<![CDATA[Student migration from peripheral regions to Indonesia’s major education hubs generates complex intercultural encounters, particularly for students from East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) who study in Malang—widely recognized as the “City of Students.” A critical yet underexamined problem is how local news portal systematically privilege conflict-driven narratives over cultural nuances, constructing and circulating symbolic stigma that shapes how NTT students are perceived even before any direct interaction occurs. This study examines how such media framing intersects with everyday ethnocentrism and how NTT students actively negotiate their identities against these pressures. Using a qualitative case study design, data were collected through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and systematic analysis of online news and social media content. Findings reveal that NTT students face layered stereotypes rooted in cultural misinterpretation, yet they respond with remarkable agency. Most notably, NTT students employ digital platforms—particularly TikTok and viral eastern Indonesian music such as Gemu Famire, as instruments of informal cultural diplomacy, strategically reshaping their symbolic representation from “conflict-prone outsiders” to contributors to national youth culture. This use of digital media and music as identity counternarratives constitutes the study’s most distinctive empirical contribution. Drawing on Symbolic Interactionism as the primary theoretical lens, complemented by Identity Negotiation Theory and acculturation frameworks, the study argues that prejudice is socially constructed through contested interpretations of cultural symbols and is therefore transformable through sustained interaction, cultural resilience, and institutional support.]]>
