ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on arguably the most popular and successful of these shows, Newsdotcom, which was broadcast weekly from 2006 until 2008 on Metro TV. It describes Newsdotcom's use of imagery to project an alternative reality as an act of simulation, but one substantially different from French philosopher Jean Baudrillard's (2004) idea of simulation, or Heryanto's (2006) application of the concept to New Order strategies of rule. The chapter explores the former Minister of Communications and Informatics's distress about Newsdotcom may have been stirred by nostalgia for a New Order-style of simulation, used for spreading propaganda, creating fear, and installing authority. The Newsdotcom news agency offered a forum for discussion to the residents of the Republic of Dreams. Arguably the most ground-breaking and controversial sketches in Newsdotcom involved Suharta impersonating former president Suharto. Suharta was played by an amateur actor with a strong physical resemblance to Suharto, while his voice was dubbed by Butet Kartaredjasa.