Pulitzer Center Update June 20, 2025
Inspired by Pulitzer Center, Student Investigates Ride-Hailing Algorithm’s Impact on Drivers
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Project
The Philippines and the AI Boom
How AI intersects with the systems of disadvantage and discrimination in the Philippines.
The Pulitzer Center strives to make complex issues relevant and inspire action. One of the Center’s goals is to extend the impact of journalism and mobilize different audiences through its educational and outreach programs.
Sherlina Purnamasari, while as a final-year journalism student at Universitas Multimedia Nusantara (UMN) in Indonesia, was inspired by a public lecture delivered in one such educational program in late 2024. The Pulitzer Center supported the Digital Journalism Class led by Samiaji Bintang Nusantaraa, a faculty member at UMN.
The online lecture was by Pulitzer Center AI Accountability Fellow Karol Ilagan, who discussed her investigative reporting on ride-hailing platform transparency in the Center-supported project The Philippines and the AI Boom.
Ilagan shared the challenges, methodologies, and key findings from the reporting journey. She and her team collected critical data—which meant gathering 8,000 data points from both the customers and drivers—so they could analyze the differences along the exact same routes.
After attending the talk, Purnamasari produced an investigative documentary, Ojol Ditolong Ditodong Aplikasi (Gig Workers, Helped yet Extorted by Super-Apps), which looks at transparency issues within ride-hailing apps-based services and challenges faced by the drivers. Several personal accounts are part of the story.
“I wanted to present the reality on the ground through an audiovisual format. This video was intended not only for the drivers themselves, but also to amplify their voices that are often marginalized,” Purnamasari said.
On May 20, 2025, Purnamasari’s documentary was released by Watchdoc Documentary, an Indonesia-based production house that uses investigative journalism to raise public awareness on various issues. The same day, over 25,000 ride-hailing drivers held protests across Indonesia, demanding better transparency. Now, the documentary has over 87,000 views and over 1,000 comments.
“Sherlina’s work is a great example of what we aim for: supporting students to think critically about the issues revealed by our breakthrough journalism and equipping students with information to take action,” said Intan Febriani, the Pulitzer Center's director of international education and outreach.
The film, much like Ilagan’s reporting project, shows how AI and algorithms play a huge role in shaping society, especially in industries like ride-hailing platforms, where pricing and work allocation often lack transparency.
“It’s important for young people to understand how AI works because it affects everyday life and jobs. Being informed helps us advocate for fairness, accountability, and ethical use of technology in the future,” said Purnamasari.
Themes like gender and migration are also touched on in the documentary. Purnamasari attempts to give a complete picture of the issue and how it affects a wide range of groups.
Ilagan’s talk on investigative journalism, followed by Purnamasari’s reporting, is a result of a long-standing partnership between the Southeast Asia education program at the Pulitzer Center and UMN.
Bintang, a journalism lecturer at UMN who teaches in-depth reporting and digital fact-checking courses, frequently uses Pulitzer Center stories—on rainforests, the ocean, the climate crisis, and AI accountability—in his classrooms
“The stories from the Pulitzer Center Fellows and grantees are very relevant for us. As a journalism lecturer, I need to stay up to date with the best practices on how journalists work and produce high-quality news stories. Having a good partnership with the Pulitzer Center through different projects has helped us better understand the outstanding journalism and education work the organization does,” he said.
Ilagan’s story on ride-hailing apps in Manila and profits from surge pricing caught Bintang’s attention as he was going through the Pulitzer Center’s newsletter.
Purnamasari was one of his students and working on a final project on ride-hailing apps in Indonesia. Bintang asked Purnamasari to study Ilagan’s story "Grab Fares Surge Under Opaque Algorithm."
Purnamasari then prepared a list of questions on the story and the pricing model run by the ride-hailing companies.
“I was so happy as Karol gave a clear explanation to my students, including Sherlina, about the pricing model gap. She also shared a lot of tips to Sherlina on what to investigate and other reporting methods on the topic,” he said.
While Purnamasari was able to deliver the documentary at the right time, she faced her own set of challenges, such as reaching out to the government and the application platforms. Her requests for interviews were consistently rejected or ignored. As an alternative, she decided to include screenshots of her messages to prove their lack of response.
The video has also been released by The Junction, a publication that showcases the best university student journalism from Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific.
For Purnamasari, this has been a meaningful win, showing that the story has value beyond the local context, and motivates her to keep pursuing this kind of work.
She recently graduated and defended her thesis, which was on the documentary. She received an A as her final score.
What’s next for Purnamasari?
“I'm planning to bring this project to international film festivals. I believe the story has relevance beyond Indonesia, especially as gig-economy issues are happening globally,” she said.
Caption for photo on homepage: Grab, whose drivers are shown in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, is a Singapore-based technology company offering ride-hailing transportation services, food deliveries, and payment solutions. Image by Nasrul Ma Arif/Shutterstock. Indonesia, 2020.
