Religious Narratives on Social Media in Shaping the Diversity Attitude of Millennial Generation

This investigation delves into the profound impact of technology and social media by examining jihad narratives within the millennial demographic. The millennial generation, employing an innovative strategy of self-directed learning, has moulded propositions, paradigms, dual meanings, and religious narratives, resulting in the emergence of two pivotal terms: self-radicalization and self-recruits. Utilising Teun A Van Dijk’s critical discourse analysis, we scrutinise a news item, unraveling discourses and multiple meanings. Our findings intricately expound upon the contextualisation of millennials, technology, the Internet, social media, YouTube, radicalism, jihad, and religious narratives—a trilogy that introduces a groundbreaking terminology: Critical discourse analysis of self-religious narratives, with a specific focus on self-radicalization and self-recruitment. This study propels our comprehension of how millennials navigate and influence religious discourses in the era of digital communication.

The rapid development of social media has significantly altered the way society engages with religious narratives, influencing perceptions of pluralism and moderate Islam. This study aims to examine the role of social media in shaping diversity narratives, with a particular focus on the Twitter account @AlissaWahid. Employing a content analysis approach, this research evaluates the messages disseminated through this account’s posts and their impact on public discourse regarding religious tolerance. The findings indicate that social media serves as an influential platform for fostering inclusivity, spreading messages of religious moderation, and countering radical narratives. Through the strategic use of inclusive language, visual content, and interactive engagement, the dissemination of diversity narratives becomes more effective and accessible to digital audiences. Furthermore, this study highlights the necessity of active participation from religious leaders, scholars, and civil society organizations to reinforce moderate Islamic discourse in online spaces. Strengthening these collaborative efforts is crucial to ensuring that social media continues to function as a medium for promoting harmony, pluralism, and religious coexistence in Indonesia.

People who study religion are no longer limited to religious leaders who have direct scientific legitimacy. However, it can be done independently through the internet or social media. Religious narratives that develop on the internet or social media can caontradict one another, such as narratives about religious moderation. This study aims to map the contestation of religious moderation narratives that develop on social media and to see religious ideologies that reject the concept of religious moderation on social media. This study uses a qualitative approach and descriptive method, data collection techniques using document studies from posts on Instagram. The findings of this study show that the narratives that support about religious moderation include the definition of religious moderation, the characteristics of moderate people, the urgency of religious moderation, examples of moderate behavior in religion, religious moderation in Islam, religious moderation in Buddhism, principles of religious moderation, local wisdom and religious moderation, and steps taken by the Ministry of Religion to strengthen religious moderation. Meanwhile, the narrative that rejects religious moderation is in the form of explaining that religious moderation as a half-hearted religion, contrary to Islam, not including kaffah Islam, is a western product, hinders the rise of Muslims, hinders the establishment of the caliphate.

<p><em>This article aims to explore the discourse narrative evolving from Salafi-Wahhabi scholars regarding Kalam (Islamic theology), including how this discourse is generated and disseminated. What was once a concern confined to a limited circle has now become a public issue accessible to anyone from diverse backgrounds. Thus, the discourse battle within Islamic thought has shifted its battleground, considering vastly different circumstances compared to its development in the past. This research falls under media studies utilizing content analysis. It delves deeply into the issues circulating on social media related to Salafi-Wahhabi preaching about Kalam (Islamic Theology). The findings of this article are twofold: Firstly, Salafi-Wahhabi groups often emphasize a discourse rejecting the use of theological speculation and philosophy in religious understanding. They argue that the Quran and Hadith as primary Islamic sources suffice as guidance in religious practices. They tend to reject rational and philosophical approaches in comprehending Islamic teachings, prioritizing a literal textual understanding. Salafi-Wahhabis stress literalism in religious interpretation and frequently view the understanding of Kalam (rational theology) as potentially confusing to creed and introducing concepts not found in sacred texts. Secondly, Salafi-Wahhabi groups have effectively utilized social media to disseminate their religious narrative. They possess significant financial support for producing high-quality religious content. Technological advancements have allowed them to reach broader and deeper audiences with their narrative. Social media has become a crucial tool in reinforcing their religious understanding and perspectives while also posing challenges in terms of social media literacy and religious tolerance.<strong></strong></em></p>

[MODERATION REGRESSION AND RELIGIOUS NARRATIVE IN SOCIAL MEDIA, MAINSTREAMING FACTS AND STRATEGIES] This paper discusses the decline of religious moderation in Indonesia and strategies to neutralize and restore religious moderation. The decline is seen through the decreasing level of tolerance both within and between religions and the growing numbers of religious intolerance narratives on various social media platforms. This is qualitative research by using secondary data produced by credible research institutions. This research found that the regression of religious moderation in Indonesia is a fact and social media has contributed significantly to the spread of intolerance narrative; in addition, social media has become a new religious reference, replacing the conventional authority. This study also sees the central role of educational institutions and civil society in restoring the spirit of religious moderation in Indonesia, also it finds the central role of stakeholders to work collaboratively across sectors.

