Keywords

Set in a peri-urban area, the TV drama show starts with a loud shriek waking Bodo, our lead character, from a slumber to find flooding in his room and the local area. The slumber is representative of a general apathy toward the environment and sustainable development at multiple levels. Its vivid realization was evident in a Cambridge University and YouGov study (2020), which showed that Indonesia is home to the largest percentage of climate change deniers in the world, who do not believe that human activities could cause natural disasters. The study further showed that over eight percent of Indonesian respondents assumed that human-driven global warming is a swindle and an element of conspiracy theory.

BBC Media Action’s Kembali Ke Hutan (Return to the Forest) project aims to engage Indonesian millennials on the sustainable development challenges the country faces, help them make informed choices, and create platforms to have their voices heard. To do so, we have co-produced an award-winning TV drama #CeritaKita (Our Story) (Bandung Film Festival, 2021), with a companion social media discussion series Ngobrolin #CeritaKita (Chatter—Our Story), created a social media brand AksiKita Indonesia (Our Action), and partnered with media and civil society organizations for community engagement and capacity building.

With over 270 million people, Indonesia is one of the most populous countries in the world (Worldometers, n.d.). Young people in urban areas make up a significant proportion of this and by 2030, they are projected to make up 46% of the total population (Badan Pusat Statistik, 2013). As such, engaging meaningfully with young people on some of the most critical issues facing the country—including those related to sustainable development and green growth—is vital, as they will be at the forefront of addressing these and leading on innovative solutions in the years to come. However, this is not an easy feat. Complex reports on deforestation trends, intermittent, event-driven media coverage, and presenting information in a way that isn’t accessible or relevant are unlikely to capture youth interest (Lenhardt, 2020). This, in turn, is a considerable barrier to driving engagement and inspiring action. This is where the role of creative media and communication becomes important in providing young Indonesians with engaging stories, role models, and safe environments for unbiased debate and discussion, which can increase knowledge, build people’s confidence and motivation to act, and support informed decision-making.

BBC Media Action (n.d.), the BBC’s international charity, believes in the power of media and communication for good. Since 1999, and drawing on the BBC’s much longer history of using storytelling to hold a mirror up to society, we have created dramas to increase understanding, challenge attitudes, and help people to take action. Our and others’ evidence demonstrates that storytelling can be an important and incredibly powerful force for positive social impact. Stories not only inform, educate, and entertain but also encourage empathy and promote social cohesion (Gowland, 2021), challenge harmful gender norms (Shannon, 2018), start conversations on invisible and hard-to-address topics like fecal sludge management (Newton-Lewis et al., 2021) and inspire new intentions (Godfrey, 2017).

Using BBC Media Action’s Kembali Ke Hutan (Return to the Forest) project in Indonesia as a case study, this chapter examines how trusted media and creative communication, informed by theory, practice, and rigorous audience research, can be used to engage urban youth (aged 18–30) and:

  • Provide stimuli to influence knowledge, attitudes, discussion, and participation on climate, environment, and green growth issues.

  • Offer platforms for urban youth to participate in the existing governance systems on sustainable development and green growth.

  • Enhance media’s ability to act as an accountability mechanism between young people and their decision-makers.

In doing so, this chapter contributes to the evidence and learning on the transformative potential of civic participation and governance interventions, using narrative-based media and public engagement strategies to address climate-related and sustainable development issues in Indonesia. We begin this chapter with an overview of the current context in Indonesia, then summarize BBC Media Action’s research approach and findings to inform its communication strategy, describe the project’s media and communication outputs, and conclude with the planned evaluation for 2022.

