At a glance, the summary of the AES # 1 Forum is: Journalistic History Important To Taught in the Department of Journalism and Communication Studies. Lutfi Adam, scholar graduate from Northwestern University, speaker of the Amir Effendi Siregar Forum (Forum AES) said that. This First Session held on June 28, 2020 in a Zoom video conference by the Center for Study and Alternative Media Documentation NADIM of Communication Science Department at Univeersitas Islam Indonesia. He was the first speaker at the first AES Forum this year with the theme: History of Communication.
Holy Rafika Dhona is the Head of PSDMA Nadim Communication Department at UII. He, as well as the moderator, said he and the team chose Lutfi Adam, Ph.D as the guest speaker with many reason. First, because he had a history and communication background as well. “And his knowledge is still new because he just graduated in May 2020. He is also the winner of a dissertation prize at the Department of History at Northwestern University. It was the campus where he earned his doctorate,” said Holy Rafika, Lecturer in Communication Science Department. Holy also have a specialty in the field of Geographic Communication studies.
Rafika also explained why this forum was called the AES Forum. This forum was formed by Communication Science Department of UII to talk about ideas or spirit about communication in particular. “This name is a reminder of the founder of our department. And he is also owned by all members of the press in Indonesia.”
Historical Method for Communication Research
Lutfi Adam said in his presentation at the beginning, this event was also planned to be made into a book. “So maybe in the future, I will write a method for communication research. It should be in more detail in the form of an essay. So that the picture can be clearer.”
On this occasion, first, Lutfi Adam explained what he would explain in this session. “I will discuss the historical method as communication research,” he said. “Before begining this session, there is any disclaimer: I was no longer a scholar of communication science. My last education was history. So, I represent the discipline of history, not communication,” he continued. Lutfi said, he would share a historical method. However, he can provide an overview of how to adopt historical research methods for communication research. It is because he has a background in communication and media studies.
Then, we neet to answer many question when discussing the history of communication. First, why is it important to research the history of communication. Then, how about researching history. Then, how does communication adopt the historical method for research?
Mas Marco and Journalistic History
Hence, Lutfi Adam also explained the urgency of the history of communication by recounting flash back a few years ago when in the 2005 and 2006 he composed a undergraduated thesis. The theme of the undergraduated thesis he raised was a matter of his strong urge to write journalistic history. He read many sources, especially, about the experiences and stories of journalism journey of Tirto Adi Soerjo. And at least, He finally passed on Mas Marco Kartodikromo as an early journalist.
Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Tetralogy Book very inspiring Luthfi. That the book titled is This Earth of Mankind. “In the past, when I was composing my research, I was concerning to compose journalistic history. Tetralogy of This Earth of Mankind was inspiring me. And in my opinion was the history of the press,” Luthfi explained.
According to Lutfi, in this Tetralogy Book of This Earth of Mankind, the role of journalists is embedded in an era known as the era of nationalism.
“I am curious about this character, Mas Marco. Then I wrote a thesis on the history of Mas Marco Kartodikromo.” Then he raised the question, “how do I write history in the communication department Faculty?”
Why is Journalistic History Important To Taught in the Department of Journalism and Communication Studies ?
At that time, said Lutfi, he used solely the instincts used in the work of journalism. “Use the journalist’s instincts,” he said. How the journalists worked, mapped out topics, searched for data, written sources, interviewed sources, “and I plotted to do that and retrieve data. I went to the National Library. Read many, including the writings of Mas Marco from other newspapers I managed to collect,” he recalled.
“Until I brought the writing and I always got insights and research topics from there. That also made me succeed in getting a historical scholarship. If I could get a doctoral research history scholarship, wasn’t that what I used yesterday as the journalist’s instincts is a meaningful historical method? actually, it is no different,” he thought later.
“What I want to say is, why I say it is important to examine the history of Mas Marco? The difficulty when I first studied journalistic theory was to contextualize the values taught by my lecturers,” he explained. “But more or less what I got in the classroom, the illustrations are not detailed and not down to earth. That makes me feel journalistic history is an important course. So it should taught in the journalism department,” concluded Luthfi.
“Because in my opinion, even though history is a very practical science, but when explored, journalistic history is very rich. It also can help journalistic scholars to develop journalism. We can not develop journalism, journalistic values, and journalistic techniques, if we do not understand the history of journalistic development,” said Lutfi to complete the story.
Also read Research on Communication with Historical Research Methods
Kajian ini menjadi penting di tengah absennya Lembaga Penyiaran Publik yang ada (RRI dan TVRI) dalam mengadvokasi kepentingan publik. Masduki akan meneliti Anti Tank Project di Yogyakarta (individu aktivis pelaku aksi protes jalanan dengan street art), gerakan Yogya Berdaya, dan Watch Docs Documentary (production house) di Jakarta. Watch Doc, dengan film dokumenternya, menyuarakan ide-ide anti-tank dan Yogya Berdaya, menggunakan kanal media baru Youtube sebagai media komunikasi urban dan kendaraan advokasi sosial.
