Background and Objective: The expansion of digital platforms has shifted interpretive authority to media actors, challenging classical criteria. This comparative study aimed to analyze strategies of authority construction, user trust, and the formation of virtual interpretive communities in Christianity and Islam, and to explore the theological roots of observed differences.
Method: A sequential exploratory mixed-methods design was employed. In the qualitative phase, thematic analysis was conducted on 400 posts/videos from six Christian priests and Muslim clerics (with denominational diversity) on Instagram and YouTube, along with semi-structured interviews. In the quantitative phase, 400 users (200 Muslim, 200 Christian) completed a 30-item questionnaire.
Findings: Three themes emerged: "personalization of interpretive narrative," "algorithmic mediation," and "interactive authority pattern." Muslim clerics did not exhibit a uniform pattern: the Sunni preacher emphasized consensus, the Iranian Shiite cleric maintained the teacher-student chain, and the Iraqi Shiite cleric blended intimacy with reference to traditional authority. Christian users reported significantly higher trust (M=4.31) than Muslims (M=4.05) (p<0.001, d=0.84). Daily consumption of religious content was the strongest predictor of belonging to virtual community (β=0.52).
Conclusion: Differences stem from theological foundations such as the "priesthood of all believers" in Protestantism, "scholarly inheritance of the prophets" in Islam, and the concept of "collective ijtihad." The paper proposes a "platform theology" framework based on "truthfulness" (ṣidq) and "wise preaching" for ethical evaluation of media interpreters. Non-probability sampling limits generalizability.