Learning Without a Teacher: Knowledge Sharing Through Social
Media in the Adobe Premiere Indonesia Community
Gunawan and Ramadyantoro
Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia
Keywords: Knowledge-Sharing, Netnography, Social Media.
Abstract: Currently, social media has become an inseparable part of social interaction. The use of social media has
penetrated various aspects of life, including economic, political, social, educational, and entertainment. One
of the biggest challenges in using social media is its use in the education sector, especially in the process of
knowledge sharing, which is one of the processes in education. Therefore, this article aims to reveal the form
of interaction and knowledge-sharing through social media by the Adobe Premier Indonesian virtual
community (API). API is a community of video editing practitioners and learners in Indonesia formed in 2011.
Through social media, the API community facilitates the process of knowledge sharing among its very
heterogeneous members, ranging from beginners to professionals. Through virtual communities on social
media, community members interact, discuss, exchange experiences, and share information even though they
do not know each other or have met directly before. This research applies the netnography method, with data
collection through searching social media pages. The data types collected are archival, elicited, and field note
data. The research results show that knowledge sharing through social media occurs through an egalitarian
interaction pattern and the openness of information to share. The knowledge-sharing process can occur
effectively because of the supporting aspects: common interest, praxis, and archive availability.
1 INTRODUCTION
The internet network has changed various aspects of
life (Patmanthara, 2018). The most noticeable change
is the presence of human living space in two worlds,
namely the reality world and the virtual world, which
are connected (Piliang, 2012). The real world is a
physical space that human senses can feel as a space
for direct interaction between individuals.
Meanwhile, the virtual world is a space for social
interaction mediated by computer devices supported
by an internet network.
Interaction in the social world is realized
through virtual communities on social media such as
Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, TikTok, and so on.
Various underlying interests, such as similar hobbies,
work, goals, or interests in specific things such as
football, pets, games, etc, form virtual communities.
Each virtual community has characteristics that
differentiate one community from another. (Prasetyo,
2010)
Virtual interactions increased during the
COVID-19 pandemic with the implementation of
social distancing to reduce the spread of the
Coronavirus due to direct physical contact when
interacting. During the pandemic, virtual interactions
have become more massive, such as buying and
selling activities, health services, education, etc.
The education sector has experienced quite
severe shocks. Implementing social distancing limits
conventional learning activities, and virtual/online
learning is replacing the face-to-face system.
According to reports from UNESCO, UNICEF, and
the World Bank, virtual learning during the pandemic
resulted in learning loss. The report "The State of the
Global Education Crisis: A Path to Recovery" (2021)
shows that there has been a decline in students'
academic abilities in various countries, especially in
developing countries, so efforts are needed to
overcome learning loss due to virtual learning. Based
on this report, virtual learning is not taking place
optimally. In online learning, students' ability to
understand the material and their character has
decreased due to changes in interaction patterns
during the learning process. (Massie, 2021), (Dewi
2021).
Howe
ver, the virtual learning process can also
take place effectively through the learning process
Gunawan, and Ramadyantoro,
Learning Without a Teacher: Knowledge Sharing Through Social Media in the Adobe Premiere Indonesia Community.
DOI: 10.5220/0013407100004654
In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Humanities Education, Law, and Social Science (ICHELS 2024), pages 549-554
ISBN: 978-989-758-752-8
Copyright © 2025 by Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
549

carried out by the virtual community. One of the
virtual communities that is a learning space for its
members is the Adobe Premiere Indonesia (API)
community. The API Community is a virtual
community that accommodates people interested in
learning video editing using Adobe Premier software.
This community was initially formed on the social
media Facebook and then developed using other social
media platforms such as Instagram, WhatsApp
Groups, and Telegram Groups. The members of the
API virtual community consist of various levels, from
beginner video editors to professional video editors,
multiple ages, educational backgrounds, social
statuses and genders, even among the members who
do not know each other directly. Despite this, the API
virtual community has an effective learning process
that allows knowledge sharing between its members.
Based on the knowledge-sharing process in the
API virtual community, this paper assumes that online
interaction can be an adequate knowledge-sharing
space when learners interact under certain situations
and conditions. Therefore, this paper will describe
how interaction and knowledge sharing occur in the
API virtual community. This paper aims to explore
what kind of interaction that makes online learning
can be optimal.
