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Government of the Russian Federation

FEDERAL STATE AUTONOMOUS EDUCATIONAL

INSTITUTION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY

“HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS”

Faculty of Social Sciences

Sellita

MASTER THESIS

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND ELECTIONS: EVIDENCE FROM THE INDONESIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

Field of Study 41.04.04 Political Science

Master's Program “Politics. Economics. Philosophy”

Reviewer Timofeeva O.A Senior Lecturer, Department of Media	Scientific Supervisor Nikita Savin Yurevich Senior Lecturer of Faculty of Communication, Media and Design

Moscow, 2020

Table of Content

Table of Content

List of Abbreviations

List of Figures

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Research objectives

Research significances

CHAPTER I

LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Mainstream media versus new media

1.2 Social networks to social media: Facebook and Twitter

1.3 The role of social networks on political strategies

1.4 Social media in Indonesia

1.5 Previous study

CHAPTER II

RESEARCH DESIGN

2.1 Method and data collection

2.2 Data collection from expert interview

2.3 Data collection from social media

CHAPTER III

RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS

3.1 Social characteristic

3.2 Discussion of results from the interview

3.2.1 Result 1

3.2.1.1 Mainstream media in 2014, social media in 2019

3.2.1.2 The difference between two campaign: 2014 was about getting supporters, while 2019 was mostly about retaining them

3.2.2 Result 2

3.2.2.1 Social media facilitated digitalization campaign strategies in 2019

3.2.2.2 Digital campaign strategies from both candidates

3.2.3 Conclusion of the interview results

3.3 Discussion of results from social media data

3.3.1 Result of Facebook data

3.3.1.1 Facebook data of Joko Widodo

3.3.1.2 Facebook data of Prabowo Subianto

3.3.2 Result of Twitter data

3.3.2.1 Twitter data of Joko Widodo

3.3.2.2 Twitter data of Prabowo Subianto

3.3.2 Conclusion of the social media data results

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSIONS

4.1 Summary of results

4.2 Limitation and further research

4.3 Research implications

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

Appendix A: Interview guidelines

Appendix B: Social characteristics of informants

Appendix C: Brief definition and description

Appendix D: Transcriptions of expert's interview

Appendix E: Twitter data of Joko Widodo

Appendix F: Twitter data of Prabowo Subianto

Appendix G: Facebook data of Joko Widodo

Appendix H: Facebook Data of Prabowo Subianto



List of Abbreviations

KOMINFO : Kementerian Komunikasi dan Informasi Republik Indonesia

(Ministry of Information and Communication on of Republic Indonesia)

BAWASLU : Badan Pengawas Pemilun

(Election Supervisory Board of Republic Indonesia)

KPU : Komisi Pemilihan Umum

(General Election Commissions)

APJII : Asosiasi Penyelenggara Jasa Internet Indonesia

(Association of Internet Service Providers of Indonesia)

GDP : Gross Domestic Product

IMF : International Monetary Fund



Abstract

Although considerable research has concentrated on digital campaigning, it is still unclear how candidates use different social media platforms during the election. Taking a focus on the presidential elections in Indonesia in 2014 and 2019 and the political strategies adopted. This research investigates the differences in presidential elections from two different years and then focuses on the digital campaign strategy in 2019 through two social media platforms, Facebook, and Twitter. Based on open responses from semi-structure interviews submitted to several experts in this field, the results of the interview are identified into several key results which then become the answers to the research questions to answer the main hypothesis. Then, to strengthening the main hypothesis, an analysis has been carried out at the stage of social media data on Facebook and Twitter through content and topics raised on the candidate's account on Facebook and Twitter. The analysis shows that the difference between the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections is the use of the mainstream media and new media. And through social media, both candidates have certain tactics in conducting digital campaigns to attract voter's attention.

Keywords: social media, elections, presidential elections, Indonesia, political campaign, digital campaign



INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze the role of social media on political strategies in Indonesian presidential elections in 2014 and 2019. This is an attempt to understand social media as a new communication technology in the modern era in politics, particularly in presidential elections. This research uses a variety of qualitative methods to examine the data. The data sources were agencies (several survey institutions), news, interviews, and some previously published research reports. The data analysis in the results of this study can be used to describe the different roles of social media on political strategies in Indonesia between two different periods of elections. It is believed that research on social media and election is interesting to be studied deeply from the side of two different periods of presidential elections in Indonesia. The two periods of the presidential election in Indonesia tend to be the same as general. This is because of both successive elections having the same two presidential candidates as the previous year from 2014 to 2019. Not only have the same candidate, but the role of social media also been seen since 2014 and continued into the 2019 election. However, whether social media have a more significant role in the 2014 election or 2019 election in Indonesia. Indeed, this is appealing to discuss the role of social media in campaign strategies of both elections.



