Allusion, Volume 06 No 01 February 2017, 17-30

The Celebrification of a Politician on Instagram:

A Case Study of @Ridwankamil
Anisah Fathiroh
Nurul Fitri Hapsari
English Department, Universitas Airlangga

Abstract

Social media in Indonesia is an interesting phenomenon since its huge number of users is benefited by many parties
in many possible ways, one of whom is politician. Ridwan Kamil, a mayor of Bandung, is one of politicians
exploiting Instagram to enhance his popularity as a celebrity politician. This study aimed to reveal the
celebrification of Ridwan Kamil as a celebrity politician portrayed in his official Instagram account since Ridwan
Kamil is assumed to shift his online presentation from a politician to a celebrity politician. Using a case study
method, the researcher classified the population into three phases; before, transition, and after Ridwan Kamil
became the major of Bandung, and then categorized it into three techniques of online-self presentation. The
researcher took the most loved photos as samples respectively. Next, the researcher analyzed the data using Turner’s
concept of Celebrification, Street’s Celebrity Politician, and technique of online-self presentation by Alice E.
Marwick. This study revealed that there were different presentations of Ridwan Kamil before, transition, and after
he officially became the major of Bandung. The researcher thought that it aimed to elevate his popularity. Ridwan
Kamil attempts to create a new identity as a leader who is humble, religious and close to his people after he was
chosen as the major of Bandung to maintain his 3 million followers as his basis supporters from his Instagram
account.
Keywords: celebrification, celebrity politician, instagram, technique of online self-presentation, Ridwan Kamil

1. Introduction
Ridwan Kamil, a major of Bandung, is one of the local leaders using social media platform and actively
posting pictures and captions about his activities. In 2013, Ridwan Kamil and Rahmat Oded run the
election to become the mayor and vice mayor of Bandung. Utilizing social media such as Twitter,
Youtube, and Facebook as the main campaign instruments, Ridwan Kamil constantly promoted himself
and engaged as many as volunteers to help him maximize his efforts to gain public’s attention with the
slogan of #BandungJuara. Through videos, info graphics, and doodling of his ideas for Bandung intensely
posted on his accounts, he successfully won the election in one shot with more than 42 percent votes,
greater than any six other candidates. (Rahadi) He then continues to use Instagram actively. The Instagram
@ridwankamil has gained more than two million followers (Dec, 2015), greater than any other local
leaders, such as the governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahja Purnama (@basukibtp) with 181.000 followers,
the major of Surabaya (@trirismaharini) with 2263 followers, or the major of Banyuwangi, Abdullah
Azwar Anas with only 45 followers. Ridwan Kamil is assumed not only as a politician, but also as a
celebrity politician. According to States, celebrity politicians are those with career and politics
(‘politicos’) who make us of the artifacts, icons, and expertise of popular culture (States), in Ridwan
Kamil’s case, Instagram.
The researcher presumed that celebrity recognition will benefit him as a politician both in present and
future time. The escalating media spectacle, politician will use their “rock star” status, and will make their
access to media as crucial instruments to push through their issues or political agenda. (Kellner) Moreover,
social media have rapidly become the communication platform of choice for any politician intent upon
cumulating the votes of young citizens. (Loader, Vromen and Xenos) To present himself as a celebrity,
the researcher proposes to scrutinize the Instagram account @ridwankamil with the online self-
presentation. According Marwick and Boyd, online self-presentation is a technique to present self in
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online media to create impression. There are three online self-presentation techniques which consist of
micro celebrity, self-branding, and life-streaming.
To support this study, the researcher has examined other related studies concerning politician’s online
self-presentation issue. The first study is conducted by Douglas Kellner. He uses Cooper’s media
spectacle to discuss how politician celebrity can aid in understanding the intersection of celebrity and
politics. He argues that media spectacle helps politician to be global celebrities to effectively promote
national interest or deal with global issues. The second study is Firman Yusak’s study about Personal
Branding Politisi yang Terkena Kasus Hukum melalui Media Sosial. Here, Yusak explored Anas
urbaningrum’s tweets when he was involved in corruption and how he tried to maintain and created the
certain impression of him through his tweets. The first study enriches the analysis of the researcher
because it strengthens the idea of politician benefits social media through process selection of online self-
presentation to maintain the popularity as a celebrity politician. The second study helps the researcher to
understand more about the application of politician exploiting social media to create certain message to
his networked audience.
John Streets in his article about Celebrity Politician: Popular Culture and Political Representation
has divided celebrity politician into two categories (CP1 and CP2).
1. An elected politician (or a nominated candidate) who themselves have entertainment industry
background, show business, or sports, and benefit the features imprint on them by virtue of
skills, the popularity achieved, or the image associated in attempt to get elected.
2. An elected politician or candidate who practices the forms and association of the celebrity to
improve their image and communicate their message. Such techniques include: i) the use of
photo opportunities staged to link entertainment stars and other popular public figure with
politicians. ii) the exploitations of non-traditional platforms or formats to endorse the
politician. iii) the adaptation of the techniques and expertise of those who market celebrities.
The last category refers to the entertainer who pronounces on politics and claims the right to
represent peoples and causes. Their engagement, Streets adds, tends to take the form of public gestures or
statements aimed at changing specific public policy decisions. These are the key features:
1. They use their status and medium within which they work to speak out on specific causes and
for certain interests with a view to influencing political outcomes.
2. The celebrity politician (CP2) is taken seriously in respect of their political views. The measure
of this might be found in:
i) media focus on their politics (as opposed to their art)
ii) political attention (e.g. willingness by the politician to meet and discuss particular issues)
iii) audience support (both by donating money or showing virtual responses)
The transformation process from ordinary people to celebrity is called celebrification. It is a process
which concerns on individual who creates a way to transform their self into more popular figure.
Celebrification is a process where people create their own sites, generate their own content, and they
design their own performance of themselves. (Turner) Instagram, through its features such as posting
photos and enabling the users and followers to comment, Instagram has flourished this celebrification
process. It has provided everyone to create, build, and maintain their fame.
Back then, a celebrity politician leader influenced their electorate by doing speech or oration in front
of many people who gathered in one public space, for example Soekarno, Stalin, Adolf Hitler. They got
recognized as the leaders who demonstrate that skill and gain respect by their speech. It also continued to
the era of media, both printed media, such as newspapers, and electronic media including radio and
television. They emerged in 1970s and politician began to exploit media to perform him/herself to the
broader public to seek for attention from audience. As what Wheeler said, before social networking
emerges, television has been the most effective medium whereby politician can establish a definitive
performance to remove the barriers between their known and the unknown selves. (Wheeler)