2 VIRTUAL COMMUNITY
The virtual community is a place to gather and share
a sense of togetherness, even if they don't know each
other. The virtual community occurs on social media,
such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram,
Line, and other social media. Rulli Nasrullah (2016;
13) concluded that social media is a medium on the
internet that allows users to present themselves and
interact, collaborate, share, communicate with other
users, and form virtual social bonds.
In this case, the virtual community referred to by
the researcher is a virtual space where individuals
with the same interests gather, discuss, exchange
ideas, and complement each other with information
about their own culture, thus establishing a social
bond between its members.
Virtual communities have fundamental
differences from physical communities because their
members are not geographically close. Virtual
communities are generally formed and developed
through various forms of interaction carried out
through CMC (Computer-Mediated Communication)
on various social media platforms (Nurhaliza &
Fauziah, 2020). According to Cantoni and Tardini
(2006), CMC is an interaction between individuals
via computers. Virtual communities develop as a
medium for group communication formed from
various motives such as interests, work, skills,
hobbies, study groups, and sources of information.
This uniformity of interest drives individuals to form
groups "virtually" to develop information,
knowledge, and joint mobility.
On the other hand, virtual communities also have
enormous potential, especially in building social
networks. Its nature of being able to cross regional
boundaries and move in its own time and space makes
virtual communities a breakthrough in interaction.
Therefore, virtual communities form a culture that
applies to each different community.
3 KNOWLEDGE SHARING
Knowledge sharing is a process of sharing,
disseminating, and exchanging information and
knowledge between person to other person, persons
to communities, and between communities to
implement something better and create new
knowledge. Knowledge sharing is done through
social interaction and communication processes
between those who provide knowledge and those
who receive knowledge. Meylasari & Qamari (2017)
define knowledge sharing as a systematic process for
distributing knowledge through communication or
virtual media to develop, improve, and create new
knowledge to obtain added value for a particular
organization/community. In general, knowledge
sharing is an activity of sharing knowledge, ideas,
experiences, or skills between individuals or groups,
which is one of the essential dimensions of
knowledge management.
4 SOCIAL INTERACTION IN
VIRTUAL SPACE
Social interaction is a relationship between
individuals or groups where the behavior of
individuals or groups can influence, change, or
improve the behavior of other individuals or groups
and vice versa. (Ahmadi, 2008). Social interaction
today is heavily influenced by the pace of innovation
in technology and information, which has given rise
to virtual interaction spaces or cyberspace. In its
development, this new space has been able to divert
activities in real life, such as political, social,
economic, and even sexual activities, to this virtual
world, which is known as a world without borders, so
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that any form of activity that can be carried out in the
real world, theory can be adapted in artificial form to
virtual space (Piliang, 2012). This virtual space
allows people to form and develop their own new
lives on a massive virtual basis so that a virtual
society is formed without realizing it.
The interaction process in virtual space has
specific communication patterns formed through
social media. Interaction takes place using text,
sound, images, and symbols that are specific and rich
in meaning (Rohayati, 2017). The communication
behavior patterns formed in this virtual space are
norms and values maintained through continuous
interaction and become a map of social meaning
(Prasetyo, 2010).
5 METHOD
This paper was written based on research using
qualitative methods with a netnography approach.
The qualitative approach tries to explore and
understand the perspective of the research subject and
how meaning is constructed in social interactions.
The netnographic perspective is an ethnographic
approach carried out online. Netnography adopts
ethnographic procedures to the unique contingency of
social interactions mediated by computer devices
(Kozinets, 2014). The data in this paper were
obtained from interviews, screenshots from various
posts, and comments from admins and community
members through the Facebook Group, Instagram,
WhatsApp Group, and Telegram Group platforms.
Netnography research recognizes three types of
data, namely archival data, elicited data, and fieldnote
data. Archival data is data obtained by researchers
from virtual spaces. This data is in the form of posts,
comments, photos, and videos. Elicited data is data
generated through direct interaction between
researchers and informants. This data is obtained
through interviews, discussions, and surveys. In this
study, researchers conducted interviews via
WhatsApp with the admin and founder of the API
virtual community and members of the API virtual
community. Fieldnote data is in the form of
researcher notes based on observation, participation,
and reflection during netnographic observations.
Fieldnote data is in the form of field notes, analyses,
and interpretations of a phenomenon that appears in
the virtual community being observed.
