Assignment Of Meanings By Audiences Towards Ganjar Pranowo’s Personal Branding On Semarang City’s People

. Youtube is a social media site that enables the audiences to give comments, share, and like focusing solely on video contents. Youtube functions as a medium of information and entertainment. Ganjar Pranowo has a personal branding in this specific app that differentiates him from other Indonesian political figures. This research aims to analyze how the audiences give meaning towards Ganjar Pranowo’s personal branding in his Youtube channel. This research is conducted through the descriptive qualitative method, with the extensive usage of interviews and documentation for collecting data. In analyzing Ganjar Pranowo’s personal branding, this research uses Stuart Hall’s reception analysis theory in giving meaning to audience media message, divided into three positions: 1) Hegemonic-dominant; 2) Negotiated, and; 3) Oppositional. Other that that, this research also uses Peter Montoya’s eight concepts of personal branding: 1) Specialization; 2) Leadership; 3) Personality; 4) Difference; 5) Appearance; 6) Unity; 7) Firmness, and; 8) Prestige. This research shows that in general, audiences accept Ganjar Pranowo’s personal branding. This is shown through the responses of the informants, with three of them firmly in the hegemonic-dominant position, two of them in the negotiated position, and none of them in the oppositional position.


INTRODUCTION
Youtube is a social media site that provides various features that enable people to express themselves a more interactive online platform, such as the 'like', 'comment', and 'share' features.This site focuses solely on video contents, in which its focused approach allows the audiences to concentrate on their specific chosen topics (Hawkins and Saleem, 2021).According to Alexa.com,Youtube has become the second (or the third, as some might claim) most popular site in the world since October 2007 (Thelwall, 2018).One of the factors that contribute to this popularity is the web site's ability to 'figure out' what the users want.Youtube keeps perfecting their software to ensure that ability can produce results with 90% accuracy by using the 'search criteria' feature (Thelwall, 2018).This turns Youtube into a valuable source of information about its users and their respective chosen topics of interest.Content creators are given incentives to create popular contents, because high streaming rate means financial compensation from a fraction of the ads revenue generated from the contents that they post on the web site (Hawkins and Saleem, 2021).Neff (2021) called this as 'ecosystem approach', in which this is an effective strategy to reach millions of subscribers with a certain level of services that they desire.Looking at the numbers, Youtube has more than two billion users, and more than one billion hours of video being streamed every day.This is a gold mine of advertising opportunities for brands, very potential even with a very simple strategy.Not limited to brands, this golden opportunity to advertise from Youtube is also applicable to organizations and figures that wish to amplify the awareness of the users to their own brands.
Because of that, they often upload television ads and the public-relations related materials to the brand channel, becoming one practice that contributes in revolutionizing the way consumers view advertisements, this is because the advertisements can be seen during the consumers' leisure times.Brand channel (in this case, Youtube), has become a cost-effective channel for advertisers, because advertisements can be uploaded without a price, and have big potential to be watched by millions of young consumers provided that they are entertaining enough and have the potential to become viral (Duffett, 2020).Personal http://ijstm.inarah.co.id 616

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Ganjar Pranowo was the governor of Central Java province from 2013-2023.He actively used social media, included at Youtube.He used social media to share information, updating the progress of complaints he got from the citizens, and giving appeals to citizens in regards to the government's policies.This approachability of Ganjar to the people's aspirations through social media is further amplified with his choice of down-to-earth language, facilitating two-ways communication with his constituents.This became his trademark and made it easier for him to interact with people through the extensive reach of social media.

Audience and the Formation of Personal Branding
There are three processes in the making of personal branding (Montoya, 2002): 1) 'You', that focuses on displaying (a) Who is this person, his personality?(b) What specialization does he/she has, which help to form a specific image of a person in the audiences' minds; 2) 'Promise', which is specific set of promise(s) and responsibilities of the person to fulfill audiences' expectations formed through the personal branding itself, and; 3) 'Relations', the effort to form and maintain good relations with audiences.Personal branding focuses on the ability to influence someone's decisions and behavior.A great personal branidng can give advantage to its practitioner, increasing his/her authority, gaining more trust from people in making decisions.This will amplify the chances of said person to end up in the position of leadership, increase said person's prestige, gaining recognition, and achieving his/her goals.Personal branding generally is a part of branding, with theories and frameworks applied to branding in general are also used in personal branding.
