SOCIAL TRUST THROUGH LOCAL GOVERNMENT WEBSITE IN INDONESIA AS A PART OF GOVERNMENT PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTICE

Abstract

In the developing country of Indonesia, considerable emphasis is placed on the role of government Public Relations in helping to the nation of 246 million people to transition to a system of increased democratic, participatory and transparent governance. One of the Indonesian President’s programs ‘Nawacita’ (Nine Goals) includes a goal that governments should overcome problems that currently limit their engagement in effective, democratic and trustworthy governance. Indonesia has 500 city and regency governments, and priority is placed on restoring social trust in public institution in these local government bodies. This research will study district government websites in Java, Kalimantan and Papua. Although Indonesia’s local governments currently use their websites primarily for simple dissemination of information, this research demonstrates how and why they would adopt more sophisticated and extensive uses of their sites to develop as two-way communication tools to facilitate citizen engagement. Study of the websites of three local governments—the Surabaya, Palangkaraya and Jayapura on the island of Java—found no public discussion nor interactivity that was designed to improve social trust. The focus was on using the sites as a mouthpiece to circulate information rather than as a form of public participation or social trust in local development processes. Using data mining from the websites and in-depth interviews with local government public relations officers and citizen opinion leaders to gain holistic perspectives, this research found the initial result from the short observation that local government website usage only for transferring information. The two-way symmetrical model of communication only applied on Surabaya in early level.