6 RESULT AND DISCUSSION
The Adobe Premiere Indonesia (API) virtual
community has members who are video editing
enthusiasts. Discussions in the API virtual
community discuss video production, starting from
the creative process of finding ideas, appropriate
computer equipment specifications, equipment for
taking pictures, editing applications, and supporting
plug-ins to tips and tricks in the video editing process.
The API virtual community was first formed
through the social media Facebook in 2011. Facebook
is a very popular social media platform with many
users and features that support the needs of interaction
between community members. Facebook has a group
feature that supports discussions and data sharing in
text, files, photos, and videos to make the interactions
built into it more lively and effective.
When it was first formed, the number of active
members was still less than 100 people, and most of
its members were involved in video production, both
as professionals and beginners. Initially, the API
virtual community was formed on the initiative of
young people from Tangerang City, whose aim was
to learn the Adobe Premiere Pro editing application.
In 2011, access to learning editing software was
difficult. Learning video editing is only affordable for
certain people because it is expensive.
The number of API virtual community members
continues to grow. Along with the emergence of new
social media platforms, the API virtual community
utilizes other social media platforms, namely
Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram. Community
members use Instagram to post their work, and share
merchandise, and various webinar information.
The API virtual community also uses social
media such as WhatsApp and Telegram Group.
WhatsApp and Telegram offer different interfaces
from other social media, with instant messenger being
faster and safer. This platform makes it easy to
interact by sending text messages, images, audio, and
video.
The number of WhatsApp Group members
reaches around 2,810 accounts divided into eleven
batches of WhatsApp Groups. The number of API
virtual community members on Telegram social
media has reached 13,000 accounts and 151,000
Instagram followers.
The social media platforms WhatsApp Group
and Telegram Group are used to discuss the video
production process. Instagram is used to share the
work. By considering the interaction patterns of
community members using social media platforms,
this paper focuses on the interaction on Telegram
Learning Without a Teacher: Knowledge Sharing Through Social Media in the Adobe Premiere Indonesia Community
551

social media. Telegram Group is a media platform
that is crowded for discussion by members of the API
virtual community, has a large member capacity, has
a database and supporting channels,
6.1 Kind of Interactions
API virtual community interaction takes place
through private chat between members, discussions in
community groups, or responses in the comments
column to posts from community members.
Interactions in the API virtual community are very
diverse. The topics discussed in community groups
also vary and continue to change following
developments in innovation and information in
cinematography, especially in video editing.
The theme of discussion between members of the
API virtual community always changes following
developments in innovation and information in the
world of cinematography. In the virtual spaces of the
API community, questions become a form of
interaction. Interactions usually begin with a question
asked by a member of the API community. In general,
questions that arise regarding:
6.1.1 Software
The software that is the theme of community
discussion includes discussions about presets,
templates, and supporting plug-ins when using
editing software.
6.1.2 Device and Gear Specifications
Device and gear specifications are a topic of
community discussion to gain knowledge about the
technical specifications of computer equipment to
support the editing process and cameras suitable for
taking video.
6.1.3 Editing Problems
Discussion of problems in the editing process was the
theme that emerged most often. Community members
will raise difficulties they face when editing videos in
the hope of getting solutions from community
members.
6.1.4 Appreciation
The theme of interaction between members of the
API virtual community is related to appreciation of
the work of its members. API community members
can also share their editing results to get criticism,
suggestions, and support from other members.
6.1.5 Intermezzo
Community members also provide entertainment as a
form of interaction. Intermezzo is the uploading of
parody content regarding video editing activities.
Parody content, which is sometimes satire, provides
entertainment for community members.
6.1.6 Job Vacancy
Apart from being a discussion space, the API virtual
community is also a space to exchange information,
one of which is related to job vacancies. The API
virtual community members consist of various
groups, so details regarding work and projects related
to video production often appear.
6.2 Knowledge Sharing in the API
Virtual Community
Knowledge sharing is a method for "sharing"
information and knowledge effectively and
efficiently. Viewed from an andragogical perspective,
sharing knowledge in the API virtual community is
following Malcolm Knowless's andragogy principles
in his book The Adult Learners, where basically
andragogy or adult learning theory sees that adults
learn closer to what is needed in everyday life, and
adults learn to solve the problems faced today.