Background of the study

In this era of information, social media is something common and familiar to everyone, regardless whether or not they use it. Nowadays, social media is one of most-used and popular communication tools. Social media enables people to share ideas, content, and information quickly and without many restrictions. However, there are negative aspects to this. Social media platforms in the world's largest democracies, like India and Indonesia, have been inundated with false information and news that has spread too quickly to be corrected, sometimes with real political consequences.

In any democratic countries, social media has an important role, since inhabitants receive a lot of news from the social media. Social media shapes how people interpret and observe political information, especially election coverage and other political events. In fact, the aspirations of the people want to be heard by the elite, and social media as the right advice for the community. Social media explicitly seeks to directly involve the public in political activities, such as voting, contacting public officials, volunteering in their communities, and taking part in protest movements (Owen, 2017). The emphasis on social media infotainment at this early stage offers political leaders and candidates a friendly place to present themselves to the public rather than to the hard news outlets (Moy, et al., 2009). Furthermore, there is possible influence on political preference according to their political behavior.

The influence of social media on political strategies is used to create various political movements such as forming polarization and public perception in elections. The Obama presidential campaign in 2008 is an excellent example of this. The Obama campaign team used features on social media that utilized the potential of networking, collaboration, and community development from social media to create political movements. The social media software used in this campaign are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (Owen, 2017).

However, this study is concerned with the extent of role on political strategies through social media in the 2014 and 2019 Indonesian presidential election.

Social media served as a mechanism of information-delivery and influence for each candidate in the election. According to research conducted by We Are Social on January, 2018, the total of population in Indonesia reaches 265.4 million and for internet users it is 132.7 million and the average of Indonesia citizens spend three hours 23 minutes a day to accessing social media.

General elections in Indonesia are held every five years. Participants in general elections start for every Indonesian citizen from the age of 17 years and above or who already have a resident card. The political system in Indonesia is a multi-party system. Traditional campaigns began 8 months before the election. However, there is no limit to campaigning on social media, in the sense that candidates can post to attract the attention of voters on social media. This is due to the large number of social media users in Indonesia, which of course also consists of various groups and the most active are young people.

Two Presidential candidates who competed in the presidential election in Indonesia in 2019 are Joko Widodo - K.H Ma'ruf Amin and Prabowo Subianto - Sandiaga Uno. Joko Widodo was the current president and incumbent candidate at the time of the 2019 election, having won the 2014 Indonesian Presidential election. His challenger also the same one as in 2014, Prabowo Subianto. Both candidates in the 2014 election had different vice-presidential candidates than in the 2019 election. Joko Widodo - Jusuf Kalla officially won the Presidential election in 2014 with 53.25% of the vote from the national legitimate (Letters of General Election Commissions of Republic Indonesia, 2014). As repeated, Joko Widodo - K.H Ma'ruf Amin won back the 2019 presidential election.

A major factor in determining the re-election of incumbent candidates is the economic performance of their country over the course of their first term. According to the World Bank data, total GDP of Indonesia is increasing from 2014 to 2017, which is from 890,815 Billion to 1,016 Trillion. Similarly, the population in Indonesia increase from 255.131.116 to 263.991.379 in 2014 - 2017. On the other hand, poverty rate has decreased in 2014 - 2017 from 11.3 to 10.6. The Global Economic Prospects also experienced a significant increase during this time period (World Bank, 2018). At the beginning of Joko Widodo's first presidential term in 2014, public satisfaction was very low at around 40% because of poor macroeconomic conditions (Hanan, 2017). According to survey by Saiful (Mujani Research and Consulting) in September 2017, the level of public satisfaction with the Indonesian government was quite stable at around 68%. This shows a marked increase in public support for Widodo, perhaps due in part to the better economic conditions that happened during this period.

The 2014 presidential election was the first major Indonesian election where social media plays a major role. This is not only obvious but backed up by a survey on the influence of social media on people's political preferences. The survey was conducted by Charta Politika in the period 19-25 March 2019 then with a face-to-face interview method on 2000 respondents. The sample was chosen randomly in all regions of Indonesia. While the margin of error in this survey reached 2.19%. The results of the survey obtained were 24.4% of respondents said that social media was very influential on people political preferences and 37.8% said it was quite influential. While 19.1% of respondents said that the information in social media influenced political preferences; 13.6% thought information in social media had no effect, and 5% did not know or did not answer. However, in 2019, social media has become even more become popular than more traditional online media such as online television or newspaper. This precedented an enormous opportunity for both candidates to persuade voters that they were the better candidate directly instead of through a more traditional medium.

