General Elections of Indonesia is conducted in April 2019. All candidates argue political ideas one another. However, political contestation leads to unrest in society due to hoaxes. To educate students, Department of Communication Science collaborating with Ministry of Communication and Informatics of the Republic of Indonesia organized a seminar on ‘Hoaks Bikin Malu, Stop Ribut Melulu, Saatnya Bikin Linimasa Asik di Tahun Politik’ (Hoaxes Are Embarrassing, Stop Arguing, It Is Time to Create Fun Timeline in a Political Year) at Building of E7 Ibrahim of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) on Tuesday (19/3).

Indonesia is now confronting the hoaxes. Development of digital media, including social media, eases people to access information, both positive and negative contents. The advancement is also employed by many individuals to spread hoaxes to disunite people. The falsehoods drive people to create negative assumptions on certain political contestants.

Department of Communication Science of UMY concerns with the condition. Therefore, media literacy is essential to raise people’s awareness of how to use media wisely and how to respond to the hoaxes.

“Youths are now apathetic about politics. They are only attracted to lifestyles, technology or social media. They do not care about the hoaxes so that the media literacy aims to grow their awareness,” declare a lecturer of Department of Communication Science of UMY as well as a speaker at the seminar Dr. Muria Endah Sokowati, S.IP., M.Si.

Endah encouraged the students to read a lot and care about their environment. They have to be critical of and validate all news. “If necessary, students should be skeptical that they have to think that 99 percent of all information on internet is deceitful. Thus, they will filter each information and find the truth,” she emphasized.

Meanwhile, Head of the Subdirectorate of Digital Literacy of Ministry of Communication and Informatics Aris Kurniawan, S.Sos., M.Comn. cautions students to prevent the hoax dissemination.

“We have to be smart as netizens, confirm and tabbayun (find truth) information. We may not conclude and easily be mad. Be smart and verify news that you receive. As youth, you should be more creative in learning technology and recognize how internet works. We may not always be news consumers, but we have to be educating content creators providing valuable information for other people,” stressed Aris.