Social Media in Political Campaigns in Indonesia
Adinda Tenriangke Muchtar, Ph.D.
Executive Director at The Indonesian Institute, Center for Public Policy Research (TII)
Chief Editor Suara Kebebasan (Voice for Freedom Indonesia)
Indonesia has entered the political campaign period from the 28th of November to the 10th of February this year, approximately 75-day of campaign towards the election day on the 14th of February 2024. One of the tools in political campaigns is through social media. The use of social media for political campaigns started since the 2012 Local Elections and reached its trend and highlights in the Jakarta 2017 Local Elections, and the 2014 and the 2019 Elections, not to mention the 2020 Local Elections.
For example, in the 2012 Jakarta Local Elections, all the candidates were competing using social media intensively, including the pair of Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok), who won the election by using social media in their political campaigns, such as through videos in YouTube, Twitter account, and Facebook. In this case, the use of social media has enabled the candidates to expand their outreach to millions of voters, including the youth (Picard and Chang, 2014).
Along the way and in line with the development and trends of social media, there are various ways that candidates and political parties apply, such as by using various platforms of social media and various kinds of content (memes, videos, texts, infographics, photos, et cetera), involving influencers not to mention young people who are public figures, using buzzers, social media team (not only conventional success team on the field executing conventional political campaigns), as well as volunteers to spread their messages to gain more supporters and voters.
The use of social media in political campaigns is also perceived as important in affecting political landscapes. According to Andrew Chadwick (2006). Firstly, social media can increase competition amongst political parties, including new and marginalized parties and non-party political movements which can make use of social media to increase their visibility due to their limited resources to compete with big parties. In this case, social media has enabled small parties to expand their outreach to potential supporters.
Secondly, social media can increase public control over political leaders and candidates. Social media facilitates interactions between the candidates and their supporters so that the public can have further access to channel their aspirations to the candidates that they support. This kind of interaction can help politicians to improve their political programs and to respond to demands and expectations from their supporters which are conveyed in social media. At the same time, the candidates can easily coordinate their supporters to mobilize their support, such as during fundraising and political campaigns. This way, political campaigns in social media tend to motivate people to participate in politics and support their candidates more actively.
Another key point that is underlined by Chadwick (2006) is that this trend has made political parties use social media and reproduce similar trends just like in the offline campaigns, as political parties and the candidates can make their communication techniques more effective through social media. It is worth to say that social media has become one of the open sources of information which is easy to access as a way to increase public awareness on issues, including regarding political campaigns (vision, mission, and programs) of the candidate.
The fact that social media is cheap, fast, interesting, creative, interactive, fun, and engaging also makes it tempting for political parties and the candidates to make the best out of social media in their political campaigns. They can also create interactive and contextual, as well as timely communication which is engaging with the public and their constituents, if not potential supporters and voters.
Furthermore, the use of social media in political contexts is also relevant to further influence voters to have knowledge, attitude, and behavior which are in line with the intentions of the candidates as the information providers (Cangara, 2009). In this case, social media has the capacity to influence public opinion due to the intensity of its usage and the significant size of its outreach. Based on the data from We Are Social (2023), there are 167 million users of social media in Indonesia, who use social media 3 hours 18 minutes/day. In addition, data from the data.goodstats.id (21/6/2023) found that 79,5% (153 million users above 18 years old) of the Indonesian population of 270 million people are social media users.
In addition, the prevalent use of media social in political campaigns has a solid consideration as based on the data from the Indonesian General Election Commission (kpu.go.id, 23/6/2023), 55% out of the total voters of the 2024 Elections of 204.807.222 people, will be dominated by the young voters (combining gen z and millennials). Therefore, based on this data, it can be concluded that the dominant number of young voters in the upcoming elections in Indonesia is one of the most important factors that political parties and the candidates must pay attention to in order to win the elections. One of the strategies should be by understanding the characters of the young people, which one of them is their intensive use of the internet and particularly social media.