Social media also determines of voter behavior in the presidential election in 2019. Voters could depend on social media they will be easily influenced by others through social media. On the other hand, voters already have preference to President candidate. However, their preference sometimes could change, because of influence of social media.

However, this topic has a huge impact to discuss. Voter behavior could determine to the candidate in the presidential election in 2014 and 2019 based on the magnitude of the influence of social media. In this era of information, the case of social media is a new media and it should be discussed related to the presidential election that will be able to influence the future presidential election.

Research objectives

social media presidential elections indonesia

Focus of this study is to identify the role of social media on political strategies in Indonesia elections. And also do a comparison as an instrument of the influence of social media in elections from two different election periods. Social networks are one of the new communication tools that can be easily accessed by people. People can easily access political information on social networks such as pictures or videos and can exchange information and discuss with other users related to the political issues being discussed. For example, people can share and see clips and information from presidential debates and discuss it with other users. This paper is an examination and comparison of the role of social media by social networks in the 2014 and 2019 Indonesian presidential elections. In order to understanding the problem of the research, the author will be utilizing several literature review of social media to support the research objective with the relevant seminal works of the prominent author and conducted interviews with several experts of social media and elections in Indonesia to answer the following question:

RQ1: What is the role of social media in the Indonesian presidential elections in 2014 and 2019?

RQ2: How the candidates used social media in these two different situations?

Hypotheses

HI: The role of social media was bigger in 2019 than 2014

There is a difference between how the role of social media in the 2014 and 2019 elections. The role of social media in influencing elections was higher in 2019 than in 2014. One of the measures to indicate the impact of social media on election is through an interview of ten questions. The ten questions used to test hypothesis are as follows:

1. How long have you been observing social media in Indonesia?

2. How long have you been observing election in Indonesia?

3. Based on your experiences in Indonesia's election 2014, what do you think matters for candidate to win an election?

4. Based on your experiences in Indonesia's election 2019, what do you think matters for candidate to win an election?

5. Do you think domestic policies matters in the 2014 presidential election?

6. Do you think domestic policies matters in the 2019 presidential election?

7. In what ways does social media influence or not influence Indonesia's 2014 election?

8. In what ways does social media influence or not influence Indonesia's 2019 election?

9. Do you think some voters might have shifted their support and if this was as a result of certain politicians defecting or perhaps minor parties joining one of the main parties?

10. What recommendation do you have for incumbent governments and oppositions to take related to social media era in election?

In 2019, in 2019, the number of active users in Indonesia has increased dramatically. This is certainly related to an increase of social media users every year. This statement is also supported by research from We are social (2019) stating that internet users increased by 14% from 2014 to 2019. With the increasing number of social media users, people will also consume political news, including elections through social media.

H2: Social media facilitated digitalization of political campaign strategies more during 2019 elections as compared to 2014 elections

H2a: The opposition less active in digitalization campaign strategies than the incumbent

In the second hypothesis, it emphasizes that social media tends to be bigger in 2019 than in 2014. It is believed that social media is used in political strategizing during elections. Each candidate begins to leave mainstream media in 2019 and focus on social media. Social media is used to convey the ideologies in political campaigns. This is based on the fact that Indonesia is a country with active social media users. In addition, social media is also used to attract the attention of young voters through creative content presented social media platforms. In the 2019 elections the number of new voters was much higher. For this reason, using social media to attract public attention during 2019 elections was the right choice.

The campaign strategy was to utilize platforms on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Facebook is used to create a supportive community for each candidate. This is in support of social media users being more active of Facebook in Indonesia as compared to Twitter. Facebook represents all levels of society in Indonesia from young voters to old voters. On the other hand, Twitter used mostly by young voters in Indonesia even though each candidate was tends to be active on both platform Facebook and Twitter.

Research significances

Research significances refer to the benefits of this research which is expected to be a reference for future research. The benefits of this research are to give comprehension about the role of social media on political strategies in Indonesia by using social media. It can also serve as a reference for people to understand whether social media has a role in political strategies. Some and it is seen from many previous studies analyzing social media issues and their relationship with politics, especially in elections. For example the influence and role of social media on political preferences. Meanwhile, the lack of existing research on how social media theories influence political strategies in Indonesia and similar countries gives reasons why this research is important to be discussed in depth.

