan norma agama yang dianut oleh masing-masing individu.
Pada dasarnya semua agama memiliki tujuan yang sama bila berbicara tentang etika. Karena tentu saja tidak ada satu agama pun yang mentolerir, baik itu perlakuan kasar, kata-kata kotor, tindakan yang asusila atau perbuatan apa saja yang membuat orang lain tidak nyaman. Pendek kata agama mengajarkan bagaimana manusia itu dapat meraih kehidupan yang tenang, tentram, dan damai dengan sesamanya. Sehingga jika dilihat dalam konteks komunikasi massa, maka berbohong merupakan sifat tercela, karena sangat berbahaya. Kebohongan dalam komunikasi massa akan menyesatkan masyarakat disebabkan telah menyerap informasi yang salah. Tentu komunikasi seperti ini menyalahi etika komunikasi dan ajaran Islam (Widowati, 2008).
Kemudian dalam berbagai kesempatan kita entah disadari atau tidak kerap mengagungkan komunikasi ala Barat dan malas untuk menggali dari Islam dimana sebenarnya Islam merupakan sumber rujukan yang komprehensif dalam berbagai aspek kehidupan termasuk komunikasi.
Ini menjadi penting karena harus kita ketahui bahwa komunikasi ala Barat dibangun dengan kerangka empirikal, mengabaikan aspek normatif dan historikal yang menghasilkan premature universalism dan naive empirism. Sementara komunikasi Islam dibangun melalui Islamic world-view, menjunjung tinggi nilai-nilai kemanusiaan berdasarkan kaedah komunikasi dalam Qur’an dan Hadist. Dengan demikian akan lahir Islamic Triangular Relationship, yakni hubungan segitiga antara “Allah, manusia dan masyarakat”. Tujuannya adalah untuk mewujudkan persamaan makna secara universal, menuju perubahan masyarakat muslim, demi kebahagiaan hidup dunia dan akhirat (Rafiq, 2003: 149).
Kedepan tantangan komunikasi Islam para era ini adalah mewujudkan komunikasi yang berbasis moral dan etika untuk kesejahteraan umat manusia, dan bukan hanya menjadi sebagai komoditi kekuasaan an sich. Kita ambil contoh, sebagaimana diungkapkan oleh Ari Hidayat, dimana ia mengatakan bahwa salah satu persoalan besar umat Islam di era informasi ini adalah kurang memadainya media massa untuk menegakkan dan memperjuangkan nilai-nilai Islam. Suatu media massa yang membela kepentingan agama dan kaum Muslim kurang dimiliki oleh umat Islam. Akibatnya, tidak hanya aspirasi umat yang kurang tersalurkan, tapi umat Islam pun lebih sering menjadi “permainan” konsumen media lain. Walhasil, akses dan kekuatan informasi dunia Islam dalam pembentukan opini publik dunia sangat kecil kontribusinya (Hidayat, 2010).
Sebagai penutup, Awadh Bin Muhammad Al-Qarni pernah mengungkapkan bahwa orang yang berakal—dengan akal yang dianugerahkan Allah kepadanya dan dengan fitrah dititipkan kepadanya—ia mengetahui bahwa alam raya yang dibangun dengan sangat teratur dan manusia yang diciptakan dengan bentuk paling sempurna ini pasti dibaliknya terkandung tujuan yang agung dan tinggi. Dimana tujuan besar, agung dan paling tinggi yang harus dicari oleh manusia dalam hidupnya adalah berusaha mencari ridha Allah, Tuhan yang menguasai alam semesta, dengan cara-cara yang ditentukan oleh-Nya (Al-Qarni, 2004: 26-27). Demikian pula halnya tatkala kita berkomunikasi. Sehingga tidak dapat dipungkiri bahwa etika religius dalam komunikasi, dengan demikian bertugas merefleksikan bagaimana manusia harus hidup agar ia berhasil sebagai manusia benar-benar mampu mengemban tugas khalifah fi al-ardi.
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Tue, May 10 2011 » Penelitian » No Comments
Televisi dan Politisi Perempuan:
Studi Tentang Representasi, Penilaian Perempuan dan Gagasan Keterwakilan Perempuan di Parlemen pada Pemilu Legislatif 2009
Dalam Televisi
DR. Widodo Muktiyo
Keyword: television, representation, women politician, legislative election 2009.