In relation to that, other findings on social media and the young voters are also raised by The Indonesian Institute, Center for Public Policy Research (TII) through their opinion polling of the youth regarding their political perceptions towards the 2024 Elections. In its polling (26 July – 12 August 2022), TII noted that 89% of the respondents knew about the 2024 Elections and 76% of that percentage received the information from social media. Furthermore, in relation to the young people and their rationality in giving their votes, this polling also found that 88 percent of the respondents are aware of social, political, legal, and economic dynamics from social media. Therefore, it can be said that the way young people use social media to access information also makes them more rational in considering their political choices, recalling their characters which are more creative and critical of their surroundings.
Furthermore, the results of TII last opinion polling on the same theme (6-31 October 2023) also highlighted several interesting findings that are useful for related stakeholders, including political parties, candidates, and elections organizers to consider in conducting their missions. For example, 80 percent of the respondents stated that they are willing to report if they found out about violation of political campaigns’ regulations; 67 percent of the respondents also think that the elections socialization are not effective; 36,6 percent respondents also still require information related to the track records, visions, missions, and programs of the president and vice president candidates; 21,5 percent respondents still need information of the track records of the legislative candidates at various government levels (national; provincial; city and district, and regional). TII also underlines that based on these numbers, no wonder that there are 28 percent of the respondents who are undecided about their selections particularly with president and vice president candidates.
Therefore, the use of social media has become a solid reason for the candidates in promoting their profiles to gain influence from the voters, particularly Indonesian youth who will use their voting rights next year. Political parties and candidates running in the upcoming elections must be able to follow on the aforementioned information strategically, such as by conducting campaigns that are speaking to the needs of the young people; using social media in interactive, engaging, educating, and informative ways which are also empowering young people to exercise their political activism in the elections and political campaigns.
In relation to that, TII’s results on the opinion polling (6-31 October 2023) also highlights three main issues concerned by the young voters: corruption (51,6%); equality in education (47.3%), and price control of staple ingredients (44%). Regarding political campaign methods, in its open question, the respondents mostly answer that young voters prefer methods such as interactive discussions, social media campaigns; trainings and campaigns which combine cultural elements.
On the other hand, the results also showed that young voters do not prefer methods which are too much and boring, such as through installment of campaign billboards and distribution of campaign souvenirs which they consider not useful. In short, these are some takeaways that political parties and candidates can reflect and consider to be used in their campaign strategies, especially when dealing with the young voters, not only about the use of social media in political campaigns, but what kinds of priority issues that young voters care nowadays and their preferences of political campaign methods, which are engaging, empowering, informative, and educational for them.
Furthermore, for the election’s organizers, the above-mentioned information should be taken considerably and seriously as important information to improve their performance, particularly in undertaking socialization and voter’s education, especially to the young people so that they will have more information about the elections, not only the schedule, but also the participants, as well their visions, mission, and programs, as well as their track records. Young people should also have a better knowledge about the existing elections organizers, so that they will understand, for example, to which agency they should go if they find violations of the political campaigns’ conduct, which is in this case to the election monitoring commission, or to related civil society organisations dealing with elections and democracy, and/or through the media.
Challenges in using social media for political campaigns effectively
However, apart from the popular trend of social media political campaigns and its benefits, there are also unintended consequences coming out of this kind of political campaigns. For example, hoaxes particularly political if not election-related one; disinformation; misinformation; discrimination; black campaigns; bot and anonymous accounts; untransparent campaign financing, including on social media ads expenditure, especially in the challenge of lack of literacy of the public on social media, digital, politics, elections, democracy, public policy, and also political campaign issues. This is also worsened by over fanaticism on candidates, post truth, as well as fear of missing out that makes people easily share information in social media without checking the truth and validity of the information.
For example, regarding political hoaxes, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics in their News Release in the First Trimester of 2023 noted that from August 2018 to March 31st, 2023, there is a total of 11.357 hoaxes identified, in which 1.355 of them are political hoaxes. Furthermore, another data by Mafindo (Indonesia Anti-Hoax Community) in the first trimester of 2023 found 664 hoaxes with political themes dominating in 233 findings.
