Instagram as a Digital Nonformal Education Space: The Construction of Forest and Land Fire Educational Messages in WALHI Riau’s Content

Abstract

Forest and land fires (karhutla) in Riau Province, Indonesia, remain a recurring environmental and social problem. Beyond its ecological impact, karhutla also raises the need for public education and environmental literacy outside formal schooling. This study positions Instagram as a potential digital nonformal education space, with WALHI Riau's Instagram content on karhutla as the object of analysis. Using a qualitative content analysis approach, this study examines six Instagram posts published by WALHI Riau between April and September 2026 that explicitly address karhutla. The study aims to identify the themes and forms of environmental education messages, to analyze how Instagram is used as a nonformal education medium for building environmental literacy, and to analyze the construction of community education values within the content. The findings show that WALHI Riau's posts combine informative, educational, warning, persuasive, and advocacy-based forms of messages, shifting from ecological vulnerability toward social impact and governance accountability. The content shows potential as a space for delivering environmental education and constructing public learning, particularly reflecting environmental awareness and social responsibility, while values such as independence, mutual cooperation, and community empowerment were not explicitly found. This study does not measure actual audience learning outcomes. It contributes to Nonformal and Community Education studies by framing environmental NGO content on social media as a digital nonformal education space.