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By the development of social networking sites, politicians then can create their own social network
sites and personify their own label as celebrity through Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and also Instagram.
Nowadays, the massive usage of these platforms is proven effective, efficient, and cheap. The process of
politician transform into celebrity politician could also name celebrification in a way they operates certain
method in association of popular thing by their own way. No need any Public Relation management or
personal branding marketer. Since he utters that his Instagram is his visual diary, Ridwan Kamil models
this process.
2. Design-It-Yourself Celebrity
People who deliberately present their self in social media in order to enhance their status to be
celebrity, Turner devises them as DIY Celebrity or Design-It-Yourself celebrity. As the consequences of
celebrification process, people who practice celebrification is called DIY Celebrity. (Turner)
Ridwan Kamil is a celebrity politician who gains his popularity through social media. As With no
admin to his Instagram account or specific team to handle his presentation in social media as a politician,
he manages his own Instagram as well the content and all the meaning.
3. Technique of Online Self Presentation
According to Alice E. Marwick, Online Self Presentation is a technique to present self to the public.
They consist of micro-celebrity, self-branding, and life streaming. Micro celebrity is about technique
seized by people to boost their popularity through representing “self-branding” and strategic self-
presentation. The second way is self-branding. Self-branding is a self-creation strategy of an identity to
be sold and promoted to others. The last way is life streaming. Marwick argues that life-streaming as
continuous sharing of private information to a networked audience, uploading a digital portrayed of one’s
thought and action. (Marwick and Boyd)
4. Methodology
Population is a set of units which are being studied and researcher wishes to generalize. (Neuendorf)
Population of this study is all postings that Ridwan Kamil (@ridwankamil) posted from the very
beginning post until March 2016 which the researcher wants to scrutinize the phases that RK had through
his Instagram account. There were 2775 posts. The researcher then classified the population into three
different categories, namely before, transition, and after he officially became the major of Bandung.
Sampling in qualitative study is often referred as purposive sampling which means that the theoretical
purpose of the study is to determine the selection process. (Marvasti) Using purposive sampling as the
technique, the researcher only focused on the selected samples. From the before phase, the researcher took
three samples of each category (micro-celebrity, life-branding, and life-streaming) which got the most
likes. Similar techniqiue was performed the well other phases—transition and after phases. The researcher
only took one photo in each technique of online presentation which has the most liked. There are two
types of data used in this study. They are primary and secondary data. The primary data in this study were
all postings of @ridwankamil consisted of photos and captions. The secondary data were the supporting
data or literary sources consisted of books, electronic books, journal articles, and related studies which
can support the study.
In order to fulfill representative research, the researcher only focused on the celebrification process of
Ridwan Kamil, a politician who became more famous by using his official Instagram account. The
researcher only scrutinized the selected samples which had been categorized as the three online technique
presentations by Alice E. Marwick. To conduct the data, the researcher cumulated the data based on the
concept of techniques of online self-presentation by Alice E. Marwick. The researcher collected all posts
in @ridwankamil’s Instagram account and identified them into three phases: before, transition, and after
he becomes the major of Bandung. After that, the researcher classified each phase based on Alice
Marwick’s technique online self-presentation which is micro-celebrity, In this technique, population of
the data are selected by the indication of the way RK boosts and maintains his popularity among his
millions of followers through the captions and photos of his activities as major of Bandung on his official
Instagram. After that, the researcher took one sample based on the top liked photo.

