Digital Media Literacy in Samin Indigeneous People

Department of Communication, Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: taufik_fspkom@yahoo.com

Abstract

As an ethnic group, Samin community has values and rules that differ to the dominant Indonesian culture. Negative stereotypes that are embedded in the word of Samin has made the community prefer to be called as Sedulurur Sikep. In Baturejo village, a village that has a large number of Sedulur Sikep, the monograph data shows that 70.74 percent of the population does not attend junior high school. The data indicates that many members of the population do not fully participate in formal education. On the other hand, the data also signifies that the community has in a way exposed to an outside (formal) mode of education particularly at the level of elementary school. The similar phenomenon also occurs in the terms of digital media. Some of the Sikep community have consumed mass media, even though the way they perceive mass media differ to that of the dominant culture. Thus, it is necessary to conduct a media literacy education to Sikep society icluding digital media literacy. The media education have to be adapted to local thinking and understanding of the media’s contents. The result of media literacy observation indicates that, while still maintaining its cultural values, Sikep community does not become completely exclusive to digital media exposures. Communication activities that are using mobile phones can be found in their daily lives.They also interact with those who have different cultural backgrounds with them. The mobile phone has become a relatively prominent gadget in the society. Therefore, the Sikep community is vulnerable to the various contents of messages offered by the media.