Indonesia is one of the countries that upholds democracy. Indonesia has its own uniqueness as well as challenges in holding general elections. The election is intended for regional leaders and heads of state who are directly elected by the community. This includes the upcoming democracy party on February 14 2024 that will be participated by all Indonesian people. This event gathers all of the votes from the community to determine the next path for Indonesian in the next 5 years.
All levels of Indonesian society is hoping that the election process will be successful. One of their whishes are the success of the role and function of mass media supervision toward the elections process. Currently, the mass media is an important element in a democratic country.
The growth and development of democracy is inseparable from the role of the media that keeps growing until today, the example is social media. This statement was conveyed by the Media Observer and lecturer of the Undergraduate of Communication Science Program at Universitas Dian Nuswantoro (Udinus), Swita Amalia Hapsari, M.I.Kom.
The bigger media that develops in the technological era, the bigger impacts will affect the general community as well. The impact may come in a positive way such as getting information flow from various parts of the world easily and quickly. However, from this convenience, it does not rule out the possibility of negative impacts such as hoax news that can cause disputes between communities
"To overcome the negative impacts, digital literacy and media must be owned by every people. Even in this current democracy era, the self-aware of the community is being tested to evaluate information before sharing them to other people so that the election process will run smoothly. At the end of the day, Digital literacy and media are the main key to the negative impact, such as misleading political information regarding the election and interupting the 2024 peaceful elections," explained Swita as she was interviewed by the Udinus Public Relations team.
Being Literate
Based on the data from the Permanent Voter List (DPT) issued by the General Election Commission (KPU) in July 2023, 52 percent of voters in the 2024 Election were young voters. Voters aged 17-30 years reached 31.23 percent or about 63.9 million people, and voters aged 31-40 years as much as 20.7 percent or about 42.4 million people. From these data, many young voters are college students.
Certainly Universities like Udinus have a big role in providing digital and media literacy. Especially in countering various hoax news scattered in the community. One of the steps taken by Udinus is through Bachelor of Communication Program students as the agents of change who provide an understanding of Digital and Media literacy to the community.
“As academics, through digital communication courses, we equip students with the skills to create and formulate content strategies for public services. From here they will be aware of the strategies carried out by the candidate pair so far. It is hoped that these novice voters can be wiser in voting in the next election, "said Swita.
She also stated that Udinus students are taught since they first enrolled on the campus about Fast-Checking Journalism. This method allows them to be involve in reducing the spreading of hoax news. In fact, this method has become the global action and has implemented by various mainstream media. As the agent of change, students can actively involve through organizations that revolve around taking care hoax news.
"Fact-Checking Journalism is the exact method to stop the spreading hoax news.. Therefore, we hope that college students from all region will involve and play a big role in organizing the upcoming 2024 general elections," said Swita. (Udinus Public Relation/Alex. Photo: PR Udinus)
