Komunikasi Publik Tokoh Adat Sancang dalam Mempertahankan Nilai dan Identitas Budaya di Era Digital

Abstract

The digital era offers both opportunities and challenges for the preservation of local culture. Digital media widens access to cultural information but also accelerates the entry of foreign cultures, which pushes traditional leaders to maintain cultural values and identity through public communication. This study examines the forms of public communication that the traditional leader of Sancang Village, Garut, West Java, uses in cultural activities to sustain cultural values and identity in the digital era, and how the leader balances traditional communication with digital media. The study used a constructivist paradigm with a descriptive qualitative design. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, non-participant observation, and documentation, analyzed with the Miles and Huberman interactive model, and verified through member checking. The findings show that public communication is carried out through verbal, nonverbal, and interpersonal communication, customary activities such as Hajat Laut, traditional arts such as calung and reog, and Instagram and TikTok. Through Collier's cultural identity theory, these practices reflect avowal by the traditional leader, ascription by the community, and continuous identity negotiation. Globalization, foreign cultural dominance, changing youth communication patterns, and unstructured digital use remain challenges. The leader adapts by approaching young people more closely without abandoning core cultural values.