UTILIZATION OF THE INTERNET AS NEW MEDIA IN POLITICS,
BUSINESS, EDUCATION AND SOCIO-CULTURE
Introduction
The emergence of the term new media is closely related to the presence of the Internet in this
world. Although in its development new media is not only limited to the Internet, the
Internet is the most dominant tool or media in the new media era. As said by Flew (2005:4),
"The Internet represents the newest, most widely discussed, and perhaps most significant
manifestation of new media." The Internet is indeed phenomenal because in the era of wired
telephony, it was unimaginable in the future that telephone cables could bring up images, not
just sound. And in fact the Internet continues to grow, initially the internet was used for
email and websites, then used for blogs, social networking sites, video sharing sites, internet
television, video conferencing, online games and others. The Internet also no longer relies
on telephone cables but uses Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) technology. The current generation of
lap tops are equipped with Wi-Fi facilities and hot spot areas are increasing, making it easier
for people to browse the Internet.
In short, the Internet has brought the world together as if it had no borders. Whereas it
used to take two-three weeks for someone in United States to send a letter to someone in the
United States, nowadays, through email or social networking sites, the electronic letter is
received immediately by the person concerned. The Internet has also been utilized for
business purposes so that one can do online shopping or transactions via the Internet. The
Internet has changed many things in the lives of mankind. It has become part of the daily
lives of people in most parts of the world.
According to Flew (2005: 3), "the idea of new media captures both the development of
unique forms of digital media, and the remaking of more traditional media forms to adopt
and adapt to the new media technologies." In this case, several experts agree that the term
new media is used to distinguish from old media or traditional media that existed earlier. For
example, newspapers decades ago were in the form of sheets of paper where people had to
buy or subscribe to get them, so since the Internet, many newspapers have been presented
online via the internet. Another example, people used to send letters by post but now it can
be done through email. It is not easy to classify a media into new media because it is
difficult to distinguish the boundaries between old media and new media. For example,
Laser Disc (LD) is considered old-fashioned compared to VCD, so VCD is considered new
media but VCD is considered old-fashioned compared to DVD, so the question is whether
VCD is old media? It is difficult to answer.
However, some media that are commonly considered as new media are the Internet with
its many applications such as websites, email, blogs, social networking sites, video sharing
sites, online games, e-books, online newspapers and so on. Beyond the Internet can be
included among others; DVDs, multi-media computers, mobile phones, SMS. Wikipedia, a
free encyclopedia on the Internet even states that the most appropriate example of new
media is the Wikipedia site. "Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, is one of the best examples
of the new media phenomenon, combining Internet accessible digital text, images and video
with web-links, creative participation of contributors, interactive feedback of users and the
formation of a participant community of editors and donors."
Internet as a new media in principle can be utilized by anyone and for any purpose.
Sites can be used to search for knowledge as learning materials or writings, but sites also
often display pornographic images that can damage human morals, especially small children
because now many small children are adept at playing the Internet. However, all of that is
returned to Internet users, most of whom still utilize the Internet for positive things.
Considering the many fields that utilize the new media of the Internet, this paper will be
limited to the fields of politics, business, education and socio-culture where these four fields
are closely related to the media or applications contained on the Internet.
Discussion
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
Politics
The Internet is considered as the beginning of the new media era as expressed by Owen
(2008:1), "The new media environment and the rise of the Internet have had import- tant
implications for presidential communication. As the first chief executives of the new media
era, Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have established an online presence through
the White house Website, www. whitehouse.gov. The new media in question is the official
White House website which can be realized because of the presence of the Internet.
Politics is a field that needs publicity, so the Internet is a medium that is widely used in
terms of promotion of a political figure or political party. Internet media is generally used
for political publicity in parallel with traditional or conventional media. Political figures or
political parties will utilize all media that are considered potential in increasing the
popularity of these political figures or parties. The use of media by political figures and
political parties is known as Political Communication. Political communication includes the
use of media by governments and political parties to gain support during elections or outside
of elections (Riaz: 2010: 2). The Internet is used mainly to show that political figures or
parties are "Internet literate" where they try to net supporters, sympathizers, friends who
come from among the people who often use the Internet.
