THE ROLE OF INSTAGRAM IN POLITICAL CAMPAIGN: A CASE OF JAKARTA MAJU BERSAMA

Abstract

During the 2017 Jakarta regional election, candidates were generating campaign in order to promote their agenda. One of the candidates, Anies Baswedan and Sandiaga Uno, was generating a campaign named Jakarta Maju Bersama. Using Instagram as one of the media to reach its audience, Jakarta Maju Bersama introduces its identity and vision and mission and also delivers its workplan through contents posted in Instagram. Through the Instagram, the candidate not only able to share the information but also be able to interact with its audience. By using a qualitative research with case study approach, researcher tried to see both perspectives of Jakarta Maju Bersama campaigning team as the political actor and the followers of the campaign in Instagram as the audience by conducting two interviews with the digital specialist of Jakarta Maju Bersama and three followers of the campaign that sorted in the Instagram. This research aims to discover the role of Instagram in Jakarta Maju Bersama campaign and to see how the candidate used it during the campaign periods. Through the interviews, researcher found that all the informants, both from the digital specialist and the followers, agreed that Instagram was a suitable as the political tool.