IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rfa/smcjnl/v13y2025i1p104-118.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digital Political Communication in Emerging Democracy: A Comparative Study of Indonesia, India, and Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Tokan Pureklolon
  • Arnoldus Pawe
  • Rudy Pramono

Abstract

The victory of right-wing political parties in democratic countries worldwide has garnered significant attention and presented unique challenges. The structured and widespread use of social media platforms is alleged to play a crucial role, enabling these parties to actively shape influence, attract voter sympathy, and mobilize support on a broad scale. Using the evidence from the presidential and parliamentary elections in Indonesia, India, and Brazil, this research examines how the populist candidates in these major democracies effectively utilized appealing patterns and styles of political communication on the social media. Through a comparative analysis of the 33 articles published in the International journals between 2019 and 2023, the findings have revealed some similarities in the digital political communication patterns and styles among the victorious populist figures. This study specifically highlights the facts that these figures employ digital communication strategies centered on two key aspects, namely- (1) promoting populist narratives through the social media and (2) crafting personalized self-images. These strategies are shown to be instrumental in securing election wins for the populist leaders concerned.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Tokan Pureklolon & Arnoldus Pawe & Rudy Pramono, 2025. "Digital Political Communication in Emerging Democracy: A Comparative Study of Indonesia, India, and Brazil," Studies in Media and Communication, Redfame publishing, vol. 13(1), pages 104-118, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:rfa:smcjnl:v:13:y:2025:i:1:p:104-118
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://redfame.com/journal/index.php/smc/article/download/7348/6717
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://redfame.com/journal/index.php/smc/article/view/7348
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Masduki, 2021. "Media Control in the Digital Politics of Indonesia," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(4), pages 52-61.
    2. Karina Di Nubila & Carlos A. Ballesteros-Herencia & Dunia Etura & Virginia Martín-Jiménez, 2023. "Technopopulism and Politainment in Brazil: Bolsonaro Government’s Weekly YouTube Broadcasts," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(2), pages 137-147.
    3. Karina Di Nubila & Carlos A. Ballesteros-Herencia & Dunia Etura & Virginia Martín-Jiménez, 2023. "Technopopulism and Politainment in Brazil: Bolsonaro Government’s Weekly YouTube Broadcasts," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(2), pages 137-147.
    4. Masduki, 2021. "Media Control in the Digital Politics of Indonesia," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(4), pages 52-61.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. María José Viana Cleves & Gerardo Barbosa Castillo & Andrés Rolando Ciro Gómez & Édgar Solano González, 2022. "Líneas estructurales para la Fuerza Pública: medioambiente e inteligencia militar," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Derecho, number 1330, May.
    2. Roger Fouquet & Ralph Hippe, 2022. "Twin Transitions of Decarbonisation and Digitalisation: A Historical Perspective on Energy and Information in European Economies," Working Papers 08-22, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC).
    3. Olga Dovbysh & Esther Somfalvy, 2021. "Understanding Media Control in the Digital Age," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(4), pages 1-4.
    4. Kim, Hyung-Min & Kim, Seongcheol, 2022. "The show must go on: Why Korea lost its first-mover advantage in Esports and how it can become a major player again," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    5. Choung, Youngjoo & Chatterjee, Swarn & Pak, Tae-Young, 2023. "Digital Financial Literacy and Financial Well-Being," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Journal P, pages 1-1.
    6. Blind, Knut & Niebel, Crispin, 2022. "5G roll-out failures addressed by innovation policies in the EU," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    7. Ferilli, Greta Benedetta & Palmieri, Egidio & Miani, Stefano & Stefanelli, Valeria, 2024. "The impact of FinTech innovation on digital financial literacy in Europe: Insights from the banking industry," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    8. Barzegar, Maryam & Rajabifard, Abbas & Kalantari, Mohsen & Atazadeh, Behnam, 2021. "A framework for spatial analysis in 3D urban land administration – A case study for Victoria, Australia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    9. Abate, Gashaw T. & Abay, Kibrom A. & Chamberlin, Jordan & Kassim, Yumna & Spielman, David J. & Paul Jr Tabe-Ojong, Martin, 2023. "Digital tools and agricultural market transformation in Africa: Why are they not at scale yet, and what will it take to get there?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rfa:smcjnl:v:13:y:2025:i:1:p:104-118. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Redfame publishing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.