REVERENCE IN ISLAMIC CHILDREN'S ANIMATION: LINGUISTIC AND VISUAL PERSPECTIVES FROM PAKISTANI AND FOREIGN CONTENT

Abstract

Digital Story Telling is significant in children's religious education due to the involvement of children and the ability to communicate Religious Knowledge and Morals, combining narrative, animation, visuals, sound and interactive elements. This study seeks to investigate the linguistic and visual expression of reverence in the digital stories produced in Islam for the children and to compare the animated stories with the foreign ones in Pakistan. Purposive sampling of ten animated videos was done using a qualitative research design, half of which were produced by foreign producers and the other half by the Pakistani producers. The videos were qualitatively analysed using Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) with the emphasis on the meta-functions of ideational, interpersonal, and textual. The results show that there are substantial differences between the two types of content. Religious honorifics, reverential language, Islamic terminology, and symbolism to ensure respect of prophets and sacred words were always present in Pakistani animations. In foreign cartoons, however, religious leaders were depicted in a neutral and informative way, without the use of a religious title or religious language to speak of Islamic sanctity. The study results indicate that there are significant roles played by the cultural and religious aspects in the digital stories representation of reverence in children. Preservation of religious respect and sacred representation is more highlighted while narration of foreign content is more inclined towards historical narration and education. The results of the research are included in a growing knowledge base about Digital Religious Education and provide practical recommendations for the Islamic content producers and teachers.