E-Journal of Cultural Studies

DOAJ Indexed (Since 14 Sep 2015)

ISSN 2338-2449

February 2017 Vol. 10, Number 1, Page 19-24

https://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/ecs/

IDEOLOGICAL DECONSTRUCTION OF THE PROMOTIONAL MEDIA IN BALI CULTURAL TOURISM

AA Gde Bagus Udayana Nengah Bawa Atmadja I Nyoman Dhana E-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

The regional regulation issued by the Provincial Government Number 2 of 2012 defines that Tri Hita Karana is a Hindu philosophy explaining the three things which contribute to prosperity. Therefore, the promotional media of tourism should be ideally based on the ideology of Tri Hita Karana. However, the fact shows that it has been marginalized in the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism. In relation to this, three main theories are used in the present study. They are the theory of deconstruction, the theory of practice, and the theory of social reality construction. The qualitative, descriptive, and interpretative methods were employed to analyze the data, which were collected through in-depth interview, observation and documentary study.

Based on the result of the study, it can be concluded that the capitalistic ideology, the ideology of cultural dualism, the ideology of consumerism, the ideology of commercialism, the ideology of totalitarianism, and the ideology of pseudo-social responsibility have been responsible for the marginalization of the ideology of Tri Hita Karana in the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism. The system used to deconstruct the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism involves the government, private companies, and the graphic design consultants. They are oriented towards their respective ideology and interest. The ideology and interest-oriented promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism affect the image of Bali as a tourist destination. The implications are as follows: Bali is an area of the culture of tourism; it is an area where postmodern people live; it is an area where glocalization takes place; it is an area where modern spirituality develops; it is also an area where the identity of the Balinese people and culture is shown not to be in accordance with the fact.

Keywords: deconstruction, promotional media, ideology, social construction, globalization

INTRODUCTION

The tourism which is developed in Bali is the cultural tourism, which has been clearly defined in the Regional Regulation of the Bali Provincial Government Number 2 of 2012 concerning the Bali Culture-based Tourism. Based on this provision, every activity related to the development of the cultural tourism in Bali, including the promotion made should have implemented the philosophy of Tri Hita Karana. However, based on what has been observed, there are several media used to promote the Balinese cultural tourism which have

E-Journal of Cultural Studies DOAJ Indexed (Since 14 Sep 2015) ISSN 2338-2449                                             https://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/ecs/

marginalized the ideology of Tri Hita Karana. According to Piliang (2003:211), marginalization means placing elements on the margin of a picture. Therefore, in this case, the marginalization of Tri Hita Karana can be defined as the act of marginalizing or ignoring such an ideology in the visual presentation of the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism.

Based on the definition that a medium is a reality which has been deconstructed in the form of meaningful discourse, then it can be stated that the contents of the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism are deconstructed in the form of meaningful discourses concerning the cultural tourism in Bali. Althusser (2008) states that a discourse is an ideology in practice, meaning that there is no discourse without any ideology and that there is no ideology without discourse. Based on this concept, then the promotional media of the Balinese cultural tourism can be viewed as the discourses reflecting a particular ideology. Therefore, as reflected in the title of this present study, the present study focuses on the ideology of the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism. To this end, it is necessary to deconstruct the ideology of the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism. The reason is that, as stated by Barker (2005:510), “deconstruction: deconstructing which is aimed at searching out and revealing the assumptions, strategies, rhetoric, and what is hidden in a text”. Based on the quotation above, it can be understood that in brief deconstruction means an effort made to reveal the implied meaning of a text or discourse.

Based on the facts and what is meant by a medium, an ideology and the relationship between one and another as described, several assumptions can be formulated as follows. First, the marginalization of the ideology of Tri Hita Karana in the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism cannot be separated from the ideology which has inspired them. Second, it is highly possible that such an ideology and the interests of the stakeholders involved in the process of reconstructing the promotional media have been responsible for the marginalization of the ideology of Tri Hita Karana. Third, the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism with the marginalized ideology of Tri Hita Karana have affected the image of Bali as a tourist destination of cultural tourism.

