The Development of “Generaksi.org”, a Media and Politics Literacy Platform for Indonesia’s First-time Voter

During Indonesia's 2019 presidential election, social media was invigorated by a ‘war’ of political campaigns between the supporters of Joko Widodo - Ma'ruf Amin and Prabowo Subianto - Sandiaga Uno. Endless smear campaigns, memes, and slanders became viral on social media. Very few campaigns refrained from attacking competitors and remaining free from hate speech. This situation made it difficult for social media users – especially first-time voters, whose main reference of political news is social media – to distinguish between true and false news (hoaxes), and to determine and express their political attitudes. Consequently, many netizens had to deal with law enforcers because of uploading political opinions that are considered illegal under Indonesia’s Electronic Information and Transactions Law. This could have been prevented had the users been ‘social media-literate’, especially when it comes to political behavior. A survey was conducted on 100 Tanjung Pandan Belitung High School students aged 16-18 years who had the right to vote at the 2019 presidential election. Results indicate the role of social media for first-time voters as a means to obtain information, express political attitudes, or determine political attitudes. The survey results will be used as media literacy material that will be published through the generaksi.org web, which is one of the outputs of this research funded by the Ministry of Research and Technology in the period 2018-2019.