July 20, 2014

The Return to Communication Innocence

We now live in an era where communications are crowded, over populated even. Brands and advertising can be seen anywhere and anytime, from the time we wake up until we go to sleep. Marketing campaigns are happening all the time and everywhere, from public spaces like stores to personal spaces such as personal phones and email. Public Relations (PR) campaigns and methods are being used frequently to ensure that the intended messages would be interesting enough to be quoted in news articles. The over population of promises and messages in today’s era has made companies or institutions to step up their search for a clutter breaking communication, which implies innovation of methods and what many called out-of-the-box ways in communicating.

Like knights in shining armors come the communication professionals or experts or agencies to the rescue. In the midst of increasing competition and institutions’ necessity to acquire stakeholders undivided attention, these knights swoop institutions off their feet with big, and supposedly original, ideas. Good results lead to more and bigger business while bad ones lead to more search of other knights who would be capable of solving an institution’s communication problem.

July 10, 2014

Rindu Rasa Tanpa SARA

Selama 69 tahun kemerdekaan Indonesia, satu wacana seakan tak pernah sirna dalam kehidupan bangsa kita yaitu tentang SARA (suku, agama, ras, antar golongan). Sejak masa sidang BPUPK (Badan Penyelidik Usaha Persiapan Kemerdekaan), perdebatan Indonesia merdeka itu negara siapa telah ada. Apakah untuk kelompok ras tertentu? Apakah untuk kelompok agama tertentu? Apakah untuk kelompok suku tertentu? Kita berpikir dengan ditetapkan Pancasila dan UUD 1945 perdebatan itu telah selesai. Bahwa Indonesia yang merdeka adalah negara untuk semua. Sayangnya di masa modern sekarang, perdebatan itu tampak belum benar-benar tuntas.