Explorative Study on Rosihan Anwar's Thoughts about the Press in Indonesia

Abstract

The study of the history of communication according to Michael Schudson is not very developed and is still limited to North America and Western Europe. Hence it is important to examine the development of communication outside that, such as in Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia, through the thoughts of communication figures. Rosihan Anwar is one of the figures in the field of communication, especially journalism. Exploring Rosihan's thoughts can help clarify the history of the press at that time and maping the development of the history of communication in Indonesia. This study uses the perspective of historical communication, sociology of knowledge, and media sociology, with grounded theory method. The results showed that there were several variables that influenced Rosihan Anwar's position of thought, namely: family background, reading material, social roles, education, social environment, and colleagues. Then, the central themes that became the subject of Rosihan's attention were divided into journalism and non-journalism. His thoughts about journalism is about journalism for development efforts, modernization, code of ethics, free and responsible press, welfare of journalists and the media industry. Meanwhile, non-journalism thoughts revolve around historical and religious aspects.