The Use Of Social Media In Indonesian Presidential Campaign

This research basically starts from a consideration that Indonesia just organized presidential election in which the election involved a massive use of social media as a part of the campaign instrument. The use of social media in the presidential campaign is the first experience in Indonesia, since the social media, especially Facebook and Twitter just made a booming since 2010.The rank of Indonesian Facebook and Twitter users which places the fifth and fourth rank of the word rank by country makes Indonesia an important part of country with Facebook and Twitter users. On the other hand, Indonesia also places the third biggest democratic country in the world, below India and United States of America, so Indonesian politic can be considered as an important one.This research aims to describe the candidate’s strategy in using social media in the campaign and its impact to the voters. The scope of this research is the winning team of the elected Indonesian president, Joko Widodo(Jokowi). The research was conducted in a qualitative approach with an analytical descriptive method. Researcher collected data and perspectives from books, mass media, internet, observations and in-depth interviews then made explanative and analytical writing. The source persons of the interview were the members of elected president’s winning team and the social media users.The research shows that the presidential candidate made a serious effort to manage the social media team, in which professionals, volunteers and celebrities we recruited. One of the positive effects is that Indonesian 2014 presidential election notes the world biggest voters participation in the presidential election, although there are also some negative sides of the social media use. Anyhow, the use of social media in Indonesian presidential election shows that it can change the pattern of political communication between the presidential candidates and the voters, in which voters are not merely passive, but they can be active participants.This research found some important facts. Firstly, with or without presidential election, Indonesian people have been using Facebook and Twitter in daily life. It made whoever participates in presidential election must use the social media as their campaign instrument. Indonesian 2014 presidential election took place in July 9th 2014 with 134.95 millions voters participated in the election by which 133.57 million votes were valid. The number counts a world record of the biggest participation in presidential election. Social Media use in presidential campaign triggered active participation of voters, increase democratic and human right learning, and provide an instrument to control authority. In other side, it also created dirty ways of expressing opinion in which slanders and hoax fast spread.