Challenges Of Use Of Visual Language In Presidential Election Campaign

Barack Obama in a campaign ahead of the 2008 United States Presidential Election with the slogan Change. (Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA Language is a human ability to communicate with other humans. Another definition of language is an expression that contains the intention of conveying something to others. During the 2024 presidential election campaign, the use of communicative language is very important.

Prasetiya Mulya University economist and Chancellor, Djisman S. Simanduntak said language is the main difference between humans and animals.

We can use language to hide intentions, express anger, but also express compassion, admiration, assumptions and others. Language is something that is very mellible (easy to melt), can be rolled around to reveal something important or unimportant," said Djisman at a Public Discussion: Language and Election Campaign organized by Prasetiya Mulya University and the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ), in Cilandak, Thursday (9/11/2023).

Djisman added that the language used by someone can also give a signal about the person's personality. He further said, in the midst of a political year like today, we can see the personality signals of candidates for president and vice president through the language they express in an election.

In today's modern era, the language used is no longer just words. There is a visual language that is also a means of communication, including in the presidential election campaign.

Visual language is the delivery of messages to the public through various things that can be seen in plain view, such as color, image, shape, and arrangement.

Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) lecturer, Dr. Iwan Gunawan quoted the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning & Memory, as saying research proves that we are better at learning and remembering content when we view images than text. And, this is a phenomenon called Picture Superiority Effect.

Visual language in campaigns, which is usually contained in the form of posters, banners, and others, has always been an important part.

Iwan gave an example of the visual language that Barack Obama used in the United States Election campaign in 2008 and 2012. According to him, Obama's campaign was imitated by many presidential candidates in Indonesia in the last two elections.

Obama used the concept of 'hope and change' in the 2008 election campaign and 'preserved change' in elections four years later.

To illustrate the concept of this change, Obama created a campaign design with the logo O, which is his own initials. As for the concept of 'hopefully', he brings out the sunrise. The blue red and white color on Obama's campaign design was taken from the color of the US flag.

Not only that, Obama's campaign is also considered to have beautiful visuals because of the uniform and filled with posters that describe the cohesiveness of his supporters.

According to Kenneth L. Hackers in Introduction: The Importance of Candidate Images in Presidential Elections, election campaigns are more about candidates and how they describe themselves as the best characters or people to deal with issues in society or in the country.

"So the important thing is not the problem, but the figure of the person who will handle the problem that is displayed," said Iwan.

In visual language, according to Iwan, it generally talks about two things, namely associations and analogy. The association is an attempt to provide a fishing rod, whether word or visual, that can make a person remember other things.

While analogy is a comparison, which is made to illustrate the similarities between two different situations or concepts. Analogies are often used to help people understand difficult concepts by referring to something better known or simple.

The concept of association and analogy is used by two contestants, namely Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto, in the last two editions of the presidential election.

"In the period 2014 and 2019, we can learn a lot about how they associate themselves with a concept and how the analogies they create, between Prabowo and Jokowi," said Iwan again.

Prabowo, for example, was seen in the previous presidential election wearing white shirts, black caps, and gestures which then made people associate it with Soekarno.

Meanwhile, Jokowi in his campaign took advantage of Tintin's character. Tintin is the main character in Tintin's Adventure, a comic series created by Herge, an artist from Belgium.

Tintin is one of the figures liked by various age groups. So, it can be said that Jokowi has become Tintin to associate himself with the Presidential Candidate for all people.

"This contestant strategy (Jokowi) is to associate himself with a figure whose narrative has already been embedded in the head of the voter candidate," explained Iwan.

Ahead of the 2024 presidential election which will be held on February 14, visual languages began to be widely used. But in today's era, the use of visual language is believed to be more challenging because the target is young people from generation Z and millennials.

As is known, based on data from the permanent voter list of the General Elections Commission, 56 percent are from generation Z and millennials. Plus the low literacy rate, the visual language to be able to bind prospective voters is a challenge.

'Visual language is very important because the current media conditions use very many visuals. There is research that Indonesian people are lazy to read, so if they read it, they usually have short messages, headlines, and they can also choose the things they like," Iwan told VOI.

Visual language is very important as a strategy. The visual language used should be in accordance with the image you want to show, according to what he wants to show positively from the Contestant, and how to do it, while still paying attention to who the target is. Usually Gen Z's children when there is a visual language they don't like he doesn't understand he leaves and this is a challenge in itself," said Iwan evacuating.