Time: 2:30pm to 4:00pm AEST
Date: Tuesday, 7 May 2024
Venue:, Online only via Zoom
Meeting ID: 844 3871 1948
Meeting Password: 576602
Speaker: Salvatore Simarmata
Negative campaigning has become entrenched in Indonesian elections since 1955, spanning both at local and national levels. However, the proliferation of digital media has innovated the mechanic of negative campaigning enabled by the unique affordances and characteristics of online platforms, particularly social media. These platforms enable anonymous, automated, and clandestine campaign operations to disseminate problematic information in a coordinated manner. Consequently, negative campaigning has been far from being a tool for deliberate persuasion and become more of manipulative practice aimed at influencing voters through computational propaganda.
This seminar aims to explore the modernization of negative campaigning in Indonesia's digital era elections by examining three key elections: the 2019 presidential election, and the 2022 mayoral elections in Medan, Sumatra, and South Tangerang, Java. Employing a mixed-method approach, Salvatore will show how digital media has fundamentally transformed the landscape and professional conduct of negative campaigning in Indonesia. This includes identifying the key actors, new mechanisms, and key narratives propagated within the context of a digital media environment. Salvatore will also illustrate how negative campaigning impacts support for targeted candidates using data collected from a national survey.
Event Speakers
CHL PhD Candidate Salvatore Simarmata
Salvatore is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Gender, Media, and Cultural Studies at the ANU School of Culture, History & Language. His research examines negative campaigning in Indonesia's politics, particularly the rise of 'black campaigning' at national and local elections and how these campaign strategies affect voters by applying mixed-methods approach.