Analysis of Ustaz Abdul Somad's Diction in YouTube Media: A Stylistic Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24256/ideas.v14i2.12482Keywords:
diction; digital da'wah; language suitability; stylistics; Ustaz Abdul SomadAbstract
Diction plays an important role in the effectiveness of delivering da'wah messages, especially on digital platforms such as YouTube, whose audiences are diverse in terms of social, cultural, and educational backgrounds. This study aims to identify the form, appropriateness, and function of diction used by Ustaz Abdul Somad (UAS) in his lecture on YouTube through a stylistic approach based on Gorys Keraf's diction theory, which includes general and special words, denotative and connotative words, scientific and popular words, as well as foreign words and absorption words. This study uses a qualitative descriptive method with the researcher as the main instrument. Data were collected from ten lecture videos (V01–V10) uploaded on the official UAS YouTube channel, selected through purposive sampling techniques, using listening, transcription, and note-taking techniques, then analyzed with Miles and Huberman's interactive model which included data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawn. The results of the study found 49 diction data spread across eight categories, with special words (9 data) as the most dominant category, followed by connotative words and foreign words (7 data each). All 49 data items were considered contextually appropriate, although eight were rated lexically inaccurate, including some informal borrowings and figurative expressions. In terms of function, informative diction is the most dominant (41%), followed by persuasive, emotive, and clarifying message functions. These findings suggest that UAS strategically blends a high religious register (Arabic term, scientific word) with informal, popular, and absorbed vocabulary to balance religious authority with accessibility for audiences, a pattern that distinguishes digital da'wah discourse from formal writing genres studied in previous studies.
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