Abstract Book of the 5th World Conference on Media and Communication
Year: 2025
DOI:
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The Role of Media to the Changing of President Jokowi’s Image
Prof. Dr. Sukawarsini Djelantik
ABSTRACT:
When Indonesian President Joko Wododo (“Jokowi”) was first elected president in 2014, he was hailed as the “New Hope” figure. During his presidency Jokowi enjoyed a full support and high support rate. In his second term of presidency (2019-2024), he had conducted several attempts to interfere in the democratic process and to consolidate his family’s interests. A very intensive democratic backsliding occurred when a constitutional change allowed his eldest son to run for vice president in 2023. Since then, many Indonesians embarrassed him by calling him “Mulyono”, or his birth name. The research aims to analyse the role of the media in changing the image of Jokowi. The research question is: “How the media change Jokowi’s narrative from a “New hope” to Mulyono?”. To answer, the media reports from 2019-2024 would be analysed with the objective to demonstrate the role of the media, as the 4th pillar of democracy, in supporting and undermining the presidential position. Despite Jokowi’s sophisticated strategy and ability to use the media to support his two terms in power, his manoeuvres and undemocratic conducts had led the media to awaken the public on the false myths built during his terms that he was an effective, humble, and democratic president. The methodology used is media content analysis by selecting news during 2014-2024, or when Jokowi firstly elected as the Indonesian president up to the end of his administration. The finding is, the media publication had realized publicly that during his presidency the media had falsely represented Jokowi’s images.
keywords: democracy, image, Indonesia, Jokowi, media