RIO TUASIKAL
Welcome
I'm Rio, I write stories at the intersection of politics, media, and tech.
Currently, I am covering the impacts of AI on Indonesian workers for a series supported by
I have been a reporter, editor, and producer for 12 years, covering foreign policy, tech governance, and disinformation in the US and Asia. Throughout my journey, I have worked with Voice of America, The Gecko Project, and BBC World Service, among others.
As a Chevening scholar, I pursued media studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, where I examined state surveillance, the tech-colonialism nexus, and the ethnography of digital platforms. I am now looking to pursue a PhD in AI, news, and politics.
Research & Scholarship
PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL
Concentrated, Corporate, and Camouflaged: The Nature of AI News Coverage in Indonesia. Asian Journal of Media and Communication (2024)
This quantitative study analyzes the primary news sources and topics of AI news in Indonesian outlets. This paper identified 1025 news sources, which are dominated by people representing the business sector (55.6%), far more than government sources (16.39%) and academics (13%). The study concluded that the outlets have failed to provide varied viewpoints for the public, paving avenues for asymmetrical business-led debate, and allowing promotional messaging to camouflage as journalism reports.
Authors: Rio Tuasikal, Virginia Gunawan
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
Concentrated, Corporate, and Camouflaged: The Nature of AI News Coverage in Indonesia
Conference on Communication, Culture and Media Studies (CCCMS).
Universitas Islam Indonesia, Indonesia.
Awarded best presentation.
MiChat saved my life: Trans' Use of Social Media to Seek Financial Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia.
International Conference on Media Communications and Sociology.
Universitas Katolik Atma Jaya, Indonesia.
Awards & Grants
Journalism
ON TECH
Deepfakes Featuring Deceased Terrorists Spread Radical Propaganda | VOA News
My original piece on AI-generated videos showing deceased terrorists circulating in Southeast Asia. Experts warn that these videos are misleading and could be used as recruitment tools.
Role: Producer, Reporter, Video Editor
How AI Hype Deepens Labor Exploitation in the Name of ‘Efficiency’ in Indonesia | Project Multatuli
Amid unchallenged Big Tech narratives and widespread techno-optimism in Indonesia, Automation Fever attempts to provide a deeper reflection on the risks and impacts of automation tools on society that are often glossed over by companies and policy makers.
Role: Co-author, Grant recipient
Public Interest in the Indonesian Artificial Intelligence Roadmap | TEMPO
The Indonesian government is currently drafting a national artificial intelligence (AI) roadmap. The public hopes for an AI design that is more inclusive and prioritises human rights values.
Role: Co-author, Grant recipient
INVESTIGATION
An international investigation by The Gecko Project, BBC News, and Mongabay estimates that Indonesian villagers are losing hundreds of millions of dollars each year because palm oil producers are failing to comply with regulations requiring them to share their plantations with communities.
Role: Assistant Researcher
OTHER REPORTS
Press Groups: Regulations, Violence Constrain Indonesia’s Journalists (VOA News, 2019)
Former IS Member Combats Online Radicalization in Indonesia (VOA News, 2019)
Facebook Under Investigation Over Data Breach Affecting 50 Million Users (VOA Indonesia, 2018)
Accountability Call Towards Facebook Following Major Data Breach (VOA Indonesia, 2018)
Other Publications
MEDIA APPEARANCES
Can AI Replace Journalists? The Future of Journalism in The Age of Prompts | Magdalene
Antonia Timmerman and Rio Tuasikal spoke about their reports on AI and media on the RAME podcast by Magdalene. The two revealed AI biases in journalism and how the media industry is struggling to stay relevant amid the dominance of big tech companies in the information ecosystem. It also discussed how tech corporations use utopian promises as a way to justify societal and ecological ‘sacrifices’.
Role: Podcast guest
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Stylebook for Gender-Sensitive Reporting | Asian American Journalist Association (AAJA)-Asia Chapter
In collaboration with over 30 journalists and representatives from Women’s and LGBTQ groups from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and South Korea, AAJA-Asia has produced a stylebook for gender-sensitive reporting. This new resource is available in English, Chinese, Indonesian, Korean and Tagalog.
Role: Indonesia team
OP-ED AND ANALYSIS
The Irony of Indonesia 4.0 and Its Obsession of Creating Useless Apps | Project Multatuli
This is not just about budget waste and efficiency. Nor is it about the effectiveness of apps or their socialisation in the field. More profoundly, this questions the government's paradigm that believes that many things can, and for some reason must, be solved with digital apps.
Indonesia's 'Algorithm Hill' and the Illusion of Techno-Solutionism | Anotasi
In this article, I do not intend to discuss the opportunities or challenges of the project. Nor will I analyse the development of the digital economy in Indonesia. Instead, I will focus on perspectives that can be used to evaluate the presence of digital technology in society. This article aims to dissect the digital euphoria and reveal things that are usually hidden in this narrative.