Climate Change and Indonesia

Indonesia has some of the world’s highest proportion of forests, natural resources, and fauna biodiversity (Mongabay, 2011). However, it is also one of the largest producers of greenhouse gases (GHGs)—primarily coming from energy, transport, and deforestation (Dunne, 2019). Whilst the country has already shown reasonable progress in reducing deforestation at the national level in recent years, with a declining rate of forest loss between 2015 and 2018, there are key provinces (which contain most of Indonesia’s primary forests) that show an increase in forest loss—such as East Kalimantan (43% loss), Maluku (40%), and West Papua (36%; Wijaya et al., 2019). The situation in Indonesia is further exacerbated by the fact that, due to its geography and existing vulnerabilities, the country is also particularly prone to devastating climate impacts, such as floods and droughts. Forest fires have become particularly common in recent years and have created a significant impact on Indonesia’s emissions profile across the years, as well as piqued media interest in the issue. There are also increasing instances of erratic rainfall patterns, and urban flooding in recent years (Chamorro et al., 2017).

The Government of Indonesia has made notable commitments to address these issues, including introducing a greenhouse gas emission reduction target of 29% (business as usual) to 41% (with international assistance) by 2030 as part of its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) as per UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (2021). At the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in 2021, Indonesia further reiterated its commitment to foster low carbon growth and neutralize carbon emissions from deforestation over the next few years. Nevertheless, its ability to successfully fill these commitments depends on large-scale public engagement and enhanced governance and accountability for the sustainable use of its natural resources.

Urban youth, in particular, can play a critical role in accelerating climate action. First, they make up a significant proportion of the Indonesian population—UNFPA (2015) predicts that 46% will be under the age of 30 by 2030 (the current median age is 28.5 years) and 68% will be in urban areas. Second, Indonesian youth have played an important role in political and governance issues over time—from the change to a republican state to the demand for accountability around key livelihood or political decisions (Adioetomo, 2015).

Around the world, young people are leading engagement on climate action. However, climate change doesn’t currently fit within the list of priorities for the majority of Indonesian youth (Devai et al., 2019). Communities do not engage with or act on issues that they perceive as irrelevant.

Formative Research on Indonesian Urban Youth and Climate Engagement

BBC Media Action conducted formative audience research to understand urban youth, their online behaviors, and what motivates them to engage with environmental issues. This involved 12 focus groups with young people in two locations—Jakarta and Medan—followed later by in-depth key informant interviews with active members of community youth organizations and a qualitative audience segmentation informed by artificial intelligence (AI) to develop deeper insights (Fig. 1). This formative research found that Indonesia’s young population feel disconnected from natural resources and do not know how they can get involved in accelerating the transition to low-carbon and climate-resilient development. Therefore, issues related to climate change and sustainable development need to be communicated to young people in a way that resonates with them and involves them, and through multiple formats and platforms that a generation of Indonesian youth can meaningfully engage with.

Fig. 1
An illustration has 4 focus groups and interviews, such as acting, aware and interested but not acting, aware but not interested in acting, and not aware with inset photos. It also includes 6 topics of A I research, such as ethical and regular consumers and quiet heroes with inset photos.

Audience segments based on the formative research and AI study

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Insights from Focus Groups and Key Informant Interviews

Indonesia’s urban youth is a very large, heterogeneous group with varying levels of engagement with issues related to climate, forests, and sustainable development. Our formative research identified four audience segments: (1) acting, (2) aware and interested but not acting, (3) aware but not interested in acting, and (4) not aware. Most young, urban Indonesians fall under the categories of (2) aware and interested but not acting and (3) aware but not interested in acting. Those who are aware and interested but not acting were largely found to be 18–21-year-olds who perceive themselves as lacking resources, access to channels and platforms, and confidence to participate in governance and accountability processes. Those who were aware but not interested in acting were mostly 26–30-year-olds and of higher socioeconomic groups in Jakarta who reported being more concerned about issues such as employment and their families. Across both groups, there’s also the fear that acting on environmental issues is seen as being and/or doing “too much.”