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After conducting categorization in micro-celebrity, the researcher then moved to the second technique
which is self-branding. The researcher tried to classify posts which indicate the way RK defines himself
in specific image which then construct him as the ‘anti-mainstream’ politician in Indonesia. Then the
researcher took three photos that represent this technique based on the most liked ones. The last
categorization of technique of online self-presentation is life-streaming. As what Marwick proposed, in
this technique, the researcher classified this category into two parts which are social and private life of
RK who holds multi-roles. From the captions and photos of RK that signified the technique, then the
researcher took three sample photos based on the most loved photos.
In analyzing the data, the researcher used several steps which grounded from Alice E. Marwick
techniques of online self-presentation. Then the researcher interpreted the caption, including the diction
and photos containing several elements, such as gesture, pose, or mimic. In micro-celebrity, the researcher
focused on the way RK builds and maintains the interaction and intimacy with his followers by reposting
follower’s photo or comment and uttering jokes through his caption as well the pose, gestures, and how
he manage to take a picture with other leaders who already have certain image in society. After analyzing
the micro-celebrity technique, the researcher then focused on the second process which is self-branding.
In this kind of technique, the researcher observes the gestures, pose, or facial expression through the photo
and the diction or lexical words that RK uses. In which they indicate efforts of RK to build specific image
of him as unusual politician that deserves bigger attention from the networked audience. The last
technique is life-streaming in which Ridwan Kamil deliberately shared his daily life as not only a major
but a father, husband, or architect.
5. Discussion
The researcher examined how @ridwankamil presents himself in his Instagram through three phases
of him; before, after, and transition in becoming mayor of Bandung. The three online techniques self-
presentation are examined based on the data cumulated.
Before he was officially elected as the major of Bandung, (by 26 June 2013 as the date of inauguration
of him as mayor of Bandung) his Instagram feeds are mostly photograph of his own designed building’s
shapes, the expression of people, or natural phenomena like sunsets. The caption he put was only a short
sentence which aimed to entitle the photo. The total number of @ridwankamil’s posts before he officially
becomes a mayor of Bandung is 568 posts from 18 April 2012 until 26 June 2013 which is the day of the
official announcement from Election Commission (KPU Bandung) stating him as the winner defeated
other six candidates in only one round.
5.1. Before: Self branding of Ridwan Kamil

Figure 1. Caption: Day dream. 2013

This is Ridwan Kamil’s post before the day of mayor election. With the grayish filter that enforces the
unreal situation of him, he posed in front of a large tense-futuristic-advance drawing of a city as the

