The Journal of Digital Religion and Contemporary Society (JDRCS) is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Zamzami Scholar Publishing, Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia. The journal provides an international platform for high-quality, original research that critically examines the dynamic interplay between religion, digital technologies, and contemporary social transformations.

JDRCS aims to advance interdisciplinary scholarship on how religion is shaped, mediated, and reconfigured within digital environments. The journal is particularly distinguished by its focus on religion as a lived, networked, and algorithmically mediated phenomenon, emphasizing both global developments and context-specific dynamics in the Global South, especially Southeast Asia.

The journal welcomes empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions that explore religion in relation to emerging digital infrastructures, including but not limited to social media platforms, artificial intelligence, digital economies, and virtual communities. It prioritizes research that engages with current issues, adopts rigorous methodologies, and contributes to broader academic debates in religious studies, media studies, and social sciences.

Scope of the Journal

JDRCS publishes original articles, review articles, and critical essays that address topics including, but not limited to:

• Digital Religion and Lived Religious Practices. Analysis of how religious beliefs, rituals, identities, and authorities are constructed, negotiated, and contested in digital spaces.
• Social Media, Algorithms, and Religious Authority. Studies on the role of platforms, influencers, and algorithmic systems in shaping religious discourse, authority, and knowledge production.
• Religion, Artificial Intelligence, and Emerging Technologies. Examination of AI, big data, and automation in relation to religious interpretation, ethics, and epistemology.
• Online Religious Communities and Digital Publics. Exploration of virtual communities, digital publics, and transnational religious networks.
• Religion, Politics, and Digital Society. Research on digital activism, polarization, identity politics, and the role of religion in contemporary socio-political contexts.
• Digital Hermeneutics and Scriptural Interpretation. Studies on how sacred texts are interpreted, circulated, and contested in digital environments.
• Media, Popular Culture, and Religious Representation. Analysis of religion in digital entertainment, visual culture, and online narratives.
• Methodological Approaches to Digital Religion. Contributions employing approaches such as netnography, digital ethnography, computational social science, and discourse analysis.
• Regional and Global Perspectives. Comparative and context-sensitive studies, with particular encouragement for research from underrepresented regions.

Distinctive Focus

Unlike conventional journals on religion and media, JDRCS emphasizes:

1. Algorithmic mediation of religion as a central analytical lens.
2. Integration of digital humanities and Islamic studies, alongside broader religious traditions.
3. Empirical grounding in contemporary digital ecosystems, especially in non-Western contexts.
4. Critical engagement with power, authority, and knowledge production in digital religious landscapes.

The journal does not prioritize purely doctrinal or normative theological discussions unless they are situated within broader socio-digital contexts and supported by rigorous analytical frameworks.

JDRCS seeks to contribute to global scholarly conversations by fostering theoretically informed, methodologically robust, and contextually grounded research on religion in the digital age.