The Internet new media most often used by political figures both in United States and
abroad are social networking sites. The most popular sites are Facebook and Twitter, in
addition to the popular MySpace in the United States, the less popular Friendster and
Linkedin. During the 2009 United States presidential election campaign, one of the vice
presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, used Facebook to garner support for himself.
Prabowo gained so many "friends" or supporters that there was a problem because
Prabowo's Facebook account became over capacity and he received a no- tification email
from the Facebook management (computer). Although the promotional media for
presidential and vice presidential candidates at that time was still dominated by traditional
media such as advertisements on television and newspapers, banners, pamphlets, billboards
and others, the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely SBY-
Boediono, Megawati-Prabowo and JK-Wiranto also promoted themselves through the
detik.com online newspaper through photos of the three pairs plus images of the flags of the
parties that supported them.
The benefits of the new media Internet during political campaigns such as the
presidential election were recognized by the Barack Obama camp when Obama won the
presidency in 2008. In a book review article entitled Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack
Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House written by Jarvis (2010:1), it
is mentioned that the website for the Obama campaign organized more than one hundred and
fifty thousand activities, created more than thirty-five thousand groups, had more than 1.5
million accounts and gained more than 1.5 million users of USD 600 million from 3 million
donors. The campaign also used YouTube for free advertising, sending the addresses of the
ads to supporters and asking supporters to forward the ads to their friends and family.
Obama's Facebook account had 3,176,886 supporters and through his MySpace site he had
987,923 friends. The campaign also used text messaging to connect with young voters and
sent emails as counter attacks. Obama's high-tech campaign used the Internet to fact-check
information, counter attacks, strengthen connections to supporters and was always ready
with the 24/7 concept of being contactable 24 hours a day. Riaz (2010:6) concluded that
Obama was able to lead the United States only because of his extensive use of new media
technology.
Many politicians in United States, in addition to utilizing social networking sites, also
create personal blogs. In the blog they express their views, ideas or criticism about
something that is currently a topic in the community. The blog will make the politician seem
more intellectual because they can adapt to the development of inter-net technology. One of
the blogs that got the spotlight some time ago was a blog called nazaruddin78.blogspot.com
which was actually recognized by Nazaruddin as his blog but shortly after that the blog was
closed. In the blog, Nazaruddin gave the title "Applaud the Other Party" in his first post on
May 30, 2011, which contained Nazaruddin's testimony or defense against various
allegations against him. Within 2 days, the first post on the blog had already been visited by
20,000 people (Ingried, 2011).
In United States politics, relationships that are maintained with friends on social
networking sites and blogs for a long time may be useful when the politician campaigns in
the legislative elections or regional elections so that they can win the position of council
member or regional head. However, some politicians are active on social networking sites
and blogs only during campaigns because they need a lot of supporters but after that they no
longer have time to take care of their accounts or blogs because they are busy at work.
In the 2004 US Presidential election email became one of the mainstays of presidential
candidates in delivering messages to potential voters. Presidential candidates used email
messages to promote themselves more often than their opponents' attacks. Email messages
are a potential instrument because they can be forwarded to a large number of
nonsubscribers. Presidential candidate email messages can thus be classified as a form of
viral marketing that offers a unique way to overcome the problem of selective dissemination
(Williams and Trammel, 2005:1).
The Internet can also be used as a medium for something with a negative connotation,
such as a call to boycott something. The following incident occurred in China in 2008 when
a call was made to Inter-net users in China to boycott Carrefour, a French retail giant.
Boycott call While this issue against Carrefour may be business-related, it is actually a
political issue. As recounted by Chung Tai Cheng (2009) in his article titled New Media and
Events: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet, Carrefour, which has 120 stores in more
than 30 cities in China, was accused of supporting the Dalai Lama and pro-Tibet
independent groups. As is known, China considers Tibet to be part of China and therefore
does not recognize the Dalai Lama as the leader of Tibet. To punish Carrefour, some
Chinese Internet users advocated boycotting Carrefour and urged Chinese Internet users to
join in by sending text messages and posting on online forums.