Based on the problems formulated above, the general objective of this present study is to deconstruct the ideology of the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism with the marginalized ideology of Tri Hita Karana. It is expected that the result of the study may give theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretically, it is expected that (1) the result of the present study can enrich the knowledge of the ideology which has inspired the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism with the marginalized ideology of Tri Hita Karana; (2) the

E-Journal of Cultural Studies DOAJ Indexed (Since 14 Sep 2015) ISSN 2338-2449                                             https://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/ecs/

result of the present study can reveal the system used to construct the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism with the marginalized ideology of Tri Hita Karana; (3) the result of the present study can reveal the implication of the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism with the marginalized ideology of Tri Hita Karana on the image of Bali as an area of cultural tourism viewed from the stakeholders involved in the tourism industry.

RESEARCH METHOD

The qualitative method is used in the present study which gives emphasis on the excavation, explanation and the descriptive, holistic, and interpretative description of the things related to the problems of the study formulated above.

The data were analyzed with reference to the procedure of the qualitative data analysis which includes data reduction, temporary data display, data interpretation and conclusion drawing. The data reduction includes data selection, data focusing, data simplification, data classification, the subjective information quoted from the interview, and data reflection. The data are presented and interpreted in the form of a narrative text showing regularity, explanation, and cause and effect plot. Conclusions are drawn or verified by summarizing the result of the study already presented so what appears is related to the ideology which has inspired the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism.

DISCUSSION

Based on the result of the deconstruction of the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism and the information provided by the informants it can be identified that the pictures/illustrations, and the sentences used in the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism contain several ideologies. It is necessary to affirm that without in-depth observation or only through exploration it seems to be difficult to identify the ideologies which have inspired the promotional media of the Bali cultural media with the marginalized ideology of Tri Hita Karana. They ideologies are as follows 1) the capitalistic ideology, the ideology of cultural dualism, the ideology of consumerism, the ideology of totalitarianism, the ideology of the pseudo-social responsibility.

In this case, the definition of the capitalistic ideology refers to what is described by Atmadja (2010: 75-76) that the characteristic of the capitalistic ideology or known as the market religion refers to the concept which is not only different but also contrasts the characteristic of Hinduism as the source of the ideology of Tri Hita Karana. The characteristic

E-Journal of Cultural Studies DOAJ Indexed (Since 14 Sep 2015) ISSN 2338-2449                                             https://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/ecs/

of the capitalistic ideology, as described above, can be expressed in a goal, namely selling a product. The selling activity can be done through promotion, including the promotional media of tourism. What is presented in the media is not only presented but it also contains an expectation for selling things based on the capitalistic principle, namely obtaining benefit. If what is presented in the media is the nature, its function has also shifted to becoming a commodity, or it functions as a product with an exchange value in order to obtain benefit.

Based on the deconstructive observation, it can be identified that the capitalistic ideology has been much more dominantly responsible for marginalizing the ideology of Tri Hita Karana in the promotional media of the Balinese cultural tourism than the other ideologies. What is meant is that it is the capitalistic ideology which has initially motivated the stakeholders to create the promotional media in a particular manner. Then the capitalistic ideology causes the other ideologies to appear.

In this case, construction should be viewed as a system which leads to the marginalization of the ideology of Tri Hita Karana. In fact, the system used to construct the promotional media of the Balinese cultural tourism can be further classified based on the initiators; they are the government, the private organizations, and the graphic design consultants. It turns out that the products produced by the system applied by the government involving the graphic design consultants which are the same as those produced by the private companies such as brochures, folders, leaflets and tabloids/magazines, and billboards do not reflect the ideology of Tri Hita Karana, and that they are all dominated by the capitalistic ideology. Those with an accumulation of capitals including the economic capital and the other capitals are dominantly able to marginalize those with a smaller accumulation of capitals.

Based on the theory of social construction proposed by Berger and Luckman, an image and defection take place through the perception of the area of the Bali cultural tourism with the marginalized ideology of Tri Hita Karana in the promotional media. The reason is that, according to Berger and Lukmann (in Hamad, 2004: 12), the process of the construction of a reality includes the meaning given through the process of the perception of an object. In other words, it can be understood that a perception is a mode for defining something or a mode for giving meaning to something. In this case, it is necessary to affirm what is meant by perception and meaning so that they can be adequately understood.

