Semarang, April 19 – Undip Communication Science Department held Political Literacy with the theme “The Role of Social Media in Political Literacy” at Undip Fisip Theater room while welcoming students from Hidayatullah Islamic High School. This event was started at 8 am by the Head of the Communication Department, DR. Hapsari Dwiningtyas, S.Sos, MA and a speaker by a Political Science Lecturer in Communication Science, Muchamad Yulianto, S.Sos, M.Sc. who is familiarly called Mas Yul among the Communication students.

Mas Yul started his presentation with an introduction to Politics and Political Literacy. Political literacy was an activity carried out to create a politically literate/intelligent society; begin to recognize, understand, respond to and carry out activities related to politics; also known as “political literacy”.

Social media was one of the means to carry out political literacy because there were many users and easy to use for activities related to politics. It was the time for students as the nation’s next-generation, who were social media literate, to use it to access literacy/intelligent questions about politics and the management of this country. Media (including social media) was the fourth pillar of democracy; more because of the role and function in the dynamics of democracy & politics

The characteristics of Social Media:

1. Interactive : creating a discussion/dialogue culture between individuals
2. Various : very diverse content
3. Fast & constantly changing: very fast message transmission and constantly changing
4. Accessible ; easy to be accessed by anyone who is ICT literate
5. Easier & cheaper for public access
6. Covering limitless area (creating global village)

(Public Lecture on The Role Of Social Media In Political Literacy BY Mas Yul as the UNDIP’s lecturer)

Pathology in social media is easy to distort messages, misinformation, falsehood, and extreme manipulation, such as: Hoax. Social media can be used as a panoptic system: a system used by a small group of elite society for spying or controlling the other majority (Faucault in Yasraf A.Piliang: 2000;113).

After Mas Yul closed his presentation, the question and answer session was opened and students were enthusiastic to ask about the hoax issues which were lately very popular in Indonesia. Even the impact was substantial since it directed to diversity matter which had been maintained by the Indonesian people. Mas Yul encouraged the students especially as the biggest users of social media to utilize it for good purposes and not to get easily triggered by the unclear news on the internet.