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background; he was leaning to the wall and putting his two arms into his pocket but letting his right thumb
shown. Thumb displays a superiority and contradictory. (Pease) He performed such humble, calm, and
relaxed position, nevertheless, in secretive manners, Ridwan Kamil tried to hide his dominant attitude.
Taking caption that way, Ridwan Kamil implied a promising new story that he planned for Bandung
when he is elected as the mayor. Now, it may be only a day dream in 2013 to have such advance city,
combining with the visual pose of him, the confidence he brought into his smile, Ridwan Kamil indeed
have a willingness to change the dream into reality—after, people of Bandung chose him as their next
mayor on the day of election which was the day after this photo was posted to Instagram.
Looking to the date of this photo was taken which a day before the election, Ridwan Kamil as the
mayor-to-be, created an image of a visionary leader through this photo and ensured his follower caught
his message.
5.2. Ridwan Kamil and his family in the photo box

Figure 2. Selamat Pagi Bandung. Salam hangat dari Cigadung.

One of the most liked photos in the period of him before selected as major of Bandung is the portrait
of photo box of him and his family saying “U”. It showed the intimacy or closeness among the family
members. Using black and casual clothes, Ridwan Kamil indicates and presents the “cohesiveness” of the
family. Meanwhile, the position of Ridwan Kamil and his gestures shows the opposite. From the picture,
his right hand is placed in his son’s shoulder. It denotes the power that he has as the father who manages
the family. Along with his son, as the male members of the family, he positioned themselves as the
protector of the family where the wife and the daughter are portrayed safe within the male protection.
The caption “Good morning from Cigadung” is a way RK indirectly shared his personal information
like area address of his family lived, which is in Cigadung. This kind of information is a technique of
giving audience a track of his activities to boost his recognition and shapes the feel of familiarity to his
audience.
Here Ridwan Kamil presents himself as the leader who closes to his family and he is kind of successful
father. There is a popular phrase saying that, “to choose a good leader for a large society, see how he
manages to lead his own family first.” Ridwan Kamil answered that phrase with this photo.
After Ridwan Kamil join the mayor election and got huge success in the election with total 43% and
automatically won the election, Ridwan Kamil had more diverse Instagram feeds rather than before he

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join the election. This transition phase cumulated the data with the total of 90 photos from 28 June 2013
until 16 September when he officially became the mayor of Bandung. This phase of Ridwan Kamil had
increased the number of followers, photo likes, and comments of him. As what Marwick utters that to be
well-known and recognizable, public figure or celebrity practice necessitates that viewing follower as fans
that need to be maintained. There are techniques which RK aimed to provide his follower ‘something’ to
consume.
5.3. Transition: Micro-celebrity of Ridwan Kamil

Figure 3. Caption: Friends in building a better Indonesia

Gaining more than 1000 likes in the transition phase, this photo showed three people in one frame.
Anies Baswedan, founder of Indonesia Mengajar, Jokowi, a mayor of Solo, and Ridwan Kamil. Two of
them act a firm formal pose, with little smile and stand side by side. It is the way they construct an image
of gentleman. As what Goffman said in gender display, man is often portrayed as standing firmly and
aware of situation. (Goffman, Gender Display) Ridwan Kamil stood and about to lean into Jokowi which
means he emphasized the closeness with Jokowi.
Anies Baswedan and Ridwan Kamil wore neat and clean attire showing that they are professional and
got the characteristic of Indonesian leader who loves national culture; wearing batik which has become
government appeal for all the government and civil officials.
The caption, interestingly, did not mention the name of each people in the frame. Ridwan Kamil had
presumed that these three people were well-known enough and people would recognize them right away.
Picking word “Friends” to address Anies Baswedan and Jokowi, Ridwan Kamil wanted to show us the
close relationship of him and two others. Anies Baswedan has formerly recognized as founder of
“Indonesia Mengajar” and became one of the most influential Muslim in the world in 2011. (Samir,
Bruncaj and Asfour) Moreover, Jokowi was being considered influential in politics, according to electoral
survey released by Kompas, in Mei 2013, Jokowi has received 35% public trust to become president of
Indonesia in 2014. He had gained a huge percentage of presidential electability over other politicians on
the survey because of his different leadership approach in Solo, Central Java. (BBC Indonesia). Both
Anies Baswedan and Jokowi had been largely assumed and promoted to run the president election in
2014. Constructing the caption that way, Ridwan Kamil tried to create a sense of performative closeness
among people as the good leaders in building better Indonesia, and he is a part of it.
It can be concluded that Ridwan Kamil, through this photo, presents himself as a leader who has a
good networking and close relationship with other influential people.

