Semarang Young People's
Perception of News in Online Media Suaramerdeka.com
Pascalia Prasasti Sukma,
Pratiwi Cristin Harnita, Ester Krisnwati
Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, Indonesia
E-mail: pascaliaprasasti@gmail.com, pratiwi.harnita@uksw.edu, ester.krisnawati@uksw.edu
Abstract
The aim of this study is to investigate the differences in perceptions among readers regarding news on the online media suaramerdeka.com, as well as how young people in Semarang perceive themselves after reading the news as a source of information. This research employs a qualitative research approach with an explanatory, descriptive nature within a phenomenological paradigm. The study utilizes descriptive qualitative research methods focused on answering research questions. The findings indicate that suaramerdeka.com is considered an easily understandable information source due to its straightforward news content. The perceptions of young people in Semarang regarding news on suaramerdeka.com show that they often read news through online portals and are aware of suaramerdeka.com's existence. The study includes interviews with five sources and 30 respondents who mentioned that suaramerdeka.com is one of the largest media outlets in Central Java. After reading news on suaramerdeka.com, respondents found it easier to understand due to its straightforward content. Thus, it can be concluded that their perceptions are influenced by their previous experiences.
Keyword: Perception, News,
Online Media
Introduction
In the
beginning, humans sought information starting from conventional media reports
The development
of the world of technology in the field of information and communication
continues to experience rapid changes
Convergence here
is intended as a union of two media into one. News that used to occur in
newspapers can be seen in a broader way, which initially only existed in print
or conventional media and has now begun to penetrate also into digital media,
such as the emergence of news portals
News portals
present news online through websites that have been created by the company
First published,
Suara Merdeka newspaper printed as many as 5000 copies
In today's
millennial era, information media continues to grow very rapidly. For the
audience, information can be both positive and negative. However, sometimes,
the information itself can create public opinion that can influence a person's
thoughts, attitudes, and behavior. The development of technology itself
provides a very big thing in the advancement of information, not only in print
and electronic media but also in online media. Online media itself is included
in the mass media that is very popular. Many of them turn to online media
because they can directly present information and news as the event takes
place. Besides being fast, online media can also be accessed anywhere and
anytime while supported by internet technology.
News itself is
an actual fact, idea, or opinion that can attract readers, listeners, and
viewers. According to Prof. Mitchell V. Charnley, news is the fastest report of
facts or opinions that contain things of interest or importance, or both, for a
large number of residents
According to
Desiderato, Perception is an experience about an object, event, or relationship
obtained by inferring information and interpreting messages. In communication
science, perception can be said to be the core of communication
In previous
research, Suci Herajulia on
"Journalistic Students' Perceptions of News Accuracy in
Kapanlagi.com" had data that respondents strongly agreed that news is much
better not to mix opinions and reality to be liked by readers
According to
Nylander et al.
This perception
discusses the actuality and trustworthiness of news in suaramerdeka.com.
Researchers chose the suaramerdeka.com news portal because it has a good
history in the field of newspapers that dominate Central Java, making it easier
to research. Researchers will research in the city of Semarang because young
people in Semarang are closer to suaramerdeka.com news portals and environments
that are easily accessible to researchers. The subject to be studied is young
people in Semarang, apart from being very close to the media because it is
easily accessible. According to some of these young people, there is still a
lot of online news between titles and very different content (clickbait).
Based on the
results of a pre-interview conducted by researchers on November 23, 2023.
Researchers have several allegations that some companies implement a paid /
view system. What is meant here is that if there is a decrease in ratings, it
can affect the content of the news and the way it is written. Not only that,
the results of previous research entitled "Perceptions of Journalism
Students on the Accuracy of News in Kapanlagi.com" showed that having
research results on the perceptions of Journalism students achieving data above
average. In other words, news in online media Kapanlagi.com caused many
different thoughts from the number of respondents. With this previous research,
researchers are interested in examining "Semarang Young People's
Perception of News in Suaramerdeka.com." The problem in this study is the
perception of Semarang young people after reading the news on the
suaramerdeka.com site as a source of information. This aims to find out the
perception of Semarang young people after reading the news on the
suaramerdeka.com website as a source of information. This perception discusses
the actuality and trustworthiness of news in suaramerdeka.com.
