Micro-celebrity participation and risk communication in Indonesia

Abstract

Information dissemination in the media, specifically social media, is one of the critical channels of information related to the COVID-19 outbreak sought by the public. The information presented has been related to accurate and reliable situation reports and false information in various forms, not only text-based but also audio and visual. The chaos of data, coupled with a central response that seemed unprepared, shaped the Indonesian community’s perceptions of the COVID-19 outbreak. This fact related to the massive number of internet users in Indonesia is one aspect of the government’s decision, in this case BNPB (Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana; officially National Disaster Management Authority), to engage strong social media influencers. The government collaborated with some influencers to enable public engagement through online social media platforms in the context of COVID-19—two of them being @dr.tirta and @rachelvennya. The platforms also gained more visibility after being appointed COVID-19 influencers. They updated information about COVID-19 on their social media accounts with picture posts and Instagram stories, either individually or in collaboration with others. This study aims to analyse the practice of the Indonesian government’s agency using micro-celebrity to deploy a risk communication frame and the delivery of the message by a celebrated person.

Keywords

• content analysis
• Indonesia
• Instagram
• micro-celebrity
• new media
• participation