Based on the reception theory, there are three positions on how a personal branding is received by audiences: 1. Dominant hegemonic, in which audiences accept the message delivered by the media; 2. Negotiated, in which audiences accept the message but reject the application of meaning of the message; 3. Opposition, in which audiences change the message or code delivered by the media, thus rejecting the intent of the message and replace it with the audiences' own interpretation.Ganjar's personal branding is a representation of the audience, reflected through videos posted on Ganjar's Youtube channel.In the context of this research, it could be seen that Ganjar Pranowo's Youtube channel underwent three steps of process of the formation of personal branding.
1. Reception analysis to Ganjar Pranowo's profile and specialization: 1) 'You', that is, identification of Ganjar Pranowo as an individual; 2) 'Specialization', that is, identification of what does Ganjar Pranowo do?Ganjar's presence in Youtube channel made him more recognizable by the masses, evidence on how well he capitalizes on the new media.He also has a 'milennial generation' style that appeals to the younger audiences.He also showcases specialization in his Youtube content, by using good humor and and relaxed way of interacting with the audiences, which make his content interesting.Regarding this specialization, there are some opinions from the informants.The first informant, Aisyah, said that Ganjar Pranowo has funny and engaging contents, with topics not limited to his work.She also commented that his contents are easy to understand.
" Based on the answers from informants, it can be inferred that all informants are in the 'dominanthegemonic' position because all of them fully accept the specialization in Ganjar Pranowo's Youtube channel.

Reception Analysis to Ganjar Pranowo's Leadership
In the concept of leadership, a leader is someone that has the ability to disperse uncertainties and provide clarity.Basically, people need an exemplary leader, charismatic, and has the ability to solve problems.Using these benchmark, the informants assess Ganjar's capability as a leader and to influence people.(Interview with Galih, 24 October 2022).Theoretically, most people want a leader that can be a good example.According to the informants, Ganjar Pranowo succeeds in building his personal branding to reflect that impression in himself, by using his Youtube channel to educate people on the ongoing issues of Central Java.During his trips, he approached all kinds of people with a unique approach using funny language and down-to-earth attitude, making him loved by people.
"In my opinion, through Youtube, it's apparent that Mr. Ganjar is a humble and honest leader.A lot of people said that it's just a mask, but I don't think so; his daily interactions with people such as when he freely asks for more rice portion in a stall or when he directly answered that 'the bridge would be brittle if we rush the process' when people asked why the building process took a long time.I think it's a very authentic ceplas ceplos (straightforward) way of communication.I think this is also apparent in his way of using social media as an alternative way to investigate directly, people can report to him through social media and it would swiftly be delivered to the relevant officer.Mr. Ganjar even mentioned that if the related officer doesn't respond the complaint in 1X24 hours, he/she could lose their position.Very effective since Central Java is a big province and has a lot of people in it."(Interview with Maria, 2 November 2022).The third process of personal brand's formation is 'position yourself'.Ganjar Pranowo positioned himself as a unique, responsive, approachable, honest, and caring leader.Ganjar used the privilege that he has to help vulnerable people to solve their problem, such as building livable housing for underprivileged people, helping people hit by flooding disaster, and eating together with people in the refugee camps.Ganjar Pranowo also engaged in the 'word of mouth marketing', in which he often uploads his moments with old friends and colleagues such as approaching his old friend that becomes an elementary school teacher in Karanganyar and visiting the location of his social work when he was a college student.Ganjar Pranowo always aims to give a nice and low profile image to familiarize himself with the people, especially his constituents in Central Java.Based on those answers from the informants, it can be inferred that all informants can be categorized into Dominant-Hegemonic position because informants accept all of Ganjar Pranowo's leadership personal branding in Youtube.
