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s the presidential election campaign period nears, media tycoons have flocked to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s camp, raising concerns that slanted media coverage could give the incumbent an unfair advantage in his bid for reelection.

Media analysts and observers, however, have said while support from television and press outlets was a plus for Jokowi’s campaign, it was far from a guarantee of victory, as alternative media sources were more available than ever.

“Competition on both traditional and social media will prevent either camp from dominating,” media observer Agus Sudibyo told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. “The different forces will offset each other.”

On the surface, the President appears to have the upper hand. The Jokowi-Ma’ruf Amin campaign team boasts at least three major media owners:  team chairman Erick Thohir is the president director of PT Mahaka Media, which counts Islamic daily newspaper Republika, local television station JakTV and popular radio station GenFM among its holdings; while Media Group founder Surya Paloh and MNC group patron Hary Tanoesoedibjo are both chairmen of parties within Jokowi’s coalition.

Businessman Chairul Tanjung, who owns a slew of television and online news media outlets, including TransTV, detik.com and CNN Indonesia, is also reportedly supporting Jokowi, though not officially.

In contrast, challenger Prabowo Subianto’s campaign team looks a little bare in the media department. In the 2014 elections, the Gerindra Party chairman had the backing of Hary Tanoesoedibyo and TVOne owner and senior Golkar politician Aburizal Bakrie; this time around Hary has crossed the aisle, while Aburizal remains tight-lipped about who he supports.

Australian National University’s Indonesian media expert Ross Tapsell, however, said such open support from media moguls might not always be an advantage for Jokowi.

“It’s not ideal that owners of media companies are openly supporting a particular presidential candidate,” he told the Post. “Everything the media reports is tainted by that support and leads to a situation where nobody knows what to believe.”

This distrust, he added, could potentially backfire for the Jokowi team.

“As people distrust mainstream media, they turn to alternative sources of information that they consider neutral, even if they might not be,” he said, citing the popularity of controversial tabloid Obor Rakyat, which published false claims about Jokowi being a Christian of Chinese descent during the 2014 elections.

“People were reading Obor Rakyat because they thought it was independent and objective, even though it turned out not to be,” he said. “The perception of bias in mainstream media makes such alternative media more powerful.”  

The Prabowo team seems to have embraced the rise of alternative media, with coalition members promoting #2019GantiPresiden (#2019ChangePresident) and other hashtags to indirectly promote their candidate.

“Factually, the #ChangePresidentCoalition does not have mainstream media support like the incumbent, but we have room on social media as part of the people’s struggle,” Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) executive Mardani Ali Sera tweeted recently.

Their efforts may be paying off, as a recent poll conducted by the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) found that social media users were more likely to support the Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno ticket than the general population.

While Jokowi and running mate Ma’ruf remained on top among both users and non-users of social media, their lead was markedly lower among the former.

Prabowo-Sandiaga even pipped Jokowi-Ma’ruf on Instagram and Twitter, with 42 percent of Instagram users and 40 percent of Twitter users saying they supported the Gerindra Party pair, compared to the 40.9 percent and 34.3 percent that supported Jokowi-Ma’ruf.

Another example of the pro-Prabowo camp’s use of social media could be seen on Tuesday morning. Prabowo-supporting Twitter users posted about Islamic University of Riau students taking over the Regional Legislative Council building in Pekanbaru, demanding that Jokowi step down.

Videos of the protests were posted with the hashtag #MahasiswaBergerak (#StudentsMove), which briefly became a trending topic on the social media platform.

Some users also bemoaned the lack of coverage on mainstream media. “Media has been taken over by the regime, today’s student movement has not been covered by media darlings,” Twitter user @212_spirit said.

While social media users account for only around 28.5 percent of the electorate, LSI researcher Ardian Sopa said candidates who ignored the online world did so at their peril.

“Those who are on social media are more up-to-date with the latest information and can be a re ference for those who are not,” he said. “This can be a crucial factor [in the election] if it is not managed well.”