- 24/04/2024
- Category: Commentaries
Author: I Putu Juni Antara (Ilmu Komunikasi, Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik, Universitas Udayana)
Editor: M Perdana Karim
In the 2024 elections, social media has become a space for expressing opinions with excessive liberty. Social media has become a fierce battlefield of electoral contestation, particularly in the presidential and vice-presidential elections. Fundamentally, social media stands as the best platform for individuals to voice their opinions and thoughts, with these rights protected by government. However, social media has instead evolved into a new source of visual pollution in the digital space, alongside the increasing information pollution it generates. This poses a challenge to democracy and requires appropriate actions to minimize its negative impacts.
At first, it was an innovative solution…
In every political contestation that manifested through elections, the presence of out-of-home media such as posters, banners, and billboards has become a common sight along the streets, in city corners, and even in remote villages. The utilization of such out-of-home media remains highly effective in influencing public sentiment. [[i]] However, the use of conventional media like posters, banners, and billboards generates visual waste that not only disrupts environmental aesthetics and tidiness but also risks diverting human attention, which can endanger their safety, including their mental health. [[ii]]
Meanwhile, advances in information technology and access to the internet have drastically transformed the landscape of political campaigns. Social media plays a role in mediating candidates and political parties to interact directly with voters. [[iii]] Moreover, social media also makes it easier for users to connect with political actors through shared news and their official account on social media platforms. [[iv]] This connectivity also fosters positive feelings towards candidates who are within the same online social network. [[v]] As political messages are communicated through this virtual space, social media has served as a public sphere. [[vi]]
The formation of social media as a public sphere is inseparable from the “social capital” and communities within the social media itself. [[vii]] The form of participation from this “social capital” and communities on social media is referred by Jenkins as a participation culture. [[viii]] This is also mentioned by Valenzuela as social networks on social media activate group identities and encourage participatory behavior. [[ix]] This form of participation can take the form of expressing opinions, sharing news, [[x]] which can be in the form of text as well as images and videos, or can be referred as User-Generated Content (UGC).
Content on social media enables the emergence of various political “gimmicks”, such as the “aniesbubble” on X (Twitter), the “gemoy” dance on TikTok, and the “jajar_genjang” account on Instagram. These gimmicks are not only meant to attract voters but also to become topics of discussion and debate among social media users. The freedom to express opinions and express oneself is what makes social media a communication platform for both political actors and the social media user community. With the ability to reach a wider audience and communicate messages efficiently, social media can be considered an innovative solution to address the limitations and challenges of campaigning using out-of-home media.
Then, they become pollutions
However, it does not mean that the use of social media as a campaign tool does not have negative impacts. The excessive freedom of speech and expression actually turn social media into a fierce battleground that only adheres to the policies of each platform as control. Some figures even state that this unrestricted freedom of expression cannot be called liberalism. [[xi]] Although Indonesia is not a country that fully embraces liberal ideas, Indonesian Constitution protects everyone’s rights to associate, assemble, and express opinions. However, this freedom of expression is also limited by Law No. 19 of 2016 which has recently been amended through Law No. 1 of 2024 concerning Electronic Information and Transactions, or commonly known as the “ITE” Law.
Even with the policies of social media platforms and government regulations, the strong flow of opinions on social media cannot be contained. This excessive freedom of expression can lead to information pollution, namely intentionally or sometimes unintentionally contaminated content on social media. [[xii]] This contaminated information is often used to create biased perceptions of individuals, which in the case of the 2024 elections are the presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
The spread of fake news and misinformation on social media not only attacks one presidential and vice-presidential candidate but also targets political party figures behind them. It is still uncertain who is behind and orchestrating such forms of political campaigns, but the participation of social media users themselves cannot be ignored. The proliferation of fake news and misinformation is also inseparable from the role of “buzzers” and “cyber troops/armies” that have emerged since the 2019 elections. [[xiii]]
Not only information pollution, but social media can also cause visual pollution for its users. However, the visual pollution caused by social media is different from outdoor media. Visual pollution caused by social media does not affect environmental aesthetic but the health of its users. The use of social media with high visual content (>2 hours/day) can lead to concerns about internalization symptoms in teenagers. [[xiv]] Additionally, the excessive use of visual media also affects the mental health of the younger generation. [[xv]] Uncontrolled freedom is the root of disorder and requires laws and regulations to address it. Based on this, Thomas Hobbes proposed the theory of social contract in which society relinquishes some of its rights to the government to obtain truth and justice. [[xvi]] As long as society maintains this uncontrolled freedom of expression or social media platforms and governments do not tighten their policies and regulations, information and visual pollution on social media will continue to proliferate.
