Time To Involve Creative Communities In Socializing COVID-19

JAKARTA - University of Indonesia sociologist Imam Prasodjo said it was time for the Task Force for the Acceleration of Handling COVID-19 at the national or regional level to invite creative communities in many regions to disseminate the dangers of COVID-19 in the community.

Moreover, in Indonesia there are quite a lot of creative communities that often care about socio-cultural conditions and are innovative when conveying existing problems to the public. So it is appropriate if these creators are asked to create content that contains advice and information related to this virus.

"That if we collect, we facilitate, the local government invites them to finance them to be creative like this (conveying messages about COVID-19), then creative ideas that are unique to this country will emerge," said Imam in a tele-talk broadcast on the official YouTube account belonging to the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), Thursday, April 23.

In addition to utilizing creative communities in various regions, the Task Force for the Acceleration of Handling COVID-19 can also ask community organizations from the lowest levels, namely RT and RW to community organizations to participate in the socialization.

"If we do that and then they do socialization and take action to rescue during this tragedy, I think it will bring Indonesia in the midst of this disaster a blessing," he said.

This kind of creative content, he said, must have started a lot of production, especially to socialize the policy of prohibiting going home to prevent the spread of the corona virus in his hometown. In addition, recommendations such as digital halalbihalal must also be popularized through creative and entertaining content so that they are easily accepted by the public.

Back to the idea of inviting the creative community to create socialization content, said Imam, entertainment content that contains laughter can be one of the steps to socialize COVID-19. Given, Indonesia is a country that likes entertainment in any condition and this is unique.

"One of the uniqueness in any form in any situation we are a nation that likes to joke, like laughter and entertainment," he explained, adding that the message that was served in an entertaining way would usually be watched by the public many times.

"People will not watch it once (watching) but many times he watched. Because it brings happiness, because of the cuteness," he added.

In the future, after the proliferation of this kind of content, Imam hopes that the public will be more aware of the dangers of this virus. Because COVID-19 is not an easy problem. Moreover, currently the number of patients continues to increase, medical personnel are starting to become victims, medical equipment is also decreasing.

In addition, solidarity with fellow communities must also be built, so that the participation of young people who are creative and can create interesting content for socialization will be needed.

"The creative youth group like that, which we often see in the form of an appeal, if it can be continued and then continued with creative action, it will be very helpful," he concluded.