Civil Conversations on Facebook during the 2009 Indonesian Presidential Elections

Canberra.
Finally at ANZCA 2010 we're on to Hamideh Molaei, whose interest is in the use of social media during the 2009 presidential elections in Indonesia. Social media have impacted on political processes, of course - social media are used for networking and fundraising, political discussion, and the dissemination of political messages. Facebook has been used in this way in a number of contexts, of course - both by politicians and ordinary citizens.

Six social media sites - including Facebook - are amongst the ten most popular sites in Indonesia. The last presidential election there was held on 8 July 2009, as the second direct election after the end of the Suharto regime, it was won by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Facebook was used as a venue for advertising and disseminating election-related material. Candidates had personal pages; there were election education groups; and a variety of independent pages were also set up.

But how did people engage with this? In particular, how civil was the political engagement between users? Hamideh conducted a thematic content analysis, categorising content in a number of ways: informational, productive argument, unproductive argument, and miscellaneous - of these, unproductive argument was classed as an uncivil form of participation. Data was collected on 13 January 2010, by searching Facebook groups for the names of the three candidates, and then selecting the 45 most active posts from the most active groups.

67% of posts were classed as civil; 33% as uncivil - of the civil posts, 11% were informational, 47% productive argument, 9% polite questions. This may be driven in part by the fact that Facebook users tend to post under their real names rather than pseudonyms, and that there is a general culture of civility in Indonesia, with attendant social sanctions against uncivil behaviour.

Technorati : ANZCA 2010, Facebook, Indonesia, President, civility, community, elections, politics
Del.icio.us : ANZCA 2010, Facebook, Indonesia, President, civility, community, elections, politics