THE SEEKING FOR HEALTH INFORMATION BASED ON FAMILY MEDICINAL PLANTS THROUGH INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION IN WEST JAVA PROVINCE

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1 THE SEEKING FOR HEALTH INFORMATION BASED ON FAMILY MEDICINAL PLANTS THROUGH INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION IN WEST JAVA PROVINCE 1 Dr. IrianaBakti, M.Si, 2 Dr. Evie Ariadne ShintaDewi, M.Pd., 3 Drs. RosnandarRomli, M.Si., 4 HeruRyantoBudiana, S.Ag.,M.Si. Lecturer of Department of Public Relations, Faculty of Communication Science Padjadjaran University, Bandung, Indonesia 1 iriana_bakti@yahoo.com, 2 ariadneshintadewi@yahoo.com, 3 rosiro.romli@yahoo.co.id, 4 heru_humas@unpad.ac.id Abstract This article entitled The Seeking For Health Information Based On Family Medicinal Plants Through Interpersonal Communication In West Java Province. The purpose of this research are firstly to identify communication channel being used for the seeking for health communication of family medicinal plants in West Java Province, secondly to determine the communicator credibility in every communication form in information dissemination about family medicinal plant in West Java, and thirdly to gain an understanding about the awareness of society on the importance of family medicinal plants in West Java. To explore on communication channel being used by public in the process of searching for Toga (family medicinal plants) health information is through intrapersonal communication done by officer from affiliated institution and the head of the team. Officer from affiliated institution and head of the team as Communicator have a high credibility which is consistent with the public perception that communication expert can be trusted in the delivery of the subject and in the end will create a high public appreciation on using the communication. Public awareness on the importance of family medicinal plants among families in West Java is really high which can be seen in the knowledge level, evaluation, and their readiness in organizing their own family medicinal plants. Keywords: intrapersonal communication, credibility and awareness FOREWORD Information is not suddenly appears, it needs to be seek out of the source. Information channel is one of the information sources for people. Information channel could be in the form of mass or social media and intrapersonal channel. Nowadays people are actively seeking for information through information media, which in the end become one of the important instruments in the national development. One of the things that people are seeking into is information about medicinal plants whichis being campaigned by the government to be cultivated on the house yard or a designated place around the house. Recently,campaign on family medicinal plants (or usually toga, an acronym for family medicinal plants in Indonesian) to be cultivate by families on their yard or special landsite around the house has been carried out.toga is homegrown plant, which has a medical benefit. Every family, independently, has the ability to cultivate this plant for the purpose of their own family s health. Public has more awareness for the hazard or side effects of having chemical medication in a long term basis which developed a new realization to establish back to nature movement. This back to nature 41

2 movement is based on the utilization of herbal plants. This movement is not limitedly done by few people but also pioneered by the WHO. The land limitation, knowledge of toga types, how to manage the plants, and other technical matters has been the obstacle occurred in the field. This impediment forces the public to search for information to every source available including through intrapersonal communication. Intrapersonal communication channel becomes really important, as it happened to have two-way responses in which the attitude change can be easier to achieve. Attitude change will materialize through only if the communicator has his/her own credibility according to the public. Communicators in this research are officials from the government office and head of the group in charge of delivering information about toga. The process of information delivery by the communicators and information seeking by public will be confronted by some obstacles such as: Firstly, barrier within the public themselves with character, education, and socio-economic status as its factors. Secondly, there is an intrapersonal barrier in the interaction process of information seeking. Thirdly, an environmental barrier such as: lack of facilities, which limited the information access, complicated information seeking pattern, time being consumed in accessing information, and so on. Based on that problem this paper will discuss about The Seeking For Health Information Based On Family Medicinal Plants Through Interpersonal Communication In West Java Province. LITERATURE REVIEW Information Information paradigm consist of cognitive and physical paradigm, which according to Ellis (1992), cognitive paradigm look at information as a subjective, individual and untouchable, which takes place through construction process in the inside of a human being. The key factor for cognitive paradigm is its user. For this matter, information is something constructed or created by user individually. Physical paradigm is looking at information as an object outside a human being and can be touched, such as book, magazine, thesis, and other literature material. Some of the functions of information are: reducing uncertainty, especially as an input for problem solving, decision making, planning and knowledge improvement. In this concept, function of information is to explain a task to reach the goal (Dervin, 1992). The Need of Information The root of the problems of seeking information behavior is the concept of the need of information. In reality those needs is a subjective experience, which stays in the mind of the individual that required the information and consequently cannot be determined by other individuals. The experience of the needs can only be found after a deduction process out of behavior or through people who already done it. To fulfill those needs people need information (Wilson and Christina, 1996) Everybody needs information as part of their life requirements, supporting their activities and fulfilling their needs. Curiosity will surface whenever there is a need to increase their knowledge or to solve social problems. An individual will be motivated to seek knowledge in solving the problems they are facing. One way to increase the knowledge is by using media as the source of information. Society needs information to fulfill their own needs which according to Wilson and Christina (1996): Actually the needs is a subjective experience which can only happened in the mind of someone who needs it, which cannot be distinguished by anyone. The experience of needs can only be found through deduction process of behavior or through reports from someone who did it. For those kind of needs people will require information. The need of information can be classified into three categories: First, dormant needs or unrecognized needs. This need will occur when individuals often not realizing what kind of information they need and that there is a gap of information. The new information often is the information already acknowledged by individuals. The realization 42

