Religious Elites and Social Media: Contribution in Creating Peace

Abstract

The religious elite plays an important role in shaping the understanding and practice of
people in religion. Every delivery of his da'wah will be a reference for the people in dealing
with a problem. Therefore, the religious elite are required to offer invitations to goodness and
peace. This study aims to analyse the activities of religious elites on social media in bringing
peace especially in Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. The study also seeks to recognize the
role of the religious elite in responding to provocative news on social media. Data were
collected on selected samples by interviews, observations, and surveys on social media
activities, and is assisted with Google forms using semantic and pragmatic methods. Data
were analyzed by examining the types of semantic meanings, based on the presence or
absence of taste values, the accuracy of meaning, the relationship of meaning to one another,
and pragmatic meaning based on the type found from selected social media content samples.
The results obtained from social media analysis indicated that the activities of religious elites
on social media can be categorized into two groups, namely active and passive users. Active
Users often publish personal and group activities, provide religious advice and wise
sentences, while passive users only read and do not give excessive responses to issues and