However, the main idea of this study is to examine and analyze the role of social media on political strategies in Indonesia presidential election in 2019. The political strategy that will be raised is about how politicians try to use social media as a digital campaign tool. On the one hand, the discussion of political strategy in the 2019 elections also received concern in this study. Thus, in general, this research emphasizes the different roles of social media in the 2014 and 2019 elections in Indonesia. Furthermore, the composition of this research is divided into several sections. In the first part discuss the background of the study, research objectives, question, hypothesis, significances, and organization of the paper. Chapter one is part of the literature review which contains some basic explanations regarding social media and some previous research. Chapter two is the research methodology and method of data collection. Chapter three is a discussion of the findings from the data that has been collected. And chapter four is the closing part which contains conclusions, a summary of findings, and suggestions for further research.



CHAPTER I

LITERATURE REVIEW

Social networking is an online interaction service that builds interaction among people and connects them with common interests. Social networking is the relationship that exists between networks of people who are connected through social media. In this context, this study follows two aims: first, to illustrate the use of social networks in elections. Second, to compare the differences in the use of social networks in the Indonesia presidential elections in two different periods of the election. However, by showing the existence of social networks in presidential elections in Indonesia, the role of social networks is basically the same in elections, but indeed there are some differences in the use of social networks from era to era in democratic countries. To add, the Indonesian presidential elections in 2014 and 2019 were two fairly similar elections to compare. Consider the 2019 elections have the same candidates as the previous election. Likewise, the use of social media which had already begun in the 2014 elections and continued the existence of social media in the 2019 elections.

Furthermore, before developing the argument, the current state of the literature has to be detailed, to understand: an explanation of mainstream media and new media; what kind of social networks exist in Indonesia; the role of social networks on political strategies; the use of social networks in Indonesia by two different eras; and some previous studies related to social networks and election.

1.1 Mainstream media versus new media

There are two types of mass media, electronic media and print media. Electronic media encapsulates television, radio and the internet. While print media, for example, magazines, papers, books, etc. Nowadays, electronic media such as internet is the most widely used channel for people to convey or receive information regarding an issue. This is because the internet is faster and more appropriate in giving or receiving information. Before the existence of electronic media, print media was a tool of delivering information to conveying information to the people, which was conveyed in writing. The development of print media technology makes it easy for people to access information by reading. On the other hand, print media still exists in this modern era as a source of information in every field such as politic, economic, and social. However, because of the rapid development of technology in electronic media, namely television, it emerged as a new source of information that made it easier for the people. In addition, television could shape public opinion in the political issues. Television could be used as a form of imaging for politicians to gain public sympathy through shows on television.

On the one hand, in the era of advances in technology and information, print media such as newspapers and books could be accessed through online media by the internet. According to Strauss, El-Ansary, Frost (2003) the internet is a global communication network that is interconnected across billions of individual devices. The internet is a media technology that is very fast and easily obtained and accepted by society. The internet has grown and developed into a medium that is able to deliver information quickly. With many resources available on the internet, people can easily get information by only using search engines to surf the internet. In addition, the most popular in internet is social media. Social media have several advantages such as, the information delivered is personal directly to users, has wide reached at the same time, user segments tend to be diverse and do not require special events for users to enjoy the information provided.

Bruce Williams and Michael Delli Carpini (2012) endeavor to provide a new framework for analyzing and evaluating the role of media in political life in this era of 24 hours cable news and “reality” TV, the Daily Show and Colbert Report, Facebook, and Twitter and Tumblr. The authors argue reigning categories of the broadcast era must be critically reexamined and even set aside the rigid differentiation between “news” and “entertainment,” between “fact” and “opinion,” and between professional journalists and the rest of us. The authors argue that our dominant empirical and normative models of the media are products of a bygone era the “age of broadcast news.” Seen through those still reigning models, today's media environment spells mostly doom for democracy. Traditional public affairs news delivered through authoritative media outlets is on the decline. Fewer outlets are producing “serious” news and for shrinking audiences.

1.2 Social networks to social media: Facebook and Twitter

The presence of social media in the past decade has given rise to a digital revolution for anyone with internet access. The digital revolution has changed the various behavior and interpersonal sectors of society, particularly when it regards communicating and consuming news. The presence of social media changes the transmission of information to be more personal. Social media is form of democratization in the real sense. In the era of social media, the audience transforms into a user, from media to content, from mono-media to multimedia, from periodical to real-time from the scarcity of information to abundance. The presence of social media cannot be underestimated because the impact could really be felt personally.