3 on the need of information will transpire when individual being confronted to some problems,the example is when an individual does not realize that he/she has some kind of illness.heath check gives awareness to that individual to have a health treatment. Health information about a particular treatment is the information that an individual does not realize until the health problem he/she had been found. Secondly, the unexpressed needs. This need will be encountered by individual who need particular information but cannot or does not want to do something to fulfill that needs. Thirdly, expressed needs, a conscious need which being acknowledged and fulfilled by individuals aware of the gap between knowledge and the need of fulfilling individuals daily needs (Nicholas 2000). In this context, people of West Java presented themselves with a need of information on toga as alternative solution on health and other problem against the chemical medicine. Information Search Model The reason of those needs above, resulted in people of West Java trying to search for information. Behavior is an aspect, which could describe Why, How and What for, a particular human being carry out a particular thing (Wersig in Kurniadi, 2004). The information seeking behavior started when there is a contrast within the information seeker s self, between the acquired knowledge and the need of information. Information seeking behavior is the effort to find information with a particular purpose as the result of the needs to fulfill specific needs (Wilson, 2000). The information seeking behavior started when someone feels that his/her current knowledge is not enough for his/her needs. To fulfill this need someone will search for information by using various source of information. When someone needs information, behavior of the information seeker at the same time has transpired. Behavior is one of the attitude forms whether noticeable or unnoticeable. In selecting information sources, some of the things that oughtto be consider are: the availability of information sources, the simplicity to acquire information sources, the comfort of using the information sources, and the cost of utilization of the source of information (Hasyim, 1999). One of the model of information seeking behavior introduced by Wilson and Christina (1996), which emphasize on two propositions (1) the need for information is not a primary needs but a secondary needs which occur because of the desire to fulfill primary or basic needs. (2) In the effort to seek for information to fulfill the needs, information seekers will face some barriers. Wilson and Christina (1996) also describe barrier as an intervening variable. Those barriers are: individual, intrapersonal and environmental. Individual barriers is a factor that creates an obstacle from the within, such as character, education, and socioeconomy status. Intrapersonal barrier existed when an individual interact with other individual. Environmental barrier comes from the information seeker surroundings such as facility that limit the information access, complicated information seeking pattern, high amount of time in accessing information, political-economic situation, government policies, and so on. Variety of Communication Channel Conceptually there are three kinds of channel or media of communication: intrapersonal, mass media, and media that combine both qualities. The more media types being used by communication parties (as a source or as a receiver), the more positive influence will be received. The reason behind the positive influence is that the completeness of information will increase the quality of the innovation being received. a. Intrapersonal Channel Intrapersonal channel is a media, which allows people involved in the communication directly (ex: conversation between individual, small group discussion, outdoor and indoor meeting) or by using devices (ex: telephone, internet chat, teleconference). Lionberger and Gwin (1982) give an account of things that should be observed in the implementation of intrapersonal channel: - Intrapersonal channel is actually a multi channels in face-to-face communication by paying attention to 43

