UNAIR NEWS – Politics and disruption era cannot be separated. In fact, 2019 is a political year which is now awaited by people. Various campaigns have been carried out by candidates at regional to national scale.
Social media is the main platform used by presidential candidates. Obviously, the main target of this campaign is millennial generation in choosing their favorite candidates.
In fact, the number of new voters is considered as great potential for the candidates. Based on KPU data, new voters reached 70-80 million from 193 million voters. It means that 35–40% have a large influence on the election.
Surprisingly, head of Public Relations Center (PIH) communication expert at UNAIR, Drs. Suko Widodo, M.Si, revealed a survey on November last year. According to that, millennial or new voters have not pay their attention in politics. They do not have a lot of information and reason in choosing a candidate.
Looking at these data, it is proven that political parties have not fully captured the hearts of millennial generations. This has become a problem for political parties in seeing the uncertainty of their political goals, especially on social media.
In addition, continued Suko, other factors made the millennial generation lost their interest in political issues, namely the lack of space to express their desires and needs.
“Political parties do not offer interesting narratives for them, so that the younger generation are not into the latest political issues,” said Suko.
“The offer of political parties today does not provide answers to worries and anxieties experienced by the millennial generation,” he added.
In addition, in the context of political communication, the symptom should be understood as dyadic or reciprocal communication to question the anxiety of the millennial generation. Political parties are expected to be able to design and offer back the vision and mission and work program by involving the beginner voters in it. Bearing in mind, the millennial generation is a generation that needs a space of existence in expression.
For such conditions, it is hoped that millennial generation will be able to obtain accurate, informative information and avoid hatred on social media.
“Political parties should provide space for young people because they will lost their potential voters if they dont give them a space. Especially, millennial generation.” said Suko.
Millennial generation political insight is the future of politics. Healthy political education is a way to anticipate political saturation that can damage political education for millennial generation. Political discussion should not be based on dichotomic thinking, inconsistent. However, the discussion was revised to become a political language that holistic approach. (*)
Author: Khefti Al Mawalia
Editor: Feri Fenoria
