Countering Religious Disinformation in the Digital Era: The Role of Indonesian Language Competence in the Public Communication of Islamic Religious Counselors in Sinjai Regency
Abstract
Religious disinformation circulating on social media poses a significant challenge to IndonesianMuslim communities by threatening social cohesion and undermining religious authority in the digital era. This study examines the influence of Indonesian language competence on the effectiveness of public communication by Islamic religious counselors in countering religious disinformation on social media in Sinjai Regency, South Sulawesi. A quantitative correlational design was employed, involving all 79 functional and non-functional Islamic religious counselors through total sampling. Data were collected using a validated and reliable Likert-scale questionnaire comprising 37 items measuring Indonesian language competence across five dimensions (grammatical, discourse, lexical, argumentative, and sociolinguistic) and public communication effectiveness across three dimensions (message clarity and trustworthiness, digital credibility and reach, and responsiveness and counter-narrative capacity). Data were analyzed using Pearson's product-moment correlation and simple linear regression. The findings indicate that respondents demonstrated a very high level of Indonesian language competence (M = 78.63; 81.91% of the ideal score) and effective public communication (M = 41.29; 79.41% of the ideal score). A very strong positive correlation was found between the two variables (r = 0.908, *p* < 0.001). Regression analysis further revealed that Indonesian language competence significantly predicted public communication effectiveness (R² = 0.825; Ŷ = 1.213 + 0.510X), explaining 82.5% of its variance. These findings highlight Indonesian language competence as a key predictor of effective public communication by Islamic religious counselors and underscore the strategic importance of strengthening their digital language competence to enhance community resilience against religious disinformation.
Religious disinformation circulating on social media poses a significant challenge to IndonesianMuslim communities by threatening social cohesion and undermining religious authority in the digital era. This study examines the influence of Indonesian language competence on the effectiveness of public communication by Islamic religious counselors in countering religious disinformation on social media in Sinjai Regency, South Sulawesi. A quantitative correlational design was employed, involving all 79 functional and non-functional Islamic religious counselors through total sampling. Data were collected using a validated and reliable Likert-scale questionnaire comprising 37 items measuring Indonesian language competence across five dimensions (grammatical, discourse, lexical, argumentative, and sociolinguistic) and public communication effectiveness across three dimensions (message clarity and trustworthiness, digital credibility and reach, and responsiveness and counter-narrative capacity). Data were analyzed using Pearson's product-moment correlation and simple linear regression. The findings indicate that respondents demonstrated a very high level of Indonesian language competence (M = 78.63; 81.91% of the ideal score) and effective public communication (M = 41.29; 79.41% of the ideal score). A very strong positive correlation was found between the two variables (r = 0.908, *p* < 0.001). Regression analysis further revealed that Indonesian language competence significantly predicted public communication effectiveness (R² = 0.825; Ŷ = 1.213 + 0.510X), explaining 82.5% of its variance. These findings highlight Indonesian language competence as a key predictor of effective public communication by Islamic religious counselors and underscore the strategic importance of strengthening their digital language competence to enhance community resilience against religious disinformation.
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