Yogyakarta, 26 June 2019—In the field of technology, artificial intelligence (AI) has brought tremendous positive impacts to our daily lives. Three researchers from the Center for Digital Society (CfDS) covered this issue on the 13th session of the Digital Future Discussion (Difussion), entitled “How Intelligent is Artificial Intelligence?” on Wednesday at Warunk Upnormal Gejayan. According to Theodore Great, AI is useful in the health sector, as it can collect medical records and create conclusions from them. In the future, it’s expected that AI can help doctors to diagnose diseases. In music, AI can also create artificial singers, such as the Instagram star Miquela Sousa. “However, AI still cannot match human musicians, as it cannot replicate human social life,” Great conveyed. AI’s algorithms can easily decipher our music preferences and hobbies by analysing our behaviours on the internet and on social media. Afterwards, Janitra Haryanto focused on the role of AI in politics. Today, AI can be used to handle political contents, managing campaigns and administering the flow of information, as well as testing a political figure’s integrity. In fact, a robot politician can represent the Prime Minister in New Zealand. The public claimed that robots can receive and manifest their aspirations better. Meanwhile, Anisa Pratita Mantovani covered the role of AI in law. She explained that in Singapore, robots can replace traditional human judges in order to avoid emotional biases. Through arranged algorithms, robot judges can formulate fair decisions. “Unlike humans, robots are free from emotional influences, hence making them more objective and just”, Tita stated. AI is indeed useful and has made life relatively easier for us. However, the use of AI requires a strict set of control and regulations. This is essential in order to make AI as effective as possible, while minimizing its negative impacts at the same time.

Hong Kong, 7 June 2019—The New. Now. Next Media Conference (N3Con) 2019 was held by the Asian Chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association from the 30^th of May until the 2^nd of June 2019 in Hong Kong. This conference took place at the University of Hong Kong, Google Hong Kong and Bloomberg Hong Kong. This year’s N3Con was entitled “Covering Asia’s New Order”, which emphasized on the importance of Asia in the future of the media industry.

N3Con featured tens of guest speakers from various international media, such as Wenxin Fan (reporter at the Wall Street Journal), Eulaine Kurtenbach (the editor of the Associated Press), Motoko Rich (the Tokyo Bureau Chief of The New York Times), Shibani Mahtani (reporter at the Washington Post), Roger Clark (the Vice President of CNN International), Richard C. Paddock (reporter at the New York Times), Enda Curran (reporter at Bloomberg News) and many others. To support students worldwide, N3Con 2019 and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism established a fellowship program. This fellowship was granted to three students from all over the world to participate in the N3Con. read more

Yogyakarta, 22 May 2019—The Creative Hub (C-Hub) of Fisipol UGM held another sharing session event, which took place in Block 71 co-working space. Representatives from Amalan and Bantu were the main speakers in Wednesday’s sharing session.

This event was opened by Matahari Farransahat by introducing the 2 projects of C-Hub; Talent Pitching and Social Entrepreneurship Academy (AKM). AKM’s programmes can be accessed through MOOC. C-Hub was established in 2018 with the aim of spreading the awareness for social entrepreneurship through know-how. read more

Yogyakarta, 21 May 2019—CfDS Fisipol UGM released a research entitled “The 10 Most Influential Political Figures.” On Twitter, Prabowo’s influencers clearly dominated the topic of the 2019 General Election, with 8 out of 10 figures hailing from his side. However, President Joko Widodo was the most popular political figure, with a total of 5.67 million engagements in Twitter.

