The 21st century is a century of technology and information, where humanity enters the era of “millennium information. This era is marked by information that is disseminated through mass media and social media will significantly determine the direction of community development. Social reality has narrowed its meaning to “media reality” as what mass media broadcasts. The tendency of narrowing this meaning except as awareness also increases the social responsibility of the mass media.
The term social media is composed of two words, namely “media” and “social”, Media” is defined as a communication tool. Whereas the word “social” is defined as the social reality that every individual takes action that contributes to society. The media and all software are “social” or in the sense that they are products of social processes.
Rehabilitation of Journalism
The roles of journalism and its users have actually been shown in the process of the descent of the holy book, especially the Qur’an. Angel Jibraiel (PBUH) was the one who brought the news from heaven to the world and convey it to humans through the Prophet Muhammad SAW, (16:102).
God says: “Say the Holy Spirit (Angel Jibraiel (PBUH)) sends down the Qur’an from your God with the truth”.
The message brought by Angel Jibraiel (PBUH) cannot be directly needed by the mediator. Angel Jibraiel (PBUH), from this side, plays the role of mediator between God and Humans because of their capabilities and capacities that can be at least two dimensions; angel dimension and human dimension. In Communication Science, Angel Jibraiel (PBUH) functions as a channel of divine messages conveyed to humans as recipients of the message represented by The Last Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). As the channel, Angel Jibraiel (PBUH) does not add or subtract the divine messages from God, because the task is to convey truth.
“O you who believe! Take care of yourself and your family from the fires of hell whose fuel is human and stone; guarding angels who are rude, harsh, and disobedient to God for what He commands them and always do what they are told. He does not speak except permitted by God and he always says the right one.” (78:38)
The Qur’an strengthens the hearts of those who have believed and become a guide and good news for those who submit themselves to Allah. Based on the explanation, the Qur’an has given an explanation and gives a clear signal by showing the right use of precedents about all negative communication. This precedent at the same time also implies the importance of caution, introspection, and intelligent literacy about journalism.
Everyone should be careful, when getting news through social media, after learning now. Do not rush to share the news that is not yet known. If the truth is known, it needs to be weighed, first.
