The use of technology has changed the way they communicate and disseminate information. By utilising the internet, information circulating can be faster and almost unlimited by time and space. This medium makes the information circulating every day very much, ranging from information about politics, economics, technology, science, food, and others. The concept of social network analytics (SNA) as the concept of big data technology is very suitable to be applied, where SNA can manage vast and diverse data and process it into the desired information in a swift time. In addition to online and print media, social networking media is also a concern to be monitored. Because social media is extensive, it makes it an area that must be considered, especially to see public opinion. This study discusses the use of the SNA concept in monitoring public communication policies. The results of this study are a recommendation regarding the use of the SNA concept in managing public issues to support government policy.
TopIntroduction
Through the increasingly massive use of the internet in information dissemination and exchange, the circulation of information in the politics, economy, technology, science, food, and others, is becoming more numerous, faster, and almost unlimited by space and time. The presence of various communication technology innovations has created a community structure formed by the presence of communication technology; this is better known as the information society. In the structure of this society, information is distributed and accessible to every individual (Isazadeh, 2004).
The rapid development of technology supports the emergence of new data whose numbers are also rapidly growing. This data supported by the existence of personal data that can be generated by sharing data individually (volunteered data), personal activities (observed data), and data resulting from the relationship between the two (Krishnan, 2013). Social media companies such as Facebook, Linked In, Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo affect the growing data. These data are irregular, varied, structured or unstructured and have different formats. These data sets are commonly known as Big Data (Sagiroglu Seref, 2013).
On a governmental scale, the same thing happens, plus since information/documents increasingly pushed into electronic data, on the one hand, it can make it easier to manage and use them when needed (Zaiying, 2013). If the data type is uniform, of course, it is not too problematic to process it into useful information, but with the more various types of data, as well as the format, as well as the more numerous and varied types, it will take time to process the data into helpful information (Firat, 2013).
It is undeniable that information is an essential weapon in the current era. Organisations such as the Government certainly have very diverse and large amounts of data (Nitin, 2013). In this case, as policymakers, the Government can make the right decisions. It requires an effective way to manage the data into useful information as a consideration in making decisions.
Management of diverse data with a very large amount, will require an effective way to process it, especially if the information generated from the data is needed to help make decisions for policy makers, it takes fast time to be able to process the data into information. Therefore, the principle of Big Data Technology is very suitable to be applied, where the principle of Big Data is to be able to manage very large and varied data, and process it into the desired information in a very fast time. (Jinson, 2013).
Big Data contains unexpected, hidden, and mass information obtained from an ordinary data mining process (Minelli, 2013) (Xindong, 2014). This information is the reason Big Data is essential for an organisation or enterprise. Big Data technology can present much more complete data limited to one- or two-way relationships obtained from one type of social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (Associates, 2013). This relationship is ultimately indispensable in solving specific problems (Associates, 2014). Relationships between social media network users have a growing possibility, starting from friendships, work, hobbies or school friends (Paul, 2013).