Mediatization of Cyber-Religious Crises: National-Local Media Asymmetry and the Secularization of Blasphemy in Indonesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66277/jims.1.1.233Keywords:
Mediatization of religion, Media framing, Cyber-religious conflict, Newsroom asymmetry, Secular mediaAbstract
The intersection of cyber agency and the contemporary crisis of religious sensibility has created a structural anomaly in the objectivity function of global media institutions. Using a four-dimensional frame analysis, this study examines the contradictions in how global media report incidents of sacred text parody arising from digital expression within digitized communal spaces. Document analysis of news texts reveals that newsrooms address this religious polarization through an asymmetrical operational logic: national media corporations consistently frame the issue within a positive legal dimension to support the state's retributive justice, while local press prioritizes sociocultural restoration to rebuild territorial cohesion. These findings contribute to religious journalism studies by demonstrating that resolving faith-based disputes in the public sphere no longer depends on restoring spiritual orthodoxy. Instead, it functions as an apparatus of secular mediatization that subordinates expressions of the sacred to the management of public order risks.
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