<![CDATA[Television representations of pesantren do not merely depict social reality. They also shape the context through which audiences interpret symbols of adab, tradition, and religious authority. This study examines the representation of santri-kiai relations in TRANS7's Xpose Uncensored segment aired on 13 October 2025. The novelty of this study lies in its focus on the discursive commodification of pesantren adab symbols by external television media. It introduces the concept of the materialisation chain and uses integrated verbal-visual analysis while distinguishing discursive commercialisation from factual commercial practice in pesantren. This study used a critical qualitative approach with Teun A. van Dijk's socio-cognitive model. Primary data consisted of verbal transcripts, captions, visual sequences, gestures, and verbal-visual relations in a 51-second segment. Contextual data were drawn from broadcasting regulations, a decision of the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission, institutional responses, and scholarly literature. The study concludes that the commercial meaning produced by the segment is an effect of audiovisual discourse construction, not factual evidence that pesantren or kiai engage in commercialisation. Cultural sensitivity should therefore be understood as part of communicative accuracy and broadcasting responsibility.]]>
Copyrights © 2026