According to Antony Mayfield (2008) who gave his ideas in the form of social media definitions. In social media users easily participate in various and creative roles, especially blogs, social networks, wikis / online encyclopedias, virtual forums, and so on. Social media is a tool for people to share text, image, video and audio information to each other and companies and vice versa (Philip Kotler and Kevin Keller, 2012: 568).

Chris Brogan (2011: 11) in his book entitled “Social Media 101: Tactic and Tips to Develop Your Business Online” defines social media is a new set of communication and collaboration tools that enable many types of interactions that were previously not available to the common person. Social media according to Dailey (2009: 3) is online content that is created using publishing technology that is very accessible and measurable. The most important of these technologies is the shift in how to know people, read and share news, and search for information and content.

Social networking sites are the interface between people and social media, and for many, the “Internet” is synonymous with social networking sites (Hinton & Hjorth, 2013: 32). There are several of social media channels as social networking that which is often used by people, especially the youth generation operating throughout the world today, with three major such as Facebook, LinkedIn 'and Twitter (Badri, 2011: 132).

The social networking site Facebook has become one of the most important social trends in the last decade. Facebook is now, by a very wide margin, the biggest social network worldwide. As of the third quarter of 2019, Facebook has more than 2.45 billion global monthly active users with a cumulative total of 2.8 billion users (Facebook, 2019). Facebook allows its users to create their own Facebook page, add friends and share personal updates and photos. According to Facebook user statistics, a very popular feature of Facebook is the “like button”. Designed to facilitate feedback and recommendations to friends, it is now integrated into virtually every major website, especially those offering content. The “like button” also opened the door for marketers to benefit from Facebook's popularity.

According to Brian J. Dixion (2012: 40), Twitter is a microblogging messaging service that limits you to 140 characters per message, including spaces and punctuation, to you update content. Basically, Twitter is an instant messaging service that allows users to send posts anytime and anywhere to be read by anyone via a computer or smartphone. The users could use Twitter as a means to create media content by utilizing the features. As of the fourth quarter of 2018, Twitter had 321 million monthly active users. During the same period, the number of monetizable daily active Twitter users worldwide stood at 126 million. Registered users can read and post tweets as well as follow other users via update feed (Twitter, 2019).

1.3 The role of social networks on political strategies

Social networking is the most effective tool for conducting political campaigns. The sophistication and speed of information received by the public from social media make politicians use social networks as a facilitator to give ideas on society in determining people's political preferences. For example, on Twitter, just by posting in the form of text, it can immediately be seen and read by other users. Likewise, on Facebook, by uploading photos or videos it can be easily viewed and understood by other users. Thus, any posts by politicians can be accessed by the public quickly and easily. Politics on social media can be more traditional politics, not only memes and sound bites. Posts can contain real ideas and actions for the general good of the citizens of a particular country. Various social issues that are a burden on the community can often find crowdsourced solutions, new takes on an issue on social media. Social media has a big influence on the community, especially the young generation who are the main consumers. The influence of social media can be interpreted as a type of educational communication media in this way.

The media is not just a channel of communication and delivering news but also an increasingly important medium for politics. The relations between politicians and the media are like love-hate relationships (Kenneth Newton dan Jan W. Van Deth, 2010). The term love-hate relationship conveys the idea that politicians have both positive and negative relationships with social media. On the positive side, social media is used as a tool for politicians to carry out campaigns and convey their messages in order to influence the public about their political choices and garner votes. On the other hand, it can also be politically negative for politicians. The lack of checks and balances on social media, alongside dubious practices like doxxing, means that incorrect information and artificially manufactured disinformation is spread rapidly to potential voters or constituents without a chance for correction. In this way, it can be argued that social media has a significant influence on voter decisions (e.g. Haryanto, 2014).

Social media significantly influenced the political party perception surpassing political trust and only a marginally lower effect, than of political interest (Peter Riezebos et al, 2011). Analyzing voting behavior, they find a correlation between political trust, religion, and political social media as influencing factors. They concluded that social media has a positive impact on political campaigns. Through social media, politicians and potential political candidates can interact easily and quickly with the community so that people have a high level of trust in them.

