Locking the Univocal Meaning: Communication Circuits and the Panoptic Apparatus of the Visualized Qur’an on YouTube
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66277/jqms.1.1.291Keywords:
Mediatization of Religion, Communication Circuit, Shallow Religion, Closure of Meaning, Digital MurottalAbstract
This study addresses the global theoretical debate on digital religion by examining how cyber-mediatization reshapes the authority of scriptural interpretation. While media studies portray the digital spaces as decentralizing religious meaning through flexible platforms, this article demonstrates an empirical shift toward a mechanical, doctrinal rigidity. Employing a descriptive-analytical case study design based on communication diagrams, this research analyzes the audiovisual corpus of murottals of QS. al-Baqarah, Ali ‘Imrān, and al-Wāqi‘ah on the YouTube channel @TheProphetsPath. The findings reveal a profound closure of meaning, wherein the complexity of legal verses and the realm of pure eschatology are aesthetically domesticated through the unification of Arabized iconography and computer-generated graphic manipulation. Rather than dissolving orthodoxy, the audience’s sensory responses in the comments section function as a feedback loop that reinforces visual dominance. This study offers a novel theoretical contribution to the understanding of shallow religion, positioning mass communication platforms as panoptic apparatuses that lock univocal interpretations onto the screen.References
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