SI GEMOY: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE-BASED VISUAL MANIPULATION AS PRABOWOS POLITICAL VISUAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

Christianna, Aniendya (2024) SI GEMOY: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE-BASED VISUAL MANIPULATION AS PRABOWOS POLITICAL VISUAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGY. In: MEDIACON 2024 Critical Vision: Mediatizing Populism and Authoritarianism, 24-08-2024 - 24-08-2024, Mojokerto - Indonesia.

	PDF Download (344Kb)
	PDF Download (2343Kb)

Abstract

In this era of contemporary visual culture, visual communication media has become a ‘currency’ where individuals can interpret and contribute to shaping the collective narrative of society. Through visual language, societal values are formulated, exchanged, contested, and reconstructed to accommodate various social, cultural, and political discussions. Neuroscientifically, the human brain manages visual information faster than text alone. Visual language can summarise complex information so that it is easier to understand and can reduce the brains cognitive load, making it easier to create an emotional and experiential connection with the communicator. This symbiotic relationship between media, technology, and culture affects the way individuals perceive and communicate with each other. During the current 2024 Presidential Election campaign, various visual communication media are utilised by all candidates to attract voters attention. And AI image generator technology is one of the solutions. As done by one of the presidential candidates: Prabowo and his success team through ‘Si Gemoy’. How to interpret artificial intelligence-based visual manipulation as a political visual communication strategy carried out by Prabowos success team? What are the implications and positive-negative impacts on contemporary political discourse? The approach used in this research is qualitative content analysis by identifying visual elements such as facial expressions, poses, colors, clothing, backgrounds, texts/captions, and visual styles. Samples were collected from campaign materials from social media, official campaign websites, and news articles from late 2023 to 2024. Data analysis was conducted in two stages: textual and contextual analysis. Textual analysis used coding of visual and narrative elements to identify themes and patterns of how ‘si gemoy’ framed Prabowos image. Meanwhile, contextual analysis is the stage of interpreting the symbolic meaning in the context of the election campaign and the broader Indonesian political landscape. Herbert Blumers concept of symbolic interaction and Ernesto Laclaus populism became the basis for uncovering the phenomenon of the interconnectedness of media, technology and politics through ‘si gemoy’. This research resulted that: (1) Si Gemoy is a product of AI image manipulation, which could strongly influence tech-savvy young voters through social media. (2) Si Gemoy as an empty signifier. (3) Si Gemoy: Between Innovation and Manipulation. Although effective and efficient, ‘si gemoy’ manipulates voters cognition and emotions, which can erode their trust and make them skeptical of the information presented, resulting in weakened trust in the political process as a whole. This paper concludes that the use of AI image generator in the manipulation of political visual communication is a serious threat to the democratic process. As elections serve as the cornerstone of a democratic society, any attempt to influence voters through false visual narratives will erode the principles of fair and honest decision-making. The potential manipulation of political visual communication driven by this technology not only threatens the integrity of elections but also degrades the basic principles of transparency crucial in a democratic system.

Actions (login required)