Indonesia, with the world's largest Muslim population and highly diverse society, faces significant challenges in implementing religious moderation amid rapid digital transformation. With internet penetration reaching 78.19% in 2023, social media has become a battleground for religious narratives, amplifying both moderate and extreme ideologies. This study aims to comprehensively identify the problems and formulate strategic solutions for implementing religious moderation in the social media era. Using a qualitative approach with descriptive-analytical methods, this research employs library research strengthened by content analysis of religious narratives on social media platforms during 2020-2025. The study reveals five fundamental problems: algorithmic architecture that promotes polarizing content, disparity in virality between moderate and extreme content, acceleration of hoax and hate speech dissemination, low digital literacy, and fragmentation of religious authority. The findings indicate that effective solutions must integrate five strategic pillars: optimization of engaging yet substantive content strategies, community-based digital literacy strengthening, multi-stakeholder collaboration, contextual pedagogical innovation, and development of sustainable moderate content ecosystems. This research confirms that religious moderation in the digital era requires reinterpretation of classical wasathiyyah principles into digital communication strategies aligned with attention economic logic and algorithmic amplification. The study offers a measurable implementation roadmap with specific targets, key stakeholders, success indicators, and realistic timeframes, considering that success depends on government political will, commitment of religious institutions, willingness of technology platforms to collaborate, and active civil society participation.

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the communication ethics of the millennial generation on social media from a Pancasila perspective and according to the role of Pancasila moral values in dealing with technological developments. Advances in technology and science are directly eroding the ethics of using social media, thereby slowly reducing the noble values of Pancasila, which is the life guide and ideology of the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia. In the era of the millennial generation, the use of social media is often misused. The reason is, the millennial generation tends to be susceptible to content spread on social media without filtering it critically. They truly believe that the content is fact, so they try to defend it with their stance. Socialization, regulatory enforcement, and social media literacy are some of the external ways in which this problem can be solved. Another internal way is to instill in the millennial generation various values and standards of life based on Pancasila and encourage the millennial generation to be involved in various positive productive activities on social media.

Dating relationships as a form of intimate personal relationships do not always go as expected. In fact, many cases show that these relationships can lead to discomfort and forms of violence, such as physical, psychological, sexual and financial abuse. This phenomenon has become one of the most discussed social issues, especially on social media. The Instagram account @indonesiatanpapacaran is present as a response to this issue, by voicing an invitation to abandon the practice of dating through moral and religious narratives. The existence of this account has led to various responses from the public, including students as a group of active social media users. This research aims to find out how students perceive the existence of the @indonesiatanpaparan account in the digital space. This research uses a descriptive qualitative approach with in-depth interview techniques and observation as data collection methods. The results showed that students gave diverse responses to the account, reflecting different attitudes, experiences, and perspectives in addressing the dating issues raised. This diversity also confirms that social media is a dynamic space that allows the formation of public opinion on complex social issues.

This study explores how the promotion of Muslim fashion bazaars during Ramadan serves as a medium for reproducing consumerist ideology on social media. The object of this research is the promotional content of Glamlocal Wonderful Ramadan 2025, published on Instagram and TikTok. The study aims to understand how capitalism appropriates religious symbols to construct new meanings of the Ramadan celebration. The method employed is digital text analysis using Roland Barthes’ semiotic approach, focusing on the construction of meaning through signs (signifier and signified) at both denotative and connotative levels, as well as the formation of myths within specific social and cultural contexts. The analyzed promotional content was posted by the @glamlocal.id account and features consumerist narratives encouraging consumption during Ramadan. The findings reveal that religious narratives in these promotional contents have been recontextualized into consumerist imagery that emphasizes material gratification and symbolic identity. This phenomenon risks shifting the meaning of Ramadan from a period of spiritual reflection into a legitimized consumption ritual marked by religious symbols. These findings highlight the dominance of sign logic in modern consumer society and underline the urgent need for critical awareness of the manipulation of religious symbols by capitalist forces.

In the development of information and communication technology, various visual media have been used as educational media, including social media. The point of using social media networks for teaching and learning purposes is that not many people practice it. Social media has now become a lifestyle, especially for the millennial generation, who use social media not only to build friendships between people, but also in the field of marketing and institutional or corporate organizations. Everyone now uses social media to convey information to the public. Even in a business, social media is a product promotion tool, but now it is not only business institutions but also educational institutions or schools. Therefore, this research discusses the influence of social media as a promotional tool on student interest. Keywords: Learner Interest; Promotion Tools; Social Media Abstrak Dalam perkembangan teknologi Informatika dan komunikasi berbagai media visual dijadikan sebagai media pendidikan termasuk media sosial titik pemanfaatan jejaring media sosial untuk kepentingan belajar mengajar memang belum banyak yang mempraktikkannya. Media sosial saat ini sudah menjadi gaya hidup khususnya para generasi milenial penggunaan media sosial tidak hanya untuk menjalin pertemanan antar manusia, tapi juga dalam bidang marketing dan organisasi lembaga atau perusahaan. Semuanya kini menggunakan media sosial untuk menyampaikan informasi kepada masyarakat. Bahkan dalam sebuah bisnis media sosial menjadi alat promosi produk namun sekarang tidak hanya lembaga bisnis saja tetapi juga lembaga pendidikan atau sekolah. Oleh karena itu penelitian ini membahas pengaruh media sosial sebagai alat promosi terhadap minat peserta didik.