4 language being used, facial expression, clothes being worn, volume of the speech, and the right place to communicate. - Intrapersonal channel is often has barrier such as culture differences, inappropriate generalization and suspicious behavior. b. Mass Media Channel Mass media channel is all type of mass media (print media, electronic media and multi media), which can be used by parties that involved in communication to deliver their messages. c. Media Forum Media forum is a communication channel that consists of small group of people who can use face-to-face communication discussing particular messages from mass media. These types of forum, which can be found in daily life, are: study group, radio listener group, and television audience group. Toga (Family Medicinal Plants) Toga is an Indonesian acronym stands for family medicinal plants. Toga essentially is piece of land in house yard or fields which can be used to cultivate plants that has a medical benefit to fulfill family needs of medication. Since the beginning of mankind on earth, the environment has been providing people in fulfilling their needs, including medicines to address the health problem they are facing. This shows how medicine coming from natural resources can help people attend their health problem especially resources coming from plants. RESEARCH METHODS The method used in this research is a descriptive survey, by describing every variable connected to the problem being researched. Population and Sample Population for this research is the toga concern communities in several district and cities in West Java, such as Gapoktan (acronym of gabungankelompoktani, stands for farmers group united), PKK (acronym of pembinaankesejahteraankeluarga, stands for family welfare management), and so on. Sampling technique being used is multistage cluster sampling, which can be described as sampling technique by exercising sample extracting with one or more steps (Eriyanto, 2007:139). Sampling extraction with this method is actually does not have a significant difference with the cluster sampling model. In cluster sampling model, the sampling extraction being done by going straight to the elements or clusters which covered the whole elements and clusters in data gathering. On the other hand, multistage cluster sampling is being done with the extended sampling extraction through the clusters first and later on to the elements. Sampling Extraction Process Sampling extraction process is a way of selecting sampling as a foundation of the assumption. The procedure of sampling extraction consist of some stages as follows: First stage, choosing population and divide them into some clusters, West Java is divided into some area of growth: - First Area : Bodekpunjur (Bogor, Depok, Bekasi, Puncak, Cianjur) - Second Area : Purwasuka (Purwakarta, Subang, Karawang) - Third Area : Bandung (Bandung city, Cimahi, Bandung regency, and West Bandung regency). - Fourth Area :Ciayumajakuning (Cirebon, Indramayu, Majalengka and Kuningan). - Fifth Area : East Priangan (Sumedang, Garut, Tasikmalaya, Ciamis, Banjar, and Pangandaran. - Sixth Area :Sukabumi city and regency. Second stage, doing a random sampling method by using a city/regency in every area. - First Area : Bogor city - Second Area : Subang regency - Third Area : Bandung regency - Fourth Area : Kuningan regency - Fifth Area : Sumedang regency 44

5 - Sixth Area : Sukabumi regency Third stage, finding research unit which consist of toga concern communities in the fieldwork. Data Gathering Technique Data gathering technique being done for this research are as follows: - Questionnaires being distributed to samples (individuals) at toga concern communities. - Observation being done on toga concern communities. - Interviews with competent toga concern informants. - Literature study Data Analysis Technique This research uses descriptive survey method and descriptive statistical analysis. According to Sugiyono (2004:169) descriptive analyses is statistic being used to analyze data by describing and explaining data gathered as it is without any attempt to make a conclusion or generalization. DISCUSSION This research has 70.59% female respondents and 29.41% male respondents. The quantity of female respondents demonstrates female communities have a higher awareness to toga than the male communities counterpart. Female do have a higher tendency to concern about health problem and in order to attain the needs, they also more active in using their house yard to plant toga. Based on respondents age, this research has 36.27% of 45+ years old respondents, 25.98% of years old respondents, 22.06% of years old respondents, 10.78% of years old respondents, and below 19 years old for 0.98%. The 45+ years old age group has a high interest in toga as he/she or their family member often had health problem, which can be solved by using toga. Majority of the respondents education are coming from elementary school (37.75%). While senior high school and junior high school are 32.35% and 26.47% respectively. Only a small number of them have a diploma or undergraduate degree. The low level of education is caused by the fact that toga community are made up from 45+ age group who lives in rural area and the sense of having education are not as high as the one in the urban area. Almost half of the respondents occupation are housewives (43.14%) and followed by farmers (34.80%), entrepreneurs (6.37%) with a small number of government employee, private sectors employee, and retiree. There is also a fact that some respondents hold more than one job such as entrepreneur and farmers (0.98%) farmers and traders (0.98%) and so on % of the respondents are coming from KelompokWanitaTani /KWT (Women Farmers Group) with 30.39% coming from other community. PKK (acronym of pembinaankesejahteraankeluarga, stands for family welfare management) is the next group with 18.14%. Respondents come from Gapoktan (acronym of gabungankelompoktani, stands for farmers group united) with 17.16%. KWT dominated the respondents as they work as housewives and have a high concern on toga. Descriptive Analysis of Research Variable Research data categorization analysis is an analysis that directly connected to research data. The analysis from the questionnaire distributed to respondents, to measure research variables, is descriptively examined by using categorical descriptive analysis. Information Channels More than half of respondents received information from government officials (57.35%), while information gathered from head of community group (22.06%). Head of community is the next in line with 1.96%. Government officials become the largest information source as they the one who actively give information about toga than anyone. Officials also have more knowledge and expertise in toga, which is the reason that respondents are pleased to receive information from them. Intrapersonal Channel Out of 204 respondents, 131 respondents (64.22%) highly use intrapersonal channel, while 73 respondents (35.78) use the 45