3. Reception Analysis to Ganjar Pranowo's Personality (The Law of Personality) Good personal branding is able to reflect every aspects of an individual's personality.The favorable impression in personal branding is a 'flawed' and 'authentic' persona, which is seen as more 'humane' and relatable.Researcher collected the opinions of five informants regarding Mr. Ganjar's personality on Youtube.The informants think that Mr. Ganjar exhibits a firm, friendly, charismatic, down-to-earth, and family-man persona.
"In my opinion, Mr. Ganjar's personality on Youtube is firm, friendly to people, charismatic, and family-oriented."(Interview with Aisyah, 24 October 2022).Meanwhile, Riza thinks that Mr. Ganjar is a fun person to be around, and humble.Riza highlighted how Mr. Ganjar likes to greet people and joke with them.
"Mr.Ganjar has a fun and humble personality, always greets people and joke with them."(Interview with Riza, 25 October 2022).Then, according to Mrs. Diah, Mr. Ganjar on Youtube is very warm towards his wife and kids.
"Mr.Ganjar's personality on Youtube seems very warm towards his family, especially in family-oriented days.He seems like to love his family, frequently jokes with students and gives them gifts, he also seems close to his children and wife."(Interview with Mrs. Diah, 25 October 2022).After that, according to Galih, Mr. Ganjar's personality is very friendly towards people, he always replies when people greet him, be it children or adults.
"Mr.Ganjar's personality on Youtube is friendly, humorous, frequently present in medias; he seldom gets angry on camera, there were only three cases of him doing so.He has a flaw in his personality, that he only replies to a few comments, like for example there are 10 comments he only answered 1, which is understandable since he handles his account by himself.Also, on Instagram he only replies to comments at night, which is less interactive."(Interview with Galih, 24 October 2022).Lastly, Maria thinks that Mr. Ganjar has a good aspect of personality; namely, he is willing to do blusukan (investigating directly) with traditional Javanese garbs to meet with people.
"Mr.Ganjar centers his Youtube personality as someone that Indonesia needs; he's not shy to go blusukan with traditional garbs despite it being uncomfortable to wear when on field investigations.He does this also when visiting other provinces according to the local schedule.He also seems nationalistic, as he has 'Gubernur Mengajar' (Governor Teaching in English) where he teaches student to develop good character and nationalistic spirit in children, such as telling them to not be racist towards their fellow Indonesians.He's also responsive to critics, such as when there were Wadas demonstrations where he sat down together with demonstrants and discuss about it, instead of running from reality." (Interview with Maria, 2 November 2022).Based on the informants' answers, there are three informants in the 'Dominant-Hegemonic' position: Aisyah, Riza, and Maria.Meanwhile, Mrs. Diah and Galih are in 'Negotiated' position, highlighting how Mr. Ganjar didn't have an active social media presence before becoming governor and how his contents mostly comprised of his personal routines instead of official business.http://ijstm.inarah.co.id 621 5. Reception Analysis of Ganjar Pranowo's Visibility A successful personal branding has to maintain consistent self image to make the advertiser to be quickly recognized by a lot of people.There are some aspects in Ganjar Pranowo's social media appearance to create a constant impression.According to Aisyah, Ganjar Pranowo is recognizable through his friendliness with children, displayed through actions such as giving small gifts to children that he met.
"Mr.Ganjar has a consistency in becoming a distinct persona on Youtube.He's notably friendly to children and likes to give them gifts.This image is also apparent through his harmonious relationship with his wife and family in general.He also has a casual fashion style, frequently using t-shirt or other simple and casual, non-branded attires that still look charismatic."(Interview with Aisyah, 26 October 2022).Reza also highlighted that Ganjar has a relaxed way in communicating with people.
"In communicating on Youtube, Mr. Ganjar communicates in a way that is not stuffy and easily acceptable by his audiences."(Interview with Reza, 25 October 2022).Meanwhile, according to Mrs. Diah, Ganjar Pranowo's visibility comes from his millenial self image, combined with his friendliness towards people, makes him easily distinguishable by the millenials.
