Galen Michael Stolee

This research examines how Indonesian journalists, state regulators, civil society leaders, and mass publics themselves are collectively imagining and constructing a free press and public sphere, and meanwhile redefining cultural meanings of truth, transparency, and authenticity. Based on twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork in the news industry and regulatory bodies of Jakarta, I seek to understand what freedom of expression means in a global period of increased political polarization, media balkanization, and information oversaturation.