Televisi merupakan salah satu media massa yang memiliki dan peranan begitu besar dalam konteks pemilu legislatif 2009 di Indonesia. Bahkan Burton (2007: 7) mengungkapkan bahwa televisi mampu membentuk cara pikir kita tentang dunia. Sebagai salah satu bentuk media massa televisi, apa yang ditampilkan televisi tentu mempertimbangkan apa yang disebut news value. Seperti unsur kedekatan (closeness), relevansi (relevance), keanehan atau negativitas (negativity), dan signifikasi kejadian (significance) dari peristiwa yang diberitakan, misalnya, biasanya menjadi dasar pertimbangan pemberitaan (McQuail, 1997: 270-271).
Sebagaimana yang jamak diketahui, persoalan keterwakilan perempuan di parlemen (di DPR RI, DPD, DPRD I, dan DPRD II) merupakan persoalan yang oleh banyak kalangan dinilai sebagai persoalan yang semakin serius. Diskusi publik mengenai hal ini nampaknya juga semakin banyak terjadi baik di berbagai forum masyarakat luas maupun di media massa termasuk televisi. Hal demikian nampaknya lebih disebabkan karena sebegitu jauh upaya menempatkan 30% calon legislatif perempuan di kursi parlemen belum membuahkan hasil. Berbagai kendala nampaknya muncul secara nyata seperti misalnya kultur masyarakat yang setidaknya sampai tingkat tertentu masih belum benar-benar mendukung gagasan pentingnya perempuan menekuni dunia politik dan kemudian juga rendahnya minat kalangan perempuan sendiri untuk menjadi politisi. Kecenderungan demikian nampaknya berlanjut hingga periode pemilihan umum legislatif 2009.
Sementara itu persoalan-persoalan lain seperti bagaimana memberitakan suatu peristiwa dan substansi persoalan apa yang ditonjolkan dalam pemberitaan terkait dengan peristiwa-peristiwa yang diberitakan juga merupakan persoalan penting dalam pemberitaan. Persoalan ini lebih dikenal sebagai persoalan angle pemberitaan atau yang juga sering disebut dengan frame pemberitaan yang notabene adalah konstruksi media atas realitas (Entman, 1993; Scheufele, 1999). Konstruksi media atas realitas, sudah tentu juga termasuk realitas tentang politisi perempuan, dapat tampil dalam wujud pemberian penekanan terhadap aspek-aspek tertentu dari peristiwa atau persoalan dalam pemberitaan, dan juga dalam kemasan berbagai acara talkshow, dan iklan.
Pada periode pemilihan umum legislatif 2009 politisi perempuan di Indonesia (para calon anggota legislatif, para pimpinan dan fungsionaris partai politik) memang ditampilkan di media massa namun nampaknya upaya penampilan ini bisa dikatakan relatif masih kurang memperoleh penekanan dalam pemberitaan media massa, terutama televisi. Berbagai pemberitaan dan berbagai tayangan acara talkshow televisi, misalnya, seringkali memang memunculkan sosok politisi perempuan terutama pada periode kampanye. Tetapi pada kenyataannya baik dalam pemberitaan maupun talkshow televisi sosok-sosok politisi dari kaum laki-laki lebih sering atau lebih banyak ditampilkan. Hal demikian sudah tentu mengundang pertanyaan tentang bagaimana dan mengapa demikian.
Sementara itu sebagian publik, termasuk publik di Kota Surakarta, mencermati bagaimana kecenderungan-kecenderungan televisi dalam menampilkan atau merepresentasikan politisi perempuan, kaum perempuan yang menekuni dunia politik, dengan menjadi calon legislatif, anggota legislatif incumbent, atau fungsionaris partai politik.
Dari sini lalu dapat muncul pandangan-pandangan atau penilaian-penilaian tertentu mengenai perihal tersebut dan juga perihal peran televisi dalam mempromosikan gagasan keterwakilan perempuan di parlemen. Dapat dimengerti dengan jelas bahwa sebagian publik di Surakarta termaksud adalah juga kalangan perempuan. Kalangan perempuan di Surakarta sebagai bagian dari warga publik juga menonton televisi, mencermati pemberitaan serta tayangan acara talkshow selama periode kampanye, dengan intentitas yang beragam. Kalangan publik perempuan ini akhirnya juga memiliki pandangan atau penilaian-penilaian yang beragam pula baik mengenai kehadiran kaum perempuan di parlemen maupun penilaian mengenai peran media massa khususnya televisi dalam mendukung gagasan keterwakilan perempuan di lembaga perwakilan rakyat atau parlemen terutama DPR RI, DPD, DPRD I, dan DPRD II.
