Commodification of Religion and Pop Culture on Social Media: Netnographic Studies

Naili Ni'Matul Illiyyun

doi:10.28918/jupe.v15i2.1643

Abstract

Instagram accounts owned by cultural industry have been followed by millions of followers and are not limited to a group of people in a country because cyberspace creates unlimited communities. Cultural industries that use Instagram place halal (allowed in Islam) and syar'i (based on Islamic law) labels as important elements in promoting their commodities. The following article tries to look at the commodification of several posts on Instagram that are related to religious identity and the implications that are formed by the cultural industry in Muslim communities. The following qualitative research is analyzed by content analysis based on data collection - neographic studies - from several Instagram accounts, such as travel, fashion, and cosmetics agent acoounts which utilize Islamic attributes. The results of this study indicate that the cultural industry always introduces new trends of pop culture through Instagram by using religious attributes, such as using the terms halal, syar'i, or Muslim. Religion as an agency is widely used by the cultural industry in advertising its commodities. In addition, the agency is a tool to persuade consumers to buy commodities and at the same time it is able to identify consumers as pious and modern Muslims.

Highlights

There are several steps that must be taken, namely, planning research, entry (formulation of problem and object of study of social media on the internet, data collection, interpretation of data which includes classification and coding of data, fulfillment of research ethical standards, and presentation of research results (Kozinets, 2002: 64) (Bowler, 2010: 1272) The data collected is based on Instagram accounts in the fields of fashion, cosmetics and tourism that use Islamic attributes
Users can search for photos or videos by searching for keywords that are affixed with hash-tags, such as #halal #syari #muslim and so on which will automatically be selected from various Instagram accounts
Based on the description above, it can be concluded that the cultural industry has commodified religion through its Instagram account

Summary

INTRODUCTION

There has been a shift in the perspective of religiosity among upper middle class. Muslims in recent years. Through the imaging of advertisements that are made so fiercely by industry, consumers are persuaded to consume a commodity They sometimes purchase these products not because of use-value or based on the level of need, but to emphasize their social status. There are several steps that must be taken, namely, planning research, entry (formulation of problem and object of study of social media on the internet, data collection, interpretation of data which includes classification and coding of data, fulfillment of research ethical standards, and presentation of research results (Kozinets, 2002: 64) (Bowler, 2010: 1272) The data collected is based on Instagram accounts in the fields of fashion, cosmetics and tourism that use Islamic attributes. Are in the form of a collection of data from Instagram equipped from the official website of the related account and viewed the contents, classified, and found patterns formed

DISCUSSION

CONCLUSION