"Consistency that makes Mr. Ganjar distinguishable is his ability to be casual without forgetting decorum.In his contents, he seems friendly while sharing actual and factual contents with his audiences.He frequently talks about the society's problems and try to solve them through communicative discussions on his platform.He always encourages people to speak up about their problems to help." (Interview with Mrs. Diah, 26 October 2022).Meanwhile, this is what Galih said: "Visibility, consistency, continuity, and contents' variety.Those things, coupled with his style which is distinctly Javanese, make Mr. Ganjar stands out as a politican."(Interview with Galih, 2 November 2022).Meanwhile, according to Maria, some attributes that are very apparent in Ganjar Pranowo's personal branding are his humorous nature and his stern attitude when it comes to the usage of public funds, especially regarding corruption done by officials below his wing.
"Visibility, consistency that makes him 'visible' are his humorous trait and his stern attitude when it comes to corruption.He always says that he feels deeply ashamed when there are official beneath his wings that get caught by the authorities because of corruption.However, the stern impression melts away when he's interacting with citizens, as he's really open to critique and scrutiny, as displayed in his response to Wadas case.He also likes to do funny, unpredictable things."(Interview with Maria, 2 November 2022).Based on the informants' answers, it can be inferred that all informants are on the position of Dominant-Hegemonic, because they agreed fully with Ganjar Pranowo's visibility in his Youtube personal branding, especially with traits such-as millenial-friendly, casual, following trends, and having a harmonious family.
http://ijstm.inarah.co.id 622 6. Reception Analysis Towards the Law of Unity Unity in personal branding means that the reality of a person's personal daily life must be in line with values and attitudes displayed through that person's personal branding.In his daily life, Ganjar Pranowo is close to the people, be it from the lower or the upper class; he creates the impression of 'no distance' between him and the people.The informants have their own thoughts about the unity of Ganjar Pranowo's unity between his personal branding and his real life.
The first informant, Aisyah, told the researcher that the personal branding displayed by Ganjar Pranowo on Youtube is already in line with his personal life.
"Mr.Ganjar is really close to the people from all classes, from the clerics to the normal people.He also likes doing exercice, which shows how much he cares about his health.He also seems close to his wife, and has a harmonious family.He also has a to-the-point way of communication through real examples that he does in the government.He relays all of those into his Youtube channel: his closeness to the people, the sense of no-distance, using simple language to make people understand while making adjustments depending on who is he speaking to.For example, he speaks to the elderly with the Krama (polite) version of Javanese, while he uses the mixed variant when talking to the youth."

IV. CONCLUSION
From this research, the assignment of meaning from Ganjar Pranowo's branding on Youtube, the audiences' responses could be divided into three positions: dominant-hegemonic, negotiated, and oppositional.The opinions of five informants mentioned in this research were divided into eight categories based on Peter Montoya's personal branding concept.The first concept is 'specialization' in which concluded in this research that Ganjar Pranowo always communicate with humorous disposition and simple language to people, which make his contents special and earned the 'dominant-hegemonic' placement by the informants.Then, the second concept is 'leadership', in which the informants think that Ganjar Pranowo is an individual that is capable as a leader, due to his charismatic disposition, his good deeds that can become example to other people, ability to solve problems, willingness to accept criticism, and unique approach towards people.Ganjar shows the ability to communicate with people from various age range.Next, there is the 'personality' concept, in which Ganjar is perceived as firm, charismatic, fun, down-to-earth, very loving towards his family, harmonious, nationalistic, and likes to investigate directly.
