Public Opinion in Political Dynamics: The Role of Political Parties Through Social Media in Indonesia

This research aims to explore public opinion formed with the dynamics of political parties on social media. Content and sentiment was conducted on posts on X (Twitter). Potential differences between established and new parties on social media were considered, as well as the influences public opinion had on political dynamics in Indonesia. The findings show a sentiment analysis of generally positive perceptions of political parties, with more positive sentiments towards established parties than new parties. The old party cluster consisting of Demokrat, Gerindra, Golkar, Nasdem, PAN, PDIP, Perindo, PKB, PKS, PPP, and PSI has an average positive sentiment of 67% and negative sentiment of 33%, with PPP having the highest positive sentiment (83%). However, PPP was mentioned the least number of times (551 mentions). Meanwhile, the new party cluster consisting of the Buruh, Gelora, and Ummat Parties has an average positive sentiment of 61% and a negative sentiment of 39%, with Buruh having the highest positive sentiment (72%). Of the old parties, Nasdem was mentioned the most frequently (85,696 times), while the most frequently mentioned new party was Ummat (6,268 mentions). New parties’ mentions accounted for only 2.33% of political party mentions. The contribution of this research is that the dominance of established parties in social media discourse indicates the stability of the party system but also has the potential to limit political innovation and responsiveness to new issues.