The knowledge-sharing process in the API
virtual community begins with a question or
information closely related to video production,
especially video editing. The question/information
develops into a topic of discussion. Every post in the
virtual spaces of the API virtual community will be
received and responded to by members of the API
community with different perceptions based on the
interests, background, and experience of each
community member.
Next, the knowledge-sharing process takes place
with conversations in API virtual spaces. These
conversations become databases and can be accessed
and studied by members. In this case, a database
system in virtual space is similar to the workings of
Long Term Memory (LTM) in cybernetic theory,
which can store all the knowledge an individual has,
has unlimited capacity, and can be recalled when
needed.
In the current era of information abundance,
everyone can easily obtain information, especially in
the virtual world. The abundance of information is a
challenge in the validity and management of the
information itself because the side effects of
information abundance become a danger that is
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difficult to avoid. Therefore, a suitable digital
learning method, model, or style is needed to support
learning effectiveness.
The knowledge-sharing process built in the API
virtual community runs effectively through the
community's virtual space. Three main aspects
support the effectiveness of knowledge sharing in the
API virtual community, namely:
6.2.1 Personal Interest
The personal interest factor refers to a strong desire
within a person, which is why someone is motivated
to know, explore, or do something. The existence of
an interest in the world of production is the basis for
the desire to learn, explore, add to a broader network,
and find answers to problems facing to support work.
The same personal interest encourages someone
to join and become a member of the API community.
This aligns with the Learner's Need to Know
principle, which Knowless carries out in his book The
Adult Learners. Knowless explains that adults will
think about the benefits of learning about it, why they
should learn about it, and what they have to lose if
they don't know about it.
6.2.2 Praxis
Praxis refers to practicing the knowledge obtained in
the API community's virtual spaces. By practicing the
various expertise that has been received, the
knowledge will become an experience, which in this
case is able to make a person understand more deeply
about the knowledge, not limited to being
information, but turning into skills that will be useful
for the individual.
In the API virtual community, the praxis aspect
usually occurs when someone directly practices what
community members suggest or upload, whether
about problem-solving or tips and tricks related to
shooting or editing. This principle explains that adult
learning prioritizes the practical, which leads to
something that can be put into practice immediately.
6.2.3 Archive Database
To support the praxis aspect, the API virtual
community has a 'virtual archive' storage space that
all API community members can access. With the
virtual archive space API, community members can
adjust and download what they need and learn and
practice various archives that can be accessed
anytime.
Knowledge sharing among API virtual
community members occurs in three ways: sharing,
questioning, and discussing.
Through social media platforms, community
members share the results of their videos. This video
will be appreciated by community members so that it
can add insight, knowledge, motivation, support the
learning process about video production, and improve
skills in video production.
Questioning allows members to ask other
members who have more knowledge about
something. Questions submitted were technical
questions such as exploration of interesting story
ideas, appropriate music illustrations, and device
specifications.
Discussing allows members to discuss certain
issues. Discussions can last a long time if the topic of
discussion is considered interesting to its members.
Community members will provide their views and
experiences regarding solutions when facing
problems in the editing process.
In general, what is shared and what is question
in the API community discussion will spark
discussion. The answers and questions will become
new knowledge for community members. API virtual
community members, in general, will get tools,
relationships, information, experience, and
knowledge useful for adding insights, skills, and the
ability to overcome obstacles to support their work.
7 CONCLUSION
Interaction in the API virtual community supports a
learning atmosphere for its members. The discussion
themes in API community spaces are closely related
to software themes, device and gear specifications,
editing problems, appreciation, and job vacancies.
Regarding knowledge sharing, the API
community takes place in virtual spaces. This
knowledge-sharing process in the API virtual
community takes place in an egalitarian manner.
Through the discussion process in these virtual
spaces, members of the API community learn from
each other, complement each other's information, and
collaborate to increase their knowledge, experience,
and improve their editing skills. The knowledge-
sharing process of the API virtual community occurs
because of the supporting aspects, including the
interesting aspect, practical aspect, and archive
aspect, all three of which complement each other and
support the effectiveness of the knowledge-sharing
process from members of the API virtual community.
In the realm of learning, the supporting aspect of
Learning Without a Teacher: Knowledge Sharing Through Social Media in the Adobe Premiere Indonesia Community
553

knowledge sharing in the API virtual community can
indirectly be an illustration of the virtual learning
process.
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