Starting on April 14, 2008, sina.com (a well-known entertainment website and search
engine in China) organized a survey on the opinions of Chinese Internet users on whether or
not to boycott Carrefour.By April 16, 2008, nearly 4.8 million Internet users participated in
the survey. Most of them were in favor of boycotting Carrefour and other French brands and
promised not to shop at Carrefour for a whole month. The call for a boycott was not only
responded to by Internet users but also reached people outside of cyberspace.
Although in the end the boycott was difficult to implement because the issue was
eventually handled on a G to G basis, at least there was a lesson learned that through the
Internet, support for political causes can be mobilized at a fast pace and in large numbers as
a means of pressure on other groups.
Business Field
Internet utilization in the business field is divided into two parts, namely online business and
marketing.
Online Business
The internet can also be used as a medium for doing business, hence the development of
what is known as online business. By capitalizing on a site designed for online business,
business conducted through cyberspace can already take place. This unconventional
business opportunity was immediately responded to by many parties, there are parties who
are seriously involved in online business but many are just trying. Online businesses that
grow from small scale to large scale. Among the successful companies worldwide doing
business via the internet is amazon.com which is often used as an ideal example of the
success of an online business.
Online business through the Internet is basically a lucrative business considering that
the market is Internet users spread all over the world. However, in practice, there are many
obstacles that hinder the development of online business. First, there is the issue of security
in conducting online transactions. There are still many people who doubt whether the credit
card payment transactions they make are really safe? Even though the online business site
already uses a sophisticated security system such as SSL Secure, it cannot one hundred
percent assure consumers that the transaction has taken place safely. About ten years ago,
credit card crime (known as carder) was rampant. In the case of carders, United States is
ranked among the top in the world because many of the perpetrators are domiciled in United
States territory and several people have been arrested by the police. Since then, many online
business sites have rejected credit card payment transactions from United States. Online
bookstore amazon.com does accept credit card payments from United States but refuses to
ship goods to United States. Secondly, although Internet users continue to increase rapidly,
only a small portion of them are potential markets for online businesses. Most Internet users
now prefer to be active on social networking sites, play online games or just browse sites
here and there.
Basically, online business is not suitable for all types of business so if many online
business people fail, it is only natural. In addition, as the basic principles of business, online
businesses must also be managed seriously. Around the mid-1990s in United States, online
retail shopping sites began to appear, one of which was managed by the famous former
actress Lenny Marlina. At first the site was able to attract quite a lot of consumers but then
the site was sold to another party and its whereabouts are unclear now. In 1999, there was
also an online bookstore called sanur.com but now the name is no longer heard. Even if
there are good online business sites in general, it is a company whose basis is conventional
business. For example, bhinneka.com (electronic goods business) and gramediaonline.com
(bookstore). The disadvantage of online business sites in United States that sell products is
that almost all online business sites have not been able to provide credit card payment
facilities as one of the characteristics of online business. Payments are usually made by
conventional means such as transfers so that online business sites act more as a place to
order goods.
The types of online businesses that really enjoy the benefits of the Internet are online
forex sites such as interbank.com, asiafxonline.com, forex.com and betting and gambling
such as ladbrokes.com, bet365.com, mansion.com. It is rumored that the owner of
mansion.com is an United States businessman after earning a lot of money from selling his
cigarette factory. Although this type of online business has a more limited market share, the
turnover of money is very large.
Marketing
The most significant role of the Internet in the business world is the change in the
marketing concept carried out by companies. Companies began to utilize the Internet as a
promotional platform to the world by creating an official company website. The company
site generally displays the company profile, products sold and news regarding company
activities. The company also provides email facilities for people who want to contact the
company. Not only big companies but even smaller companies have websites because
creating a website is not difficult and the cost is relatively affordable. The difference is the
appearance of the site where large company sites are usually managed in a special way so
that the data and appearance are often updated. The internet is also used as a medium to
attract potential consumers or customers. The trick is by sending emails and newsletters that
in Philip Kotler's marketing theory ) is an example of direct marketing via the Internet.
