Everyday Nationalism - The Construction of Papuan Heroes as Symbols of Nationalism on Social Media

Yuyun WI Surya

2017

Abstract

This paper investigates how social media has helped to foster and shape Papuan nationalism. In particular, it examines posts and comments produced on the ‘Suara Papua’ Facebook page and explores the ways that Papuans articulate symbols of nationalism and ideas of becoming a nation. Papuan nationalism has become a key aspect of the Papuan political landscape. In turn, this has shaped the discourse of struggle against Indonesian rule. Vangeli (2009) argues that social media is related to the emergence of a strong and durable form of genuine decentralized nationalist discourse. Billig (1995: 6) argues that nationalism is not restricted to political discourse but can also be seen in everyday life. Through people’s everyday communications, the nationalist discourse has become further established. This paper uses multimodal discourse analysis as its research method. This method offers a tool to collect and analyze data that is appropriate to study text on social media. This paper concludes that users of the ‘Suara Papua’ Facebook page have developed a common understanding of Papua as a nation through cultural elements by creating heroes and a narrative of heroism. Thus, social media websites have facilitated everyday nationalism through their interactive features, images, like buttons, and comments.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

WI Surya Y. (2017). Everyday Nationalism - The Construction of Papuan Heroes as Symbols of Nationalism on Social Media.In Proceedings of the International Post-Graduate Conference on Media and Communication - Volume 1: IPCOMC, ISBN 978-989-758-337-7, pages 349-354. DOI: 10.5220/0007329303490354

in Bibtex Style

@conference{ipcomc17,
author={Yuyun WI Surya},
title={Everyday Nationalism - The Construction of Papuan Heroes as Symbols of Nationalism on Social Media},
booktitle={Proceedings of the International Post-Graduate Conference on Media and Communication - Volume 1: IPCOMC,},
year={2017},
pages={349-354},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0007329303490354},
isbn={978-989-758-337-7},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the International Post-Graduate Conference on Media and Communication - Volume 1: IPCOMC,
TI - Everyday Nationalism - The Construction of Papuan Heroes as Symbols of Nationalism on Social Media
SN - 978-989-758-337-7
AU - WI Surya Y.
PY - 2017
SP - 349
EP - 354
DO - 10.5220/0007329303490354