1. TO GO ONLINE OR NOT TO GO ONLINE: THE USE OF
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR RESEARCH SETTING IN
ISLAMIC CONTEXT
Nurdin M.Com.,Ph.D
Institut Agama Islam Negeri
(IAIN) Palu
nnurdin@iainpalu.ac.id
PAPER DI PRESENTASIKAN PADA ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE ON ISLAMIC STUDIES (AICIS) SAMARINDA
TANGGAL 21-24 NOVEMBER 2014
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu

2. PRESENTATION OUTLINE
 Introduction
 Definitions
 Social media users in Indonesia
 Benefits of social media for research setting
 Answering research questions
 Conclusion
 Future research
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu

3. INTRODUCTION
 72 millions Internet users (Samuel
A. Pangerapan, 2014 (APJII
chairman)
 85% of population are Muslim ( 60
millions)
 The third larger social media users
in the world (Economist, 2011) (62
active Facebook users according to
Cahyana Ahamdjayadi, Co Founder
Republik Internet)
 Mobile phone ownership more than
population number (281 millions; US
Cencus Bureau,2014)
 Mobile technology ownership(lap
top, tablet, smart phone, etc) sharply
increased
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu

4. INTRODUCTION
 72 millions Internet users (Samuel A. Pangerapan, 2014
(APJII chairman)
 85% of population are Muslim ( 60 millions)
 The third larger social media users in the world
(Economist, 2011) (62 active Facebook users according to
Cahyana Ahamdjayadi, Co Founder Republik Internet)
 Mobile phone ownership more than population
number (281 millions; US Cencus Bureau,2014)
 Mobile technology ownership(lap top, tablet,
smart phone, etc) sharply increased
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu

5. PEOPLE ARE MIGRATING TO
DIGITAL LIFE
 More and more
activities (social,
economic, politics,
and religion, etc)
are practiced
online (various
social media sites)
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu

6. 28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu
What is the implication to our
research paradigm? Should
researchers within Islamic
institutions to go online or not? If
yes, why? And how?

7. DEFINITIONS: SOCIAL MEDIA
 “a group of Internet-based applications that build
on the ideological and technological foundations
of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and
exchange of User Generated Content” (Kaplan
and Haenlein, 2010. p.61)
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu

8.  emergence of Internet has supported practicing various
communication activtities in online space
 online sphere encouraged researchers, whether
quantitaive or qualitative, to extend their data gathering
approaches
 Non Islamic institutions and researchers take advantage to
practice online data collection:
- gather data through web surveys (e.g. Lefever, &
Matthiasdottir, (2007).
- Emails (e.g. McCoyd, & Kerson, 2006 and Wattal, et al ,
2012).
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu

9.  use of social media in various aspect has significantli
increased, for example in dakwah, education, economics.
Politics, and other social aspects.
 researchers under Islamic education institutions yet to
utilize this online space for their research setting
 focused on gathering data through conventional methods
such as interviews, focus groups, and ethnography studies
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu

10. CONVENTIONAL RESEARCH
 Qualitative
 Case study
 Focus group
 Ethnography
 Quantitive
 Survey ---- paper based
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu

11. CONVENTIONAL RESEARCHZ;
CHALLENGES??
 Informants may under pressures
 Bias
 Time consuming
 Limited access to sites
 Difficult access to informants with difficult
geographic area
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu

12. ONLINE RESEARCH; BENEFITS
 Unlimited access to informants
 Unlimited access to data
 More Informants
 Enable online coding
 Online survey
 Reduce time, cost, and energy
 Catch up with lates phenomenon
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu

13. CONVENTIONAL SURVEY
 Paper based
 Limited respondents
 Geographic barriers
 Cost and time
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu

14. CONVENTIONAL INTERVIEW
 Time limitation
 Bias due to pressures
 Informants tend to
please reseachers
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu

15. ONLINE SURVEY & INTERVIEW
(USE SOCIAL MEDIA)
 Unlimited informants
or respodents
 Wide range of
informants or
respondents
 24/7 data access
 Wide range od data
sources (texts,
pictures, video,
grapgh, etc)
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu

16. WHY SOCIAL MEDIA FOR RFESEARCH SETTING?
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu
As a Medium for:
 Triangulation Medium
- to validate conventional data due to:
- conventional interview – underpressure (e.g.
time, space). This creates “a very artificial
situation” (Myers,& Newman, 2007. p.3) where
informants try to please a researcher.
- building consistency across data source and
approaches (validity)
- environment triangulation (online and offline or
various social media sites)

17. ENHANCE UNDERSTANDING
 Strengthens conventional research results
 Inconsistency may emerge, but this inconsistency can
deepen understanding of a phenomenon (Patton,1990)
 Data from different environment (various social media
sites)
 Able to compare and re-compare to increase researchers
underatnding of a topic being studied
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu

18. CONCLUSION
 SHOULD WE DO RESEARCH ON
SOCIAL MEDIA?
WHY?
- Social media user is increasing (85% of
Indonesian are Muslim)
- More and more phenomenon are
available on social media such OSN,
Blog, etc (religion, education, economic,
politics, etc)
- Our life is moving to online space (social
media)
- Wide range of data, sources, less time
and cost, reduce geographic challenges,
etc.
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu

19. LIMITATION AND FUTURE
RESEARCH
The data was generated from online and offline
literature and yet to be tested empirically.
Need to address Ethical issues
Future research should focus on testing this
paper idea in an empirical setting. E.g. Use social
media to do online survey, content analisis, data
mining, etc.
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu

20. Many thanks
28/06/15Nurdin,M.Com.,Ph.D.DosenIAINPalu