Google Control Journalism Practices in Indonesian Cyber Media

Abstract

This study aims to reveal how Indonesian cyber media journalism is controlled by Google in its journalistic work processes. The theories and concepts used to reveal it are technology determination, the concept of work processes in cyber media, business models and clickbait, and news value. The media that became the object of this research were Okezone.com, Tribunnews.com, Kompas.com, Detik.com, and Kumparan.com. The five were chosen as research objects because they were in the order of one to five as cyber media with the greatest number of visitors or traffic according to alexa.com. Research takes a subjective approach with a constructivist paradigm. The research method used is descriptive qualitative with primary data collection carried out through semi-structured interviews with five representatives of five cyber media. Secondary data collection is done by observing the news broadcast in the five cyber media which is the object of research. The data analysis technique used six stages of analysis developed by Creswell. There are four findings in this study as a form of Google-controlled journalism in the work process of cyber media journalism in Indonesia. The four findings are 1) The colonialization of cyber media by Google. 2) Google through AdSense influences the business model and the development of clickbait in cyber media journalism. 3) "What Google Said" as the new news value and news distribution reference. 4) The development of Google's journalism mindset in writing news, namely writing based on keywords.