The Formation of Public Opinions by Digital Mobilization on Facebook during the Myanmar Spring Revolution

Thoon Nadi Lynn, Dr. Wisnu Martha Adiputra, S.I.P., MSi

2024 | Skripsi | Ilmu Komunikasi

Since February 1, 2021, Myanmar’s military dictatorship, the recent freedom of the press has been systematically eroded while numerous media outlets and independent media have been banned and shut down. The military suppressed and restricted the freedom of expression and media. However, the internet, particularly, Facebook allows Myanmar people to interact, share, and discuss their opinions, and experiences and consume the news regarding Myanmar’s spring revolution. Meanwhile, there is the chaotic circulation of news about the revolution and well-informed and verified news sources are needed for better political participation and decision-making. The independent students’ union called Yangon University of Foreign Languages (YUFL) creates content and disseminates information about the revolution to eliminate fake and propaganda news and to mobilize the formation of public opinions and engagement. This research is designed to find out how the digital mobilization done by YUFL’s students’ union’s Facebook page helped the formation of public opinions on Facebook in Myanmar during the Myanmar Spring Revolution. The Facebook platform will play as the public sphere and it is expected to find out how Facebook as the public sphere offers the space to mobilize digitally. Public sphere theory, public opinions, and digital mobilization are the main theoretical concepts of this research and the conceptual content analysis method will be conducted to gather the data on Facebook from the period of February 1 2021 to July 31, 2021, which was the time when the revolution was at its peak.

Since February 1, 2021, Myanmar’s military dictatorship, the recent freedom of the press has been systematically eroded while numerous media outlets and independent media have been banned and shut down. The military suppressed and restricted the freedom of expression and media. However, the internet, particularly, Facebook allows Myanmar people to interact, share, and discuss their opinions, and experiences and consume the news regarding Myanmar’s spring revolution. Meanwhile, there is the chaotic circulation of news about the revolution and well-informed and verified news sources are needed for better political participation and decision-making. The independent students’ union called Yangon University of Foreign Languages (YUFL) creates content and disseminates information about the revolution to eliminate fake and propaganda news and to mobilize the formation of public opinions and engagement. This research is designed to find out how the digital mobilization done by YUFL’s students’ union’s Facebook page helped the formation of public opinions on Facebook in Myanmar during the Myanmar Spring Revolution. The Facebook platform will play as the public sphere and it is expected to find out how Facebook as the public sphere offers the space to mobilize digitally. Public sphere theory, public opinions, and digital mobilization are the main theoretical concepts of this research and the conceptual content analysis method will be conducted to gather the data on Facebook from the period of February 1 2021 to July 31, 2021, which was the time when the revolution was at its peak.

Kata Kunci : Public opinions, digital mobilization, public sphere, military coup, Myanmar, Facebook