Rethinking National Identity in an Age of Commercial Islam: the Television Industry, Religious Soap Operas, and Indonesian Youth
Rethinking National Identity in an Age of Commercial Islam: The Television Industry, Religious Soap Operas, and Indonesian Youth by Inaya Rakhmani, S.Sos (UI), MA (UvA) This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Murdoch University 2013 I declare that this thesis is my own account of my research and contains as its main content work which has not previously been submitted for a degree at any tertiary institution. ………………………………………….. Inaya Rakhmani ii ABSTRACT This thesis is about what it means to be Indonesian in an age of commercial Islam. It set out to understand the growing trend of “Islamisation” in Indonesian television after the end of the authoritarian New Order regime (1962 to 1998), which coincided with the rise of Islamic commodification in other sectors (Fealy, 2008). To achieve this, the thesis looks at the institutional practices, Islamic representation, and the reception of the most-watched television format with an Islamic theme, sinetron religi (religious drama). Studies on Indonesian television so far have focused on its structure, construct, and audience as separate entities (e.g. Sen & Hill, 2000; Kitley, 2000; Ida, 2006; Barkin, 2004; Loven, 2008). This thesis is the first research on Indonesian television that understands the institutional frameworks, identity constructs, and its reception as a whole. As the industry’s livelihood is determined by advertising revenue that relies on audience ratings, it is in the interest of the television stations to broadcast Islamic symbols that are acceptable to the general, “national” viewers. This study takes a look into the tension between Islamic ideologies and commercial interest in the practices that surround sinetron religi.
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