Knowledge Production-Consumption: A Comparative of Two Famous Online Preachers in Indonesia and the Philippines

The manners of expressing religious identity have changed rapidly over the past decade. It resulted in the emergence of the online global community. The also known ‘networked religion’ is used to recognize how religion functions online. This study applies comparative research intended to explore the distinction between two popular online preachers in Indonesia and the Philippines, i.e. Abdul Somad and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle respectively. Through their social media, it analyses their popularity, religious spectacle, and political issues. A comparative analysis between the two popular preachers gives findings of the current internet and religious situations in the Philippines and Indonesia. First, that Indonesians are more susceptible to digital religious preaching compared to the Filipinos. Second, both the preacher’s religious spectacles touched and convinced the heart of the Filipino and Indonesian people through their words and wisdom as the product by their strategy of unique preaching style and charisma. Third, the Indonesian religious preacher is more vulnerable to political issues. The Philippine religious preacher’s influence is limited by the law of the country’s separation of Church and the state.