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Article published In:
Journal of Asian Pacific Communication
Vol. 28:2 (2018) ► pp.323–344

Justification and knowledge

Prospecting the modality of Indonesians’ informal political discussions on Facebook

| University of Tehran

Everyday political talk, a significant type of political participation, is an important democratic activity. In this regard, the primary objective of this paper is to investigate the level of justification and knowledge in Indonesians’ informal political talk on Facebook. While previous studies addressed different aspects of informal political discussions such as their impact on political knowledge, influence on public opinion expression and relationship with news media use, they do not provide guidelines for analysing the modality of them. This study proposes an analytical framework for examining the users’ level of justification and knowledge. A qualitative content analysis reveals that only a small number of comments had a high level of justification and knowledge. In addition, some indications of the influence of Indonesian mainstream news media content were found on people’s arguments in discussions.

Keywords: informal political discussion, social media, justification, political knowledge, bahasa gaul, Indonesia
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • The meaning of justification and knowledge in this study
  • Research method
    • Content analysis
    • Case study
    • Sampling
    • Measurements
      • Operationalization of justification and political knowledge
    • Content categories
    • Unit of analysis
  • Findings: The pattern of using justification and political knowledge in Facebook discussions
    • Use of argument in Facebook political discussions
    • Use of reason in Facebook political discussions
    • Use of justification and knowledge in Facebook political discussions
      • Internal references devoid of background knowledge
      • External evidence
      • Internal and external references devoid of background knowledge
      • Internal references including background knowledge
      • Internal and external references including background knowledge
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 10 August 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/japc.00015.mol
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