Abstract
Introduction or preface
(33)
|
This article uses social network analysis of online contestation on Twitter from September 2018 to April 2019 to reveal how
netizens' engagement in election de-bates is polarized by the politics of hashtags. This study finds that hashtags are operated
to construct dichotomist debate focusing on both presidential candi-dates' figure. This finding indicates: first, the weak
position of citizens in deliberat-ing public issues; second, the ineffectiveness of social media, especially Twitter as an
online forum for articulating public issues; and third, online influencers, who create and propagate hashtags, play a strategic
role in deliberating public issues. Strengthening the role of social media needs to be combined with contemporary citizenship
political strategies that can extend access for civil society and online influencers to play an active role in articulating
public issues more argumentative-ly.
|
Account Management
DOI URL Update