The rise of digital ustadz on social media signifies a shift in Islamic discourse, religious authority, and spiritual practice in the digital era. This study investigates how three prominent preachers—Hanan Attaki, Khalid Basalamah, and Syafiq Riza Basalamah—construct religious discourse on marriage and family, and how such discourse shapes Generation Z’s understanding of Islam. Grounded in Michel Foucault’s discourse theory and Tajfel and Turner’s Social Identity Theory, this research examines social media as a site where religious narratives are produced, circulated, and internalised as knowledge and identity. Employing a qualitative design through Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study analysed 90 Instagram posts and video content related to marriage and family, supported by 1,200 Generation Z audience comments as triangulation, along with supplementary digital materials. The findings reveal that digital religious discourse extends beyond da’wah to include self-branding and religious entrepreneurship embedded in Islamic romanticism and youth-driven aesthetics, forming part of a growing “religious economy.” The study concludes that digital ustadz have established a “new regime of truth” that relocates religious authority from traditional scholars and pesantren-based learning to algorithmic and popularity-driven digital spaces. It recommends strengthening digital religious literacy among Generation Z to foster critical engagement with online Islamic content and encourage balanced integration between traditional and digital forms of religious learning

This study examines the digital communication strategies of Hindu mass organizations (ormas) in Lombok in building religious representation through the Instagram platform. Social media has become a new potential space to convey Hindu religious teachings more widely and interactively. This study analyzes the content of the official accounts of four Hindu mass organizations, namely PHDI, KMHDI, Prajaniti, and Peradah, with a focus on the types of messages, visual forms, and communication patterns used. The results of the study show that Prajaniti Lombok is the most active and strategic mass organization in building religious representation digitally. Through educational reel content and attractive visuals, Prajaniti is able to raise narratives of Hindu teachings in a contextual and relevant manner to young audiences. Meanwhile, PHDI and KMHDI are still dominant in the use of informative and ceremonial content, while Peradah tends to be limited to formal speech. This study suggests the importance of strengthening the digital capacity of Hindu mass organizations in Lombok through training in managing social media based on religious narratives, as well as collaboration in producing creative and contextual content. An effective digital communication strategy will strengthen the role of Hindu mass organizations in maintaining the existence of dharma teachings amidst the dynamics of today's digital space.

This study explores political sentiment dynamics in India, the UK, and the USA through NLP techniques applied to political news, opinion pieces, and social media. A sentiment classification model, evaluated using precision, recall, and F1-score, revealed India's polarized discourse driven by political and religious issues, moderate variability in the UK, and declining trends in the USA. Topic modeling uncovered themes like governance, ideologies, and religious narratives with regional distinctions. Temporal analysis showed shifts in public opinion tied to major events. The model performed best for India but faced challenges with the UK and USA due to data imbalance and linguistic diversity.

This study aims to analyze the shifting causes of hate speech on social media during Indonesia's 2024 political year, from individual motivations to structural factors involving economic and political interests, particularly in the context of religion and culture-based hate speech. It also examines how Islamic mass organizations—such as the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI), Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), and Muhammadiyah—respond to the phenomenon of buzzers spreading hate through religious narratives and political identity. This research uses a qualitative approach, employing online observation, in-depth interviews, and literature review. The main findings reveal that hate speech does not solely stem from ideological fanaticism but also from economic pressures and a well-organized digital political architecture. Buzzers operate as paid agents within a content-production system that profits from hate, rather than acting on personal or ideological impulses. Meanwhile, the responses of Islamic organizations remain largely normative and moralistic. However, groups like NU have begun to adopt more structural interpretations of the issue. Despite this shift, the absence of systematic digital strategies and economic empowerment efforts has prevented these responses from addressing the root causes. This research offers an original contribution by connecting the economic dimensions of hate speech production with the socio-religious responses to it—an intersection that has received limited attention in studies of media and digital politics in Indonesia.

The purpose of this research is to reveal the propaganda evidence behind Hasan Tiro's communication reality in spreading the narrative of Islamism in Aceh. The method used is descriptive qualitative with a narrative analysis research strategy. The primary sources of this research are Hasan Tiro's books (writings) and speech recordings, which contain Islamist narratives disseminated to his followers. Based on the results of data analysis, this research produces novelty in developing political communication theory, namely Islamic propaganda communication theory with a da'wah maudhu'i approach. This research demonstrates that Hasan Tiro's political communication is religious narrative propaganda, and Hasan Tiro's propaganda narrative construction has the potential power to indoctrinate his followers with the Free Aceh ideology. The religious narrative constructed by Hasan Tiro encompasses jihadist thematic propositions from the Qur'an. This study has a limitation in that it does not include a netnographic analysis of the development of Hasan Tiro's propaganda on social media.