Reading the Message of Peace Campaign in the Global Happiness Challenge Instagram: The Digital Communication Era

Abstract

As we live in industry 4.0, digital communication has become the most accessible one. One of the examples of digital communication is Instagram. Instagram is one of the most famous among youths all over the world. It is used as a means of storing photos and videos and as a means of conveying meaning. The images displayed on Instagram attract the readers to understand the meaning attached in the image or behind it implicitly. At that point, the purpose of this study is to decipher and analyze the peace message contained in Morshad Mishu's Instagram image for The Global Happiness Challenge. This Instagram account describes wars all over the world, with a focus on Islamic countries. Images of war on Instagram are presented in two styles: black-white and colourful design. The significance of this research is to communicate and convey the message of peace in the digital era through Instagram as one of the long-term goals of all campaigns to achieve a better life. The study employs a descriptive qualitative approach. Roland Barthes' semiotic theory is applied to the reading of seven images. They are three stages of the analysis: (1) denotation meaning, (2) connotation meaning, and (3) myths. The main finding reveals from reading the seven images in The Global Happiness Challenge Instagram is that the meaning of peace in seven images is used as a bargaining power to end the war. Only tears, sadness, fear, death, and destruction have resulted from the war.