Mengacu pada konteks penelitian ini beberapa konsep penting dalam studi media terutama mengenai representasi antara lain stereotipe (anggapan, pandangan, atau kesan (citra) yang kuat yang tumbuh dalam masyarakat yang biasanya bersifat negatif mengenai kelompok/kalangan masyarakat tertentu di dalam masyarakat) dan anihilation (kecenderungan langka atau diabaikannya obyek atau realitas-realitas tertentu oleh media massa sehingga obyek atau realitas bersangkutan (misalnya kelompok masyarakat tertentu) sangat jarang dijumpai atau mungkin bahkan tidak ada (tidak dapat dijumpai) dalam/melalui media massa) (Lihat, Tuchman, 1987; Perkins (1979) dalam Jones and Jones, 1999:105).
Branston and Staffors (1996), misalnya, sebagaimana dikutip oleh Jones and Jones (1999:104) mengungkapkan bahwa proses representasi melibatkan aspek-aspek merupakan persoalan politik media dalam mengkonstruksi realitas yang karenanya lebih sering bersifat ideologis. Bahkan beberapa penelitian seperti yang dilakukan oleh Richardson (2001), Alvarado et. al (1987), dan Meehan (1983) memperlihatkan kecenderungan ini (Jones dan Jones, 1999).
Menilik hal-hal tersebut, penelitian ini memberi gambaran mengenai bagaimana kecenderungan representasi politisi perempuan di televisi serta penilaian/pandangan khalayak (mengenai kehadiran perempuan dalam dunia politik, peran media massa khususnya televisi dalam mendorong/mempromosikan gagasan keterwakilan perempuan di parlemen), dan korelasi antara variabel sosio-demografis (khususnya umur dan tingkat pendidikan) dengan penilaian mengenai kehadiran kaum perempuan dalam dunia politik.
METODOLOGI PENELITIAN
Penelitian ini bersifat deskriptif (menggambarkan gejala) dengan metode analisis media (media analysis) dan survei. Peneliti melakukan lacakan terhadap representasi politisi perempuan di televisi dan penilaian/pandangan khalayak (mengenai kehadiran perempuan dalam dunia politik, peran media massa khususnya televisi dalam mendorong/mempromosikan gagasan keterwakilan perempuan di parlemen), dan korelasi antara variabel sosio-demografis (khususnya umur dan tingkat pendidikan) dengan penilaian mengenai kehadiran kaum perempuan dalam dunia politik.
Penelitian melalui metode analisis media dilakukan dengan mencermati berbagai pemberitaan serta tayangan acara talkshow televisi di Indonesia. Kemudian membuat catatan-catatan dan analisis baik mengenai isi atau kandungan pesan maupun cara pesan disampaikan (Pawito, 2007). Dalam hubungan ini pengamatan dilakukan terutama pada periode kampanye terbuka pemilihan legislatif 2009 yang berlangsung 6 Maret hingga 5 April 2009.
Sementara metode survei dilakukan terhadap 80 orang responden yang dipilih secara insidental di Surakarta terutama di Kelurahan Gajahan Kecamatan Pasar Kliwon. Jumlah ini diambil setidaknya untuk mengkaji sebagian populasi sebagai sampel yang setidaknya sampai tingkat tertentu mewakili populasi (Watt and van den Berg, 1995: 352; Babbie, 1979: 316).
HASIL PENELITIAN DAN PEMBAHASAN
Berdasarkan analisis media serta bertolak dari data yang ada maka dapat dikatakan bahwa terdapat kecenderungan umum representasi politisi perempuan di televisi yang menunjukkan bahwa pemberitaan televisi tidak/kurang ekstensif memunculkan politisi perempuan pada pemilihan umum legislatif 2009.
Kecenderungan anihilasi demikian dapat dilihat misalnya melalui kenyataan bahwa berita-berita televisi berkenaan dengan pemilihan umum legisaltif 2009 sangat didominasi oleh politisi laki-laki dan jarang dimunculkan politisi perempuan. Hal demikian nampaknya disebabkan antara lain oleh karena memang jumlah politisi perempuan jauh lebih kecil jumlahnya dibandingkan dengan jumlah politisi laki-laki, dan kegiatan-kegiatan politisi perempuan yang dapat dimunculkan di televisi karena itu juga jauh lebih kecil jumlahnya.