According to Charon, as referred to by Mulyana (2006:7), a perception is guided by the perspective used by someone to view an object. In Semiotics, meaning is what a sign contains as understood by the user (Hoed, 2008: 3). Therefore, it can be understood that

E-Journal of Cultural Studies DOAJ Indexed (Since 14 Sep 2015) ISSN 2338-2449                                             https://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/ecs/

defining something or giving meaning to something is identical with the process of understanding something. According to Barker (2005: 168), meaning is situated in what is trusted, what is true and the reason daily used by people; or, according to Mulyana (2006: 21), meaning is situated in someone’s mind instead of in the object defined.

Based on what was described above, according to the stakeholders, the image of Bali as an area of cultural tourism can be traced through how they define it through what they perceive of Bali as a tourist destination. More basically, the process of defining the image of Bali as a tourist destination can be viewed from what is stated to be true, what is trusted, and the reason given by the stakeholders. In relation to that, the result of the study shows that Bali is an area of cultural tourism; Bali is an area where postmodern people live; Bali is an area of glocalization; Bali is an area where modern spirituality modern develops; the Bali’s identity has become a hyperreality. If observed, it seems that Bali is an area of the culture of tourism instead of an area of cultural tourism. This is the very fundamental implication which then leads to the other implications.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

The capitalistic ideology is the most dominant ideology which has affected the production of the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism. The reason is that it is intended to increase the number of tourists visiting the promoted tourist destination, which then causes the benefit obtained or the money earned to rise as well.

In this case, the relationship of power between the government and the graphic design consultants and the private companies with their own designers takes place. It turns out that the government’s capital is weaker; it only has the economic capital, namely money for funding the production of the promotional media. Therefore, the graphic design consultants with their stronger economic capital, social capital, and cultural capital have more power in the production of the promotional media.

The main implication of the promotional media of the Bali cultural tourism is that Bali constitutes an area of the culture of tourism. Based on that implication, it can be seen that the promotional media of the Balinese cultural tourism are not strong enough to affirm the identity of the Bali cultural tourism, namely the Tri Hita Karana-based cultural tourism.

Therefore, it is suggested that the government, the graphic design consultants, and the private companies, as the shareholders, that they should refer to the Regional Regulation of the Provincial Government Number 2 of 2012. In this way, the promotional media of the

E-Journal of Cultural Studies

DOAJ Indexed (Since 14 Sep 2015)

ISSN 2338-2449                                             https://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/ecs/

Bali cultural tourism keeps showing what is specific to the Bali’s identity which still makes tourists interested in visiting Bali.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The writer would like to thank Prof. Dr. I Nyoman Dharma Putra, M.Litt., as the supervisor for his supervision, motivation, support and suggestion. Thanks are also extended to Prof. Dr. Nengah Bawa Atmadja, M.A. and Dr. I Nyoman Dhana, M.A., their supervision, systemic and detailed input and for lending the references needed to complete this present study.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Althusser, Louis. 2008. Tentang Ideologi: Marxisme Strukturalis, Psikoanalisis, Cultural Studies. Yogyakarta : Jalasutra.

Atmadja, Nengah Bawa. 2010. Ajeg Bali: Gerakan, Identitas Kultural, dan Globalisasi. Yogyakarta:LkiS.

Barker, Chris. 2005. Cultural Studies: Teori dan Praktik. Yogyakarta: Kreasi Wacana.

Hamad, Ibnu. 2004. Konstruksi Realitas Politik Dalam Media Massa Sebuah Studi Critical Discourse Analysis terhadap Berita-berita Politik. Jakarta: Granit.

Mulyana, Deddy. 2006. Metode Penelitian Kualitatif: Paradigma Baru Ilmu Komunikasi dan Ilmu sosial Lainnya. Bandung: PT Remaja Rosdakarya.

Piliang, Yasraf Amir. 2003. Hipersemiotika: Tafsir Cultural Studies Atas Matinya Makna. Yogyakarta: Jalasutra.

Hoed, Benny H. 2008. Semiotik dan Dinamika Sosial Budaya. Depok: Fak Ilmu Pengetahuan Budaya (FIB) UI.

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