Depok, August 12, 2025 – Universitas Indonesia has added another female doctorate in the field of Communication Science. Anastasia Yuni Widyaningrum was officially confirmed as the 157th Doctor of Communication after successfully defending her dissertation entitled “Solidarity and Locality-Based NeoliberalGovernmentality: A Digital Ethnographic Study of the SONJO Online Community during the COVID-19 Pandemic” in a doctoral promotion session which took place at the Juwono Sudarsono Auditorium, FISIP UI Depok.
The promoter and copromoter of this dissertation are Dr. Inaya Rakhmani, Ph.D and Prof. Dr. Evi Eliyanah, Ph.D, while the trial was chaired by Prof. Dr. Iwan Gardono Sudjatmiko. The board of examiners consisted of academics across fields including Jonatan Lassa, Ph.D, Dr. Hendriyani, Endah Triastuti, P.hD, and Dr. Whisnu Triwibowo.
Anastasia’s dissertation examines how the online community SONJO (Sambatan Jogja) became an active arena of local solidarity practices in response to the failure of state structures during the pandemic. This research highlights how the SONJO community formed a digital-based responsive strategy that was not only technocratic, but also political and ideological.
“Sonjo is not just an online community, it is a social laboratory that shows that people have the power to act, organize, and create solutions,” Anastasia said in her academic speech. She emphasized the importance of reading digital movements not just as communication activities, but as arenas of meaning contestation, resource distribution, and power formation.
This dissertation uses a digital ethnography approach that explores the communication dynamics of the SONJO community during times of crisis. Anastasia found that digital media in the context of SONJO is used not for passive consumption, but as an active and collaborative mobilization tool in fighting for the right to health, education and information.
“In Sonjo’s digital media practice, we see how digital media is used not for passive consumption, but for active mobilization. They simplify democracy, open up data transparency, and push the government to be more responsive,” he continued.
Anastasia’s research not only contributes academically to the study of digital communication and solidarity, but also provides a critical view of community-based communication practices in the midst of a neoliberal era that increasingly erodes the role of the state. She invites the public to see how power and resistance work on a micro scale through local solidarity supported by digital media. (MAP)
