Performing Arts as Communication: The Traditional Media of Wayang Sasak in Digital Era

Abstract

Wayang Sasak is one of the performing arts in Indonesia. However, in today’s digital era, the presence of wayang Sasak is in danger of extinction. This is because the young generation of Lombok is not interested in this art. This objective of this study is to discover the preservation effort of wayang Sasak in the digital era. This research used ethnographic communication method which directly involves the researcher. The technique of data collection is through interview, literature study, observation, and visual audio documentation. The result of the research shows that there are several preservation efforts which have been done by the research’s interviewees in this digital era. Several interviewees also suggested a discourse or idea about the innovation to digitalize the performing arts of wayang Sasak in order to cope with the digital era. This research could also be a literature reference about wayang Sasak, because amount the information about wayang Sasak is still lacking.