Understanding Online Media Literacy in Diverse Society

Abstract

The number of misinformation cases in online media made the Indonesian government along with volunteers to form a national media literacy movement, named #SiBerkreasi. However, the understanding of media literacy by the #SiBerkreasi movement is still limited to the application of rules and not literacy. Using a literature review, this paper criticizes #SiBerkreasi as a media literacy movement in Indonesia. The analysis starts by critiquing the understanding of media literacy in Indonesia looking at the context of Indonesian diverse society. The results show that media literacy in Indonesia is still understood from a positivism point of view where literacy teaches only what is positive and what is negative. As a result, #SiBerkreasi movement does not even touch the critical area of how media literacy should be understood in a diverse society. Beyond the #SiBerkreasi case, this work considers the role of social context and society in creating information.

Keywords

• media literacy
• online media
• digital media
• diverse society
• movement
• indonesia