Social Media Research and the Impact of Graphic Design: a case study examining an Indonesian political campaign.

Abstract

Outside imagery, graphic design is largely invisible to the academic fields most interested in communication campaigns, seeing negligible research conducted into its role within campaigns. In an era of social media and participatory culture, the blurring of the boundaries between producers, consumption and audiences through the phenomenon of 'produsage' can offer rich, contextualised insights into the impact of the designed aspects of campaigns. In examining Berakar Komunikasi's online campaign supporting the 2014 and 2019 election bids of Indonesia's President Jokowi Widodo, our paper explores how qualitative social media research offers finegrained insights into the reception of campaigns. The paper raises questions about the siloed nature of research which neglects design's relationship to cultural and social phenomena, underscoring the need for interdisciplinary research that brings an integrated framework of approaches and concepts to knowledge production where design is concerned.