The main issues used in the formulation of hoax are identity issues based on Ethnicity, Religion, Race, and Intergroups (Aspinall dan Mietzner, 2014). Therefore, referring to the cases in the previous elections related to the use of social media in political campaigns, it is possible that similar cases can be revealed again in the upcoming 2024 Elections.
The research by The Indonesian Institute, Center for Public Policy Research/TII (2023) further underlines the importance to regulate the use of social media in political campaigns in order to enable elections organizers to deal with those risks and problems effectively and to consider the landscape of social media so that the regulations they produce are based on the current situation of the development of technology, particularly regarding the internet and social media. TII also strongly recommends collaboration amongst various relevant stakeholders, including civil society and social media platforms, related ministries, law enforcement apparatus, and the elections organizers as social media is a very complex matter that requires attention from various parties to carefully deal with its usage and negative excesses.
Furthermore, using social media in political campaigns and referring to the references and data above and other relevant and valid information, is also important for related stakeholders not only political parties and candidates, but also elections organizers, to conduct their missions strategically and responsively, and based on contexts. This is important so that they can make use of social media optimally in their works, not only in technical and tactical manners, but also substantive ones which are empowering, engaging, informative, and educative for those they are connecting with, including with the young voters.
For example, TII opinion polling series on young people’s political perceptions towards the 2024 Elections at the end of 2022 (5-19 December 2022), found that respondents who joined political parties also have the interest in running as legislator candidates in the elections. In addition, TII research in 2021, also underlines the importance of strengthening internal institutions of political parties, including accommodating young people and women, as well as marginalized people to participate in politics. This finding also underlines that political parties must conduct wider membership recruitment, including for the youth and for them to participate meaningfully through capacity building as well as positioning them in substantive divisions in the parties.
Therefore, TII through the research and series of polling also encourages political parties to become more relevant to the people, including to the grass roots and marginalized people, and to be able to improve their performance to conduct their functions optimally through participatory, inclusive, transparent, based-on research actions, and accountable principles.
Benefits of data analytics and sentiment analysis to optimize social media campaign strategies, and several notes to consider
Talking about the importance of data including in social media campaign strategies, as highlighted above, there are various sources of information that can be used in political campaigns. In the context of social media, data analytics and sentiment analysis can be used as some of the references to optimize social media campaign strategies because they provide specific information of the targeted voters, numbers, characters, background, preferences which are related to algorithms applied in social media analytics.
That information will make the success team have a more focused data and information to become references for their strategies which they can customize accordingly to fit the targets in order to win the elections. For example, in identifying potential supporters who will help them to gain more votes and win the elections and in understanding priority issues that particular voters want the candidates to speak about, share their positions on the issues, and their ideas to tackle those concerning issues which are relevant to the aspirations of the targeted voters.
In Indonesia, what remains as trends even if they are sometimes seen as controversial are political surveys. Just like the data analytics and sentiment analysis, though work in different mechanisms, political surveys are parts of the news and references for the candidates and political parties. The business has flourished since the 2004 Elections with the quick count being introduced in the first place, then political consultants have been flourishing as well since then along with pollsters. Surveys have also been used as campaign strategies to create if not lead public opinion to particular candidates, although at the end of the day, the final results will depend on the calculation and official results by the election organizers on the D-day of the elections.
In other words, social media in political campaigns, along with the data analytics and the sentiment analytics, are still in place as one of the strategies used by political parties and candidates running in the 2024 Elections. It cannot be denied that the significant number of users of social media in Indonesia, the domination of young voters in the upcoming elections and their intensive use of and familiarity with social media, not to mention the length of time used by people in Indonesia using social media daily along with the total number of users using social media, the use of social media in various ways not only in political interests, as well as the need to mobilize all resources to win the elections by making use of existing resources, including social media, have also made social media important to keep as a strategy of political campaigning. It also makes the references to data analytics and sentiment analysis also crucial for candidates and political parties competing in the elections.
