Yogyakarta, September 13th 2021─Diffusion #60: Social Media Campaign:Can It Attract Youngsters? was held by the Center for Digital Society (CfDS) Fisipol UGM with BEM Fisip Universitas Riau through a Zoom Meeting last Monday (13/9). Hafiz Noer as CfDS’ Research Associate and Nurul Amalia as a researcher in Association for Election and Democracy (Perludem) are the speakers.
Hafiz Noer talked about the social media campaign aimed towards the millennial and Z generation. According to Hafiz, social media is now an alternative public sphere that can break through conventional barriers. “The cyber public sphere is more dynamic and egalitarian, therefore there are a lot of active youngsters there. Hence, the political cyberspace can also raise the awareness of youngsters,” said Hafiz. In his session, Hafiz also said that social media is not only meant for campaigns but also for socialization.
The next speaker was Nurul Amalia who talked about politics, youngsters, and alternative media. Based on a survey held by Indonesia’s Ministry of Information, the political participation of youngsters is quite low. Youngsters are not quite active in any political parties. However, youngsters are still active in the election.
Next, Nurul analyzed the research of Perludem that said that youngsters are more active in the non formal political sphere. “Youngsters often join organizations and communities in their environment or they do politics in cyberspace,” Nurul said. Nurul also said that a lot of the candidates prefer face-to-face campaigns.