The 2008 US President Barack Obama's campaign has often been described as the first election campaign in which the use of social media had a decisive impact. The core of the web-based campaign is a well-designed, flexible and dynamic website, "my.barackobama.com" (Social media - The New Power of Political Influence Version 1.O Ari-Matti Auvinen Center for European Studies). Through social networking sites, political organizations and candidates have not only the possibility to directly communicate with their public but also to interact with them as a type of two-way communication (Alina Muntean, 2015). Furthermore, public figures including politicians can post any form of video on their personal accounts where the results of their posts are seen by everyone who follows them and then they start interacting directly with other users (the general public) through the comment column or direct message.

1.4 Social media in Indonesia

A survey organized by the Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association (APJII) revealed that the number of internet users in Indonesia in 2012 reached 63 million people or 24.23 percent of the country's total population. In 2013, the figure is predicted to rise by around 30 percent to 82 million users and continue to grow to 107 million in 2014 and 139 million or 50 percent of the total population in 2015 (Kompas.com, 2013). Indonesian internet users increased 10.12 percent in 2018 compared to the previous year. In total, internet users reached 171.17 million users from a population of 264.16 million people in 2019 (APJII, 2019). Meanwhile, with the development of internet technology and many people in Indonesia using the internet and having social media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs and YouTube, it is clear that online tools play an important role in shaping public opinion and setting political agendas (Woolley, Limperos and Oliver, 2010). Politicians, citizens and journalists are increasingly adopting new social media such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to support their political goals, whether to engage with other stakeholders in political public space, campaign, disseminate or retrieve information, or contribute to rational debate - critical (Habermas, 2006).

According to research conducted by We Are Social, a British media company that works with Hootsuite (2018), the average Indonesian people spends three hours 23 minutes a day accessing social media. From the report entitled "Essential Insights into the Internet, Social Media, Mobile, and E-Commerce Use Around the World" published on January 30, 2018, out of Indonesia's total population of 265.4 million, 130 million active social media users with penetration 49 percent. Meanwhile, based on data from PT Bakrie Telecom, Indonesia has 19.5 million active Twitter users out of a total of 500 million active Twitter users in the world. In addition, the number of Facebook users in Indonesia reaches 130 million accounts with a percentage of six percent of all users (We are Social, 2018). While, in 2019, the number of active Twitter users is projected to reach 22.8 million, up from 12 million in 2014 (Twitter, 2019).

1.5 Previous study

Findings on motivation and user behavior indicate that demographics and predispositions largely determine how people use social media; people may either avoid or actively seek political information (Baek, 2015; Tang and Lee, 2013). This is supported by research conducted by Alina Muntean (2015) based on the presidential election in Romania in November 2014 and found that political participation was mostly carried out by young adults through social networks Facebook and Twitter. The tendency of voter behavior can be determined from the active use of social media. In addition, Aindrila Biswas et al (2014) argue that social media play an important role in voting behavior of young voters. It can be said that social media is a platform for people to connect with the people they like. Online polls are a number of encouraging strategies, it was found that there is a combined effect of "age" and "members of political parties" on polls that affect their decision to vote.

On the other hand, even if exposed to political content, users may not engage in political participation (Johannes Knoll et al, 2018). Based on Robin Effing et al (2011), social media did not significantly influence voting behavior during regional elections in the 2010/2011 period. The lack of interest of social media users in political participation can also be related to the existence of hoax political content through social media. The propagation of hoaxes on social media has contributed to political tension in many countries (Pratiwi Utami, 2019). For example, the 2016 US presidential election provides evidence of how fake news can generate more social media engagement than real news (Katie Rogers and Jonah Engel Bromwich, 2016).

From his research, Anders C. Johansson (2016) argued that political actors have utilized social media during election campaigns and the political debate. In this study, the authors convey comparisons of traditional media and new media in Indonesia in politics. Social media such as Twitter and Facebook, have played a role in Indonesia's political process recently and there is the interplay between new media and politics in Indonesia. Political actors have utilized social media during election campaigns and the political debate (Stefan Stieglitz et al, 2012). Strengthened by Berliani Ardha (2014), the focus is on several social media used in research such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Blogs where each political party has personal accounts. Furthermore, social media as a means used by political parties and politicians in conducting political campaigns through the post.

In the form of political strategies, Rune Karlsen and Bernard Enjolras (2016) stated that social media has the potential to impact power relations in politics especially political parties since they permit politicians to campaign all the freer from the central party. In their research, they examined the relationship between individualization and digital social media through candidate Twitter data. They focus on how the style of individual campaigns through personal accounts on Twitter and what kind of influence the campaign has on social media. As a finding, they believe that social media is used by individuals to gain influence in political parties.

