Streamlining Religiotainment:

The Influence of Da’wah Content in Digital Space on the Life of the Samarinda Muslim Community in Indonesia

Nurliah

Rina Juwita

 

Abstract: This article examines the influence of digital television broadcasting content on the life of the Samarinda Muslim community in Indonesia. Although the digital space has provided a platform for da’wah (preaching) content that is easily accessible to millions of people, it has also created certain negative impacts. The contents of entertainment-based da’wah on certain media spaces can be misleading and tend to focus more on entertainment than da’wah. This is primarily due to the commodification of da’wah content, which is not in accordance with the spirit of da’wah. Based on the empirical data collected for this article through interviews, an important analytical finding of this research is that the digital space, including da’wah related television programmes, has a strong influence on the life of the Samarinda Muslim community. The problem lies in the difficulty of finding a meeting point for dualism, namely, the substantive formulation of da’wah via television without removing the entertainment aspect of it.