Research Methods
This research
uses a qualitative research approach with an explanatory descriptive nature
with a phenomenological paradigm. Qualitative research methods are methods that
focus on in-depth observation. According to Bodgam and Taylor, a qualitative
approach is a research procedure that produces descriptive data in the form of
written or spoken words of people and observed behavior (Lexy, 2000). This
research uses a qualitative approach so that the perception of Semarang youth
towards the actuality of news on suaramerdeka.com is clear and detailed.
The type of
research used in this study is descriptive qualitative, which is a research
method that is focused on answering research questions related to the question
of who, what, where, and how an event or experience occurs until finally
studied in depth to find patterns that appear in the event (Kim, 2016).
Results and
discussion
In
the previous chapter, the author wrote that he would take data in the form of
interviews. The author has conducted interviews with five young people in
Semarang, ranging in age from 17 to 25 years. Based on the results of the
interview, the author obtained five speakers with the following backgrounds.
a.
Grestia
(21): Student at Soegijapranata Catholic University.
b.
Halimah (20): Student at
UIN Walisongo.
c.
Dila (21): Student at UIN
Walisongo.
d.
Aril (21): Student at UIN
Walisongo.
e.
Ivana (21): Student at Soegijapranata Catholic University.
The
five speakers from various educational institutions, namely Grestia,
Halimah, Dila, Aril, and Ivana, have been involved in the world of journalism
with a focus on reading news and consuming digital media. All of them are still
in the millennial age range, ranging from 18 to 25 years old. In the context of
news consumption, Grestia and Halimah are among those
who often read news on the online news portal Suara
Merdeka. Meanwhile, Dila and Ivana are noted as rare news readers, but Aril is
included in the category of frequent news readers. With their diverse
educational backgrounds and similarities in news consumption activities, these
five speakers provide diverse perspectives on relevant issues in the world of
journalism.
Based on interviews with five sources, two people said that it is rare to read news on the Suara Merdeka news portal because they have only read one or two news articles and only read them when passing by other social media.
Perception
itself is part of the whole process that generates responses after stimuli are
applied to humans. The process of understanding or giving meaning to an
information to a stimulus is obtained from the process of sensing objects.
Perception is also the process of inferring information and interpreting it
automatically based on experiences or events that occur against an object. Perception,
according to Deddy Mulyana, is divided into two parts: attribution error and
prejudice. It can be concluded that perception can be obtained from our sensing
of an object. So, the observation and experience possessed by the resource
person can produce a perception. Own perception appears in everyone's mind
after getting stimuli.
This happened to the interviewees. The author provided a stimulus in the form of Suara Merdeka so that perceptions arose from the experiences and observations of the interviewees. The result of the perception of Semarang young people or resource persons related to Suaramerdeka.com is one of the large and well-known media, especially in Central Java located in Semarang, besides that Suaramerdeka.com, is a media that has interesting news information and is easy to understand among young people.
In
this study, we explore the five interviewees' perceptions of Suaramerdeka.com,
an online news portal widely known in Indonesia. Data was collected through
interviews with sources who had various levels of frequency in accessing news
in the media. The results showed that the interviewees' perception of
Suaramerdeka.com was influenced by their personal experiences and observations
while accessing news in the media. Grestia, one of
the speakers who often access Suaramerdeka.com, revealed that she is used to Suara Merdeka print media because of her parents'
subscription but now prefers access through online media because it is more
practical and attractive. Halimah, who accesses Suaramerdeka.com sporadically,
stated that she tends to read the news there only when there is a current issue
that is going viral because it is considered straight to the point. A similar
opinion was also expressed by Dila, who often accesses online media
Suaramerdeka.com because it is famous and easily accessible, especially after
seeing print media sales at red lights.
Meanwhile,
Aril admits that he is not familiar with Suaramerdeka.com because he doesn't
like to read the news, but he knows it as the biggest and most well-known media
in Semarang. Finally, Ivana, although she rarely accessed it before, now tends
to visit Suaramerdeka.com often because of her connection to the world of
lectures that require an understanding of news. Thus, interviewees' perceptions
of Suaramerdeka.com reflect a mix of past experiences, ease of access, and
actual information needs in various contexts of their lives.
From the above narrative, it can be concluded that before they conclude or re-perceive, they should see their experience. This is because there are factors that influence the emergence of perception, namely functional factors, according to Jalaludin Rahmat, who explained that functional factors come from needs, experiences, and others.
