Propaganda and Political Memes on Social Media in the 2019 Indonesian Presidential Election
Abstract
Political memes colored the 2019 Indonesian presidential election campaign on social media. Political memes have become one of the propaganda strategies to influence public opinion to gain political support from the public before the presidential election. This study aims to analyze and understand political memes as a medium of political propaganda in the 2019 Indonesian presidential election. This study uses critical discourse analysis to uncover the meaning behind the text. The data collection technique uses documentation in the form of political memes of the two presidential candidates, both in images and political symbols scattered on social media in the January – March 2019 period. Furthermore, the data will be analyzed using Fairclough's critical discourse analysis model to find out the meaning of the text. This study indicates that social media plays an essential role in political communication in the 2019 presidential election campaign. Social media is a cheap and fast means of spreading political memes that reach potential voters widely and massively. Through political memes, Joko Widodo often talks about having links with the Indonesian Communist Party. Meanwhile, Prabowo Subianto is often spoken of by his political opponents as a supporter of the caliphate in Indonesia. These political memes are used as political propaganda to construct or deconstruct political presidential candidates' discourse and build or damage the reputation of presidential candidates to influence public opinion.
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Allifiansyah, S. (2017). Youth, Memes, and Digital Democracy in Indonesia. Journal of COMMUNICATION SCIENCE , 13 (2), 151–164. https://doi.org/10.24002/jik.v13i2.676
Althusser, L. (2014). On the Reproduction of Capitalism . Verso.
Ansari, F. (2013). POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA. Journal of Communication , 8 (1), 91–102. https://doi.org/10.20885/communication.vol8.iss1.art7
APJII. (2017). Results of the 2017 Indonesian Internet User Behavior and Penetration Survey . Apjii.or.Id.
Bauckhage, C. (2011). Insights into Internet Memes. proc. int. conf. on Weblogs and Social Media , 42–49.
Bebić, D., & Volarevic, M. (2018). Don't mess with a meme: The use of viral content in communicating politics. Communication and Society , 31 (3), 43–56. https://doi.org/10.15581/003.31.3.43-56
Bernays, EL (1928). Propaganda . Horace Liveright.
Brodie, R. (2014). Mind Virus . Gramedia Popular Literature.
Brunello, J. (2012). Internet memes and everyday creativity . Erasmus School of History.
Camellia. (2019). Top 3: Funny Unicorn Memes in the Presidential Candidate Debate Made by Warganet . Liputan6.Com.
DataReportal. (2020). Digital 2020 Indonesia (January 2020) v01 . Www.Slideshare.Net.
Dean, J. (2019). Sorted for Memes and Gifs: Visual Media and Everyday Digital Politics. Political Studies Review , 17 (3), 255–266. https://doi.org/10.1177/14789291918807483
DeCook, JR (2018). Memes and symbolic violence: #proudboys and the use of memes for propaganda and the construction of collective identity. Learning, Media and Technology , 43 (4), 485–504. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2018.1544149
Denzin, NK, & Lincoln, YS (2000). Handbook of Qualitative Research . Sage Publications.
Devi, RWS (2019). 10 Best Anime You Need to Know . Detik.Com.
Dewi, RS, Abdullah, A., Maryani, E., & Suganda, D. (2017). Internet Memes : Representation of Indonesian Political Culture in Jakarta Gubernatorial Election 2017. AEBMR International Conference on Administrative Science (ICAS 2017) , 190–194. https://doi.org/10.2991/icas-17.2017.45
Dynel, M. (2016). “I have seen image macros!” Advice animal memes as visual-verbal jokes. International Journal of Communication , 10 , 660–688.
Elmore, PG, & Coleman, JM (2019). Middle School Students' Analysis of Political Memes to Support Critical Media Literacy. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy , 0 (0), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.948
Enli, GS, & Skogerbø, E. (2013). PERSONALIZED CAMPAIGNS IN PARTY-CENTRED POLITICS: Twitter and Facebook as arenas for political communication. Information Communication and Society , 16 (5), 757–774. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2013.782330
Eriyanto. (2008). Discourse Analysis: An Introduction to Media Text Analysis . LKiS.