“Let’s say if we have to combat forest fire, but it related to powerful company, such as palm oil. Then, who are we? We are powerless.” – Jakarta, 18 – 21 years old, Focus Group

“If you want to be an agent of change, it starts with you and what you’re made of.” – Jakarta, 18–21 years old, Key Informant Interview

Insights from Artificial Intelligence-Driven Audience Segmentation

The formative research revealed that young urban Indonesians are digital natives. Digital media is the most easily accessible source of information and entertainment. This general audience segmentation informed a further AI-driven digital audience segmentation based on drivers, interests, and aspirations for their engagement with climate and environmental issues (Eko, 2020). We used 118 sources of information, across 16 sourcing areas such as local community fora, social media, sustainable living blogs and fora, lifestyle bloggers and influencers, to create audience segments. Through machine learning, the rich and diverse sources were explored and clustered to create patterns and connections between the publicly available data. In contrast, each unique pattern was clubbed into a segment. These segments ranged from those who would take climate action to protect the world for their children, to others who would take climate action to protect the biodiversity and beauty of the country.

The first two segments, Ethical Consumers, and Regular Consumers were the largest. While both groups were aware of environmental issues, it was not their main priority. Personal contribution becomes one of the primary focuses of these two segments. They tended to hesitate to become more actively involved, assumed environmental issues were not interesting, and had higher priorities in life such as study, work, or leisure. The segmentation informed the communication strategy and character development.

Six audience segments were found:

  1. 1.

    Ethical Consumers, their environmental focus stems from lifestyle-related initiatives especially those that can affect their purchase habits. They have the desire to be seen as socially conscious that can make them vulnerable when they get low acknowledgment from others.

  2. 2.

    Regular Consumers, most of them have simple and rigid routines (i.e., school and work), and there is a tendency that they do not want to take risks—they want everything to be simple, hassle free, and less confrontative; entertainment is the main topic for them to share on social media.

  3. 3.

    Guardian of Future Generations, their biggest aspiration is to be helpful to many people, especially to their kids or students. Their actions tend to be community based with simple initiatives.

  4. 4.

    Aesthetic Indulgence, their passion for traveling introduces them to other interests. They try to focus on doing what they can to protect the environment and to live a healthy life, with hopes of inspiring others to do the same.

  5. 5.

    Quiet Heroes, they try to focus on doing what they can to protect the environment and to live a healthy life, with hopes of inspiring others to do the same. They start doing small things for environmental sustainability.

  6. 6.

    Loud and Proud Crusaders, they use their activism in the environment to define their personal identity. They are often being labeled as too much or extreme in doing their environmental campaign.

As a follow-up to the AI research, we conducted further qualitative research in two cities with digital users across these segments of urban youth. This helped us to better understand our key audience segments’ online behavior and habits. We learned that for digital users, television is a “companion” to other activities and often a second screen.

“Despite my busy activities, I still care about how my choices of affect the environment.” – Ethical consumer, Jakarta

“All I can do is put my comment on social media although I don’t think my critics would be heard.” – Regular consumer, Medan

Overall, the findings from the formative research revealed that:

  • Urban youth in Indonesia are largely willing to think about and engage with political and social issues through online platforms.

  • They are keen to form a social identity to define their place within Indonesian society.

  • They want to influence their social networks.

  • Television and social media are the best ways to engage the target audience—and content needs not to be too “serious” (entertainment is key and young people also want to “learn”).

  • Drama is particularly popular while Instagram is the biggest social media platform among our target audience.

  • On the issue of Indonesia’s forests, many urban youth are informed and desire actionable solutions, specifically those that they can do themselves.

  • Despite their knowledge of Indonesia’s forests, many also feel detached from the impacts of deforestation as they do not live in or near forest areas.

  • Climate change and forestation don’t fit within their priorities and has a “distant” issue.

  • Among environmental issues, plastic and pollution are the two issues that interest the audience the most because it has a direct impact on their surroundings.

  • Many also feel that they could not directly contribute and respond to curbing forest loss.

  • They also lack resources, access to trusted platforms, and agency to participate in governance and accountability processes.

