Ridwan Kamil for Mayor : A study of a political figure on Twitter.

Abstract: There is a significant number of politicians around the globe who demonstrate the conventions of personal style in their political agenda. Norway’s Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg or United States’ President, Barack Obama is a few examples. Personalization of politics was reflected through their Twitter account in the notion of content, pictures, and language tone. In the Indonesian political context, Ridwan Kamil became visible as a prominent leader and received immense popularity on Twitter. Social media platforms have changed the way politicians and citizens interact. They are a platform where individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content. Especially with Twitter, certain features such reply, retweet, and hashtag are powerful tools to integrate their political value and construct their persona on Twitter.  This research is conducted by using mixed-method methodologies. The results from content analysis and discourse analysis will complete each other. The results of the content analysis have shown that what Kamil shares on his Twitter profile is mostly about his philosophy about good governance; social media has become a shortcut in the bureaucracy process and at the same time he manages to seem ordinary and authentic with sharing his personal preferences about music or popular culture phenomenon. Discourse analysis is complementing these findings by showing how Kamil deploys language to produce a certain identity. Kamil is crafting his social media skills and shifting from formal to informal tone at every occasion and construct his persona as professional, fun, and caring. All of these results are important inquiries to describe the politician’s presence on Twitter. As the effect of truth, the Twitter user can still relate to Kamil as an ordinary human being. Focusing on the extent to which the content and users’ personality re-fashion political marketing, the study propose how politician integrate their political value and construct their persona on Twitter. As social media grows globally, the phenomenon of politics and social media also appears in Indonesian political sphere especially Twitter as a new space to offer political rhetoric, posturing, and presentational techniques for political agendas.