Extracting Religious Identity: The Cyber-Ethnography of Abdul Somad’s Preaching

Abstract

This article examines the communication process of Islamic proselytising (da‘wa) carried out by Abdul Somad, commonly called UAS, on YouTube channels. Somad is a representative of the Indonesian Islamic preacher who is regarded to have become famous very quickly and well known as Ustadz Berjuta Follower. Some of his lectures recorded in video format and uploaded on YouTube channels have been success­ful in attracting the attention of the audiences. Indeed, dozens of videos have been watched by more than five million people per video. Using the Lasswell’s model of communi­cation process ‘who says what, to whom, which channel, and with what effect’ and textual analysis of Somad’s videos on YouTube, this study found that Somad managed to communi­cate his lectures to the target of da'wa dozens of times compared to conventional lectures from the pulpit to the pulpit. Thus, the communication of da'wa through YouTube in terms of the targeted audience was more effective. The multiplier effect of the audience was supported by the potential of YouTube to provide space for the interaction of the audiences, so as to create a multi-level flow of information. In addition, based on the observed visual and verbal aspects of Somad’s preaching on YouTube indicate that he is a moderate Indonesian ulama.