One type of marketing that utilizes various media on the Internet is viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a word-of-mouth marketing model using Internet media or Internet Word
of Mouth. Viral means a virus whose spread takes place quickly. Datta et.al (2005: 72)
explain what is meant by viral marketing, "On the internet, viral marketing is a marketing
technique that induces web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or
users, creating a potentially exponential growth (like a virus) in the message's visibility and
effect" Media that can be used in viral marketing are email, blogs, social networking sites
and video sharing sites.
In connection with social networking sites and blogs that are included in social
marketing, Philip Kotler said at the inauguration of the Hyundai workshop in Denpasar Bali
as follows: "New marketing is social media". He further said, "marketing patterns through
social media allow interaction between producers and consumers of their products. Things
that are impossible to find when using marketing in the old way. Satisfied consumers will
spread that satisfaction to their friends. This cannot be done through advertising."
(Wijoseno, 2011)
The banking world also utilizes the Internet as a medium to serve its customers, known
as the Internet Banking concept. Major banks in United States such as BCA, Mandiri, BNI,
Permata already provide Internet Banking services. In general, the facilities provided by
Internet Banking are money transfers, bill payments, credit purchases made by debiting the
customer's account. At least customers do not need to queue in front of the bank cashier like
in the past when only transferring or paying bills. The number of Internet Banking users in
United States is increasing, which causes the turnover of money to also be greater so that
Bank United States will hopefully make new rules regarding the implementation of Internet
Banking which better guarantees the security of banking transactions carried out.
Education Field
The benefits of the Internet as new media are also felt by the world of education, especially
at the higher education level. For students who want to continue their education abroad, it
will be very easy to find information about the overseas universities they are interested in by
simply accessing the universities' websites on the Internet. Even some famous overseas
universities provide facilities to download registration forms.
The concept of conventional education has changed a lot after the advent of the Internet.
The model of lectures, libraries, making assignments, filling out study plans and so on has
been adjusted to what can be done via the Internet. Most HEIs in United States have
followed the development of Internet technology which is expected to make it easier for
students to get services provided by the campus.
Internet utilization by campuses can be broadly grouped as follows:
Official Website of Higher Education Institutions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have
official websites that can be accessed by every Internet user regarding information sought by
those in need. The most commonly sought information is the schedule of the university's
Entrance Screening Exam (USM) and its requirements. Many universities provide online
registration facilities to fill in the required data even though the registration form must be
purchased directly, usually at banks. USM results can also be viewed by USM participants
on the website of the university where they took the exam. The better the university's
website, the more respect it will get from the visitors, especially from prospective students.
Administrative Affairs Every HEI may not be exactly the same in terms of what can be
provided through the use of the Internet but generally it is as follows:
Filling in the online Study Plan Form (FRS). It is recommended that online FRS filling
can be done through the PT website on the Internet not through LAN so that students
can fill in the FRS from anywhere even if they are on vacation abroad. Regarding
consultation with the Wali Lecturer, it can be done through email contact although not
all Wali Lecturers have time to answer emails from students.
Viewing grades online Students can view assignment, practicum, UAS, UTS grades
online through the university's website on the Internet. Often students after UAS go on
vacation or return home, but through the Internet the student can still access all grades
related to their lecture activities. Through the site, students should also be able to print
their grades in an official format so that the printout can be used as a report card or
Study Result Sheet (LHS) per semester so that students do not have to bother going to
the TU Faculty / Department to get LHS and it will also reduce the busy academic
department of the Faculty / Department.
Internet teaching methods have significantly changed the methods or ways of teaching
conducted by lecturers to students. Things that can be done by lecturers related to the
utilization of the Internet as a teaching medium include:
By using a lap top or PC plus an LCD projector, by utilizing campus Internet facilities,
lecturers can provide lecture material with examples on the Internet.
Lecturers can ask students to create a mailing list on Yahoo or Google and the like as a
medium of communication between lecturers and students related to lecture materials,
collection of assignments and presentation materials.
Lecturers give assignments to students by searching for data on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most students only do "copy and paste" the material obtained from the
Internet. Lecturers should not tolerate this and give bad grades to "copy and paste"
model assignments so that in the future students no longer dare to do the same thing and
material from the Internet is only a reference.
