election day

The existence of social media has changed the way political campaigns are run, influencing public
perception, and can even influence election results. One of the positive impacts of using social media
in elections is its ability to increase political participation and political campaigns can quickly reach
wider masses, as well as create political awareness among the younger generation who previously
may have been less interested or less involved.

In the digital era, challenges arise when social media spreads false information/hoaxes, polarizes
opinions and manipulates. Smear campaigns and personal attacks against candidates can easily spread
through the platform, influencing public opinion with invalid information. This can damage
candidates' reputations and influence voters' decisions without a solid basis, while platform algorithms
tend to expose users to similar views, thereby reinforcing polarization.

Other challenges also arise when the content presented is not verified or tends to be emotional,
provocative rather than informative. We have to be wary of social media, social media has algorithms
that we don't know about. Let's take the social media TikTok as an example, when we search for
information related to the 2024 election and the first thing that appears is the presidential candidate
pair number 2, then what appears on each of our TikTok homepages (fyp) is the number of the
presidential candidate pair. 2. We don't know whether the information is based on facts or just a
gimmick and also sometimes the information video conveyed is in pieces or only part of it, we don't
know the continuation of the information video and so it can give rise to wrong understanding. So
each social media algorithm is governed by the platform's own policies.

Therefore, good digital literacy and an understanding of ethics in using social media are very
necessary to maintain healthy discussions and avoid the spread of fake news and provocative content.
We as social media users must be wise in choosing information because inaccurate or misleading
information can influence our understanding and views of the 2024 election. The Ministry of
Communication and Information also initiated the 2024 Peaceful Election Campaign to optimize
social media in realizing peaceful elections.

In the current election, many candidates are using social media as a campaign medium and
communicating with the public. Candidates use social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
to spread their messages and vision and mission to the public.

Apart from that, social media is also a means of gathering support and attracting people's hearts.
Candidates no longer need to spend large amounts of money to buy advertising and promotions in
traditional mass media, because they can use social media at lower costs.

However, the use of social media also has negative impacts, some of which are: Disinformation,Social
media allows users to upload and spread false or misleading information. This can influence people's
choices in elections.
Cyberbullying,Social media can also be a forum for cyberbullying or covert online insults, which can
affect the candidate's image and also influence public opinion Use of personal data,Social media
stores users' personal data and allows interested parties to have access to this data. This can affect user
privacy and affect the campaign process.

As we all know the presidential campaign well, the campaign season in general was far more different
than the ones before. Not only because of the dramas and controversies, but because of one special
tool, Social media. The current campaign model uses social media a lot because of how easy it is to
reach the voting audience. But, Just because something is good, doesnt mean its not bad. A study aims
to look at candidate campaign patterns and strategies by focusing on candidate political
communication, use of offensive campaigns, and detection of vulnerabilities to democracy in
Indonesia. By using a literature review research model, this study shows that social media is the main
medium in political communication and it is found that there is an increase in the intensity and spread
of communication with political topics during the election stage, especially during the campaign
period. The campaign strategy carried out by each of the candidates had a major influence in what
their audience would be, and how the votes would turn out, with a study by a professor in the UM
Surabaya stating it played a major role in prabowo's "Blue wave" (Referring to the 58% vote turnout)

These media platforms have allowed political parties to spread their message and campaign policies to
larger groups of people instantly. They have also increased interactions and support for candidates in
elections, sometimes even humanizing them as average loving man of the people However, these
social media platforms have also introduced new challenges such as disinformation, manipulation and
defemation that could hinder democracy in Indonesia.

Social media, who doesn't know about it? Of course, everyone is familiar with social media.
Especially in this day and age, many people use social media for various purposes such as promotion,
becoming more famous, and especially in February, which is currently marked by the elections.
Social media has a significant impact on the 2024 elections. The pattern of media consumption among
the public regarding election information was recorded in the National Leadership Survey conducted
by Kompas Research on November 29 to December 4, 2023. The results of this face-to-face survey
indicate the high use of social media by the public to access election information.

A total of 29.4 percent of respondents admitted to accessing social media to view or read election-
related content, at least several times a week. Not only that, approximately 11 percent of other
respondents stated that they consume election content on social media at least once a day. The figures
for election information consumption on social media are higher compared to other media, such as
online media and television. For online media, about 23.9 percent of respondents claimed to
frequently access online media to obtain election information. Interestingly, the consumption of
election content on television is relatively higher compared to online media. There are 29.6 percent of
respondents who admitted to frequently watching television to obtain election information.

Among the three types of media, online media consumption is the smallest. More than 45 percent of
respondents in this survey stated that they never seek information related to elections through online
news channels. This figure is larger compared to social media (31.9 percent) and television (23.6
percent).
In addition to the high use or consumption of social media for elections, social media can also
influence public choices. In line with its usage rate, social media has a significant impact on public
preferences. In general, about one-third of the population admits that the information they obtain
through social media serves as a reference in determining their choices, and it can even alter their
decisions. The proportion is much larger compared to other communication mediums, such as
billboards or banners (8.1 percent) and T-shirts (1.8 percent). Even other online mediums, such as
news portals, have not yet had a significant impact (9.8 percent) on influencing public choices. It is
evident that the effect of social media is strongest among supporters of the presidential candidate pair
number 2. More than 39 percent of Prabowo-Gibran supporters admit that the content they consume
on social media can influence their choices.

Interestingly, despite its smaller consumption, the effect of social media is actually greater among
Ganjar's supporters. 31.4 percent of them stated that their choices are influenced by the content
consumed on social media. This figure is higher compared to Anies' supporters, where only 29 percent
of them admit to being influenced by content on social media timelines. Despite the significant impact
of social media, the effects arising from television content consumption should not be underestimated.
Not less than 30 percent of the population stated that the information seen on this media also
influences their choices in the upcoming elections.

The impact of television content is most pronounced among Ganjar-Mahfud supporters. Almost 36
percent of the supporters of the third presidential candidate pair acknowledge that the content they
watch can influence their choices. This effect is also quite substantial among Anies-Muhaimin's
supporters (32.5 percent), but tends to be smaller among Prabowo-Gibran's supporters (28.5 percent).
In addition to influencing public choices, social media can also serve as a strategic tool in campaigns.
The strong influence of social media and television as sources of information and considerations in
determining choices is evident. In this digital era, campaign strategies utilizing these two media have
the potential to effectively reach constituents.

The effectiveness of both media can be leveraged to persuade undecided floating voters. Within this
demographic, television coverage holds the most sway over political choices. This aligns with their
media consumption patterns, where television remains the primary source when seeking election
information. The use of social media and television can complement campaign strategies that utilize
conventional campaign tools such as billboards and banners.

Undeniably, outdoor media is still relied upon by politicians for campaigning. So far, the impact of
this method can be seen, among others, among Anies-Muhaimin's supporters, which is around 11
percent. Amidst the competition for voter support, it is necessary for presidential and vice-presidential
candidates as well as their campaign teams to make strategic mass communication choices to attract
voters according to the media they consume most frequently. Without understanding the
characteristics of media consumption, political messages will struggle to reach the minds of
constituents.
in this year's election, we certainly know that many people are using social media as a tool to
campaign and promote themselves to become legislative candidates. In addition, there are many
hoaxes circulating on the internet, many of which are bringing down and slandering other candidate
pairs, either to get votes or to slander one party, in this case I am of the opinion that we must be smart
in choosing news and must be able to distinguish between what is real and what is a hoax. based on
data from the compass. com there are 89.5 million hoax news from TikTok and Facebook as much as
19.67 million and from Instagram as much as 25.69 million hoax news in the form of images and
videos.