What do Indonesian start-ups communicate during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Abstract

This article aims to explore the media content during the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on the pandemic-handling videos released by start-up companies in Indonesia through their official YouTube accounts. As start-ups were also experiencing the impact of the pandemic, one of their biggest challenges was to communicate optimistic messages to the public with the right content and context. Therefore, this article examines the contents of the videos released by start-up companies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. Drawing from the data collected between March and December 2020, this qualitative study finds four inspirational media themes: ‘ we all are affected by the pandemic’, the appearance of human values, presenting action taken, and optimistic expressions. Further, this article discusses the arrangement of inspirational statements and acts of empathy, which are predominantly mixed with brand identities and echo the value of gotong royong (mutual assistance).

‘Not Too Hot, Not Too Cold, Just Right’: Empathetic Communication of Indonesian Big Brands through YouTube during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Through studying several YouTube videos released on the official accounts of unicorn start-ups in Indonesia, four key themes emerged (Luik, 2022). These themes were refined through a bottom-up/inductive categorization process of the eight videos that were our initial references.…”

Building Optimism Through Inspirational YouTube Videos During the Pandemic: An Empirical Examination

“…Similarly, emerging business entities such as startups also released videos regarding dealing with the pandemic. They shared empathetic messages conveying human values, presenting actions taken and sharing optimistic expressions (Luik, 2022). Thus, by considering that inspirational content related to prosocial behaviour from commercial entities can create an impact to drive public mood, such as building optimism, the current research comprehensively examined the related videos.…”

“…In categorising the content of the videos, we devised a coding scheme based on a previous study that explored inspirational themes during challenging situations. The coding scheme consisted of four categories: how the pandemic affected us all, the portrayal of human values, presenting actions taken and expressing optimism (Luik, 2022). Building upon the insights from this related study, we adapted the key messages of each category to form the sub-themes of our study.…”