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5.4. Transition: Life streaming of Ridwan Kamil

Figure 4. Caption: Cinta dari istri untuk suami.

The visual elements of the photo are Ridwan Kamil and Oded Daniyal in official governmental attire
that their suits were fixed by their wives. The facial expression of the Ridwan Kamil and Oded Daniyal
were lightly smiling to their wives. The photo was taken and posted to Instagram exactly before Ridwan
Kamil was officially inaugurated as the mayor of Bandung. Interestingly, instead of posting the formal
inauguration of him and all the ceremonial process, he posted the behind-the-scene photo of his
inauguration to his followers in Instagram.
This life-streaming technique, moreover, created an intimate connection between Ridwan Kamil
and his supporters. As what Glantz has stated that Instagram, through its free sharing feature, indeed
grows the intimacy feeling between the citizens and its leader. (Glantz)
“Cinta dari istri untuk suami” marked a private and personal statement from Ridwan Kamil. Based
on the context of the photo, he figured that formal situation into more dramatic and candid way; Ridwan
Kamil was about to have huge responsibility as the mayor of Bandung and from his wife’s support, he
could manage all of that. Because of the power of love that the wives had for their wives through fixing
their husband’s tie thingy. Ridwan Kamil had placed her wife as the ultimate supporter for himself to
make Bandung as the most awesome city. In other hand, in this photo, the traditional feminine role is
posed putting the wives to love, serve and care for men or their husband voluntarily. (Tyson) Konco
Wingking, in Indonesian context means that women are a companion of their husband, where she will
support the success of his husband without bugging to be seen. (Handayani and Novianto) In Sundanese
culture itself, women is believed “najan dibawa ka liang cocopet, oge daek” which means that women
are only husbands’ followers both in bad and good condition. (Harien)
5.5. Transition: Self Branding of Ridwan Kamil

Figure 5. Caption: From Bandung with love

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Out of 568 photos in before phase, this is one of the most liked photos in the phase. It is an illustration
art of Ridwan Kamil. Wearing formal attire with the heart symbol in his left chest which already became
his signature campaign as major of Bandung, he is smiling and does not look directly to the audience. The
using of art illustration which combined the color of red and white indicates the color of Indonesia national
flag, blue as the color of Bandung, Ridwan Kamil shows the image of leader through the photo.
The caption saying “From bandung with love.” showing his true intention to look after Bandung
whole-heartedly. “From Bandung with Love” itself is a drama romantic film directed by Henry Ardianto
in 2008 with the setting in Bandung. Ridwan Kamil tried to give his audience follower a consideration of
him who is awesome enough to know such popular youth film.
Furthermore, this kind of illustration is initially used by Barrack Obama in his second presidential
campaign. Designed by Shepard Fairey, a street art illustration which showing his support for Barack
Obama to become the president of United States for the second time. Using Obama’s face and three
combination colors as the major paintings, blue, red and white, which resemble the color of United States
National Flag, Fairey’s artwork got a huge attention and it rapidly became Obama’s iconic illustration.
TIME magazine, in 2012, then used his Obama art as their front cover of “People of The Year” edition.
According to his support essay released by Huffington Post, Fairey initially used word “Progress” below
the illustration of Obama, but when the campaign team asked him to change the word into “Hope”, he
obliged. (Fairey)
Ridwan Kamil tried to imitate the way Barack Obama succeed in his president electoral, using popular
media such as art illustration, Ridwan Kamil brand himself as an updated-and-close-to-youth mayor.
5.6. After: Micro-celebrity of Ridwan Kamil

Figure 6. Caption: Kami berteman, Kami saling belajar. Itulah friendzone gak pake suudzone.

