Framing the Trans7 Boycott within Digital Ethics and Santri Community Resistance to Mainstream Media Narratives

Ahmad Salman Faird (Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam Negeri Mandailing Natal)
Marlina Marlina (Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam Mandailing Natal)

Proceedings of International Conference on Religion, Social and Humanities
Vol 4 (2025): Religion and Social Transformation in the Digital Era

The Trans7 boycott phenomenon, triggered by the television program Xpose Uncensored, illustrates the tension between mainstream media representation and the cultural sensitivity of Islamic boarding schools (pesantren). The broadcast portrayed the kiai–santri relationship as a form of social inequality, which subsequently generated public criticism and digital resistance movements among the santri community. This study aims to examine the construction of media framing, identify violations of digital ethics, and analyze the forms of resistance undertaken by pesantren communities against dominant media narratives. Employing a descriptive qualitative approach within a constructivist paradigm, the analysis draws on Robert M. Entman’s framing model and Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis. Data were collected from the Xpose Uncensored broadcast, online news coverage, social media content, and in-depth interviews with santri, kiai, and media activists, with validity ensured through source triangulation. The findings reveal that Trans7 framed pesantren culture in a reductive and biased manner by emphasizing narratives of social inequality while neglecting the contextual meaning of ta’dzim (respect and reverence) embedded in pesantren traditions. Such framing constitutes violations of key principles of digital ethics, particularly accountability, cultural sensitivity, and participatory verification. In response, the santri community engaged in digital resistance through hashtag campaigns, public clarifications, and the production of counter-narrative content that reaffirmed the ethical and spiritual significance of respect within pesantren culture. This movement represents a form of semiotic resistance and an expression of Islamic value-based digital literacy. These findings resonate with cultural resistance theory and Habermas’s concept of the digital public sphere. The study underscores that biased media framing and weak cultural sensitivity can provoke constructive religious resistance, while highlighting the need for a model of digital ethics grounded in Islamic values and Indonesia’s cultural pluralism.