Fitrianita, T., Nuryani, AF, Mondry, M. (2018). Critical Discourse Analysis - Norman Fairclough. In Kholifah, S. & IW Suyadna (Eds.), Qualitative Research Methodology . Press Eagle.
Gil de Zúñiga, H., Jung, N., & Valenzuela, S. (2012). Social Media Use for News and Individuals' Social Capital, Civic Engagement and Political Participation. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication , 17 (3), 319–336. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01574.x
Hameleers, M., & Schmuck, D. (2017). It's us against them: a comparative experiment on the effects of populist messages communicated via social media. Information Communication and Society , 20 (9), 1425–1444. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1328523
Handini, VA, Nugroho, W., & Nur, O. (2019). Transformation of Campaign Media in the 2009-2019 Indonesian Presidential Election Constellation. Proceedings of Comnews: Conference on Communication and New Media Studies , 34–45.
Hrdinová, J., Helbig, N., & Peters, C. (2010). Designing social media policy for government: Eight essential elements. In Center for Technology in Government .
Huang, H. (2015). Propaganda as signaling. Comparative Politics , 47 (4), 419–444. https://doi.org/10.5129/001041515816103220
Jenkins, H. (2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century .
Jowett, Garth, S., & O´Donnel, V. (2006). Propaganda and Persuasion 4th Edition. In Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media . SAGE Publications.
Kalkina, V. (2020). Between Humor and Public Commentary: Digital Re-appropriation of the Soviet Propaganda Posters as Internet Memes. Journal of Creative Communications , 15 (2), 131–146. https://doi.org/10.1177/0973258619893780
Kaplan, AM, & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons , 53 (1), 59–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2009.09.003
Kenez, P. (1985). The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917–1929 . Cambridge University Press.
Koppang, H. (2009). Social Influence by Manipulation: A Definition and Case of Propaganda. Middle East Critique , 18 (2), 117–143. https://doi.org/10.1080/19436140902989472
Kristeva, J. (1980). Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art . Columbia University Press.
Kulkarni, A. (2017). Internet meme and political discourse: A study on the impact of internet meme as a tool in communicating political satire. Journal of Content, Community and Communication , 6 (3), 13–17. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3501366
Lasswell, HD (1927). The Theory of Political Propaganda. American Political Science Review , 21 (3), 627–631. https://doi.org/10.2307/1945515
Lasswell, HD (1930). Psychopathology and Politics . University of Chicago Press.
Lippmann, W. (1922). Public Opinion . Macmillan.
Lukianova, N., Shteynman, M., & Fell, E. (2019). Political memes in the 2018 presidential campaigns in Russia: Dialogue and conflict. Empedocles , 10 (1), 71–86. https://doi.org/10.1386/ejpc.10.1.71_1
Makhortykh, M., & González Aguilar, JM (2020). Memory, politics and emotions: internet memes and protests in Venezuela and Ukraine. Continuum , 34 (3), 342–362. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2020.1764782
Marshall Soules. (2015). Media, Persuation, and Propaganda . Edinburgh University Press.
Milner, RM (2013). Pop Polyvocality: Internet Memes, Public Participation, and the Occupy Wall Street Movement. International Journal of Communication , 7 , 2357–2390.
Mina, AX (2014). Batman, pandaman and the blind man: A case study in social change memes and internet censorship in china. Journal of Visual Culture , 13 (3), 359–375. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470412914546576
Nugraha, A., Hasanah Sudrajat, R., & Primadani Satria Putri, B. (2015). MEME PHENOMENON IN SOCIAL MEDIA: A VIRTUAL ETNOGRAPHY STUDY OF MEME POSTING ON INSTAGRAM SOCIAL MEDIA USERS. Journal of Sociotechnology , 14 (3), 237–245. https://doi.org/10.5614/sostek.itbj.2015.14.3.3
Nulty, P., Theocharis, Y., Popa, SA, Parnet, O., & Benoit, K. (2016). Social media and political communication in the 2014 elections to the European Parliament. Electoral Studies , 44 , 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2016.04.014
Nurudin. (2008). Propaganda Communication . Rosdakarya.
