Instagram as medium of information on feminism for Indonesia’s youth

Abstract

Feminism has been an integral part of Indonesia’s history, yet it is commonly misunderstood as a western concept, causing fundamentalist religious groups and right-wing parties to strongly reject feminism. Therefore, social media that offer feminist literacy content is highly important, especially for Indonesia’s youth, as it can provide much-needed information that is often deemed taboo. The purpose of this research is to answer three research questions: (1) What is the use most sought by the followers of the @indonesiafeminis Instagram account? (2) What is the gratification most obtained by the followers of @indonesiafeminis Instagram account? And (3) Is the level of congruence between uses sought and gratifications obtained correlated with the intensity of consuming the @indonesiafeminis Instagram account? Using a quantitative survey method on 165 active followers of the @indonesiafemis Instagram account, results show that: (1) Cognitive needs are the use most sought by @indonesiafeminis followers; (2) Cognitive needs are also the gratification most obtained by the followers, and; (3) There is a positive but very weak correlation between the congruence of the uses sought and gratifications obtained and the intensity of consuming the Instagram account. Therefore, it is crucial that the administrators of @indonesiafeminis focus on providing informational content that satisfies the cognitive needs of the followers. However, despite the correlation, other factors beyond the congruence of the uses and gratifications possibly have an impact to the media consumption intensity.