Youthizen, Political Literacy, and Social Media

^1,2 Department of Communication, University of Diponegoro, Semarang
³ Department of Public Relations, University of Diponegoro, Semarang

Abstract

The engagement between young generation and social media in Indonesia is crystal clear. On the one hand, politicians are aware that social media is an efficient and effective medium for interacting with society. It can be seen that, there’s open chance for politician to embrace social media as their medium to interact with “youthizen” (youth netizen). This research aimed to describe the role of social media in building the political consciousness of the young generation. By using mixed methods (survey for quantitave method and depth interview for qualitative method) to high school students and those who influence their social media habit. The result showed that youthizen have strong engagement with social media but low political awareness. They’re even disaggree to the usage of social media for their own political personal opinion. It also showed that they’re vulnerable in facing social media hoax. Those situations might put them as targets by dirty political intension.