Sadfishing Phenomenon of #Justiceforaudrey (Hashtag) on Twitter

Abstract

People use social media as a means to share everything about themselves and their daily lives. Many users tell stories or things they see that can attract the attention and sympathy of many people in social media. One of the cases that went viral at the beginning of 2019 was a case of alleged violence that had befallen 17-years old Pontianak SMPN (junior high school) student named Audrey who claimed to have been persecuted by several high school students. The Audrey case drew attention of many circles and was viral through the hashtag JusticeForAudrey on Twitter social media in April 2019. The hashtag had even occupied the world trending. The viral hashtag 'JusticeForAudrey' and the reaction of a number of public figures to this case made many people sympathetic and gave support to Audrey. Through the power of social media, this case was widespread and reached various groups in cyberspace. The issue of humanity is indeed an issue that is able to bring sympathy from everyone, but this can immediately change and turn around against the victim when unexpected new evidence & findings are revealed. This study aims to analyze the phenomenon of sadfishing (provoking sadness) from a teenager named Audrey who intentionally uploaded and portrayed her sadness on social media to be viral and brought a lot of public attention. This research uses a qualitative method with a case study approach. The theory applied in this study is related to the use of social media, namely media system dependency theory (MSD) or media dependency.

Fenomena Memancing Kesedihan Di Media Sosial (Sadfishing) Pada Literasi Digital Remaja

“…Artinya, semakin tinggi literasi digital, justru semakin rendah kebiasaan positif dalam mencerna berita online dan kecenderungan untuk tidak menyebarkan hoaks. (Syarizka, 2020) Sadfishing sendiri pada jurnal yang berjudul "Sadfishing Phenomenon of #Justiceforaudrey (Hashtag) On Twitter" merupakan tindakan mencurahkan isi hati berupa memancing kesedihan dengan mengumbar masalah kesedihan untuk mendapatkan simpati dan empati di media sosial (C. E. Putri et al, 2020) Selanjutnya pada penelitian yang berjudul "Trends of Sadfishing Phenomenon and Diseppearance of self privacy on social media Tiktok", pembuat konten berlombalomba memperbanyak penonton dan masuk ke beranda TikTok atau biasa dikenal dengan FYP (For Your Page). Adanya FYP ini mendorong para pembuat konten untuk mulai melakukan sesuatu yang membuat akun TikToknya menjadi viral, salah satunya adalah membuat konten sedih atau sadfishing.…”

“…Hasil pada penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa masifnya penggunaan media sosial dikalangan remaja yang tidak dibarengi dengan pemahaman literasi melahirkan fenomena-fenomena baru yang terjadi di media sosial seperti cyberbullying, hate speech, catfishing, hoax, cybersex, doxing, FOMO, dan sadfishing, sadfishing sendiri merupakan fenomena memancing kesedihan atau istilah yang digunakan untuk menggambarkan trend perilaku dimana seseorang membuat klaim berlebihan tentang masalah emosional mereka untuk menghasilkan simpati di media sosial, tujuannya jelas untuk mengumbar kesedihan dan menjaring simpati follower-nya sehingga menjadi viral (C. E. Putri et al, 2020). Fenomena sadfishing menimbulkan trend baru bagi pengguna media sosial di Indonesia, dimana setiap pengguna media sosial seperti memiliki dorongan untuk menunjukan kesedihannya dalam menarik simpati banyak orang di media sosial, contoh kasus sadfishing yang sekarang sedang marak adalah publikasi kasus pelakor di TikTok pada gambar 2, hastag pelakor sudah menembus angaka 4.3 milyar kali ditonton dan disaksikan di media sosial tiktok, dimana Sadfisher mempublikasi kesedihannya karena pasangannya selingkuh melalui media sosial dengan tujuan konten tersebut mendapatkan dukungan, simpati dan perhatian dari netizens sehingga menjadi viral .…”

Trends of Sadfishing Phenomenon and Disappearance of Self-Privacy on Social Media Tiktok

“…Media content is part of information and news published using media platforms (Bahanan, 2020). The trend of "sadfishing" or what is called the trend of sharing sadness on social media is where social media users create charms to provoke reactions, comments or sympathy by posting sad things and sharing sad stories (C. E. Putri et al, 2020). When there are features in their posts, they will make those who see the content give sympathy by liking or commenting on the post (Health, 2020).…”

“…When there are features in their posts, they will make those who see the content give sympathy by liking or commenting on the post (Health, 2020). This sadfishing phenomenon aims to actualize feelings of disappointment, anger or deep sadness in order to attract the attention of many people on social media, with specific goals such as going viral and getting sympathy (C. E. Putri et al, 2020). In general, TikTok Social Media users use their creativity to get attention in the form of TikTok likes and comments.…”

“…As for some of the previous studies that the researcher took as reference material as follows, the first research related to sadfishing was taken from a journal entitled "Sadfishing Phenomenon of #Justiceforaudrey (Hashtag) on Twitter" (C. E. Putri et al, 2020). This study analyzes the sadfishing phenomenon named Audrey, who is a teenager who shares sad content on social media claiming to be the victim of the beating of 12 high school students.…”