Screen and faith: Mediatization of religion through docudrama

Abstract

The background of this current research is the shift in the pattern of fulfilling the need for religiosity. The purpose is to examine the mediatization of faith (religion) through media (docudrama). The research question is how docudrama mediatizes faith. The method applied was rhetorical criticism in communication research. This method signifies text and audience’s reception and corresponds to qualitative textual and reception analysis. This current research particularly adapted Jensen’s (2002) media-audience qualitative reception design. The procedure adapted from Frey, et al. (1999) included selecting Solusi docudrama and viewers’ comments on YouTube channel as data, describing themes by identifying elements and inter-relatedness among scenes, analyzing the salient ideas embedded within the themes, interpreting the narrative structure, and evaluating the persuasive force of messages supported by the viewers’ comments. The findings show that docudrama mediatizes religion by representing the interconnection of notions between religiosity-spirituality and individuality-community, the notions of religion in the dramatization frame, and by producing the audience’s pseudo model of reading. In conclusion, media (docudrama) mediatizes faith (religion) by representing the religious frames from a universal and psychic point of view. Mediatization of faith does not merely meet the needs for religiosity but alters the outlook of religion.