Rita Meutia, Amrin Saragih, Rahmad Husein, Sri Minda Murni
This study explores the linguistic strategies employed by Indonesia’s pre-presidential candidates in their Instagram digital posters to convey political messages and influence public perception. It also examines the realization processes through which these strategies are visually and textually manifested to persuade the electorate. By analyzing the digital campaign posters of three pre-presidential candidates for the 2024 Indonesian Presidential Election, the study reveals that each candidate adopts distinct linguistic approaches and realization techniques to shape their political image. The visual aesthetics and high-resolution formats offered by Instagram often result in voters being persuaded more by the design and appearance of the posters than by the substance of the political messages. Adopting a qualitative approach, the study collects and analyzes data through multimodal discourse analysis. The findings reveal persuasive strategies at three key levels: semantic, syntactic, and stylistic. Semantic strategies include the use of selective diction, connotative language, and concealment of controversial elements; syntactic strategies involve transitivity choices and the grammatical positioning of agency and actions; while stylistic strategies reflect the chosen genre and communicative tone of the posters. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of how political messages are crafted and delivered in the digital age, particularly on visual-centric platforms like Instagram. It offers practical insights for voters to critically evaluate political content, decode ideological messages, and make informed decisions based not only on appearances but on deeper linguistic and rhetorical cues. Ultimately, it encourages media literacy and critical engagement in the context of Indonesia’s evolving political communication landscape. Copyright © 2025 by the author(s).
English Applied Linguistics Study Program, Universitas Negeri Medan, Sumatera Utara, 20221, Indonesia