Thus, the major challenge with urban youth was how many perceive forests as needing more personal relevance and urgency for action despite their knowledge and desire for actionable solutions. Our baseline quantitative research validated these formative research insights in 2020: Our survey with more than 2000 respondents across Indonesia found that familiarity with environmental issues is fairly polarized, with 39% believing they are somewhat or very knowledgeable as a whole, but nearly as many admitting to lacking knowledge about the environment (Devai et al., 2020). Issues affecting forests are known to more than 7 in 10 people surveyed, with nearly one-fifth saying they know a great deal about them. Despite the apparent appeal of the idea that development and the environment can co-exist, when faced with a difficult choice, nearly half of the survey respondents would place economic progress ahead of forest preservation.

Communication Strategy

Informed by these findings, BBC Media Action developed a communication strategy where the major focus of the content was to increase the desirability of being interested in, and acting on, climate and sustainable development issues, as well as the perceived capacity to act and make a difference among young people. This would be achieved through digital and TV content which would build young people’s understanding on these issues and help them to visualize their role in strengthening climate governance, link climate change to their lived experiences, and to discuss and debate issues that resonate with them.

Based on our formative research, we knew that our challenge in engaging urban youth lay in how despite their knowledge and desire for actionable solutions, they perceived forests as lacking impact on themselves as they do not physically see forests in their everyday lives. They also see themselves as unable to significantly affect forests. Therefore, our Theory of Change centered on using identity as the entry point to engage Indonesian millennials; as we know identity formation is an important part of urban youth’s lives and integral to how political participation is understood and carried out. Identity, for our audience, encompasses who they are individually, compared to their peers, and within Indonesian society. Our formative research showed that urban youth conceptualize forests as the “Lungs of the World,” part of Indonesia’s national identity. Forests’ place in Indonesia’s national identity allowed for a connection between identity and forestry governance by establishing national identity as a reflection of personal and social identity. Our qualitative research showed that Indonesians care about how the world sees them. For example, they felt concerned about Indonesia’s image during the 2015 forest fires when haze from the fires spread internationally. Through this avenue, we decided to prompt urban youth to reflect on the current state of Indonesia’s green growth and forests and how they choose to respond to it within the context of their own identity as individuals, community members, and responsible citizens.

Considering this, we conceptualized our lead character, Bodo, as a simple, good-hearted man who is kind and innocent but not stupid. He will do anything for his friends and probably forgives those who wrong him too easily. At the start of the drama, Bodo is quite lazy—he likes sleeping and doesn’t stick with any job for long. His dream is to be well off and run his own business, but he has no idea what that business would be and does not have the drive or ambition to achieve it. He has a strong attachment to his neighbors and his community and would like to see it improve. But has no real concern for the environment overall. Bodo represents one of our large audience segments, Regular Consumers. Over time, on witnessing the air pollution, rubbish, and floods in the community, Bodo begins to spark concern about these issues. His love interest, and our key protagonist, Tuji, supports him on this journey. Through a roller coaster of emotions, dissent, and discussions, he decides to contest and eventually wins the local election based on a sustainable development mandate. #CeritaKita is much about establishing a role model in the transition of Bodo’s own civic identity as it is about strengthening governance and championing climate action. Bodo takes the audience on his transition—sparking discussion and motivation—and sows the seed of change.

On the other hand, our protagonist, Tuji is a clever, smart, and mentally strong young woman. She is a mix of modernity and tradition. On the modern side, Tuji is very interested in technology, gadgets, and social and environmental issues and strongly believes in gender equity. But at the same time, she has a moralistic approach to life, worries about her reputation, and wants to please those around her. She personifies the Ethical Consumer and Quiet Heroes segments from our research. Over the series, Tuji strengthens her ambition to become a vlogger who reviews all the latest gadgets and is fascinated by apps that could predict drought or floods. We aim to build this vlog into a transmedia element in the next season whereby Tuji achieves her dream of solving the world’s problems using technology.

