Pemaknaan Mahasiswa terhadap Kritik Kebijakan Pemerintah di Kanal Youtube Ferry Irwandi

Abstract

This study aims to describe how university students interpret and make meaning of government policy criticism content presented through the Youtube channel of Ferry Irwandi. The study employed a descriptive-interpretive qualitative approach within a constructivist paradigm. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with ten students from various study programs at Universitas Pancasakti Tegal who regularly watch Ferry Irwandi's content, then analyzed using Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding framework along with thematic analysis. The findings show that most informants occupied a negotiated reading position, accepting part of the critical message while still verifying and adjusting it based on their disciplinary background and personal experience; a smaller number of informants leaned toward dominant reading due to the alignment of the message with good governance values they had studied; while oppositional reading appeared only in limited form, mainly concerning provocative titles and thumbnails and the tendency of the content to emphasize policy weaknesses over successes. The study concludes that students as digital audiences are not passive but actively negotiate meaning based on their digital literacy and disciplinary background when interpreting government policy criticism content on social media.

Keywords: Criticism of Government Policy, Digital Audience, Encoding/decoding Theory, Ferry Irwandi’s Youtube Channel, Student Interpretation.