Lecturers can also conduct video conferencing with other HEIs both within and outside
the country if the facilities at the HEI allow for such activities. Actually, video con-
ference is now cheaper by utilizing the services of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger
or Skype.
Digital library There are many HEIs that provide digital library services where books in the
library have been converted to digital format, usually using pdf format. This facility is
usually only accessible to Internet users who have access to the facility, such as students and
lecturers of the HEI or other parties in relation to cooperation between universities in the
form of networks such as APTIK (Association of Catholic Universities) United States.
Online journals Most HEIs in United States have subscribed to online journals that suit the
needs of the HEI. Well-known online journal managers include Proquest, JSTOR, Elsevier
and Springer. The presence of online journals is very helpful for lecturers and students in
compiling a scientific paper, whether it is a paper, article, thesis and dissertation. What- if in
the past most papers used textbooks as references, now journals have become the main
reference in writing scientific papers. Through online journals, a lot of reading material can
be obtained so that plagiarism cases can be avoided and the scientific papers should be more
weighty.
The Internet is also used as a medium for distance learn- ing programs organized by
HEIs that provide these types of courses. Some overseas HEIs often offer these programs on
the Internet and it is possible that there are many enthusiasts because anyone who meets the
requirements can take the program in any country he is in. Of course, prospective students
must be careful in choosing the intended HEI by considering the reputation of the HEI that
organizes the distance learning course.
Socio-Cultural Field
Riaz (2010:3) says, "Today, we are living in a digital world where new media technology
has changed the world. We all have been heavily influenced by new media technology. We
all use the internet for information and connection purposes. The advent of internet has
drastically changed our life styles". Internet as new media with its various applications has
changed the world. People's lifestyles and behaviors are heavily influenced by the Internet.
The impact of the Internet has been felt in the socio-cultural field, affecting people's
daily lives. Some of the Internet applications that are popular among Internet users are
online newspapers, social networking sites, video sharing sites and blogs. The influence of
new media often also reaches people who do not access the Internet.
Social networking sites
So many people are hooked on social networking sites around the world, and United
States is no exception. The most popular social networking sites in United States are
Facebook and Twitter. United States is among the top in the number of users per country
(world ranking) on both sites. Quoted from International Business Times online, it is stated
that Facebook users in United States amount to 33 million people and are ranked second in
the world. For Twitter, United States is also in the top 3 in the world in terms of the number
of users. Is this an achievement? At least, President SBY considers it as a positive thing, as
he said when giving a speech at the Overseas Private Invesment Corporation (OPIC) which
took place in the Ballroom of Sangri La Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, 4-5-2011. "Our youth
are arguably the most 'connected'. Currently we are the second highest Facebook users in the
world, and the third highest Twitter users," said SBY.
The number of 33 million Facebook users is still questionable, is the calculation based
on the number of accounts? United States Internet users are often "nosy", for example
someone opens more than one Facebook account, not to mention how many fake Facebook
accounts there are. However, it must be recognized that United Statess basically like to
communicate with others. This is in line with United States characteristics as a friendly
nation, so it is only natural that there are many United States Facebook and Twitter users.
Basically, social networking sites are a communication medium that circumvents
national borders because it uses Internet facilities. Although Facebook can be used as a
business or marketing tool, it plays more of a social media role. Social networking sites can
be used for:
Looking for old friends or relatives who have lost touch
Establish relationships with other site members.
Raise support for certain people or causes.
A few years ago Facebook was used as a medium to garner support for Bibit and
Chandra, two KPK leaders who were subject to legal proceedings and whose case was
eventually deponeered by the Attorney General's Office. Recently, a Facebook group
entitled "A million supports for the family of AL who exposed the mass cheating in
Surabaya" has also emerged. The support in question is for Siami, the mother of Alif, the
student who was told to give cheats to his friends in what is known as the "mass cheating
case" during the National Exam at SDN Gadel II/577 Surabaya. As is known, Siami was the
one who reported the mass cheating case at the elementary school. Support through
Facebook can be contagious to the public because the news is usually exposed by television
which is watched by many people.