Some of our other segments, such as Aesthetic Indulgence and Loud and Proud Crusaders, are more prominent users of social media. Hence, we decided to reach them through complementing formats we created on AksiKita Indonesia, using the same primary insight of identity formation. For example, to reach Aesthetic Indulgence segment, and to respond to the COVID-19 travel restrictions our audience faced, we created an Instagram series called Kangan Jalan Jalan (Missing Travel). Through a flash format travel show (5 mins each), we covered environmental champions in various parts of the country, as a role model, while also bringing people closer to Indonesia’s natural environment and forests at a time when our audience weren’t able to travel and see it for themselves.

Through Ngobrolin #CeritaKita, we wanted to give young Indonesians the ability and knowledge to join in a national conversation—giving them the confidence and option to share their own opinions with decision-makers on these issues. The focus was on providing engaging, interactive, and participatory platforms—giving young Indonesians the opportunities to be part of the experience (shaping their civic identities) and that itself is empowering.

Our other challenge was tackling an issue as broad as green growth in a finite number of episodes, where most sub-themes such as deforestation, sustainable agriculture, and sustainable energy, are perceivably quite “distant” from the audience (Devai et al., 2020). Our baseline research identified a few positive behaviors or factors that can catalyze other positive behaviors—and used them as gateway behaviors (Schwandt et al., 2015). This approach drew on the notion that successful engagement on one theme creates motivation to engage or self-efficacy to make a change on other, more distant themes. We focused on the environmental issues that young people are most interested in such as plastic pollution, water conservation, and fast fashion. While these themes were interspersed throughout the series, they featured more heavily in the earlier episodes to strengthen the relevance of the content with our target audience, and build engagement. Table 1 shows the primary themes covered through each of the #CeritaKita episodes, and brief profiles of guests featured on related Ngobrolin #CeritaKita episodes.

Table 1 #CeritaKita primary themes and Ngobrolin #CeritaKita guests
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Multiplatform Storytelling: The Power of Cross-Platform Narrative Engagement

BBC Media Action developed a social media brand called AksiKita Indonesia (Our Action), a TV drama show called #CeritaKita (Our Story), a social media discussion program Ngobrolin #CeritaKita (Chatter—Our Story) broadcast on Instagram, and a range of offline capacity strengthening and outreach activities for media practitioners and civil society organizations (CSOs) to use media and communication more effectively. These platforms work in parallel through various complementary formats to develop an immersive experience for the audience. For example, at the end of each drama episode, one of the characters promotes the social media page and the hashtag #CeritaKita. After the broadcast of each drama episode, the live discussion program commences online. The social media content includes some “behind the scenes” discussions to extend the narrative and the outreach work with local organization extending storytelling into local discussion groups. These transmedia elements—storytelling coordinated across different media (Jenkins, 2006)—are exciting. However, COVID-19 had a significant logistical and operational impact on the production. Restrictions meant all aspects of production needed to be redesigned and adapted to the evolving pandemic. Guidelines and new working methods were introduced without local COVID-19 production guidance. As a result, the project’s ambitions for “transmedia” storytelling will be developed further in the project’s next phase.

Episodic Television Series #CeritaKita (Our Story)

BBC Media Action partnered with a leading national private broadcaster with Indonesia’s second most popular media channel, Surya Citra TV (SCTV) (Kurniawan, 2020), to co-produce a 20-episode TV drama that brings climate change, green growth, and environment issues closer to the urban youth. Our qualitative research revealed that urban youth wanted an informative TV program with elements of humor, realism, drama, and emotional appeal. Therefore, a TV drama/soap opera format was chosen because it can be simultaneously entertaining, tastefully dramatic, and informative. Indeed, within the Education-Entertainment and narrative engagement literature, the power of humor (Moyer-Guse et al., 2011), perceived realism (Miller-Day & Hecht, 2013), and emotional involvement are well documented. This drama is unique because it is set on a backdrop of real-life environmental and governance storylines—something that has never happened before on Indonesian TV. The problems addressed in the show are the same ones the target audience faces, and—drawing on research around the importance of character identification—the characters have many traits the audience can “identify” with (Busselle & Bilandzic, 2009; Moyer-Gusé, 2008). That’s why the program was titled #CeritaKita (Our Story).

