Building religious algorithmic authority through different religious community : new preacher and interfaith podcast in digitalizing Indonesia

Abstract

Existing studies on religious authority often focus on the construction of Islamic religious authority within the Muslim community. The present study seeks to provide a distinct and contrasting perspective by arguing that Islamic religious authority can be built within a network of communities of different religions, which has been made possible through what Clay Shirky calls algorithmic authority. In contrast to conventional approaches to authority, algorithmic authority is grounded on individuals based on their influence and digital footprint determined by the number of followers, likes, shares, and comments generated by their content. This qualitative study employs digital ethnography to observe Ustadz Dennis Lim, a casino-boss-turned preacher, as its case study. My observations indicate that despite being initially unknown to the public, Dennis gained immense popularity following his appearance on a YouTube podcast with a non-Muslim influencer, Sumargo. Dennis’ popularity is evidenced by Google Trends data showing a significant increase in searches for his name. Within three months since then, he has appeared on some YouTube podcasts of four non-Muslim influencer channels, producing nine podcast videos and gaining more than 20 million views. This shows Dennis’ consistent efforts to build authority through interfaith podcasts with non-Muslim influencers on YouTube. Conversely, a notable decline occurred when Dennis do not appear in a podcast with these influencers for a long period. However, there was a remarkable increase in online searches for Dennis when he recommenced creating podcasts with them, creating a Ramadan podcast series that generated over 30 videos with more than 20 million views. The findings were generated from my Zoom online interviews with Ustadz Dennis Lim, his scheduling manager, and the media team. I also interviewed some of his offline congregants to understand their perspectives on Dennis’ podcasts with non-Muslim figures. The interviews reveal that such interfaith podcasts do not always denote the pluralist orientation of Indonesian Muslim netizens, as they hope that these non-Muslim podcasters will convert to Islam. Nevertheless, these interfaith podcasts have boosted Dennis’ popularity on social media, which in return has also constructed his authority among Muslim netizens in Indonesia.