Again, Ridwan Kamil’s selfie reach more than 117.000 likes, more liked than the previous selfie with
Jokowi in Gelora Bung Karno. Taking selfie from low angle camera, Ridwan Kamil was trying to
assembly an image of multi-dimensional role he had. He is not only a mayor, but also a friend of someone
popular. At the primary level, selfie is all about self, physical space, device, and network. (Hess) The way
Ridwan Kamil took selfie and posted it to his Instagram account is a way Ridwan Kamil implicitly stated
his position as the mayor who performed a performative closeness with other local leader, which is
Jakarta.
By picking the word “friendzone” and “suudzone”, Ridwan Kamil tried to relate himself with his
followers. Friendzone is a popular term used largely by young people to define an unrequited love which
put one of two friends’ wishes to romantic relationship, while the other does not. (Chapman) Su’udzone,
is modified word from Islamic term Su’udzon in Arabic which means when one has bad prejudice about
other people. Moreover, Ridwan Kamil was referencing Budi Doremi’s song titled Friendzone.
Combining two terms, Ridwan Kamil had shown a new way of maintaining his followers. Proved by

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 The Celebrification of a Politician on Instagram: A Case Study of @Ridwankamil

posting this, he successfully invited hundred thousand of likes and comments which mostly responding
his caption. He understood that his Instagram followers are young people and they are very familiar with
those popular terms. He acquired what Alice said as micro-celebrity, as the one who create something to
be consumed.
5.7. Self-branding of Ridwan Kamil

Figure 6. Caption: judul single: “Percayalah..ini maksa.”

As the way of self-branding, through the photo RK put his photo with his wife aside of Raisa and
Afgan. Raisa and Afgan are two well-known Indonesian singers who, that time, collaborated in one single
entitled “Percayalah.” Ridwan Kamil and his wife here want to impersonate the pose of two singers who
are considered young, talented, good-looking, and suitable for each other. This photo has invited more
than 80.000 likes and thousand comments. Furthermore, the way female figures lean on male figures
shows us more about the vulnerability of woman, Which in Goffman’s gender display explicates about
women’s appearance as out of balance and ungrounded or she is not prepared or ready to react or respond
to her surroundings. (Goffman) While men in the picture are portrayed as the protector and guardian of
the women by standing behind them, provide the women a place to lean back and feel safe.
The caption “Percayalah…..ini maksa” is confirming statement of RK’s intended-failure to imitate
the two well-known singers. He takes an advantage of combining the hit of Afgan-Raisa and parodying
them in his own way that boost his identification as a major of Bandung who is gaul and creative.
5.8. After: Life-streaming of Ridwan Kamil

Figure 7. Caption: Bersama si cinta menyemangati Persib tercinta. Semoga Juara!

