Like a flood, a surge of information has engulfed everyone from policy makers to civilians in general. In the midst of these circumstances, the ability to sort out information and use it prudently has become a challenge
In the history of mankind, this is the information era, a period in which news is easiest to obtain. Technological developments allow information to circulate quickly – often in a matter of seconds.
On the one hand, this should be helpful because many things can be known easily. The democratization of information is inevitable everywhere.
However, at the same time, this condition is also prone to causing confusion and even triggering social conflict because the circulating information often bucks the factual reality or appears to masking bad motives.
Social Affairs Minister Tri Rismaharini said her office once obtained information on a social media app about an abandoned old woman. As the ministry was in charge of social issues, it followed up on the information.
However, when a team from the ministry arrived at the location, it turned out that the old woman had died two years before. "I still had to get the evidence by finding her death certificate," Risma said in Jakarta on Friday.
Despite the twist, Risma believed that not all information from the app was a hoax. Given the nature of information on social media and from messaging applications that are not always accurate, Risma does not rely on them as the main information source for policy making.
In efforts to improve integrated data on social assistance beneficiaries, for example, Risma uses references from the Supreme Audit Agency, the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
Another one of her references was the mainstream news media. "From the onset, the information is valid because [it is the result of] field findings by a trusted institution," she said.
KOMPAS/IRMA TAMBUNAN
Social Afairs Minister Tri Rismaharini had a dialogue with the children of the Orang Rimba community in the Terab River area, Batanghari Regency, Jambi, Wednesday (10/3/2021).
The rife unfounded news on social media has prompted Yustinus Prastowo, an expert staff member for Finance Minister Sri Mulyani, to go on his social media account almost every day, busily correcting inaccurate news regarding the value-added tax (VAT) policy in a bill on general taxation provisions.
"News was once around saying that the ministry would charge a tax on basic necessities, and later [it said] people giving birth would also be taxed. The information is not true. That is not the context so we really have to explain to the public what the problem is,” he said.
He hoped that the discussion of the issue would not lose context and that the public would dive deep into the spirit of its policy formulation.
Floods of information often leave the public in confusion and anxiety, as seen in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As a spike in COVID-19 cases gripped Bangkalan, East Java, information was circulating on social media that, among other things, COVID-19 was a conspiracy and receiving a vaccine would trigger symptoms of the disease.
In 2019, Communication and Information Minister Rudiantara shut internet access in Papua in an effort to control information circulating so as not to worsen the heated atmosphere.
However, the measures were seen as oppressing the freedom of information, and it sparked a lawsuit filed by civil society organzitions with the State Administrative Court (PTUN). In 2020, the Administrative Court decided that the government had violated the law with the policy.
Literacy
Regarding the issue of information, Vice President Ma\'ruf Amin, in a special interview with Kompas, said that consistent education was imperative for the public in the consumption of circulating information.
"That\'s why we have to educate the public so that people become smart and are not as easily taken in by the information they get. There is positive information, but there is negative information too. There is slander, and there is false news. We have to educate the public not to just accept it,” he said.
With sweeping waves of information being unavoidable, Communication and Information Minister Johnny G Plate has warned about information that causes division, confusion or chaos.
The ministry, he said, was currently conducting 24-hour cyber surveillance equipped with crawling machines to ward off fake news.
Filtering social media
Drone Emprit creator, Ismail Fahmi, has also cautioned the public about rife misleading information on social media, which he said was more like a real-time survey that might show a trend, but not the real truth.
He suggested detailed analysis be adopted in the face of the flood of information on social media.
“There must be stakeholder mapping, for example, regarding VAT. Muhammadiyah has expressed its disapproval. Then, what about other parties? This is to navigate what public aspirations are, because there are also bots or machines on social media," Ismail said.
Central figures actively disseminating correct information about something, Ismail continued, are believed to be more effective in overcoming disinformation or misinformation.
This flood of information is viewed by Press Council member Agus Sudibyo as a phenomenon of the democratization of information, in which hoaxes and fake news are inevitable. He warned people not to overreact.
In policy making, according to Agus, the government can turn to public input through social media and mainstream media. “If the government wants to capture public input, one of the safest steps is to conduct an in-depth study of mainstream media coverage, because the mass media has a methodology in presenting information,” he said.
“Writing something with methodology is different from writing something a priori. If you want to know what the public wants, do a public survey. If you are not sure, do an analysis of the content of mainstream media coverage about an issue," he said.
