Youtube as a Means of Balinese Language Maintenance by Youth in West Lombok Regency

Abstract

The study of language defense has always been an exciting study for sociolinguists because we face the fact that more and more languages are almost extinct. However, one of the regional languages in Indonesia that is still actively used is Balinese. The younger generation is the next generation who should preserve culture, in this case, is language. Moreover, as a generation attached to the digital world, the younger generation can do this simultaneously by maintaining regional languages and remaining attached to the digital world simultaneously. This study aims to see the effectiveness of maintaining the Balinese language in the West Lombok district through YouTube media. The method in this study is qualitative, the primary data source comes from the Balok Kreatif youtube channel, and secondary data comes from the analysis of studies on language defense. The data collection techniques used in this study are observation and interview methods, then the data will be presented narratively. The results show that the Balok Kreatif YouTube channel, which has 128 videos, is a YouTube channel that uses the Balinese language, with a subscriber count of 28 thousand. They have succeeded in maintaining and introducing Balinese to the West Lombok district, and more importantly, they are proud to use the local language.