Golden Indonesia 2045: Neoliberal Development Policies and Environmental Journalism

By 2045, the government wants Indonesia to be a developed country, with sustainable economic development and energy transition at the top of the agenda on the road to ‘Golden Indonesia’. Despite the supposedly ‘green’ agenda, the forceful push for economic development is causing significant environmental destruction. Through ethnographic research, this paper investigates the entanglements of Golden Indonesia politics, environmental journalism and activism, and social media. Using connective affordance as a conceptual frame and drawing on the author's long-term engagement with environmental activism in Indonesia, the article analyzes how environmental journalists and activists challenge government narratives and policies, through social media, online and offline engagement, and multimodal action. It examines what users do with social media, but focuses primarily on the human value and connectivity that activists produce in their digital media engagement.