COVID-19 and Online Fundraising: Seeing the Pandemic on Social Media

Abstract

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) which first appeared at the end of 2019 has become a pandemic and instantly changed the way people interact. Not only because this virus has claimed many victims, but also because of policies to limit physical activity. These conditions have contributed to the emergence of solidarity in the form of online fundraising in society. Therefore, this research, intends to look at two online fundraisings; first, which was initiated by the People's Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia (MPR RI), and second, which was initiated by Narasi Tv. In addition, this research looks at fundraising within the framework of a theatrical event which consists of various elements, tries to unveil the ideology that operates behind the events, and describes the audience's response as a result of their interpreting process towards the online fundraisings. Since the phenomenon being analyzed is online activity, this research uses netnography as a method to observe textual communication and multimedia communication which is the data in this research. The researchers argue that these two-fundraising had different characteristics of initiator, stage, and actor, so that each had different ideological implications as well. The different characteristics also produce different responses as the interpretation of the audience.