Gendered Digital Citizenship: How Indonesian Female Journalists Participate in Gender Activism

ABSTRACT

Per-capita, Indonesia has one of the world’s largest user bases of social media. However, in terms of online participation, Indonesian women lag behind their male counterparts (Suwana [2017]. “Empowering Indonesian Women Through Building Digital Media Literacy.” Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences 38 (3): 212–217). This article contributes to a greater understanding of how digital media and engagement enables Indonesian women (as digital citizens) to creatively express themselves, contest gendered ideals, and coordinate political and social activism. It builds on literature that seeks to understand what this means for Indonesian women’s active participation in and undertaking of digital citizenship. Drawing on interdisciplinary projects conducted by the authors, we discuss how female journalists negotiate digital activism in the Indonesian context. We demonstrate that Indonesian women’s digital engagement and their active participation in the production of digital media enables them to creatively express and contest gendered ideals, as well as mobilise activism around political and social causes. In doing so, this article applies a gendered perspective to emerging concepts of digital citizenship, highlighting women’s engagement, activism, autonomy, and creative expression.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital citizenship
• digital activism
• feminism
• Indonesia
• social media
• gendered digital citizenship
• female journalists
• gender activism‌
• ‌independent journalism
• digital anthropology

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Link to the change.org campaign: https://www.change.org/l/id/changeorg-indonesia-changeorg-blog

2 Link to the petition: https://www.change.org/p/dpr-ri-sahkan-uu-penghapusan-kekerasan-seksual-mulaibicara

3 Online article about the intimidation Luviana faced in her workplace in retaliation for seeking better staff conditions and rights: https://www.liputan6.com/news/read/497595/diintimidasi-mantan-jurnalis-metro-tv-luviana-mengadu

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by La Trobe University School of Humanities and Social Sciences Early Career Researcher Development Project Grant 2018 [3.2500.05.48], and La Trobe University Research Focus Area Transforming Human Societies Grant Ready Scheme 2018 [2000002327].