#CeritaKita is an entertaining drama revolving around the lives of five young friends who live in the slum area of an Indonesian city (Surya Citra Televisi (SCTV), 2021). The program focuses on their relationships and the problems they and their community face. While environmental and climate issues are central in the show, the storyline also covers other issues that matter to young people, based on our formative research, to deepen audience engagement. It follows characters’ journeys as they progress from young carefree adults to become engaged and powerful voices representing their area and acting to improve the lives of all their community. In doing so, #CeritaKita role-models civic participation through key characters and aims to strengthen efficacy and governance for environmental issues faced in everyday life, from flooding and extreme heat to plastic pollution and fast fashion, while exploring solutions and mitigating actions our audiences could take. The storylines and characters are modeled on the intended youth audience and informed by the audience segments identified through research. The drama is informed by practice and draws on theory including social cognitive learning theory (Bandura, 1986) and Sabido’s entertainment-education methodology as well as more recent research on narrative engagement, character identification, and the power of narratives compared to non-narrative formats (Green, 2021; Murphy et al., 2015). For example, early on in the show, our lead character Bodo is apathetic toward governance civic participation and climate-related issues. Over time, he “transitions” into someone who is not only interested but acts and speaks on these issues. He is a key role model and throughout the series shows our audience the changes they could also make in their lives to address climate, green growth, and sustainable development challenges in their own communities. #CeritaKita is a story of the joys, successes, and struggles that Indonesia faces daily (Fig. 2). It is a journey of young people together, carving a social identity for themselves, based on climate action and civic participation. It is a journey from personal to political.

Fig. 2
A poster for the T V series named Hash Cerita Kita. It has a wooden bench beneath a big tree, with buildings, clouds, the sun, and greenery in the background. The B B B media action logo is at the top left corner, while the S C T V logo is at the bottom right corner.

Television series #CeritaKita (Our Story)

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#CeritaKita represents an important change, not just for young people across Indonesia, but also for locally produced social and behavior change communication (SBCC) drama in Indonesia. Our findings from quantitative baseline research (Devai et al., 2020) strengthen the previous findings that entertainment is consistently the most sought content on TV, although keeping up to date with current news features highly. However, people don’t just look for TV shows that entertain. Other factors that interest people in new programming are TV shows that promote learning and deliver good values. While Indonesia accounts for one of the highest media penetrations among developing countries, mass media platforms have previously seldom been used for partnerships to create social impact using storytelling. This was recognized with a special award at the Bandung Film Festival, one of the most prestigious entertainment media awards in the country—for “social and behaviour change communication.” The show was aired over 20 episodes, on weekend mornings to optimize the reach toward the target audience, based on audience viewership data. Television Audience Measurement estimates show over 2.5 million viewers watched each episode of #CeritaKita. The planned evaluation to estimate cumulative audience reach and impact is still underway at the time of writing.

Social Media Discussion Ngobrolin #CeritaKita (Chatter—Our Story)

Based on BBC Media Action’s baseline research (2020), we found that social media is the most accessible source of information, while TV usually works as a “companion.” People may turn on the TV while cooking, reading, studying, or sleeping. As a result, on the one hand, our TV show used catchy audio and popular actors to attract audiences. Nevertheless, we built on this “second screen phenomenon” (Mukherjee et al., 2014) to introduce a closely linked social media discussion series on topics covered in the TV drama episodes. Ngobrolin #CeritaKita (Chatter—Our Story) combines behind the scenes elements from the TV drama, real stories of people leading change in their communities, and interactions with decision-makers, show cast, and young influencers. This show is presented by Shafira Umm, a famous youth influencer, and Hifzdi Khoir, an Indonesian comedian, and is broadcast on Instagram directly after the drama. Every episode picks one thematic issue raised in the drama just preceding the broadcast, such as fast fashion, or food waste, provides audiences’ key facts, and opens a wider conversation with the issues and stakeholders involved. For example, the episode on food waste was followed by a live discussion circled around a recent report that Indonesia is the second largest producer of food waste in the world, and how that could be better managed (Green, 2016). Audiences were given the opportunity to put their questions about the issues raised in the show to experts, real-life inspiring role models, and government representatives (a list is available in Table 1). Ngobrolin #CeritaKita provides an important public platform for young people to voice their thoughts, ideas, actions, and opinions on climate-related issues, also to national government ministers, and provincial governors. Filmed in a social media style, it is a varied mix of content based on the typical young Indonesians’ Instagram feed to ensure it resonates and engages with the target audience (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3
A photo presents an interior view of a studio with a seated woman at a table wearing a mask. She engages in communication with a person standing next to her. A cameraman focuses on her, with another person standing behind him and 4 others dispersed beside him.

