This is my thesis defense presentation in December 2012, at Paramadina Graduate School, Jakarta, Indonesia.

1. The Online Stoning of MD & GT:
Manifestations of Patriarchal
Microaggressions on Twitter
in Indonesia
A Thesis by Fariez Setiawan

2. Outline
• Background
• Methodology
• Results
• Discussions
• Conclusion

3. Background

4. Malinda Dee
(MD)
Age : 48
Occupation : Former Senior Relationship
Manager at Citibank
Indictment : Embezzlement

5. Gayus Tambunan
(GT)
Age : 33
Occupation : Former Civil Servant at
Indonesian Directorate of Taxation
Indictment : Corruption

6. Online Grapevine
Online Prosecution

7. Research Questions
These tweet differences raised some questions:
• What social processes were involved and
differed in the online prosecution of MD and
GT?
• To what extent do the use of Twitter
characterized the ways in which Indonesian
online society addressed their social concerns
regarding corruption and embezzlement?
• What were the implications of this
phenomenon, particularly to Indonesian
society?

8. Methodology

9. Sentiment &
Google
Content Results
K Search
Analyses
e
y
Thematic
w
Gathered Tweet Tendencies +
o
Tweets Translation Frequency
r Counting
d
s
Systematic
Random Raw Data Values
Sampling

10. Results

11. Negative Tonality for MD: 39.81% v Positive Tonality for GT: 38.69%

12. Sam e si ze: 216
pl Sam e si ze: 199
pl

13. Condescension
Toleration

14. Discussion

15. folk devil
a visible reminder of what we should not be
- Cohen, 2002/2011 -

16. moral panics
a condition, episode, person or group
of persons emerges to become
defined as a threat to societal values
and interests; its nature is presented in
a stylized and stereotypical fashion by
the mass media; the moral barricades
are manned by
editors, bishops, politicians and other
right-thinking people; socially
accredited experts pronounce their
diagnoses and solutions; ways of
coping are evolved or (more often)
resorted to; the condition then
disappears, submerges or deteriorates
and becomes more visible
- Cohen, 2002/2011 -

17. envy
n. a feeling of
discontented or resentful
longing aroused by
someone else’s
possessions, qualities, or
luck
- New Oxford American Dictionary,
2009 -

18. schadenfreude
n. pleasure derived by someone
from another person’s
misfortune.
Origin: German, from Schaden
‘harm’ + Freude ‘joy’
- New Oxford American Dictionary, 2009 -

19. Anonimity, Disinhi
bition, Anarchy
Patriarchal
Retributive Justice
Perspective
Microaggressions Schadenfreude
Social Cognitive
Dissonance

20. Microaggressions
the brief and commonplace
daily verbal, behavioral, and
environmental
indignities, whether intentional or Gender Inequality
unintentional, that communicate
unequal treatment or
hostile, derogatory, or negative Privileges
perceptions of individuals
racial, gender, sexual- special
based on their gender
orientation, and religious slights - Wikipedia, 2012 - rights, advantages, immunities
and insults to the target person granted or available only to a
or group particular person or group of
- Sue, Capodilupo, et al. in Sue, 2010 - people
- New Oxford American Dictionary, 2009 -

22. INDONESIAN
PATRIARCHY
INTERNET
ANARCHY

23. Conclusions

24. Research Questions
These tweet differences raised some questions:
• What social processes were involved and
differed in the online prosecution of MD and
GT?
• To what extent do the use of Twitter
characterized the ways in which Indonesian
online society addressed their social concerns
regarding corruption and embezzlement?
• What were the implications of this
phenomenon, particularly to Indonesian
society?

25. Conclusions
• The social processes that differ between MD and GT: MD
evoked social cognitive dissonance and moral panics
among twitterers, who then attempted to dissociate
themselves with MD through schadenfreude-laden
microaggressions. On the contrary, GT create consonance
to the commonality of corruption among civil servants, while
his misconduct was still resonate well with Indonesian
patriarchal culture, where men could err and regain their
dignities.

26. Conclusions
• Indonesian twitterers used Twitter to address their
social concerns regarding corruption and
embezzlement only in superficial and material
perspectives – the superficial appearance of MD
and the material wealth of GT.

27. Conclusions
• Twitterers justified their self-righteous behaviors as an act of
punishing an extraordinary embezzler but not a common
corruptor, not knowing they perpetrated gender-based
microaggressions in the process. This social phenomenon was
propagated through Twitter, which then could become a
social conditioning on microaggressions and patriarchal
permissiveness toward corruption for younger generations.

28. Recommendations
• This research can hopefully raise public awareness of the possible
impact of the phenomenon to the society, most importantly regarding
aggressive and derogative online behaviors.
• The outcome of this research showed that the subject of this research
still requires further and broader investigation, particularly on the
sociological and psychological implications of internet use in relation to
the cultural disposition of Indonesians.

29. Thank you
fariez.setiawan@gmail.com