Suara Merdeka is one of the major media in Semarang. From pioneering print media production until now, it has reached the point that it can be accessed anywhere and anytime, namely through online media with the address Suaramerdeka.com. There have been many changes in Suara Merdeka, such as updating the writing style and adding news channels that are not only national but the most visible at this time. They speed up the uploading of news articles so as to make them look more up-to-date. The following are the statements of sources related to the news on Suaramerdeka.com.
Media
Suara Merdeka is one of the oldest newspapers in Indonesia. That was born in
Semarang during the independence era of the Republic of Indonesia. Precisely on
January 11, 1950, led by H. Hetami, the initial
mission was to raise the voices of the people who had just become independent.
The first time Suara Merdeka was published, 5000 copies were printed. In
addition to Semarang, this newspaper targets readers in the Solo region. In the
following period, he began to expand his market to other cities. At the
beginning of online media addressed www.suaramerdeka.com, this began only by containing news from the print edition
of Suara Merdeka. On February 11, 2000, suaramerdeka.com provided additional
news and other channels.
On
February 11, 2010, Suara Merdeka's e-paper service
was launched. This is because the development of technology is accelerating
very rapidly. The Suara Merdeka TV streaming video was launched on February 11,
2011. With so many launches, suaramerdeka.com is growing in the presentation of
information, not only in the form of text and photos but also in videos or
moving images. That is what makes readers and viewers connoisseurs of news, and
it has become one of the attractions of online media, suaramerdeka.com.
From the interviews with the five speakers, various perceptions were revealed regarding the packaging of news articles on Suaramerdeka.com. Grestia, one of the interviewees, stated that although the articles were generally clear and quick, she felt limited in expressing her opinion due to the lack of places to interact with other readers. Halimah highlighted the possibility of bias in political news articles, where she noted the existence of opinion briefings that could influence readers' perceptions. Dila, on the other hand, feels that there is a tendency to create news based on sensation or popularity without regard to the depth of the news, which he thinks can damage the appeal of the media.
Aril admits that misperceptions sometimes occur due to his lack of involvement in understanding the news thoroughly, although overall, he considers the articles on Suaramerdeka.com easy to understand and varied. Ivana noted that there are errors in news packaging that sometimes make the title not aligned with the content of the article, especially in the context of articles about celebrities that are going viral. Nevertheless, he feels that the news on the portal is still well-trusted, especially because of the diversity of news channels that are not boring. Thus, the results of this interview provide comprehensive insight into the perception of sources on the packaging of news articles in Suaramerdeka.com, as well as identify areas that require further attention to improve the quality of their news.
As many as 30 young people in Semarang also have the assumption that when reading the news, there are still many who make mistakes in perceiving the news. There are also those who are quick and responsive, so they don't feel they have made a mistake. In addition to this study, the researchers added some data that will be tied to the theory of cognitive dissonance. This theory will also help researchers to facilitate solving misperceptions or prejudices in the news on suaramerdeka.com online portals.
Cognitive
dissonance also explains how humans consistently seek and seek to reduce
dissonance or discomfort in new situations. This condition was explained by
Leon Festinger that the awareness of the elements of cognition is interrelated
in three ways: irrelevant relationships between one another, dissonant/inconsistent
relationships (not harmonious), and consonant/consistent relationships with
each other (Sri Wahyuningsih, 2012).
Figure 1.
Reading Frequently Survey
According
to Survey, 76.9% of people often read news on online news portals, while 19.2%
rarely read through online news portals. And 3.8% do not read news
often. Since the online newspapers displayed on the reading boards of
online news portals are updated daily starting at 5:00 WIB, online news portals
can be a source of information for anyone looking for the latest information.
Online news portals can also be used as a means of entertainment to fill spare
time. This is possible because reading online news portals provides pleasure as
well as education and information to readers. Readers can take advantage of the
vast collection of online news portal content as entertainment.
Figure 2.
Knowledge of suaramerdeka.com Survey
Based
on the survey, the majority of respondents also fall into the category of those
who know the Suaramerdeka news portal, which is as
many as 92.3% and 7.7% do not know it, so it can be concluded Many people are
familiar with the Suaramerdeka news portal because
people who come and read on the suaramerdeka reading
board certainly have needs that encourage them to come and read newspapers at suaramerdeka instead of reading newspapers at home. Someone
who has needs will certainly look for objects that are felt to be able to meet
these needs. Even so, the way to meet everyone's needs is different.
Figure 3.