Social networking sites also often cause problems, including:
There are many fake accounts (in United States most often on Facebook) that generally
happen to famous people, be it artists, politicians, officials, religious figures and others.
These fake Facebook accounts are often used as a tool to commit fraud by taking the
name of the famous person.
A domestic dispute triggered by one party losing track of time on social networking
sites or one party being jealous that their partner is in a relationship with someone else.
A crime case in which a person (usually a woman) is invited to meet someone she has
just met through a social networking site and is then deceived, taken away or abused by
the person she has just met.
Some users of social networking sites upload pornographic images on one account,
usually a fake account, and also send the pornographic images to other people's
accounts. This can be a serious problem because many users of social networking sites
are young.
Employees who love the Internet become more busy playing social networking sites
than taking care of their work. In some countries such as the US, England, Switzerland,
many companies prohibit their employees from opening social networking sites during
working hours. The following is quoted from Metrotvnews.com (2009), "More than half
of the companies in the United States prohibit their employees from opening social
networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, during working hours. This
is according to a recent survey by inde- pendent research firm Robert Half Technology,
a California-based provider of information technology professionals. The survey proved
that about 54 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) from 1,400 companies in the
US completely prohibit their employees from opening social networks. Dave Willmer,
Managing Director of Robert Half Technology, said that the use of social networking
pages can reduce employee performance. Employees' concentration can be broken and
they can fall short of their targets."
However, social networking sites are still gaining popularity as the new way to
communicate with others around the world, hence the number of social networking sites
users of social networking sites, at least in United States, have increased significantly. Users
of social networking sites are not only good at making friends on the Internet but also in the
real world, as written by Kristo (2011) as follows, "There has been speculation about the
impact of social networking use on people's social lives and much of it centers on the
possibility that such sites damage relationships and keep them from participating in the real
world," said research leader from the Pew Research Center in the United States, Keith
Hampton. "We found the opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have
more relationships and tend to be more engaged in civic and political activities," he said.
Video Sharing Sites
A very popular video sharing site around the world is YouTube which is now a
subsidiary of Google. So it's no wonder people identify video sharing sites as YouTube even
though there are many other video sharing sites such as Albino Blacksheep, Break.com,
Collegehumor.com, Fail Blog, Funny or Die, JibJab, LiveVideo, Metacafe,
Newgrounds.com, Pandora tv, Veoh.com and ebaumsworld. YouTube is indeed a favorite of
Internet users as a medium to find trending videos or other videos which are very large in
number. In addition, a person can also upload video recordings made or owned.
A person can become famous through YouTube if their video recording is watched by
many Internet users. Remember the story of Sinta and Jojo, two girls from Bandung who
suddenly became popular through a YouTube video recording of them lip-syncing with their
heads shaking. Or the story of Norman Camaru, a Gorontalo Brimob member who suddenly
became an impromptu artist through his "chaiya-chaiya" act. There was nothing special
about their stunts, but in fact, most YouTube viewers loved them so much that it spread to
the public through television and print media. Reportedly, there are also many people in
other countries who became popular after their actions were watched by many people
through the YouTube site as reported by one of the national private television through its
program entitled "On the Spot".
Images from video sharing sites spread like a virus very quickly. This is also what
happened in the case of Ariel Peterpan's porn video. Initially the case was uploaded to the
YouTube site by someone, watched by a few people and the news quickly spread to many
people who then tried to see it directly on YouTube. Video images on YouTube such as the
Ariel video are very easy to download and then send to cell phones and the like so that more
and more people have seen the porn video. Something that starts on the Internet can in fact
spread to the wider community who are not Internet users. We have to look at the positive
side of sites like YouTube. There are many people who upload videos to the site so that we
can see anything on YouTube such as the history of the nation's struggle, world history,
science, famous figures, famous places and so on. Not only recorded videos, YouTube also
presents live images through live broadcasts throughout the world the spirit of the 2011
Copa America matches that began on July 1 via youtube.com/copaamerica
Online Newspaper
Many years after the Internet appeared, the era of online newspapers began. In United
States, one of the pioneers was detik.com, which was established on July 9, 1998. The site
quickly became popular with United States Internet users. After that, online newspapers
began to increase one by one so that now there are many online newspapers. Most of the
online newspapers belong to traditional or conventional national newspapers, for example
kompas.com is an online newspaper owned by Kompas daily, suarapembaruan.com belongs
to Suara Pembaruan daily and so on. The online newspaper owned by a national newspaper
was pioneered by Kontan which was established in July 2008. Actually, it is a bit odd for
traditional newspapers to make online newspapers, but traditional newspapers realize that
the era of new media in the field of journalism has been and continues to take place, one of
which is online newspapers. Internet users are welcome to access online newspapers while
those who are loyal to traditional newspapers are welcome to buy or subscribe to these
newspapers.