[[i]] Kristi, Nabila. (2022). “Efektivitas Media Luar Ruang Dalam Keputusan Memilih Calon Legislatif DPRD Kabupaten Bangka Tahun 2019 (Studi Pada Masyarakat Kelurahan Bukit Betung, Kecamatan Sungailiat, Kabupaten Bangka): Indonesia,” Studia Komunika: Jurnal Ilmu Komunikasi 4, no. 2. p.20;
Priana, Ayu. (2020). “Efektivitas Iklan Baliho Grace Natalie Dalam Meningkatkan Citra Diri Sebagai Ketua Umum Partai Solidaritas Indonesia Tahun 2019,” Commed : Jurnal Komunikasi Dan Media 4, no. 2: p.120, https://doi.org/10.33884/commed.v4i2.1652.
[[ii]] Amrurobbi, Azka Abdi. (2021). “Problematika Sampah Visual Media Luar Ruang: Tinjauan Regulasi Kampanye Pemilu Dan Pilkada,” Jurnal Adhyasta Pemilu 4, no. 2: p.76, https://doi.org/10.55108/jap.v4i2.50;
Banerjee, Sudeepta. (2017). “A Study of Visual Pollution And Its Effect On Mental Health,” Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies 4, no. 30: p.4771.
[[iii]] Shah, Dhavan V., et al. (2005). “Information and Expression in a Digital Age: Modeling Internet Effects on Civic Participation,” Communication Research 32, no. 5: p.553, https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650205279209.
[[iv]] Chan, Michael. (2016). “Social Network Sites and Political Engagement: Exploring the Impact of Facebook Connections and Uses on Political Protest and Participation,” Mass Communication and Society 19, no. 4: p.430, https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2016.1161803.
[[v]] Neo, Rachel L. (2016). “Favoritism or Animosity? Examining How SNS Network Homogeneity Influences Vote Choice via Affective Mechanisms,” International Journal of Public Opinion Research 28, no. 4: p.475, https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edv035.
[[vi]] Çela, Erlis. (2015). “Social Media as a New Form of Public Sphere,” European Journal of Social Sciences Education and Research 4, no. 1: p.130, https://doi.org/10.26417/ejser.v4i1.
[[vii]] Johannessen, Marius Rohde. (2013). “Social Media as Public Sphere : An Exploratory Study of Online Political Communication in Norway,” p.149. (Doctoral thesis, Universitet i Agder / University of Agder,), https://uia.brage.unit.no/uia-xmlui/handle/11250/139746.
[[viii]] Jenkins, Henry, et al., (2016). Participatory Culture in a Networked Era: A Conversation on Youth, Learning, Commerce, and Politics. Cambridge Malden, Mass: Polity, p.3.
[[ix]] Valenzuela, Sebastián. (2013). “Unpacking the Use of Social Media for Protest Behavior: The Roles of Information, Opinion Expression, and Activism,” American Behavioral Scientist 57, no. 7: p.939, https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764213479375.
[[x]] Chan, “Social Network Sites and Political Engagement.”, p.430.
[[xi]] Bonotti, Matteo. (2015). “Political Liberalism, Free Speech and Public Reason,” European Journal of Political Theory 14, no. 2: p.200. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474885114538257; Mondal, Anshuman A., (2021). “The Shape of Free Speech: Rethinking Liberal Free Speech Theory,” in Unsettled Voices. Routledge, p.125.
[[xii]] Meel, Priyanka and Vishwakarma, Dinesh Kumar. (2020). “Fake News, Rumor, Information Pollution in Social Media and Web: A Contemporary Survey of State-of-the-Arts, Challenges and Opportunities,” Expert Systems with Applications, p.45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2019.112986.
[[xiii]] Cook, Malcolm and Singh, Daljit. (2020) eds., “Social Media and the 2019 Indonesian Elections: Hoax Takes the Centre Stage,” in Southeast Asian Affairs 2020. ISEAS Publishing, p.161, https://doi.org/10.1355/9789814881319-010.
[[xiv]] Marengo, D., et al., (2018). “Highly-Visual Social Media and Internalizing Symptoms in Adolescence: The Mediating Role of Body Image Concerns,” Computers in Human Behavior 82, p.18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.01.003.
[[xv]] McCrory, Alanna, et al., (2020). “The Relationship between Highly Visual Social Media and Young People’s Mental Health: A Scoping Review,” Children and Youth Services Review, p.34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105053.
[[xvi]] V Sasan, John Michael. (2021). “The The Social Contract Theories of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke: Comparative Analysis,” Shanlax International Journal of Arts, Science and Humanities 9, no. 1: p.44, https://doi.org/10.34293/sijash.v9i1.4042.
