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Makale Özeti:
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T elevangelism as one example of digital media technology is popular as a media of preaching recently. T elevangelism is a hybrid genre of religion and entertainment which can be the manifestation of ‘infotainment’ predominance in
contemporar y media culture. T elevangelists use digital media technologies,
such as the Internet, D VDs and blogspots to popularize their programmes.
They, therefore, raise their popularity and are granted a ‘celebrity status’ by
having thousands of fans and followers on social media networks. The findings show that T elevangelism becomes popular among Muslim youth audiences because they perceive it as a new form of religious expression which is
considered ‘modern’ in appearance and relevant to their ever yday lives. For
them, T elevangelism is also a manifestation of the individual change. This
study shows that with the rise of literacy rate and the availability of modern
digital media, religious knowledge became accessible to large community. The
internet has become a new paradigm where voices can compete for the authority. The cyberspace and internet have become one important platform where
religious can be disseminated, contested and negotiated easily. Therefore,
televangelists have become inf luential figures to some Muslim audiences, especially the youth in middle classes. The use of digital media by televangelists has helped popularize their discourses. The findings also shows how the sermons and texts of particular televangelists can possibly relate to dominant
(capitalist) ideologies, how structures of power are represented in their discourses and what their texts may reveal about the socio-historical contexts of
Muslims in the twenty first century.
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