Changes in cultural representations on Indonesian children's television from the 1980s to the 2000s

Abstract

This study describes the changes over time in the portrayal of socio-cultural characteristics; namely gender, age, ethnicity, religious outlook, family unit, violence experienced, living conditions, and cultural values in Indonesian children’s television programs. Using systematic-quantitative content analysis of popular locally produced Indonesian children’s television programs in the 1980s and the 2000s, this study found that all socio-cultural characteristics changed over time, except for gender representation with male actors consistently outnumbering female actors. There were some predominant socio-cultural characteristics in the 1980s, the era of authoritarian broadcasting system in Indonesia: most of the major characters were children and preteens, from Western Indonesia, not showing religious symbols or practices, having more than one sibling, and the majority of the adult characters were married. In the 2000s, the era of liberal broadcasting system, major characters were children and teens, showing certain religious symbols, having no or only one sibling, and the majority of the adult characters were single. Indonesian children’s television brought certain cultural values to the fore for their young audiences to identify themselves with: self-direction and benevolence.