It is indeed very important to increase the quality of good digital literacy for all elements of society, especially when this is successfully pursued, then the process of being able to prevent the spread of disinformation and hoax news regarding the 2024 Election will become easier.
It cannot be denied that with the increasingly widespread flow of digitalization of information as it is today, the circulation of various kinds of information and news has also become very much in the community. In fact, often times, the public is surprised and confused about which news is actually accurate according to the facts that are happening on the ground, with news that is completely wrong or a lie and is commonly called a hoax.
The reason is, in an era like today, it can be said that it is quite easy to disseminate any news that is even less clear where it came from and the truth cannot be known, including being able to produce news that is actually fake but is made and packaged in such a way that it looks like it is fake. if the news is fact.
Therefore, there is increasing concern, especially now that it has started to enter a political year, where the democratic General Election (Election) party will soon be held in 2024.
For this reason, the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) is very worried about how widespread the circulation of disinformation is on the internet and social media. In order to be able to prevent and narrow down the circulation of fake news so that it does not become more widespread, it is the duty of all circles.
This is because when the public can avoid the widespread reporting of fake news or hoaxes, then automatically, the negative impact that has the potential to arise as a result of consumption of hoax news will also be reduced. Supervision is a very important thing to do, on the other hand there must also be a continuous increase in literacy for the community.
The existence of digital literacy is absolutely very important, especially because until now not all media, such as social media and streaming, have come under surveillance and are covered by clear regulations that regulate what is allowed and what is not allowed to be broadcast. .
In this regard, the Chairman of Commission I of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia (DPR RI), Meutya Hafid said that the main function of literacy is to instill a critical attitude towards the media. This attitude will turn on a personal censorship alarm or self of censorship in everyone who is exposed to literacy.
According to him, the most important aspect in the consumption of news on the internet and social media today is that filtering does not lie in the media that provide the information, but in fact the most important filtering itself must lie in the people.
With good digital literacy, the community itself certainly has good self-censorship regarding what should and should be consumed or read on social media, which parts are just for entertainment or viewing and which parts should be emulated or imitated. All groupings that result in these actions are highly positively correlated with good digital literacy.
Apart from that, continued Meutya, another wise way to consume news on social media is to ensure the truth of the news by verifying it on mainstream media such as RRI and TVRI as well as trusted TV and private radio including mainstream online media (Detik.com, Vivanews.com, etc.) . Information from the media is ensured to be clear and accountable and also monitored by KPI.
Of course, in the election year, which indicates that the political contestation is getting closer, it will increase the tension and it may also psychologically have an impact on society at large, which has the potential to bring out certain factions and actually lead to polarization in society.
Therefore, when dealing with any news on social media or the internet, especially those that contain and lead to things that lead to polarization, the people themselves must be able to see much more clearly what is good and what is bad, then not easily share or share posts carelessly.
All things that are done and also how social media activities must be fully realized and must also be accompanied by full accountability from each user.
The existence of disinformation, misinformation and fake news or hoaxes on social media to the internet, especially ahead of the upcoming elections in 2024, is indeed increasing day by day. For this reason, awareness from all elements of society is needed to be able to ward off all news that is false and does not match the facts on the ground. So it is very important to have good digital literacy as a form of self-defense and self-filtering that is owned by the community in dealing with all types of news on social media.
)* The author is a Vimedia Pratama Institute Contributor