Subsequent research was supported by Zang and Song (2018) through a study of Facebook feed news in Hong Kong. They believe that political news feeds on social media especially Facebook transmit emotions and influence the expression of audience opinion during political campaigns. Richa Yadav (2017) examines the concept of personalization in political campaigns in India through social media. He believes that candidates or politicians as individuals become more important to voters than political parties or related policies. This means that he broke the coattail effect on the political strategy through social media.

Also, politicians positively affect in any case politically withdrew residents as the government official's image depicted on social media appears "progressively human, loose with a comical inclination and equipped for having a past legislative issues life" (Loader et al., 2015). Furthermore, the interactions carried out by politicians as individuals through social media are very important to consider. People and voters tend to focus more and pay attention to the forms of interaction and activities created by individuals such as through social media.

Campaigns through social media are common in the era of digitalization. Various platforms on social media are used to get the attention of voters. This was supported by Maurece Vergeer and Liesbeth Hermans (2013), through a study of the campaign on Twitter in 2010 in elections in the Netherlands. They believe that through political campaigns on social media, people will be more interested in following political issues. Thus, this method seems easier to attract new voters who are still blind to political issues.

K. Anil Kumara and Subhashree Natarajan (2015) consider political strategy and marketing to be very easy to do through social media. Then, the political image of an individual will be easily formed through marketing techniques that are on social media. Interaction with other users is also a consideration for people to judge the political image held by politicians, especially a political candidate. For this reason, it is important for politicians to consider techniques in carrying out political campaigns through social media because every move made by politicians on social media will be highly considered by the public, especially social media users.



CHAPTER II

RESEARCH DESIGN

2.1 Method and data collection

In social science research, research methods are an important part because they determine the success, validity, and reliability of a study. Derived from an understanding of human behavior, social researchers will, in general, utilize subjective research planned for amassing point by point records of human conduct and convictions in the setting in which they are found (Rubin & Rubin, 2005). Qualitative methods to analyze and interpret observations from the field to understand the accuracy of the data collection done by previous experts. According to Creswell (2009: 175), qualitative research gathers data through inspecting archives, watching conduct, or interviewing participants. In qualitative research, the purpose is to investigate the mind-boggling set of components encompassing the central phenomenon and present the varied perspective or implications that the participants hold. Therefore, qualitative research needs to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomena and the problems associated with it to analyze and find out the best solutions. Qualitative research methods were developed in the social sciences to enable researchers to study social and cultural phenomena.

Qualitative data is 'regularly' gathered by researchers through interviews and questionnaires (Dцrnyei, 2007; 132). In general, interviews are conversations that are used to gather information. However, interviews - compared to questionnaires - are more powerful in eliciting narrative data that allows researchers to investigate people's views in more depth (Kvale, 1996; 2003). In addition, according to Kvale (1996: 174), an interview is a whole reason for existing to accumulate portrayals of the [life-world] of the interviewee regarding the translation of the implications of the `described phenomena'.

Additionally, research has shown that four types of interviews are frequently employed in the social sciences (Alshenqeeti, 2014). The first is the structured interview, whose key feature is that it is mostly organized around a set of predetermined direct questions that require immediate, `yes' or `no' type, responses. In a structured interview, the interviewer asks a set of standard, predetermined questions about particular topics, in a specific order. Usually, structured interviews are typically used in surveys. Second, the open-ended (unstructured) interview is an open situation in which greater flexibility and freedom are offered to both parties (interviewer and interviewee), in terms of planning, implementation, and organizing. The third type is the semi-structured interview. According to Rubin & Rubin (2005: 88), this type of interview allows depth to be achieved by allowing the interviewer to investigate and expand the interviewee's response. The advantage of this type of interview is that the interviewer can make a list of questions asked and participants can answer freely and in more depth following the topics raised by the interviewer. Typically, these interviews are conducted with experts, teachers, or important figures. Lastly, focus group interviewing is an interviewing technique in which participants are selected because they are purposive, although not necessarily representative, sampling of a specific population, this group being `focused' on a given topic (Barbour & Schostak, 2005; 46).

In this research, I emphasize semi-structured interviews. It is important for this research because semi-structured interviews are a great way to dig deeper into the problem, this type of interview methodology is without limitations. Also, responses to deeper information from respondents support the provision of qualitative data results to support and compare with existing literature. Indeed, with two-way communication between researchers and respondents, it is possible to obtain clearer and more in-depth data related to this research.

