Transformative Capital Becomes Mass Media Capital Adapting to the Digital Era

This transformative capital is reflected in various changes, ranging from the vision of journalists, news distribution, accessing news, media ecosystems, to the composition of advertising revenue.

"Transformative capital is the modality needed for this change," he said when delivering a dissertation entitled "Digital Disruption, Journalistic Field (Journalistic Arena), and Transformative Capital at Kompas and Tempo (1995-2020)”. In that trial, Haryanto was declared to have passed with honors.

Since the mid-first decade of the 21st century, many companies have closed their print editions and switched to digital platforms. This phenomenon has occurred in many countries, including Indonesia.

Various innovations have been made to respond to these changes, one of which is through media convergence. However, not all efforts made were successful. Haryanto said that his dissertation research wanted to trace the process of evolution and transformation that occurred in the newsrooms of Kompas and Tempo in the face of media digitalization .

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The editorial staff of Kompas and Tempo underwent significant changes. The change from analog to digital media climate does not lie solely in technological change, but there are also a number of problems, one of which is the disparity between journalists from the digital migrant generation and journalists from the digital native generation.

Haryanto said that Kompas and Tempo were both late in anticipating developments in digital media and journalism. At first, the two media did not wholeheartedly develop digital media because of their strong sense of self-confidence as market leaders in print media.

Various innovations have been carried out to respond to these changes, one of which is through media convergence. However, not all efforts made were successful.

”When online media emerged and developed, the presence of this new platform was underestimated. "Until finally these two media realized that the decline in revenue from advertising and media circulation was not something that happened naturally, but because there were structural changes, both in the environment in the media industry and changes in readers," he said.

According to Haryanto, Kompas and Tempo have transformative capital that brings the two media into the digital era. This transformation is reflected in the various innovations carried out, including developing digital platforms.

Both media outlets also developed subscription news content. However, this innovation has not been as successful as expected. A massive campaign is needed to subscribe or pay to access quality news.

"The digital transformation has already begun and both media outlets have transformative capital to adapt to the digital situation. However, it still requires time to prove their success in terms of income generated in this digital era," he said.

Haryanto added, in adapting to the digital era, both media experienced trial and error. This then gave rise to efforts to take inspiration from innovations carried out by media in other countries.

"However, this method is not always successful. After a while, they found their own rhythm regarding what is more suitable to be done for the current condition," he said.

Concern

The approximately one-hour session was led by Dean of FISIP UI Prof. Semiarto Aji Purwanto. Meanwhile, Eriyanto and Irwan Julianto served as the promoter and co-promoter, respectively.

Eriyanto stated that the dissertation topic on transformative capital amidst media disruption was written out of Haryanto's concern for the many print media outlets that have closed down. However, on the other hand, there are also other media outlets that are quite fresh in the digital era.

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"This study aims to understand the phenomenon of disruption, how to deal with it, and whether media can survive in this situation. What capital do media need to have in order to survive," he said.

Before being declared pass, Haryanto received a number of questions and inputs from the examiners. For example, examiner Indah Santi Pratidina questioned how crucial it was to describe the condition of the media during the New Order in the study.

Haryanto stated that this was done to show the comparison between the media situation during the New Order and the reform era. In addition, the emergence of online media in the homeland began in the 1990s.