6 channel mildly with no low use of intrapersonal use discovered. This result shows that more than half of respondents using intrapersonal channel in a high category. The high use of intrapersonal channel to seek for information about toga is caused by individuals disseminate this information have been considered by community as individuals with credibility as an expert and acceptable. Barrier When a community is trying to seek for information to fulfill their needs they will face some barrier, internally or externally. The majority of respondents (85.78%) have medium category barrier, the high category barrier is felt by 14.22% with no respondents have low category barrier. Barriers confronted by respondents are coming from individual (self barrier), intrapersonal connection (between individual) and environmental. Individual barrier is an information seeking obstruction coming from within self such as character, education, and socio economical status. Intrapersonal barriers appear when a person tries to interact with other individual in seeking information. Environmental barrier comes from the surrounding environment of information seekers such as, limited information access facility, complicated pattern of seeking information, time consumption on information seeking, political economy situation, government policy and so on. Awareness Categorical descriptive analysis on 204 respondents towards awareness variable has some indicators such as knowledge, assessment, and willingness to do a particular act. The result out of 204 respondents shows that all of them (100%) has a high knowledge about toga, high assessment on toga, and willingness to act connected to toga is also high. All in all the awareness level of the community about toga can be categorized as high. CONCLUSION The result of the research can be concluded as: 1. Communication channel used in the seeking of toga based health information process by public is intrapersonal communication done by government s official and head of the community group. 2. Communicators consist of government s official and head of the group have high credibility, which is inline with public perception that communicators are expert and credible when it comes to delivering information about toga. Public appreciation in using communicators is high. 3. Public awareness especially in the family about the importance of family medicinal plants is really high, which can be seen in the level of knowledge, assessment and readiness in managing toga. REFERENCES: 1. Arikunto, Suharsimi Prosedur Penelitian Suatu Pendekatan Praktik. a. RinekaCipta. Jakarta. 2. Azwar, Saifuddin Sikap Manusia, Teori dan Pengukurannya, Edisi ke-2. a. Pustaka Pelajar. Yogyakarta. 3. Biro Pusat Statistik Provinsi Jawa Barat Jawa Barat dalam Angka. Diterbitkanoleh Biro Pusat Statistik Jawa Barat. 4. Cresswell, John W Educational Research. Third Edition. New Jersey: Pearson a. Education, Inc. 5. Eriyanto, 2007.Teknik Sampling, PT. LKisPelangiAksara, Jakarta. 6. Fauziah M TanamanObatKeluarga (Revisi). NiagaSwadaya. Bogor. 7. Hariana, Arief Tumbuhan Obat dan Khasiatnya Seri 1, 2, dan 3.Penebar a. Swadaya. Jakarta. 8. Hieronymus Budi Santoso Ragam&KhasiatTanamanObat. Agro Media. Jakarta. 9. Kuhlthau, Carol C Inside the serach process: Information seeking from the users perspective. Journal of The American society for information sience. 42(5)

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