‘Talk to the Spirit World’: The Journalist Who Treats Ghosts as News Sources

What if journalists treated dukun (spiritual healers) and sacred trees as seriously as they treat government officials? That’s the question journalist Titah AW raises in a conversation with Inside Indonesia co-editor Tito Ambyo.

Titah, who has been reporting on ghosts in Indonesia, argues that to truly understand the country, reporters must include the more-than-human forces that many Indonesians believe are present. This means listening to spirit world requests alongside human stakeholders, and taking supernatural phenomena as legitimate subjects of news coverage.

Her approach is not about believing in ghosts—it’s about representing the reality of communities where the supernatural is a lived experience. As Titah puts it, ‘If your reporting ignores the dukun and the sacred tree, you’re missing half the story.’

Article and image source: insideindonesia.org