In this concept, four informants gave 'dominant-hegemonic' and one gave 'negotiated' position; this single outlier happened because of Ganjar's slack of interactiveness in answering questions on social media.After that, the fourth concept is 'distinctiveness', in which Ganjar Pranowo is viewed as 'distinct' because of his casual disposition, easy-to-understand arguments, his down-to-earth behavior, his ability to communicate with people from varying age ranges, his habit to greets someone first, and his healthy lifestyle.Based on the informants' answers, in this concept Ganjar got three 'dominant-hegemonic' votes from Aisyah, Riza, and Maria, and got two 'negotiated' votes from Mrs. Diah and Galih, which highlighted how Ganjar Pranowo became active on social media only after becoming a governor and how his contents mainly contained personal topics such as his routine morning runs.The, there is the fifth concept, 'visibility'.Based on the informants, there are some 'visibility' aspect that could be observed in Ganjar Pranowo's Youtube contents: his friendliness to people, his harmonious relationship with family, his fluid way of communication with his wife, easily acceptable by people, Javanese representation, easily understandable way of speaking, continuity in his contents.Due to these atrributes, all informants graded his personal branding in this concept as 'dominant-hegemonic'.After that, there is the sixth concept, 'unity', which observes how in-line is an individual's personal branding with their real, daily life.In Ganjar Pranowo's case, his personal branding on Youtube shows an in-line image of his real, daily life.There are some traits that show this, such as his friendly and humorous personality and his daily interactions with his family.
Because of that, all the informants graded Ganjar Pranowo's 'unity' aspect as 'dominanthegemonic', none of them have any kinds of rebuttal in that concept as in their thoughts, Ganjar's Youtube personality is already in-line with his real life.Then, the seventh concept, 'persistence', Ganjar persistently shows some aspects in his Youtube contents: likes to do sports, uploading contents everyday, millenial, casual, likes to joke, frequently promotes local products from SMEs in his 'laPak Ganjar' program posted on Instagram and Youtube, humble, and not afraid to make a joke out of himself.Based on the informants' answers, it can be inferred that all of them are in the 'dominant-hegemonic' position in this concept due to Ganjar's consistency in posting his contents everyday.Then, the last one, there is the eight concept of 'goodwill', in which the informants translated as some of his traits: millenial, close to people, casual, downto-earth, innovative, cheerful, has an awareness of his postiton, ready to accept criticism, and has a high electability rate in the minds of young people.From five informants, three of them (Aisyah, Reza, and Maria) gave Ganjar the 'dominant-hegemonic' position, and two of them (Mrs.Diah and Galih) gave Ganjar the 'negotiated' position.

Table 1 .
Audience Reception Towards Ganjar Pranowo's Specialization I think this shows his role as a 'bridge' for provinces to interact.He also used funny titles and simple language in his videos, such as that one time when he used the title 'you want so see me kick the concretes when I check the quality of the building', that gave the video a funny impression."(Interview with Maria, 2 November 2022).
(Interview with Riza, 24 October 2022).According to Mrs. Diah, Mr. Ganjar is a dignified person.When citizens have problems, he can discuss well with his subordinates to solve the problems."He has leadership and dignity.[Ganjar] Likes to investigate the problem, to give solution.His leadership is good, without pretense and very authentic.There was one time when an angkot (public transportation) driver was genuinely shocked when Mr. Ganjar suddenly sat down into his vehicle, all without the knowledge of his creative team.In Youtube videos, he's able to position himself as the leader in the room, giving solutions when there is problem."(Interview with Mrs. Diah, 24 October 2022).Meanwhile, according to Galih, Ganjar Pranowo's leadership is transformative.Ganjar readily accepts people's input, and answer their aspirations."The transformative nature of Mr. Ganjar's leadership is apparent through his Youtube channel.Receiving critics, answering aspirations, doesn't act with absolute power, keen on following regulations, while also improving the performance [of the provincial government]." Mr. Ganjar is a firm, charismatic, broadminded, down-to-earth, friendly, and to-the-point leader.Socialmedia is one of the mediums to deliver messages, this means that if Mr. Ganjar is famous on social media, it's because of what he does in reality.Most of Mr. Ganjar's contents are videos, longer videos are posted on Youtube, while the shorter ones are posted on Tiktok (60 seconds) and Instagram (a few minutes)."(Interview with Aisyah, 24 October 2022).Meanwhile, according to Riza, Ganjar Pranowo is a relaxed-yet-serious leader, that solve problems with relaxed attitude, never getting angry.In her opinion, Ganjar Pranowo is a successful leader of Central Java, with a lot of achievements in his leadership."In my opinion, Mr. Ganjar's eladership is serious yet relaxed.In Central Java, he got a lot of awards, especially about the public information transparency and investment services.Not only in social media, there are a lot of awards for Central Java during Mr. Ganjar's time as a http://ijstm.inarah.co.id 618 governor.He gives good examples, when there were demonstrations, he's able to solve them in a relaxed manner without violence, he has a unique and specific approach to problems, using communication and looking at the coordinates [of the problem]."

