Identifying Narrations on the Social Media Discourse of Moving the Indonesia's Capital City using Textual Network Analysis

Abstract

The ratification of a law on the new State Capital of Indonesia (UU IKN/IKN Law) has sparked different narratives across the country, especially on social media. Some favor and some oppose the discourse on moving the state capital. We conducted research using the Textual Network Analysis (TNA) method with the social science approach to grasp this phenomenon. TNA is used to map the connection between words or narratives on social media and capture the discourse. Data was collected using web scraping on Twitter from January to February 2022. The analysis results show clear network polarization on the narratives in favor and opposed, marked by the dominance of publicly known actors' nodes. The involvement of actors in this narrative is identified as the use of identity politics to influence narratives in society. It caused the narratives of being in favor and opposed to being not yet substantial, implying there is no criticism or support regarding the vision of developing the nation's capital that carries the ideas of sustainable city, the principles of sustainable development, and smart city.