Social media discussion Ngobrolin #CeritaKita (Chatter—our story)

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Social Media Brand AksiKita Indonesia (Our Action) for Climate Action Online

Our qualitative research revealed that urban youth notice and seek shareable and useful digital content relevant to their everyday lives as well as current events and trends. We found urban youth trust content with audio and/or visuals, geotags, and live footage—which calls for digital content with verifiable sources and features. Therefore, BBC Media Action created the brand AksiKita Indonesia (Our Action) for social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter, reaching millions across the country with compelling information and insights that inform young people about environmental and climate issues, and how to take action in their own lives to address them (Fig. 4). Digital content created for these online platforms has sought to increase knowledge, engagement, empathy, and interest of urban youth in issues, as well as a sense of shared commitment to promoting sustainable development.

Fig. 4
A close-up photo of a mobile screen with a title in a foreign language. The text below the title reads, We are on social media. Different names of the title on different social media platforms like TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are mentioned below the text.

Social media brand AksiKita Indonesia (our action)

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Some of our digital content was built directly from the TV drama show, and through the week, fostered conversations around key challenges our characters faced on screen, and enabled our already engaged community of young followers to start discussions around key topics covered in each episode. We used a variety of our popular Instagram formats such as #InterAksi video series, which provides examples of other people (including young people) who act on green growth issues including short interviews with various role models (social influencers, actors/actresses, and innovative government officials/ministers), and #SuperAksi video series which amplifies the stories of “positive deviants” (Singhal, 2010) from within the community of how people overcome their barriers to act on climate-related issues. One of the #SuperAksi features discusses the motivations behind and barriers to making a career in e-waste with Rafa Jafar, a young entrepreneur. We created a section titled Gossip or Facts, which would allow people to corroborate key misinformation related to the environment.

Role of Social Media Influencers

Our formative research showed that young people are more likely to act on advice and information when it comes from trusted and/or authentic sources. Social media influencers have played a critical role in strengthening engagement with the AksiKita brand, as well as through the discussion program Ngobrolin #CeritaKita. Based on our research, we work with social media influencers who are interested in environmental topics or have worked substantively on these issues. Kevin Julio, the Indonesian actor who plays Bodo (the lead role) in #CeritaKita, and adds to the conversations on AksiKita Indonesia, has been working on environmental protection for a long time. This has also been the case with other social media influencers featured such as Nicolas Saputra and Nadine Chandrawinata—both have credible environmental and social impact credentials. The planned evaluation will explore whether exposure to our content has led to an increased propensity among the audiences to follow celebrities or social media influencers interested in the environment and/or wider social issues.

Community Engagement and Capacity Building

In addition to the digital and TV content, BBC Media Action is also supporting CSOs working with youth on environmental issues, and media practitioners, to produce socially and behaviorally impactful communications with their audience. Storytelling approaches are at the heart of these sessions. For example, BBC Media Action is conducting media training and mentoring activities for program makers on innovative media formats and ways to design storylines and characters based on audience research, and tools and techniques to integrate the social impact into entertainment programs. In partnership with local CSOs and media organizations, BBC Media Action has also been organizing community outreach events to take #CeritaKita to non-TV viewing audiences. These were designed as roadshows but were implemented completely online due to COVID-19 movement restrictions. Moderated discussions were held around some clips from the show, and local triggers and barriers to climate action were shared with key decision-makers and influencers.