Have You Ever Read On
The Portal Survey
Based
on the Survey, 76.9% of respondents have read news on the portal, 15.4% rarely
read, and 7.7% have never read on the suaramerdeka.com news portal. So, it
can be concluded that Suaramerdeka has a certain
allure that attracts readers. The appeal of Suaramerdeka
comes from the installation of newspapers with diverse materials, which makes
readers more likely to visit and read carefully because of the variety of
information.
Figure 4.
Reader Confusion Survey
Often,
when we are reading news, it causes errors and their own prejudices in
perceiving news. As many as 42.3% of respondents feel that they have been wrong
when reading news, 34.6% rarely feel, and 23.1% do not feel wrong.
Figure 5.
Reader Prejudices Survey
The survey found that as many as 73.1% of respondents have their own prejudices when reading news, 15.4% feel they may have had these prejudices, and as many as 11.5% do not have prejudices when reading news.
Figure 6.
The Realization of Prejudices Survey
To realize prejudice, the survey found that as many as 65.4% of respondents felt more quickly aware that there is prejudice when reading news, 15.4% realized it for a long time, and 19.2% quickly realized it.
Figure 7.
News Portal Comparing Survey
When someone is
reading the news and does not conform to prejudice and realizes a mistake,
based on the diagram above, it can be seen that as many as 80,8% of respondents
have compared with other news portals, 11.5% sometimes, and 7.7% never compare
with other news portals. After getting the results of
the comparison, other results indicated that as many as 57.7% of respondents
felt they had immediately gotten what they were looking for, and 15.4% felt
that they did not feel they had received the comparison.
Other
survey results also stated that as many as 88.5% of respondents had a different
view after reading the news, and the remaining 3.8% did not feel and did not
have a different view. The perception that arises from a person is not only
influenced by within the individual. The emergence of perceptions of one's self
is also influenced from outside the individual. One of the factors that
influence the emergence of a person's perception of an object is intensity/repetition.
Often, someone seeing the same object will make the person able to perceive an
object.
Furthermore,
as many as 84.6% of respondents were also satisfied after getting news that
matched their perception, but 11.5% felt that they might be satisfied, and 3.8%
felt dissatisfied. Other results showed that as many as 50% of respondents felt
that reading 1-time news could immediately conclude that the news was useful or
interesting, 11.5% did not know, 38.5% could not immediately conclude by only
reading one time, 53.8% of respondents thought that suaramerdeka.com was up to
date and would continue to be accessed regularly by readers, while 42.34% felt
that it was quite current.
Also,
based on the results of data from Semarang young respondents, they have their
own perceptions in interpreting news. When they notice errors and differences
in perception, some respondents choose to find out more to find out whether
their perception is correct or not. In addition, they are very selective in
choosing news and perceiving news. Readers give a good perception of the
reading board of Suara Merdeka Semarang City. Good perception from readers is
given because, with the reading board, readers can channel the hobby of reading
newspapers without having to spend money, readers can exchange information with
other readers who are reading on the suaramerdeka.com reading board, and the
platform can be used as a means of entertainment and fill free time for
readers. The existence of these benefits can mean that readers pay great
attention to the Voice Merdeka.com platform, resulting in complaints from
readers about lack of maintenance.
Conclusion
The perception
that arises in the minds of young people in Semarang regarding news on online
news portals suaramerdeka.com is that in terms as the whole, they still often
read news through online news portals, and the average respondent knows the
existence of online news portals suaramerdeka.com. 5 interviewees and 30
respondents, and they said they knew suaramerdeka.com because it was one of the
largest media in Central Java. Regarding perception, after they read one of the
news on suaramerdeka.com, it is easier to understand because the content of the
news is direct to the point, so it can be concluded before they conclude or
perceive. They see from their experience first. Very few errors and
misperceptions occur because the effects of the news made by suaramerdeka.com
are straight to the point. So, readers are easier to understand, and what they
are looking for is immediately answered. In addition, they believe that
suaramerdeka.com can develop even more and become one of the increasingly
famous information media of its time. One of the factors for more speakers
reading on the suaramerdeka.com platform is that it guarantees the actuality of
news writing and is easy to understand so that readers and sources immediately
believe in the platform.
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Pascalia Prasasti Sukma, Pratiwi Cristin Harnita, Ester Krisnwati (2024) |
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First publication right: Advances in Social Humanities Research |
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