Methods of developing religious discourse in the websites of electronic newspapers: A study on a sample of experts and communicators in those websites

Author

Lecturer at Journalism Department, The Higher Institute for Media and Communication Arts

Abstract

This study seeks to identify the most important methods of developing religious discourse on the websites of electronic newspapers in format, content and performance from the point of view of each of the experts and communicators in those websites. It also seeks to set an agenda for religious discourse based on the development strategy in the four Egyptian newspaper websites, the study sample are Al-Ahram, Al-Akhbar, Al-Wafd and Al-Masry Al-Youm.
The study reached several results, the most important of which are:
1- 100% of all respondents read religious articles on the websites of electronic newspapers, 40% of them follow these websites permanently, 45.6% follow them sometimes, compared to only 14.4% who follow them rarely.
2- The results showed that about 76.7% of the sample members feel satisfied with the current religious discourse on the websites of electronic newspapers, of whom 6.7% feel very satisfied, and 63.3% feel satisfied to some extent, compared to 23.3% who are not satisfied with that discourse.
3- The inability of the religious discourse to show the essence of the true Islamic religion” is the most prominent shortcoming that the current religious discourse suffers from in the websites of electronic newspapers, with a percentage weight of 76%, followed by “the religious discourse often preoccupies itself with formalities and marginal matters, with a percentage of 74.67%, Then "the tendency of religious discourse to reject Western civilization" by 72%.
4- The results showed that the most important controls for developing religious discourse from the point of view of experts and those in charge of communicating in Arab satellite channels is “that the thought of development should be based on the Noble Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet first, then the diligence of scholars and thinkers later” with a percentage of 22.28%, followed by “that development does not lead to conflict with or breach of the legal texts” by 18.51%, then “the development should take into account the general rules of fatwa” with a rate of 15.99%.
5- The issue of “civilizational intercourse with the countries of the world” was the most important issue that should be focused on in the religious discourse in the websites of electronic newspapers from the point of view of experts and those in charge of communicating, with a weighted weight of 19.47%, followed by the issue of “activating the role of Islamic organizations in all countries of the world with a rate of 17.76.” %, then the issue of "Arab unity" with 15.47%, and the issue of "emphasizing the principle of social justice and social solidarity" with 13.45%.

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