Summative Research for Program Evaluation

Road to Evidence

BBC Media Action is committed to understanding the impact of its work. We have a long history of using mixed-method research led by local research teams and forming research partnerships to promote evaluation independence and learning. For this project, a multipronged evaluation is underway. This includes the following components:

  • A process evaluation: to document how an intervention is implemented and what was actually delivered, compared with that intended to be delivered.

  • An experimental study: Working in partnership with the Colombia University, this study randomly assigns approximately 800 regular viewers of SCTV who have not previously watched any episodes of #CeritaKita or engaged with Ngobrolin #CeritaKita online to one of two groups: a control or a treatment group. Participants in the treatment group will watch a distillation of storylines from the drama series along with supporting content from the discussion program. The control group will watch a similar TV program and discussion program on a different subject. The experiment will explore the impact of the programming on young people’s understanding, discussion, and engagement with climate change as well as support toward government policy on deforestation and media’s future role in covering climate change. It will also look at narrative engagement and whether the programming increases people’s willingness to follow these issues on social media. This work will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

  • A quantitative, nationally representative survey (n = 5000) of Indonesians (age 16 years or over) to assess audience reach and engagement, as well as to explore the associations between exposure and climate action outcomes (knowledge, attitudes, discussion, and participation in green growth and sustainable development).

  • Qualitative research with six focus groups of mixed composition of young urban men and women aged 18–30 years old in two cities, who have been exposed to #CeritaKita and/or Ngobrolin #CeritaKita and/or #AksiKitaIndonesia. This qualitative research aims to understand how and why audiences engage with the content and to better understand how it can support climate action. In addition, 16 in-depth interviews with experts from civil society, academia, and the media familiar with the content will also be interviewed. These interviews aim to identify experts’ perceptions of the discussion-based outputs’ diversity, accessibility, and transparency as platforms that aim to support discussion surrounding green growth and deforestation.

  • Social media analytics will be used to assess the overall social media performance in terms of reach, engagement, and interaction across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok.

Conclusion

“Saving our planet is now a communications challenge. We know what to do, we just need the will.”—Sir David Attenborough Broadcaster, natural historian and author, on Instagram.

Lesson Learned: The Communication Challenge

Climate Action is primarily a behavioral challenge. However, crucially it is also a communication challenge. This is as true in Indonesia as it is elsewhere in the world. Kembali Ke Hutan is a creative response to this challenge. It uses public interest media to reach large audiences to increase understanding as well as motivation to engage in climate action. Despite high media access and consumption in Indonesia, and the need to engage Indonesians in climate solutions, the use of socially and behaviorally informed media and communication to support the climate development agenda is largely unexploited. BBC Media Action’s creative partnership with SCTV, the second largest broadcaster in the country, demonstrates the potential role of media and communication to initiate innovation and change. Kembali Ke Hutan is an example of a too rarely funded media-based initiative that takes a people-focused, long-term, and large-scale approach as a pillar in the response to climate change and deforestation. It highlights how a well-designed and adequately resourced media intervention—delivered by outlets that audiences trust—can make complex information clear, host discussions that can spark imagination and innovation, and inspire positive action. It makes a distant and critical issue relatable, relevant, and engaging.

Next Steps: Generating Evidence and Leveraging Transmedia Storytelling

While we await the results from the evaluation, which will truly determine the success of this work, initial audience feedback, reach data, and early experimental results show promise in the approach. The evaluation will inform lessons learned and the project’s next phase, including how we can continue to leverage storytelling and our social media brand AksiKita Indonesia (Our Action). Inspired by some of the commercial as well as development successes of transmedia storytelling such as Dr. Who, Star Wars, and East Los High, we are looking to continue to broaden the spectrum of our audience, meeting them where they are and providing them with an enriching experience, to deepen our impact. We hope this work inspires donors, policymakers, and climate experts to enhance the impact of their climate change plans and strategies by leveraging the power of media and communication.