For the Gen Xers of Indonesia, radio dramas of the eighties like Saur Sepuh — a show dramatising the power struggles of the Majapahit empire — were akin to the Netflix of today. Some of these shows were so popular they helped to preserve regional languages.
Decades on, Indonesia’s literacy levels are not where they could be. Encouraging more Indonesians to embrace audiobooks could be a way forward.
While the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the global use of digital applications for people to consume and exchange information, Indonesia’s digital literacy index is still at the "medium" level.