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Again, Ridwan Kamil posted a selfie, now with his wife, Atalia. Life-streaming is the ongoing sharing
personal information to a networked audience and creating a digital portrait of one’s action and thought.
Through the technique, Ridwan Kamil demonstrated the private information about him and his wife to
the followers that he was watching a final match of President Cup in Gelora Bung Karno Stadium. The
background of the photo is a huge number of people watching the match.
“Bersama si Cinta” menyemangati Persib tercinta. Semoga juara!” The caption is a rhymic sentence,
with the repetition of Cinta, Tercinta, and Juara. How he called his wife “si cinta” as the way he
performed personal closeness and intimacy with his wife to the networked audience in his Instagram. He
then utters Tercinta which means Persib, the local football club in Bandung. Juara to call his hope for
Persib win the game. The combination of the three different words implies us three: an image of Ridwan
Kamil who is romantic partner and lovable husband, a loyal supporter of Persib as the official football
club from Bandung which it denotes a specific meaning since he is a major of Bandung, and his support
to Persib. To combine a romance and football as the pride of the city, this photo attains high number of
likes.
It cannot be denied that the emergence of social media indeed change the way people communicate
and present themselves in online. Back then, politician or leader benefited oration in a large huge place
and gather people to influence and get recognition from her/his constituent by performing powerful
speech, such as Stalin, Hitler, and also Soekarno. (Lesmana) After that, it was grown even more reliant
on television for the political information. Followed by the emerge of mass media, newspaper and
television bring people to the easiness of acknowledging politician and get influenced by them through
talk shows, debates, and other campaigns which politician show through newspaper and television.
As what Lesmana states that nowadays political communication has emerged more into social media,
politician is helped by the various social networking sites that have been used by people from any
backgrounds to create certain image. (Lesmana) The researcher assumed that this condition would always
been developed. Politicians do not longer need to have their own media or featured in conventional media
continuously to construct their image. It is proved by the loss of Surya Paloh as the owner of Metro TV
or Aburizal Bakrie who owns TVOne in electability survey. According to a survey conducted by Pol
Tracking Institute, their electability is much below Jokowi and Prabowo who basically do not have any
conventional media. Aburizal Bakrie gain only 11% even lower for Surya Paloh with 1.19%. (Adam)
Politicians should seek another way to present themselves to his constituent. From that, the Design-It-
Yourself celebrity is an alternative way posed by politician to enhance their popularity and elevate their
well-knowness. (Turner) Celebrification, according to Turner is a process where ordinary people become
celebrity (Turner). This process could be practiced by everyone who wants to elevate their well-knowness.
Because of the advance of technology, particularly in social media, become celebrity and more
recognizable is not a difficult thing anymore.
Ridwan Kamil, as the politician who does not have any backgrounds in journalism or conventional
media, needs to have a “stage” to show him to public. By benefiting social media he has, he enacts his
presentation as the politician celebrity over social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. He
mentioned that his Instagram is his visual diary (Kamil) where he deliberately presents his daily life
through this social network site. Unlike any other social media, Instagram, in the content basis, is the
combination of Twitter and Facebook. (Magfiroh) Instagram enables DIY Celebrity to embrace
celebrification way easier. By operating technique online self-presentation through Instagram, one can
enhance their popularity through it.
There is a shifting on the way Ridwan Kamil presents himself in before, transition, and after he is
elected as politician. It can be inferred from the before phase in 2013, Ridwan Kamil mostly posted about
his activity as religious family man and visional leader. In his life-streaming, he also posted photo of his
family in photo box saying “u”. Streets, in Wheeler, pronounce that politicians legitimize the breach
between their public and private personas. This, as what Streets says, enables them to make their motives
more transparent, thereby providing the public with greater insight into their conduct. This is the phase
when the campaign Ridwan Kamil as a candidate of Bandung major was happened.

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 The Celebrification of a Politician on Instagram: A Case Study of @Ridwankamil

In the transition phase, there are clear differences on how Ridwan Kamil presents himself, specifically
in micro-celebrity and self-branding technique. In this period, he starts to gain more followers and likes.
He often posted photos related to previous politicians who already gain familiarity in Indonesian society
such as Anies Baswedan and Jokowi. Ridwan Kamil tried to legitimate his position as the new major of
Bandung through the photo. In doing self-branding, people need to have a massive audience. In Ridwan
Kamil’s case, with the follower more than two millions—greater than any other politician’s Instagram
account, Ridwan Kamil tried to create himself as a nationalist leader. It can be seen in the self-branding
techniques in the transition phase. He tried to legitimize his position as the politician national leader by
relating himself to Jokowi, Anies Baswedan, and Bung Tomo who are formerly known for their statesman
and hero image. It affirms Street’s theory of celebrity politician (CP1) which they associated themselves
with the celebrity or public figure endorses to enhance their status and to affect their message. That is the
way Ridwan Kamil wants to be perceived by his followers.
The online self-presentation delivered by Ridwan Kamil is changed after he officially becomes the
mayor of Bandung. He presents himself as the leader who poses an originality of ordinary people. Jokes
and informal words are used in several techniques. As what Marwick said, celebrities consider followers
as their fan basis which is needed to be maintained by being something that could be consumed by the
fans. Giving his followers or fans ‘a thing’ to consume is what Ridwan Kamil does in his Instagram.
Being a celebrity means that the person does no longer have a clear barrier between what is private and
public. Ridwan Kamil, in his after phase, posted more about his relationship with his wife and his family.
The intimate calling to his wife “Si Cinta” has been known by his follower. He even featured his wife into
memes that invite hundred thousand likes and comments.
The differences of his life streaming process from before and transition is the way he set up caption.
In his before and transition phase, his caption is mostly descriptive. Nevertheless, in his after phase, he
plays with diction and in one example, he even tease his followers. He conducts a familiarity among his
followers as what Marwick said ‘mediated intimacy’.
Constellating caption and photos which have no relation with policy, Bandung, or Indonesia is one of
them. It is proved by the fact that the most liked photo he has after election are mostly non-related with
policy or other of Bandung. Knowing that pattern, Ridwan Kamil then continues to present himself as
something who can be ‘consumed’ by the follower-- which he himself previously stated that his followers
are mostly young people. Celebrity culture forced politicians into making use of the same kinds of
entertainers and disposed popular entertainers to see politics as providing an open invitation to those with
fame and power. (Cashmore) Young people are closely related to popular culture; it could be movies,
music, until slang words. Streets uttered that celebrity politician and popular culture were being ever more
intimately linked (Streets) It can be affirmed that from the way Ridwan Kamil presents himself through
popular phenomena happened in society is the way he celebrifies himself as a politician.
5.9. Ridwan Kamil and the New Identity of Leader
There are online presentations that constantly repeat in Ridwan Kamil’s before, transition, and after
phase on Instagram; a family and religious man. Both in direct and indirect ways, Ridwan Kamil delivers
his followers the idea of mayor who success in family and religious practices. In micro-celebrity technique
of before phase, he asks his followers to pray for the veteran, in the transition phase, he posed praying for
the good of Bandung’s people in 2016, and in after phase he shares his umrah experience by drawing his
son who was reciting Alquran in Nabawi Mosque.
It is very important to maintain the image of religious leader in Indonesia. Indonesia as the number
one Muslim population in the world has taken big part of social and political aspects. Even though Islamic
parties never ranked as the first position in Election, Indonesian society still use religious values to assess
political figures to become their representative, without too much consideration on their background of
parties and ideologies. (Sofianto)
As the researcher mentioned before, in the after phase, Ridwan Kamil’s photo are mostly associated
to popular culture. He posted many memes and wrote atypical caption to it. From featuring his photo to
Afgan Raisa’s photo, putting Yaoming meme face aside to his identical expression, until the teasing word

