Business Media Politics in Indonesia: Transformation, Regulation, and Democratic Challenges

Since the fall of the New Order regime in 1998, Indonesian media has transitioned from tightly controlled state instruments to liberalized markets. Initially celebrated as democratic watchdogs, media outlets expanded rapidly but soon came under the dominance of conglomerates and oligarchic ownership. In the digital era, commercialization, ownership concentration, and weak regulatory enforcement have transformed Indonesian media into hybrid institutions that function simultaneously as economic enterprises, political actors, and ideological instruments. This study examines how regulatory frameworks, ownership structures, and commercialization drive the transformation of Indonesian media. It introduces the concept of business media politics to extend political economy of communication theory by integrating regulatory dynamics into political communication analysis, offering a context-sensitive framework for emerging democracies in the Global South. Employing a qualitative political economy approach, the research combines historical analysis, document review of regulatory texts and ownership records, and critical discourse analysis (CDA) of media coverage during the 2019–2024 electoral cycles. Semi-structured interviews with journalists, academics, and policy analysts were conducted, with data coded in NVivo to ensure thematic consistency and triangulation. Findings reveal that weak regulation facilitates ownership concentration and oligarchic influence, reinforcing commercialization and political capture. Media conglomerates such as Kompas Gramedia and Media Group illustrate how editorial agendas align with proprietors’ political and economic interests. Comparative insights from the Philippines, India, and Brazil underscore similar patterns of regulatory fragility and media capture across the Global South. Indonesian media thus operates as hybrid entities under fragile regulatory regimes, embodying the convergence of business imperatives and political power. The proposed concept of business media politics offers a novel framework for analyzing media transformation in emerging democracies. Limitations include the qualitative scope and the focus on the 2019–2024 period; future research should employ quantitative big data analysis and cross-national comparisons to advance understanding of media regulation and democratic resilience. JEL L82•K23• P16•O53•D72