Media and Voting Behavior in Surabaya City, Indonesia

Various types of media have experienced rapid development, along with the acceleration of the advancement of information technology and telecommunications. Internet-based and social media rapidly challenge conventional media such as newspapers, radio, and television. Considering that there is a shift of media usage by society, the influence of each media on people's lives, including politics, also undergoes changes. Respondents in this study were all voters registered in the final voter's list (DPT). The respondents were taken using the multistage random sampling method in Surabaya City. Besides being the largest city in Indonesia, Surabaya was chosen as the research location for having a diverse population and the largest media after Jakarta. This study also supports the previous studies that stated the media has a significant influence on voting behavior. Electronic media such as television gave the most dominant influence on the respondents their political attitude and behavior. A large amount of political news and content displayed on the television became the reason for such a dominating influence. In addition to political news, the television also featured talk shows related to political issues that were of concern to many parties and brought political figures or political candidates who were competing in regional head elections. When it comes down to voter segmentation, however, social media gave more significant influence, especially on beginner voters.