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of jomblo, suudzone, friendzone which become the most loved photo in his after-election phase.
Furthermore, as how micro-celebrity works in larger scope, he also appeared in a movie entitled The
Wedding and Ayam Betutu. Being the only politician who ever come to Trio Lestari Talk Shows, had a
full interview by Hitam Putih, and along with Ahok, and involved in stand-up comedy in Mata Najwa. It
upholds the status of celebrity politician (CP1) of Ridwan Kamil as he involved in, what Streets said as
‘celebrity formats’ such as talk shows, comedy situation, and other entertainment entailments.
As the taxonomy of celebrity politician posed by Streets, Ridwan Kamil as CP1, have to find a way to
appeal in front of audience across a vast array of stages and genres. He has sought to see the appropriate
iconography through which to connect to electorate by employing popular cultural attributes such as
memes, songs, football as the symbol of pride of Bandung, and also the jokes of relationship status such
as Jomblo and mantan. Ridwan Kamil gains more popularity and recognition from his appearing in
situation which fit in current and popular association. He indeed enforces the celebrification in that
technique.
Moreover, Ridwan Kamil gain and elevate his celebrity status as the politician who associates himself
with his followers which are mostly youth. The role of young people in democracy is crucial. According
to Election Comission, there were more than 40 percent of active voters for Legislative Election in 2014.
(Nurcahyo) The huge number of young people is indeed potential for being projected as the supporters
in the upcoming political agenda Ridwan Kamil encounters. Unlike other conventional politician, Ridwan
Kamil is not positioning himself as an elite politician who cannot be reached. Through his Instagram, he
connects himself to his people by being a friendly-- more than a major. Thus, he deserves public’s support
and appreciation.
6. Conclusion
Ridwan Kamil is a politician who took benefits from cyber social media to boost and maintain his
popularity as a celebrity politician. The celebrification process of being celebrity politician is driven by
him in the online self-presentation technique. In before, transition, and after phase of Ridwan Kamil, he
shifted his presentation from a nationalist leader to a popular and creative leader. An image constantly
promoted by Ridwan Kamil in three phases was a religious leader. In after phase, he shifted his image to
be associated with the popular culture that currently happening in society. His selection of pictures and
words were always related to young people. He also involved entertainment values to celebritize his
image. He gained his celebritiness through his “peasentness”. By demonstrating performance of being
continuously different from traditional politician and appearing familiar to his electorate—mostly young
and very potential as voters, he built a concrete possibility to gain sympathy and political support for
himself in future political opportunity.
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