Regarding the Strategy of 3 Presidential Candidates to Attract Gen Z Votes from Gemoy to One Piece, Here’s What UM Surabaya Lecturer Says

Lecturer of Media and Culture Studies at the University of Muhammadiyah Surabaya (UM Surabaya) Radius Setiyawan also highlighted the entertaining campaign actions carried out by the presidential and vice presidential candidates ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election, starting from Saudara168 the gemoy dance, watching One Piece to the Hunger Games greeting. According to him, since the official campaign period began, the campaign teams of each presidential candidate have competed to shape their image through social media content.

Some parties tend to be cynical about the entertaining campaign style that is identical to dance, music, movement and other popular cultures. There is an assumption that these campaign models are poor in ideas and tend to reduce critical thinking.

According to him, this assumption is very well-founded and has its own arguments. If observed, some of the viral and talked about ones are indeed poor in substance. Some even tend to obscure problems that should be actual to be discussed. Such as the discourse on dynasty politics, environmental issues, identity politics, human rights discourse, global warming and others.

“But that does not mean generalizing that pop culture related to politics is always shallow and meaningless,” said Radius Sunday (10/12/23)

Radius said that generation Z is very likely to involve themselves in politics in their own way. Messages related to mental health, ecological balance and anti-corruption messages are very likely to be conveyed and campaigned in creative ways typical of gen-Z. The content created must of course pay attention to 3 things, namely: light or trivial, funny and related to the life of gen-Z.

“Not everything that is trivial, funny and exciting does not have a message or idea. Young people who like dancing, singing and other popular entertainment are very likely to store substantive and critical messages. Dance when designed to respond to current issues, must have an educational message, including songs and the like.” Radius added again.

Radius appealed to the campaign teams, even though what is presented is light and funny, they must still prioritize substance, because entering a political year like this, political education must continue to be prioritized, so that the campaign does not seem like a mere gimmick.

It is known that the majority of voters in the 2024 Presidential Election are dominated by millennials and Gen Z. The number of millennial voters according to the Permanent Voter List (DPT) reached 66,822,389 or 33.60 percent of the total voters who will cast their votes in the 2024 Presidential Election.

Meanwhile, voters from Gen Z reached 46,800,161 voters or 22.85 percent of the DPT. If totaled, the total number of voters from the millennial and generation Z groups is more than 113 million voters. This means that the number of voters for these two generations is 56.45% of the total voters.

“These two generations are known to be tech and social media literate, especially Gen Z who grew up with internet access and digital technology from a young age. That fact is what causes Gen Z and millennial votes to be fought over by presidential and vice presidential candidates in the 2024 Presidential Election,” he concluded.