Featuring Muhammad Haykal (XLFLB7 Jakarta)

Muhammad Haykal is a student of Communication Studies from Universitas Hassanudin and an XL Future Leaders Batch 7 Awardee. Haykal, along with his three other friends, initiated ‘Kita Bicara Dulu.’ The podcast aims to spread awareness, start discussions, and be a platform for people to share their opinions and information without being bound by a strict mainstream media system. Beginning in October 2019, ‘Kita Bicara Dulu’ has been streamed for more than 1700 times on Spotify and 200 times on Apple Music.

‘Kita Bicara Dulu’ is believed to be a way to challenge society’s perspective on how the media present itself. People often assume that creating educated content is difficult and requires many resources. Through the usage of the podcast, Haykal and his friends wanted to prove that it can be easy, accessible, and attainable. Using a podcast as their medium is also related to their target audiences: the youths. Nowadays, many youngsters are using a podcast as their source of knowledge. They hope that ‘Kita Bicara Dulu’ will be able to ignite a discussion and spread knowledge among its listeners.

In May 2020. ‘Kita Bicara Dulu’ is no longer only a podcast. The creators behind it have created infographics that their listeners can access through Instagram. ‘Kita Bicara Dulu’ also has a blog site in medium.com where their listeners can also post, making the content more varied and exciting. The availability of infographics and a blog site affirms the creators’ beliefs that everyone should be able to voice their opinion and has a platform for them to do so.

‘Kita Bicara Dulu’ podcast has two segments: ‘Love Life’ and ‘Indonesia Minggu Ini.’ In ‘Love Live,’ the segment’s focus is in talking about daily life as teenagers and young adults, especially the most discussed topic: romance. The segment is presented by a psychology student, so it offers a psychological and critical view on youngster’s daily and love life. On the contrary, ‘Indonesia Minggu Ini’ brings about a heavier topic, which is the recent news in Indonesia. ‘Kita Bicara Dulu’ offers a different and fresh view and idea in ‘Indonesia Minggu Ini’ compared to the usual mainstream media. It is not only spewing out news but gives its listeners a wholesome analysis of the news.

Haykal and his teams in ‘Kita Bicara Dulu’ hope that the podcast will be able to be a platform for everyone. A place for not only him and his friends but all of their listeners to voice out their opinion and spread knowledge. What is the use of having much knowledge if it is not shared, right?

Written by Graciella Stephanie Ganadhi (XLFLB7 Jogja)