2.2 Data collection from experts interview

To provide evidence in my research, I used interviews to gather opinions from a pool of experts. As an instrument in this research, the comparison study uses a parameter of campaign strategies. The criteria for taking informants are several people who are experts in the field of social media and elections in Indonesia. A total of 15 letters of interview invitation were sent to several experts, and 10 of them were willing to be informants in this study. The informants included 2 election observers, 2 expert staff of the ministries of communication and communication of the Republic of Indonesia, 2 executives of the BAWASLU, 3 expert journalists of the election, and social media from three different media in Indonesia and 1 expert in the academic experts.

Informants are people who are deliberately chosen by making sure that they are indeed experts in their respective courses and also with the consideration that the results obtained from each informant represent the answers from each course related to the main topic according to the purpose of research. The interviews were conducted via telephone calls requiring ethical considerations to communicate with informants. Thus, the informants were guided at the beginning of the conversation procedure in conducting interviews.

Before the interview, the informants were told that the conversation was recorded with the aim of academic purposes and that their responses would be treated with absolute confidentiality. Because this interview is a form of a semi-structured interview, there are no time limitations during conducting the interview process. Communication between the moderator and the informant can develop according to the needs of the moderator. Furthermore, this interview does not impose time but it can be estimated to take around 40 minutes for each informant. The confidentiality of the informant's identity is also a guarantee in this interview so that the informant can convey his ideas more openly. To analyze the results obtained, recorded telephone calls are then transcribed and developed-structured in a tabular description to facilitate understanding as shown in the appendix.



2.3 Data collection from social media

To be able to identify the focus of social media data, I used two social media platforms that aided in this study, Facebook, and Twitter. This is because the number of Facebook users in Indonesia is high and followed by the number of Twitter users. For this reason, these two social media platforms facilitate the two candidates to conduct digital campaigns in the 2019 presidential election. The selection of sample topics and content in this study will be found along with the analysis of the two social media platforms. Furthermore, the topic and content at this stage are not determined. This is because I will focus on detailing one by one of the posts in each of the personal accounts of the two candidates. Through a home post on Facebook and tweets on Twitter helped to review the data that already exists in each account.

There is no doubt that this comes with a lot of workloads because the analysis I need to emphasize was last year (in 2019). The time frame for my analysis focused on three months before the election or during the campaign period. This idea helps to see what was in the domain of the two social media platforms before the election. A three-month time frame helps to get more reliable results. This is because three months before the election was the time span of each candidates' main focus to carry out campaigns both directly or virtually through the mainstream media and social media.

I use the Facebook dataset by viewing posts on the candidate's personal account. Then, from that post, I classify into several selected topics that become the superior content of each account. The Facebook dataset contains 90 posts including images and videos. While on Twitter there are also 90 tweets from each candidate. Posts have taken from January 01, 2019, till March 31, 2019 (3 months before the date of the general election). Indeed, forms of posts on Facebook and Twitter are included in the form of photos, videos, and words. The transcript of content and topic by each post added in appendix E, F, G, and H. However the limitation on the analysis of social media data only focuses three months before the election and not after the election.



CHAPTER III

RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS

3.1 Social characteristic

This data section shows the social background of the respondents who took part in the interviews that are listed in the table below. For further information about the age and profession of the informant, can be seen in the appendix (Appendix B).

From Table 1, the total of informants are 10. Of these, 9 are male while 1 of them is female. Respondents are experts whose ages range from 33 to 50 years. As can be seen from the table, the average age is 38.25 with a standard deviation of 5.175. This table also highlights that there are 6 groups ethnics of Java, 3 Sumatera, and 1 Madura who took part in this study. Most informants started observing elections in Indonesia since 2009 and observed social media since 2014.

3.2 Discussion of results from the interview

In this section, several findings from the interview will be discussed. Answers from respondents are summarized in five key results as initial findings for this study. Besides, the key results from the interview will be explained in analytical narrative.

3.2.1 Result 1: The role of social media was important in 2019, but not so much in 2014

Figure 1

(Do you think social media played a role in 2014 elections?)

Social media was not popular in Indonesia in 2014. According to the data on figure 1, seven out of ten respondents stated that social media did not play a big role in 2014, three of them stated that social media has had a role since 2014. People still used mainstream media such as television and newspapers for information. In the 2014 presidential election social media was used only as a venue to delivered bad news about the personality of each candidate (H1). The mainstream media was still the main reference for voters as political preferences at the time. It could be said that in 2014 the mainstream media still had control over the presidential election. In 2014, Joko Widodo had far less political support compare to Prabowo Subianto who was supported by most parliamentary powers. It is because Joko Widodo has been the subject of media discussion since he became Mayor of Solo city and the Governor of DKI Jakarta.