Table 3 .
Audiences Reception Towards Ganjar Pranowo's Personality Reception Analysis Towards Distinctiveness of Ganjar Pranowo An effective personal branding has to bring a strong impression to differentiate itself from other personal brandings, which also applies on Youtube contents.In his Youtube contents, Ganjar Pranowo has different way in delivering his sentences, in which he uses easy-to-understand language for the people.This is what Aisyah highlighted.Diah argues that Mr. Ganjar actually becomes active in social media after he became a governor, which she observed quite different from fellow governor, Ridwan Kamil (usually referred to as 'Kang Emil') which started his social media activity before he held the position as governor."Mr.Ganjar is active in social media after becoming governor, which is different from Kang Emil which is already active since before he became a governor, delivering his vision and missions through social media."(Interview with Mrs. Diah, 24 October 2022).Galih further highlighted the difference between Mr. Ganjar's personal branding and Kang Emil's.While Mr. Ganjar mainly focuses on his personal activities, Kang Emil focuses more on his official business.In line with previous informants, Maria also thinks that Mr. Ganjar is a friendly person, he frequently greets people first and shake their hands.Another interesting tidbit Maria highlighted is also how Mr. Ganjar has a healthy lifestyle.
Based on the input from the informants above, there are 4 informants that chose the 'dominanthegemonic' position and 1 informant that chose the 'negotiated' position.http://ijstm.inarah.co.id 620 4. "The difference between Mr. Ganjar and other politicians on Youtube.While Kang Emil's contents mainly revolves around official business, Mr. Ganjar's contents are more personal."(Interview with Galih, 24 October 2022) "The difference between Mr. Ganjar and other politicians publishing contents on Youtube are his openness to people; he greets first, he shakes hands first, he hugs first, which become his 'uniqueness' on Youtube.He also sends congratulations to his political rivals during special times such as birthday, and invites them to eat (he did this with Sudirman Said).Mr. Ganjar also exhibited healthy lifestyle, frequently posting about him biking, running, and carefully maintaining his diet."(Interview with Maria, 2 November 2022).

Table 6 .
Interview with Aisyah, 26 October 2022).Similar sentiments are also echoed by informant Reza:"There are no differences between Mr. Ganjar's social media and real daily life."(Interviewwith Reza, 24 October 2022).Such view about Ganjar Pranowo's personal branding is also echoed by Mrs. Diah:"He has a good personal life, shown through his care towards his family and his neighbors.He's also able to act stern when there's a problem.Feels like he has a firm grip over his life, which is the same thing as portrayed through his Youtube channel.Very well-known and wellaccepted by the people of Central Java, as Mr. Ganjar was able to solve the Wadas case through communication instead of through anarchic means."(Interview with Mrs.He also frequently displays public signs of affection to his family, by giving gestures such as hugs.This suits his internet image as a chill, funny, anti-mainstream individual.In the internet there was a parent that asked Mr. Ganjar to give his/her child congratulations; he accepted the request."(Interview with Maria, 2 November 2022).Audiences' Reception Towards Ganjar Pranowo's 'Unity'.
"There are some moments in which Mr. Ganjar accidentally displayed the reality of his harmonious family life to the internet, which were in line with his personal branding.When his wife got the 1st winner predicate, he hugged her and gave her flowers and medal.He also celebrated his child's birthday by giving him a tumpeng (cone-shaped yellow rice).http://ijstm.inarah.co.id 625