Muhammadiyah's Da'wa and Communication Strategies in the Digital Era: Institutional Adaptation, Platform Logic, and Progressive Islamic Authority

Abstract

Digital media have transformed Islamic preaching from a predominantly organizational and face-to-face activity into a competitive, platform-dependent communication environment. This article examines how Muhammadiyah adapts its da'wa and communication strategies to that environment while attempting to preserve the institutional authority and reformist orientation of Islam Berkemajuan. The study employs qualitative document analysis within an IMRAD design. It analyzes Muhammadiyah's official statements, organizational publications, digital-da'wa agendas, and selected institutional communication practices published between 2020 and 2023, supported by scholarship on mediatization, religious authority, and digital religion. The findings identify five interconnected strategies: institutional media convergence, ideological framing through Islam Berkemajuan, audience segmentation, networked communication across autonomous organizations and charitable enterprises, and issue-based public da'wa during social crises. These strategies expand Muhammadiyah's reach and enable rapid public intervention, but their effectiveness is constrained by fragmented coordination, formal and elite-centered language, uneven digital capacity, dependence on commercial platforms, and limited dialogical engagement. The article argues that Muhammadiyah's central challenge is not technological adoption but the conversion of dispersed institutional resources into a coherent, audience-sensitive, and ethically accountable digital communication system. Digital da'wa becomes sustainable when institutional credibility is combined with platform literacy, participatory communication, and measurable public relevance.