Bertolak dari kenyataan ini maka dapat dikatakan bahwa dalam konteks kehidupan politik, khususnya berkaitan dengan pemilihan umum legislatif 2009 di Indonesia, temuan Tuchman (1978) mengenai kecenderungan sangat senjang antara kemunculan kaum laki-laki dengan kaum perempuan dalam televisi, khususnya dalam konteks penelitian ini adalah kemunculan politisi laki-laki dengan politisi perempuan dalam pemberitaan televisi, nampaknya memperoleh pembenaran.
Namun demikian hal ini tidak berarti bahwa televisi tidak pernah menayangkan pemberitaan yang memiliki unsur politisi perempuan. Calon legislatif perempuan dari kalangan selebritis kedapatan muncul, misalnya walau tidak terlalu sering, dalam pemberitaan televisi. Kemunculan secara sekilas (sekitar 30 detik) di layar televisi terutama saat kampanye disertai narasi dari pembawa berita, seolah memang menandai ketidaksempurnaan anihilasi kemunculan politisi perempuan di televisi. Kemunculan Meutia Farida Hatta Swasono (Ketua Umum Partai Keadilan dan Persatuan Indonesia/PKPI) di pemberitaan berbagai televisi misalnya, juga kemunculan Rieke Dyah Pitaloka (calon legislatif untuk DPR RI dari PDIP), Nurul Arifin (calon legisltif untuk DPR RI dari partai Golkar), dan Yasmin Muntaz (calon legislatif untuk DPR RI dari Partai Amanat Nasional/PAN) dapat dikemukakan sebagai contoh. Hal menarik yang nampaknya menjadi pengecualian adalah kerapnya Megawati Soekarno Putri sekaligus Puan Maharani diamplifikasi oleh televisi.
Kemudian kecenderungan yang sama yakni kemunculan politisi perempuan di televisi di berbagai acara talkshow lebih mengamplifikasi figur-figur selebritis yang dikenal luas di kalangan masyarakat (sosok populer di masyarakat). Sebagai contoh, dapat dilihat pada Global TV edisi Jum’at 27 Maret 2009 jam 20.00, pada acara talkshow yang diberi label Panggung Demokrasi menampilkan kandidat dari kalangan selebritis yang di dalamnya ada calon legislatif DPR RI perempuan yakni Raslina Rasiddin (calon legislatif dari Partai Amanat Nasional /PAN) dan Oky Asokawati (calon legislatif dari Partai Persatuan Pembangunan / PPP). Di samping mereka berdua hadir juga pada acara ini Tengku Firmansyah (laki-laki, calon legislatif Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa / PKB).
Atau contoh, tayangan talkshow televisi yang menarik untuk dianalisis selanjutnya adalah acara talkshow yang disiarkan oleh TVRI Selasa 24 Maret 2009 primetime. Acara ini bersifat langsung (live) dan interaktif – audience di studio maupun pemirsa di rumah dapat mengajukan pertanyaan atau komentar. Acara yang diberi nama Pro Parpol (Profil Partai Politik) pada edisi ini mengupas topik Perempuan Dalam Politik. Selingan musik khas PPP disisipkan untuk variasi acara dan mengurangi kebosanan. Kandidat yang dihadirkan pada acara ini kesemuanya adalah kandidat perempuan untuk DPR RI dari Partai Persatuan Pembangunan (PPP) yakni Dr. Reni Marlinawati Caleg PPP No. 1 Dapil jabar IV, Dr. Nurkholisoh Wk Sekjen DPP PPP, dan Hj. Ratih Sanggarwati, SE Caleg PPP No. 1 Dapil Jatim I.
Namun kiranya dapat dikatakan bahwa penayangan acara ini dimaksudkan untuk meningkatkan citra PPP yang memberikan kepercayaan dan peran bagi kaum perempuan padahal PPP dikenal luas sebagai partai politik yang berbasis massa Islam.
Dalam konteks analisis media dapat dikatakan bahwa perempuan direpresentasikan sebagai sosok-sosok politisi yang dengan penuh rasa percaya diri ingin berjuang untuk kemajuan bagi bangsanya dan juga sekaligus berjuang untuk kesamaan hak dengan kaum laki-laki di pentas politik walaupun masih memiliki kecenderungan-kecenderuan seperti lebih mengamplifikasi politisi perempuan dari kalangan artis/selebritis.
