The Essence of Female Journalist Leadership in Conventional Media at Digital Era

In era 4.0 that characterized by digital technology, the number of female journalist leader is still limited. This research aimed to describe the essence of female journalist leaders experience in doing their function. Standpoint theory in critical constructionism paradigm was applied to understand the phenomena. It assumed that male standpoint become the dominant perspective in the world. The viewpoint maintained the status quo and suppressed female standpoint. A critical phenomenology design was used to get data through in-depth interviewing virtually of several female journalists’ leaders in conventional media companies in Indonesia. The result showed that the essence of female journalists’ leadership in conventional media was to treat leadership as a tool to show the existence of themselves as child, mother, wife, worker, and individual. They used power as tool to empower themselves, female co-workers and female in general through editorial policy based on competence and media content that had gender sensitive to support political and economic interests of womenkind and company using optimally technology to adapt in the middle of pandemic and disruptive era. It seemed that feminist standpoint had not managed to overcome male standpoint in conventional media industries.