Procedings of the 1st ICA Regional Conference, ICA 2019, October 16-17 2019, Bali, Indonesia

Research Article

Local Government’s Weakness in Using Social Media as a Medium of Public Communication

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  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/eai.16-10-2019.2304353,
        author={Tatik  Yuniarti and Amiruddin  Saleh and Musa  Hubeis and Rilus  Kinseng},
        title={Local Government’s Weakness in Using Social Media as a Medium of Public Communication},
        proceedings={Procedings of the 1st ICA Regional Conference, ICA 2019, October 16-17 2019, Bali, Indonesia},
        publisher={EAI},
        proceedings_a={ICA},
        year={2021},
        month={2},
        keywords={bekasi government; government communication; local government; pedestrian; public communication; social media},
        doi={10.4108/eai.16-10-2019.2304353}
    }
    
  • Tatik Yuniarti
    Amiruddin Saleh
    Musa Hubeis
    Rilus Kinseng
    Year: 2021
    Local Government’s Weakness in Using Social Media as a Medium of Public Communication
    ICA
    EAI
    DOI: 10.4108/eai.16-10-2019.2304353
Tatik Yuniarti1,*, Amiruddin Saleh1, Musa Hubeis1, Rilus Kinseng2
  • 1: Department of Communication and Community Development Sciences, IPB University, Indonesia
  • 2: Rilus Kinseng4 Faculty of Englich and Communication, Islamic 45 University, Indonesia1 Department of Communication and Community Development Sciences, IPB University, Indonesia
*Contact email: tatik_yuniarti@unismabekasi.ac.id

Abstract

Traffic jams which often happen in cities result in lack of spaces for pedestrians. Thus, building pedestrian areas becomes one of priorities in developmental program of city. In order to ensure the success of program, social media is used to communicate development and maintenance program of pedestrian areas to people. However, local government of Bekasi seemed failing to relay those messages to people. Thus the present research aims to analyze how Bekasi government used social media to relay development and maintenance news related to pedestrian areas in Bekasi. The present research used a descriptive qualitative method through observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. Data reduction and triangulation were conducted using Nvivo 12 software. The results show social media accounts such as Facebook and Instagram have been used to communicate their programs such as initial development of pedestrian areas, development process, and maintenance to people. However, their usage was not maximized as Bekasi’ government was considered less responsive when answering questions regarding pedestrian areas. This led to a speculation that social media is only used as a ‘smoke and screen’ for government’s events. The present research recommends Bekasi’ government to commit in renewing their messages continually and answering questions quickly as people will think their government as more communicative and caring people when the responses are given quickly.