The discours of 'Tradition': an anthropological study on local press in Bali

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The aim of this study is to analyze and illustrate the way in which the local press in Bali treat Bali Hindu customary practices, particularly issues on Bali Hindu rituals. I assume it as the processes through which 'customary practices' being (re-)constructed in contemporary Bali While Cultural Studies being currently in fashion as studies on the acceptance of media from the newer perspective as the idea of an active audience, the study of audience was beyond the scope of this study, since it is the lack of information on message senders of local press in Bali that matters. In the field study, I subscribed to as many newspapers as possible during the stay at the research site. Also I visited the offices of the most of the local papers ID interview the editors and/or owners for the information about their papers and their motivation to publish them.The (provisional) result is as follows:The mass media market in Bali still is in the state of oligopoly with the most of market share contr … More olled by Bali Post, in spite of the entry of Java-based media conglomerate with greater capitals into the local press market in Bali. Thus, newly emerged local media published by the local small capitals appear to be dying out; defeated by the Bali's local media conglomerate, not by the Java-based nationwide media conglomerates. Nevertheless, even in the last year of this research project, there appeared new tabloids in local press market in Bali.It should be noted that there were tabloids with politically-oriented appearances among those tabloids that were published last year. My reading of those tabloids suggests, however that this is not so much a tendency of returning to the politically-oriented press (like during 'the post-independence era') as a passing phenomenon of a part of a campaign for the heads of local governments (regencies). It should be of great importance that reading of the texts revealed that even such tabloids as a part of publicity campaigns of political parties as well as papers for general readership always depict Balinese 'custom' or 'culture' as endangered.Although I believe that it is necessary to supplement the discourse analyses, lacking the empirical bases and, hence, not being immune to arbitrariness, by applying the quantitative methods, I gave priority to a holistic study through which we examine other kinds of information from the research site. What I tried to do is to establish the background knowledge on local press in a region dominated by Bali-Hindu people and to analyze it with connecting it with other conditions of the society.Although I believe that it is necessary to supplement the discourse analyses, lacking the empirical bases and, hence, not being immune to arbitrariness, by applying the quantitative methods, I gave priority to a holistic study through which we examine other kinds of information from the research site. What I tried to do is to establish the background knowledge on local press in a region dominated by Bali-Hindu people and to analyse it with connecting it with other conditions of the society Less