MUSLIM MOTHERS AND INDONESIAN GOSSIP SHOWS IN EVERYDAY LIFE

Television gossip shows, popularly known as infotainment, have become a daily staple for Indonesian viewers for more than a decade. However, due to its nature of publicly airing the supposedly dirty laundry of Indonesian celebrities, infotainment has been under attack since its inception. Religious, professional and social organisations have publicly debated its content to little effect since infotainment remains one of the most watched television programmes. This article seeks to explore and analyse the infotainment landscape in Indonesian television and to examine the experiences of Indonesian Muslim mothers, who are exposed to infotainment, and how they negotiate these programmes in terms of their understanding of the Islamic prohibition of gossip.