Selanjutnya temuan melalui hasil riset survei dapat digambarkan dilihat dari sisi (1) penilaian mengenai kehadiran kaum perempuan dalam dunia politik, sebagian besar responden (60%) memiliki pandangan/penilaian bahwa kehadiran perempuan di lembaga perwakilan rakyat atau lembaga parlemen (menjadi anggota DPR RI, DPD, DPRD I, dan DPR D II) adalah suatu keharusan/keniscayaan apabila dilihat dari kepentingan pembangunan bangsa secara umum/luas. Hal ini memdapat penguatan mayoritas (87,5%) dimana responden menyatakan bahwa menjadi politisi perempuan dengan duduk di kursi lembaga perwakilan rakyat tidak menyalahi kodrat perempuan.
(2) peran televisi dalam mengamplifikasi gagasan keterwakilan perempuan, bahwa responden secara relatif (dengan selisih angka tipis) memiliki pandangan bahwa televisi telah berperan secara signifikan dalam mendukung gagasan atau mempromosikan gagasan keterwakilan perempuan di parlemen. Hal demikian dapat dilihat dengan kenyataan angka bahwa terdapat 30 dari 80 orang responden (37,5%) yang memiliki pandangan demikian dibanding dengan 28 orang (30%) responden yang merasa ragu-ragu, dan 22 orang selebihnya (27,5%) memiliki penilaian sebaliknya (televisi tidak/belum secara signifikan mendukung atau mempromosikan gagasan keterwakilan perempuan di parlemen. Kemudian sebagaimana temuan analisis media, kebanyakan responden dalam riset survei (40%) meragukan bahwa televisi merepresentasikan politisi perempuan secara memadai.
(3) Korelasi variabel sosio-demografis dengan penilaian mengenai kehadiran kaum perempuan dalam dunia politik (dimana dilihat dari sisi umur dan pendidikan). Responden yang berusia relatif muda (17-40 tahun) cenderung memiliki penilaian bahwa kehadiran perempuan di lembaga perwakilan rakyat sebenarnya merupakan suatu keharusan apabila dilihat dari kepentingan pembangunan bangsa secara umum. Terdapat 30 orang (dari 52 orang; 57,7%) yang memiliki penilaian demikian. Namun demikian kebanyakan responden yang berusia relatif tua (41 tahun atau lebih lebih) juga cenderung memiliki penilaian yang sama. Hal ini nampak pada kenyataan bahwa 18 dari 28 orang (64,3%) memiliki penilaian demikian. Hal yang sama juga ditemukan jika ditilik mengenai jaminan aspirasi hak-hak perempuan, kebanyakan responden berusia relatif muda (22 dari 52 orang (42,3%, n= 52) cenderung berpandangan positif mengenai kehadiran kaum perempuan di lembaga perwakilan rakyat dapat lebih menjamin dipenuhinya aspirasi dan hak-hak kaum perempuan. Begitupun kecenderungan yang sama juga terdapat pada responden yang berusia relatif tua. Terdapat 16 dari 28 orang (57,1%) responden berusia relatif tua memiliki penilaian seperti itu. Sehingga dapat dikatakan variable umur relatif tidak berkorelasi dengan penilaian. Apalagi baik responden laki-laki maupun perempuan sama-sama cenderung memiliki penilaian bahwa kehadiran kaum perempuan di lembaga perwakilan rakyat merupakan suatu keharusan dan penting bagi jaminan keterwakilan aspirasi hal-hak perempuan di parlemen.
Namun akan terlihat suatu temuan menarik bila dilihat dari korelasi penilaian dengan pendidikan dimana kebanyakan responden yang berpendidikan rendah (9 dari 13 orang, 69,2%) memiliki penilaian bahwa kehadiran kaum perempuan di parlemen (lembaga perwakilan rakyat) merupakan suatu keharusan dilihat dari kepentingan pembangunan bangsa. Kemudian kecenderungan yang sama juga terjadi pada responden yang berpendidikan menengah. Terdapat 29 dari 47 orang (61,7%) responden yang berpendidikan menengah memiliki pandangan seperti itu. Selanjutnya responden yang berpendidikan tinggi (jenjang Diploma atau Sarjana) terbagi ke dalam dua kelompok penilaian yang sama besar jumlahnya yakni masing-masing 10 orang (50%, n=20) untuk responden yang memiliki penilaian tidak harus dan harus.