This press conference was held on BC 201 room, with Treviliana Eka Putri and Iradat Wirid as the speakers. Both speakers also took part in this research. The data show that the amount of engagements on Twitter correlates with the personalization of the Tweets. Thus, political figures such as Prabowo and Ma’ruf Amin were not present in the list of the 10 most influential political figures. “From our findings, Tweets with a high amount of personalization, such as idioms and typical tones from each political figure, tend to have high engagements”, as stated by Iradat, one of the researchers in CfDS. read more

Yogyakarta, 20 May 2019—This year’s Ramadan in Fisipol (RDF), which lasted for two weeks, was officially closed. The closing ceremony was entitled “Ramadan, Self-Improvement, Social Improvement and National Unity.” This event was held at the West Hall of Fisipol UGM and was led by Purwo Santoso, a professor from the Department of Politics and Government.

RDF was closed by Wawan Mas’udi, the Vice Dean of Fisipol. Drum beating and a percussion orchestra enlivened this closing ceremony. Wawan appreciated the spirit of unity and inclusivity contained in RDF through the collaboration of all elements in Fisipol. “This reflects the actions of prophet Muhammad, which reached out to all elements of the society in order to improve it,” Wawan conveyed. read more

Yogyakarta, 20 May 2019—The ASEAN Studies Center (ASC) of Fisipol UGM held Bincang ASEAN (ASEAN Talks), which was entitled “East Timor’s Accession to ASEAN; Prospects and Challenges.” This event was held at room BB 208 at Fisipol UGM, and featured Dio Herdiawan Tobing, S.IP, L.LM, a researcher at ASC, as the speaker.

This event was opened with a discussion surrounding the relations between Indonesia and East Timor. Since its independence, the political situation in East Timor has been relatively unstable. According to Dio, one of the most important matters in East Timor is the issue of human rights. “In East Timor, press freedom is very limited. There are more Indonesian TV channels than Timorese TV channels there,” Dio stated. read more

Yogyakarta, 16 May 2019–The Career Development Center (CDC) of Fisipol UGM held another session of career preparation class. This session was centred on the issue of pursuing a career in the academic path. The speakers of this session were Prasakti Ramadhana Fahadi, better known as Dana, a research assistant at YouSure Fisipol, as well as Mohammad Zaki Arrobi, a lecturer at the Department of Sociology UGM. Swiss-Belboutique Yogyakarta was the venue of this event.

At the beginning, Dana, an alumnus of Monash University, faced numerous challenges. Previously, he aspired to study in the London School of Economics and Political Science and New York University. After earning his bachelor’s degree from the Department of Communication Studies of UGM, he took Media Studies as a major for his master’s degree. read more

Yogyakarta, 10 May 2019–The Career Development Center (CDC) of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (Fisipol) UGM held a training entitled “How to be a great MC” in the BA building of Fisipol UGM. Cici Priskila, a well-known MC and a radio broadcaster at Swaragama FM, was the instructor in this training. This program was participated by students from various departments of Fisipol.

At the beginning of the training, the participants were assigned to practice their public speaking skills by presenting a chosen topic. Afterwards, Cici introduced herself and provided an evaluation for the participants. “Nervousness is actually a good thing, since it means that our subconsciousness is trying to deliver the best of ourselves,” she stated. read more

Yogyakarta, 10 May 2019–Several days ago, Indonesia was proud to serve as the President of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting. This meeting, which took place in New York, was led by Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, and batik was the dress code of this meeting.

Next to the room where the UNSC meeting was taking place, another meeting was held to prepare a draft recommendation the 2020 Review Conference concerning the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Yunizar Adiputera, a lecturer from the Department of International Relations, was one of the representatives that participated in this conference that was held from the 29^th of April until the 10^th of May 2019. read more

Yogyakarta, 8 May 2019–Fisipol UGM held a press conference to publish a research project regarding the high rate of mortality and sickness of the 2019 General Election workers. This research project is interdisciplinary, as it involves Fisipol UGM, the Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing (FKKMK) UGM and the Faculty of Psychology UGM.

The press conference, which took place at Digilib Café, was attended by 21 media outlets. Erwan Agus Purwanto, the Dean of Fisipol UGM, stated that the high rate of death and sickness of the 2019 General Election workers can be classified as an extraordinary occurrence in order to prevent such phenomenon from occurring again in the future. read more