The increasing number of online newspapers has certainly reduced the circulation of
traditional newspapers and this is recognized by several newspaper publishers. It is not
surprising that a few months ago Kompas daily organized a lottery with mo-bil prizes for
new Kompas daily subscribers in that period. If asked, Kompas might deny that the lottery
was aimed at increasing the number of subscribers who have been decreasing, but when
Kompas was still the market leader, it never held a car lottery for prospective subscribers.
The advantage of online newspapers is that the news presented is always hot news or if
there is news about something then the news is always updated, so it's no wonder that the
news in online newspapers is short. If there is a case that becomes the talk of the community
then people who are curious just access the newspaper on- line and the information
presented will continue to be updated periodically. Online newspapers can also be accessed
for 24 hours so it doesn't matter whether someone can only read the news at midnight or
early morning. Online newspapers use the Internet media so that wherever someone accesses
the Internet there is no problem for him to read online newspapers published in any country.
Online newspapers are increasingly read by people because new media is also increasing, for
example i-pads and smartphones that make it easier for people to enter the Internet.
Blog
Blogs were once a trend on the Internet before social networking sites became so
popular. In its "State of the Blogsphere" report, Technorati, a blog search engine, claims to
have tracked more than 57 million blogs in October 2006 and that 100,000 new blogs are
created every day. (Scott, 2007:297). Blogs are used as a medium of communication through
the material presented in the blog and then there are other Internet users who respond.
Similar to social networking sites, the most visited blogs are those whose content is about
something that is in the spotlight. The content of the blog is also very diverse ranging from
the inconsequential to the serious, ranging from jokes, gossip, poetry, stories to science. One
site that specializes in blogs is www.xanga.com which is known as the weblog community.
Although creating a blog is not difficult, many Internet users do not want to create a
blog because maintaining a blog requires seriousness where a good blog owner (blogger)
must often change the contents of his blog. The number of blogs on the Internet is very large
but only a few blogs are really good. There are many blogs that cannot be accessed.
Bloggers seem more intellectual because a blogger basically has to create material for his
blog and not everyone is able to do it. At least a blogger has a pretty good education and
knowledge. Unlike social networking sites where it is very easy to become a member, so
many people from the lower classes are members of social networking sites.
Conclusion
In the discussion, it has been stated that the Internet is the new media that is most widely
utilized by humans. This can happen because, first, there are many Internet users around the
world, which is estimated in 2011 at 2 billion people and second, the Internet provides a
very diverse application that allows people to do various activities on the Internet, namely
social networking sites, video sharing sites, online games, blogs, online businesses, video
conferences, e-books, online newspapers, online chat forums, mailing lists and so on.
The Internet has been utilized by all sciences and is therefore related to many areas of
human life. In this paper, the use of the Internet is limited to the fields of politics, business,
education and socio-culture. The reason is that the various new media on the Internet have
almost all been utilized by these four fields. The intended utilization is for positive purposes
although in practice the Internet is also used for negative purposes by a small number of
Internet users. Some new media on the Internet such as social networking sites and video
sharing sites often influence the lifestyle of Internet users and not only that, the material
uploaded to these two media also easily reaches the wider community, for example through
cell phones, which most people already have.
The internet is a part of information technology that will continue to grow as it has been
happening so far. In the future, there will definitely be new media that will replace the
current media which will later shift as old media. Such a cycle will occur as long as human
civilization with its Internet is still going on.
