Political Parties Re-Disconnected? Websites and Social Media of Indonesian Political Parties

Abstract

Political parties of Indonesia nowadays have created their own websites (Hameed, 2007) in which the patterns of the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) by political parties are much affected by the political and media system (Anstead and Chadwick, 2010; Ward and Gibson, 2010). What are the patterns of Indonesian political parties in utilizing websites for their political communications? In addition, for the political parties the use of social media means to have a chance to strengthen the trust and commitment of supporters to them here by offering the opportunities for more interactive and participatory social media practices rather than websites practices. How can social media form an interactive communication sphere between Indonesian parties-netizens and amongst netizens? The research then concludes that the political parties in Indonesia tend to employ a cartel party strategy through online communication as coined by Löfgren and Smith (2003). The web practices of political parties are more concentrated on informing prior to and during the political campaign period. By contrast, involving and connecting the supporters are shown less in both periods. Social media are expected to be more involving and opening up online debate forums during the campaign period. However, though interactivity occurs in some degrees, the vertical interactivity is less happening compared to the horizontal one, which, in this case, is also more prone to endorse less substantial comments. The political culture, digital divides, and media system have shaped the practices of websites and social media of political practices.



Author Information
Gilang Desti Parahita, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia
Nella Aprilia Puspitasari, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia

Paper Information
Conference: ACCS2015
Stream: Social Media and Communication Technology

This paper is part of the ACCS2015 Conference Proceedings (View)
Full Paper
View / Download the full paper in a new tab/window


Comments & Feedback

Place a comment using your LinkedIn profile

Comments

Share on activity feed

Powered by WP LinkPress

Share this Research

Posted by James Alexander Gordon