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The use of Twitter as a political campaign medium in the 2017 local elections for the governorship of Jakarta, Indonesia, has triggered extensive debates and frictions among social media users. As the elections involved an incumbent candidate from a minority group (in terms of ethnicity and religion, i.e. a Christian individual from Chinese descent) – whom the court declared guilty of blasphemy after he failed to be reelected – efforts by all candidates to win netizens’ opinion in social media (Twitter) became fierce. Verbal aggression, intimidation and hate speeches emerged, which did lead to social conflict endangering multiculturalism within society. Using a data analysis software, the present study set out to identify the potentially harmful situation by minings, examining records and tweets related to all candidates in Twitter in the first round of the election campaign. Results of the study show that, instead of positive conversations or debates on the various programs and capability of the candidates, offensive posts on related sensitive issues in Indonesia (ethnicity, religion, race and inter-group relations) were prominent. Moreover, top issues and sentiments associated with all candidates were also identified in the study. Ultimately, suggestions are proposed on the need for efforts to discuss sensitive issues in an open and peaceful atmosphere in social media and to maintain harmony in a multicultural society.

Key words:Mining tweets, sentiments, Twitter, campaign, governor 

In early September 2016, a human tragedy broke out once again in Rakhine State, Myanmar, the previous issue having flared up in 2012-2013, opposing Buddhists and Muslims, majority and minority, locals and migrants. The Muslims, identified as ‘Rohingyas,’ are considered by the Myanmar Buddhist majority to be foreigners, thus illegal immigrants, while they have been living in Myanmar for centuries after the establishment, in the 15th century (in 1420), of the Kingdom of Arakan, as an Islamic Kingdom under the Sultan of Sulaiman Shah. This Islamic kingdom lasted until 1784, when the Myanmar recaptured it, until Myanmar was colonized by the English until its independence in 1948 (Bakti, 2017). The most recent tragedyhas received international attention, including from Indonesia. Response of all layers of societyin the international contextcan be seen from the media coverage and its presentation of information. Thus, the conditions found in the Rakhine State, whether they are favorable or catastrophic, can also be reflected in media coverage. The aim of this study is to identify how the Rohingya issue in Myanmar is covered by Indonesian media, in particular the Kompas and RepublikaOnline newspapers. The main concept of the present study is that of peace journalism developed by Johan Galtung (1998). Our research question emerges from four orientations of peace journalism: 1) How is peace orientation covered in these two newspapers? 2) How is truth orientation covered in these cases? 3) How is people orientation covered in these cases? and 4) How is solution orientation covered in these cases. All four research questions are answered through the use of ‘content analysis as summarizing’ using Kimberly Neuendorf’ way(2002)on two media, namely: Republika and Kompas issued in October-December 2016, during the conflict period. The outcome shows that the information covered by Republika is more peace/conflict - and solution – -oriented. The coverage of Kompas, however, places greater emphasis on peace/conflict – and community.

Key words: Rohingya, peace journalism, peace-oriented, truth-oriented, people-oriented, solution-oriented.