The venerable Jakarta Post seems to be shaking off its ennui and taking its first steps toward a more interactive future. It’s a good move and one that should be encouraged.
The first sign of the change came when the Jakarta Post’s new interactive journalist Iwan (who has a blog The future is here) posted a comment in Unspun‘s About page about the Post beginning to implement what he calls “two-way journalism.” This is what he said:
Friends,
The Jakarta Post website begins implementing two-way journalism.
The Jakarta Post website –www.thejakartapost.com – is trying to grow from one-way journalism to two-way journalism where readers become more actively involved in the media. This idea is being implemented by opening the stories in the headlines section for comments from readers. This is just a beginning to build better communication between professional journalists and readers. It is expected that enlightenment would be the final outcome. So have a look at www.thejakartapost.com, then go to the print edition headlines, read one story and post comment on it. Comments either in English or Bahasa Indonesia are welcome. Comments in Bahasa Indonesia will be translated into English.
Regards
Moch N. Kurniawan (iwan)
The Jakarta Post Journalist
Ever curious, Unspun visited the Post’s website and found that yes, it is true: the stories in the “headlines” pages all have an invitation to “Give us you comment” at the bottom.
Even curiouser, Unspun called up Jakarta Post CEO Daniel Rambeth (pix from Adoi website) to ask him what was going on. Daniel said that the Post realizes that in this day and age, one-way communications are over. Even newspapers need to establish a dialogue with its readers.
So the Post will upload the day’s stories at 11am each day and readers can post comments, which would be moderated. Desk editors will also respond to these comments. Daniel added that three journalists, reporting to either him or Chief Editor Endi Bayuni, will be assigned to maintain the website and comments.
And in the not too distant future the Post will be revamping its website to expand its features and be more interactive. It will also feature sms alerts and even RSS.
Unspun thinks this is a positive development and the Post has com a long way form the days when it regarded the Spinning Jenny as a state-of-the-art technology. But allowing a channel for criticism and input and acting on them are different matters. It remains to be seen whether the Post really embraces the concept of The Conversation and make itself a better paper.
Still, this step forward is not to be sneezed at. One small input from Unspun is that the website should perhaps a “recent comments” section so that readers will know which stories have comments and choose to read them if they want to.
So way to go Jakarta Post!
Unspun 
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