Obar, JA, & Wildman, S. (2015). Social media definition and the governance challenge: An introduction to the special issue. Telecommunications Policy , 39 (9), 745–750. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2015.07.014
Puteri, NR, & Mahadian, AB (2019). SOCIAL ISSUES IN THE FORM OF INTERNET MEME BEFORE THE 2019 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION (Content Analysis on Image Memes on Instagram @memecomic.id). Scriptura , 9 (1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.9744/scriptura.9.1.1-8
Roosinda, FW, & Alfraita, A. (2020). Community campaign in the political meme “eccentric community” in the 2019 presidential election. Humanities and Social Sciences Reviews , 8 (1), 539–549. https://doi.org/10.18510/HSSR.2020.8166
Ross, AS, & Rivers, DJ (2017). Digital cultures of political participation: Internet memes and the discursive delegitimization of the 2016 US Presidential candidates. Discourse, Context and Media , 16 , 1—11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2017.01.001
Shifman., L. (2013). Memes in Digital Culture . MIT Press.
Shifman, L. (2013). Memes in a digital world: Reconciling with a conceptual troublemaker. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication , 18 (3), 362–377,. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12013
Shifman, L. (2014). Memes in Digital Culture . MIT Press.
Soebakir, DR, Pratama, BI, & Hair, A. (2020). Mapping Political Memes After the 2019 Indonesian Presidential Election. Channel: Journal of Communication Studies , 8 (2), 58–66. https://doi.org/10.21070/kanal.v8i2.220
Soh, WY (2020). Digital protest in Singapore: the pragmatics of political Internet memes. Media, Culture and Society , 42 (7–8), 1115–1132. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720904603
Sohail, RM, & Chebib, N. (2011). The Reasons social media contributed to the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM) , 2 (3), 139–162.
Stier, S., Bleier, A., Lietz, H., & Strohmaier, M. (2018). Election Campaigning on Social Media: Politicians, Audiences, and the Mediation of Political Communication on Facebook and Twitter. Political Communication , 35 (1), 50–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2017.1334728
Susanto, EH (2017). SOCIAL MEDIA AS SUPPORTING POLITICAL COMMUNICATION NETWORKS. ASPIKOM Journal , 3 (3), 379–398. https://doi.org/10.24329/aspikom.v3i3.123
Theisen, W., Brogan, J., Thomas, PB, Moreira, D., Phoa, P., Weninger, T., & Scheirer, W. (2020). Automatic discovery of political meme genres with diverse appearances. In arXiv .
Vromen, A., Xenos, MA, & Loader, B. (2015). Young people, social media and connective action: from organizational maintenance to everyday political talk. Journal of Youth Studies , 18 (1), 80–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2014.933198
Watie, EDS (2016). Communication and Social Media (Communications and Social Media). Journal of The Messenger , 3 (2), 69. https://doi.org/10.26623/themessenger.v3i2.270
Widyaningtyas, MD, Nugroho, KS, & Sagita, D. (2017). MEDIA STYLE AND BEHAVIOR OF SERANG CITY Adolescents in an effort to increase their own capacity. Scientium , 6 (2), 116–182.
Widyastuti, RAY (2019). When Prabowo was nervous, Jokowi asked about unicorns . Tempo.Co.
Williams, AL, & Merten, MJ (2011). iFamily: Internet and social media technology in the family context. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal , 40 (2), 150–170. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-3934.2011.02101.x
Williams, J. (2016). The good and the bad of political memes during election seasons . Www.Dukechronicle.Com.
Woolley, Samuel C., Howard, PN (2016). Political Communication, Computational Propaganda, and Autonomous Agents. International Journal of Communication , 10 , 4882–4890.
Wutz, I. (2018). Brexit and Online Political Activism: On Vox Populism, Slacktivism and Online Intertextuality . Www.Diggitmagazine.Com.
Yoon, I. (2016). Why is it not Just a Joke? Analysis of Internet Memes Associated with Racism and Hidden Ideology of Colorblindness. Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education , 33 , 93–129.
Zakiyuddin, A. (2018). Jalaludin Rakhmat's Political Propaganda Techniques (Case Study on 2014 Election Campaign in Bandung Regency and West Bandung Regency). Journal of Academia Praja , 1 (1), 39–58.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18196/jiwp.v6i2.16115
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Journal JIWP Indexed by:
.png)
Office:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.