Political Communication Inequality and Power-Sharing in Strengthening Indigenous Papuan Representation in Sorong City, Southwest Papua

This study aims to examine the phenomenon of political communication inequality in the political representation of Indigenous Papuans within the legislative institution of Sorong City. The study also proposes several strategic efforts to strengthen the political representation of Indigenous Papuans at the legislative level. This research employed a qualitative approach, with data collected through in-depth interviews involving 15 selected informants consisting of Indigenous Papuans and non-Papuan community leaders, qualitative discourse analysis of the available full texts within a recorded corpus of 24 media items concerning the political representation of Indigenous Papuans, and a literature review related to the concepts of political communication inequality and power-sharing. The findings indicate that participants perceived unequal access to political communication networks, fragmented political consolidation, socio-economic disparities, and limitations in participatory capacity as important barriers to Indigenous Papuan political representation. The selected media texts further reveal recurring public narratives concerning Indigenous political rights, legitimacy, representation, and meaningful participation. Rather than establishing causal effects, these findings highlight how participants' accounts and selected public narratives frame the relationship between communication inequalities, descriptive representation, and access to political influence. The study identifies potential areas for strengthening political inclusion, including political capacity-building, broader political consolidation, more inclusive institutional practices, and expanded opportunities for meaningful participation, while recognising the responsibilities of political parties and public institutions.