27 October 2025 — Universitas Gadjah Mada held an internal workshop on writing institutional news narratives that touch the heart and “raise awareness.” The workshop was attended by public relations representatives from all faculties, schools, and research centers within the UGM environment. The material was delivered by Dr. Kuskridho Ambardi, M.A., a lecturer from the Department of Communication Studies, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIPOL), UGM, who is familiarly known as Dodi.
The purpose of the workshop was to enhance the University’s public image, as narrative has strong power in building a positive image. The core idea was how UGM’s achievements can be narrated in a way that elevates industry in Indonesia. Dodi emphasized that both narrative writing and visuals for institutional news should touch on the human side. Visuals should not merely depict objects; they must include humans or living entities.
“Not everyone will agree with us, and there will always be opposing variables and critics. Therefore, monitoring is essential. Our point is how to create writing that can reach the heart, and that is closely related to emotion. Sadness, happiness, perseverance, annoyance, enthusiasm—there are many possible emotions. Variations of these emotions can be woven into different points of a narrative. Sadness constitutes only about one-tenth of the total range of human emotions. The emotional dimension needs to be explored. Emotion is the lifeblood of a narrative that makes writing more vivid. Humor, joy, heroism, and satire are compounds needed in a narrative,” Dodi explained.
Writing narratives for institutional news requires sensitivity in capturing moments and presenting them wholeheartedly, because a narrative succeeds when it is able to touch the reader’s emotions. The highly interactive discussion provided benefits for the entire UGM academic community, and it is hoped that increasingly more “living” narratives produced by UGM will emerge.
Author: Andri Wicaksono, Photo: Fajar Budi Harsakti
