Creators of Controversy: Problematic Content and Digital Emotional Intelligence in Indonesia’s 2024 Election

Abstract

Various parties can easily produce, distribute, and consume information in today's digital era. Information circulates quickly without a verification process for its truthfulness. Digital literacy is the keyword for building civilized communication. This study aims to analyse the circulation of hoaxes, fake news, and hate speech among supporters of presidential and vice presidential candidates in the 2024 General Election in Indonesia. This study uses a qualitative approach with critical discourse analysis (CDA) and virtual ethnography by analysing the text dimensions, social cognition, and social context of content on social media into an integrated analysis supported by big data analysis from various online media platforms. The study results illustrate a difference in the characteristics of hoaxes and hate speech in the 2024 general election and the 2019 election. The political polarization was not as sharp as in the previous elections. However, there were still many issues of hoaxes and hate speech circulated to discredit specific pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates. The variety of media outlets that people can use to upload and spread content is increasing with the presence of new media such as TikTok. However, the enthusiasm and militancy to support one particular candidate pair tend to reduce the emotional intelligence of netizens in terms of empathy, self-management, and relationship management on social media. Keywords: Hoax, election, content, emotional intelligence, digital.