Research Article
Scientific Knowledge of Peatland Use and Risks and Media: Study of Peatland Information in Online Media in Indonesia
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/eai.21-10-2019.2294429, author={S. Rouli Manalu and Laila Kholid Alfirdaus and Hendra Try Ardianto and Kushadajani Kushadajani}, title={Scientific Knowledge of Peatland Use and Risks and Media: Study of Peatland Information in Online Media in Indonesia}, proceedings={Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Indonesian Social and Political Enquiries, ICISPE 2019, 21-22 October 2019, Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia}, publisher={EAI}, proceedings_a={ICISPE}, year={2020}, month={4}, keywords={peatland scientific knowledge media content public communication}, doi={10.4108/eai.21-10-2019.2294429} }- S. Rouli Manalu
Laila Kholid Alfirdaus
Hendra Try Ardianto
Kushadajani Kushadajani
Year: 2020
Scientific Knowledge of Peatland Use and Risks and Media: Study of Peatland Information in Online Media in Indonesia
ICISPE
EAI
DOI: 10.4108/eai.21-10-2019.2294429
Abstract
This research examines the ways in which the scientific knowledges about peatland or wetland are communicated to public through mass media in Indonesia. Indonesia is one of the countries with extensive tropical peatland areas with over 15 million ha of peatlands that makes up over 12% of its forest. The information about peatland often comes forward to public attention and to public discourse in relation to forest fire and tick haze resulted from the fire. However, there is not much scientific explanation could be found regarding the characteristics of this type of land and why its so vulnerable to forest fire in the news. Furthermore, not many news media outlets mention the risks of opening and clearing peatland area for industrial purpose, and the consequences it brought to ecosystem and to global climate. This research is interested to understand how the scientific knowledge regarding the peatland and peatland uses as well the consequences of the use are communicated to the public in national media in Indonesia. Content analysis is conducted to the corpus of media reports in 2018 and 2019. This research argues investigating mass media presentation regarding the scientific knowledge of peatland will help us better understand the public understanding about the risks and the consequences of peatland use.