However, the use of social media, along with references to data analytics and sentiment analysis, in this era of advanced technology, does not mean that it is the only method for political campaigns. Apart from the benefits of using social media in political campaigns, it also does not guarantee candidates to win the competition, even with the best sentiment impact (Sandoval-Almazan & Valle-Cruzz, 2018). In addition, there are various reasons that affect voters to select their preferred candidates and political parties, not merely because of information they consume in social media, but also social connections in their daily and real life. For instance, parents, spouses, siblings, and peer groups.
Furthermore, in the context of Indonesia, where there are 213 million Internet users and 167 million social media users (We Are Social, 2023) out of 278,8 million populations, means that political parties and candidates of the elections have to use other strategies for their political campaigns. Even today, the conventional campaigns, such as through blackboards, posters, banners, door-to-door visits, rallies, public meetings, free social assistance, entertainment stages, and merchandises are still quite common in political campaigns.
The strategies will also depend on the target voters and the condition of the electoral area they are aiming for, whether referring to the factors such as demography, geography, priority issues, social, economy, and cultural contexts. At the end of the day, it is important for candidates and political parties to understand that political campaigns whether online or offline are not simply about winning elections, but also winning the trust and support from the people. This is where human relations approach and understanding of the concerns of the voters and contexts of the electoral area, nurturing meaningful participation and relations with the constituents for a better, relevant, contextual, inclusive, and responsive democracy for all through informative and educative political campaigns be it online and/or offline.
Furthermore, it is crucial to ensure that social media is used wisely and strategically, so that it will not violate any regulations related to the campaign as well as other big issues related to the digital platform as mentioned above, such as protection of personal data; hoaxes; disinformation; misinformation; discrimination; polarizations, and criminalization.
To conclude, whatever modes of political campaigns that will be conducted, all the participants of the elections must ensure that they will carry their political campaigns in informative and educative, as well as interesting, empowering, and engaging ways, responding to current issues, not to mention according to existing laws and regulations.
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References
Books
Cangara, Hafied. (2009). Komunikasi Politik: Konsep, Teori, dan Strategi (Political Communication: Concept, Theory, and Strategy). Jakarta: Rajawali Pers.
Picard, Nicolas and Michelle Chang. (2014). Will Indonesia’s Online Youth Shape 2014 Elections? Elections in Indonesia. Jakarta: The Asia Foundation.
Journal
Aspinall, Edward dan Mietzner, Marcus. (2014). “Indonesian Politics in 2014: Democracy’s Close Call”. Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies 50, No. 3 (December 2014): 347–69.
Proceeding
Sandoval-Almazan, Rodrigo and Valle-Cruz, David. (2018). “Facebook Impact and Sentiment Analysis on Political Campaigns”. Proceedings of the 19th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research: Governance in the Data Age. Pages 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1145/3209281.3209328
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The Indonesian Institute, Center for Public Policy Research (TII). Hasil Angket Persepsi Anak Muda Jelang Pemilu dan Pilkada Serentak 2024 (Results of Opinion Poll on Indonesian Young Voters Towards the 2024 Elections). Period of July-August 2022). https://www.theindonesianinstitute.com/hasil-angket-persepsi-anak-muda-jelang-pemilu-dan-pilkada-serentak-2024-periode-juli-agustus-2022/
The Indonesian Institute, Center for Public Policy Research (TII). Hasil Angket Persepsi Anak Muda Jelang Pemilu dan Pilkada Serentak 2024 (Results of Opinion Poll on Indonesian Young Voters Towards the 2024 Elections). Period of December 2022. https://www.theindonesianinstitute.com/hasil-angket-persepsi-anak-muda-jelang-pemilu-2024-periode-desember-2022/
The Indonesian Institute, Center for Public Policy Research (TII). Hasil Angket Persepsi Anak Muda Terhadap Pemilu dan Pilkada Serentak Tahun 2024 (Results of Opinion Poll on Indonesian Young Voters Towards the 2024 Elections). Period of October 2023. https://www.theindonesianinstitute.com/hasil-angket-persepsi-anak-muda-terhadap-pemilu-dan-pilkada-serentak-tahun-2024-periode-oktober-2023
We Are Social. (2023). “Digital 2023: Global Overview Report”. https://wearesocial.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Digital-2023-Global-Overview-Report.pdf