Revealing The Indonesian Crazy Rich Prisoner on Social Media: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis

Authors

Krisna Megantari, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, IndonesiaFollow
Heru Nugroho, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, IndonesiaFollow
Dian Arymami, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, IndonesiaFollow

Abstract

Although flexing is commonly perceived as a negative connotation in society, this phenomenon on digital media industry is fantastically entertaining. This study aims to reveal how the media shapes the phenomenon of Indonesian crazy rich prisoners. Using a multimodal discourse analysis on the YouTube video screenshots were analyzed qualitatively. In dissecting this, three terms are used: representational meaning, interactive meaning, and compositional meaning (Van Leeuwen & Jewitt, 2004). Findings shed some light on three symbolic language themes: hedonism, spectacle society, and homo digitalis. The present study theoretically and practically contributes to the dimensions of the digital media industry, where media presents pseudo realities and human existence is determined by their posts on social media.

Keywords

digital media industry, hedonism, homo digitalis, spectacle of society, multimodal discourse analysis

Author Bio(s)

Krisna Megantari, M.A., is a doctoral student in the Media and Cultural Studies Program Universitas Gadjah Mada. She is currently a lecturer in Communication Department at Universitas Muhamamdiyah Ponorogo, Indonesia. She is particularly interested in media studies, public relations, and communication of management. Please direct correspondence to krisnamegantari@mail.ugm.ac.id

Prof. Dr. Heru Nugroho is a professor at postgraduate program of Universitas Gadjah Mada. He completed his Ph.D. at Bielefeld Universitat Germany. He has almost 40 years of experience teaching in his colleges. His academic specialty is sociology. He has written over 33 articles in indexed international and national journals, as well as presenting papers at international events and authoring some books. He has supervising numerous postgraduate students and has reviewed many articles for international journal publications in the field of education.

Dr. Dian Arymami, M.Hum., is an communication lecturer at Universitas Gadjah Mada. In 2017. She completed her doctoral at the Universitas Gadjah Mada. She is passionate about media and cultural studies and has presented and published numerous papers at international conferences and indexed international journals.

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Direktorat Penelitian Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesian Education Scholarship (BPI), Centre for Higher Education Funding and Assessment Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology of Republic Indonesia (Pusat Pelayanan Pembiayaan dan Asesmen Pendidikan Tinggi), and the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP / Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan) that have fully supported our research funding.

Publication Date

3-28-2025

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2025.6996

Recommended APA Citation

Megantari, K., Nugroho, H., & Arymami, D. (2025). Revealing the Indonesian crazy rich prisoner on social media: A multimodal discourse analysis. The Qualitative Report, 30(3), 3342-3370. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2025.6996

ORCID ID

0000-0002-9089-7135