Begitu pula kecendrungan penurunan pada penilaian mengenai jaminan jaminan keterwakilan aspirasi hal-hak perempuan di parlemen dilihat dari korelasi pendidikan. Dimana kebanyakan responden berpendidikan rendah (8 dari 13 orang, 61,5%) memiliki penilaian bahwa kehadiran kaum perempuan di lembaga perwakilan rakyat dapat lebih menjamin dipenuhinya aspirasi dan hak-hak kaum perempuan. Kemudian juga kebanyakan responden berpendidikan menengah (22 dari 47 orang, 46,8%) juga cenderung memiliki pandangan yang sama. Selanjutnya pada responden berpendidikan tinggi terdapat 8 dari 20 orang (40%) yang memiliki penilaian serupa. Kecenderungan penurunan persentase dari 61,5% kemudian menurun menjadi 46,8% dan akhirnya menurun lagi menjadi 40% pada penilaian tidak/belum tentu dari responden berpendidikan rendah kemudian bergerak ke tingkat pendidikan yang lebih tinggi.
Apabila dicermati kecedenderungan penurunan yang konsisten dalam persentase dari pendidikan rendah ke lebih tinggi terkait dengan penilaian bahwa kehadiran kaum perempuan di lembaga parlemen merupakan suatu keharusan, yakni dari 69,2% kemudian ke 61,7% dan akhirnya menjadi 50% dan juga penurunan dari sisi penilaian jaminan keterwakilan aspirasi hak-hak perempuan di parlemen dari 61,5% kemudian 46,8% dan akhirnya menjadi 40% kiranya dapat dimaknai bahwa faktor atau variabel tingkat pendidikan nampaknya memiliki korelasi dengan penialian atau pandangan bahwa kehadiran kaum perempuan di lembaga perwakilan rakyat akan dapat lebih menjamin terpenuhinya aspirasi dan hak-hak kaum perempuan. Dalam hubungan ini nampak kecenderungan bahwa responden dengan tingkat pendidikan lebih rendah cenderung berpandangan positif terhadap penilaian seperti itu sementara responden yang tingkat pendidikannya lebih tinggi terkesan lebih skeptik/kritis.
KESIMPULAN
Televisi dalam menyuguhkan representasi politisi perempuan ditandai oleh beberapa hal yakni anihilasi (kecenderungan kurang/langka) politisi perempuan dalam pemberitaan (kecuali Megawati Soekarno Putri dan Puan Maharani). Selanjutnya dapat dikatakan bahwa representasi politisi perempuan di televisi lebih banyak dijumpai di berbagai acara talkshow. Namun demikian representasi politisi perempuan lebih didominasi oleh politisi perempuan mantan artis dan selebritis seperti Oky Asokawati (mantan model dan pemain sinetron, PPP), Ratih Sanggarwati (mantan model, PPP), Nurul Arifin (mantan pemain film, Golkar) dan Rieke Dyah Pitaloka (pemain sinetron, PDIP).
Temuan tersebut semakin diamplifikasi lewat hasil survei riset yang dilakukan dimana responden (pemilih perempuan) pada umumnya tidak meyakini peran media massa khususnya televisi dalam membantu mendukung gagasan keterwakilan perempuan (kuota 30 %) di parlemen. Sebanyak 28 orang (35%) responden mengatakan ragu dan 22 orang (27,5%) lainnya mengatakan televisi tidak membantu mendukung gagasan keterwakilan perempuan di parlemen dan hanya 30 orang (37,5%) responden yang memiliki penilaian bahwa televisi telah membantu mendukung gagasan tersebut.
Sementara dari sisi korelasi variabel sosio-demografis, dapat ditarik kesimpulan bahwa variabel umur relatif tidak berkorelasi dengan penilaian. Dimana baik responden laki-laki maupun perempuan sama-sama cenderung memiliki penilaian bahwa kehadiran kaum perempuan di lembaga perwakilan rakyat merupakan suatu keharusan dan penting bagi jaminan keterwakilan aspirasi hal-hak perempuan di parlemen. Akan tetapi hasilnya berbanding terbalik apabila ditilik dari variabel pendidikan dimana diketahui bahwa pendidikan semakin tinggi akan mempengaruhi tingkat penilaian.
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