Silent Dakwah: Strategi Komunikasi Islam melalui Estetika Visual dan Micro-Content di Era Digital

Abstract

The rapid transformation of digital communication has significantly reshaped the practice of Islamic da’wah, shifting it from conventional verbal-centered approaches toward visually driven and short-form content strategies. This study examines the concept of silent dakwah, defined as the delivery of Islamic messages through visual aesthetics and micro-content with minimal reliance on verbal narration. The research is motivated by the increasing dominance of visually oriented social media platforms and the need to understand how non-verbal communication influences audience engagement and the internalization of religious values. This study proposes that visual aesthetics and micro-content play a crucial role in enhancing audience engagement, which subsequently affects the effectiveness of silent dakwah. A quantitative explanatory design was employed, involving 214 respondents from Generation Z and young millennials who actively consume Islamic content on digital platforms. Data were collected through structured questionnaires and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. The results indicate that micro-content has the strongest influence on audience engagement, followed by visual aesthetics. Audience engagement, in turn, significantly affects the effectiveness of silent dakwah. Additionally, both visual aesthetics and micro-content have direct effects on the internalization of Islamic values, even without extensive verbal explanation. These findings demonstrate that silent dakwah represents an adaptive and effective communication strategy in the digital era, emphasizing the importance of visual storytelling and concise content formats. The study contributes to the development of Islamic communication by introducing a non-verbal, aesthetically driven framework that aligns with contemporary media consumption patterns. It suggests that the effectiveness of da’wah increasingly depends not only on the substance of the message but also on its visual and experiential presentation.