Skip to main content

Digital Religion and Global Media: Flows, Communities, and Radicalizations

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Handbook of Global Media Ethics

Abstract

This chapter reviews the intersection of digital media and religion. The chapter points to three elements: flows, communities, and radicalizations. Regarding flows, a distinction is made between studying global flows in a way that highlights dominant religious groups and studying them in a way that highlights diversity of religious expression. For communities, a division between organized global religious communities, diasporic religious communities, and grassroots religious communities is suggested. Finally, in terms of studying online religious radicalizations from a global perspective, accounting for the discursive, technological, and sociocultural elements is discussed. Thus, the chapter highlights the importance of religion and digital media in contemporary life and the benefits of interdisciplinarity as an analytical and theoretical perspective.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 229.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 299.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    Thomas, The Global Resurgence of Religion; Zeidan, The Resurgence of Religion.

  2. 2.

    Whitehead et al., “Make America Christian Again.”

  3. 3.

    Poonam, “Modi’s Message.”

  4. 4.

    Thomas, The Global Resurgence of Religion.

  5. 5.

    Campbell, “Introduction,” 1.

  6. 6.

    Zeiler, “Global Mediatization of Hinduism.”

  7. 7.

    Campbell, “Introduction,” 1.

  8. 8.

    Campbell and Lövheim, “Introduction.”

  9. 9.

    Brasher, Give Me That Online Religion.

  10. 10.

    Campbell et al., “There’s a Religious App”; Wagner, “You Are What You Install.”

  11. 11.

    Heidbrink et al., “Theorizing Religion.”

  12. 12.

    Bellar et al., “Reading Religion.”

  13. 13.

    Iordache et al., “Global Media Flows.”

  14. 14.

    Pieterse, Globalization or Empire?, 122.

  15. 15.

    Thussu, “Mapping Global Media Flow.”

  16. 16.

    Kraidy, Hybridity.

  17. 17.

    Castells, Rise of the Network Society, 424.

  18. 18.

    Bekmagambetov et al., “Critical Social Media Information Flows.”

  19. 19.

    Li, Virtual Chinatown; Yadlin-Segal, “Online Homelands.”

  20. 20.

    Maguire, “The Islamic Internet.”

  21. 21.

    Hoover, “Religion and the Media in the 21st Century,” 33.

  22. 22.

    Ibid.

  23. 23.

    Iannaccone, “Religious Markets.”

  24. 24.

    Groys, “Religion in the Age of Digital Reproduction,” 22.

  25. 25.

    Thumma and Bird, “Megafaith for the Megacity.”

  26. 26.

    Riches and Wagner, “Hillsong Music.”

  27. 27.

    Ibid, 21.

  28. 28.

    Groys, “Religion in the Age of Digital Reproduction,” 26.

  29. 29.

    Thussu, “Mapping.”

  30. 30.

    Ibid, 10.

  31. 31.

    Klassen, “Cybercoven”; Lawson, “Examining Online Communities Through Wicca.”

  32. 32.

    Thussu, “Mapping,” 13.

  33. 33.

    McLaughlin, “Transnational Feminism,” 199.

  34. 34.

    Campbell et al., “There’s a Religious App,” 164.

  35. 35.

    Campbell, “Religious Authority”; Eckert and Chadha, “Muslim Bloggers in Germany”; Bunt, Hashtag Islam.

  36. 36.

    Jenkins, Convergence Culture; Castells, Rise of the Network Society.

  37. 37.

    Rainie and Wellman, Networked.

  38. 38.

    Baym, Tune in, Log on.

  39. 39.

    Rheingold, Virtual Community, xx.

  40. 40.

    Stone, “Real Body.”

  41. 41.

    Zaphiris et al., “Online Communities.”

  42. 42.

    Miller and Slater, The Internet, 4.

  43. 43.

    Verschueren, “From Virtual to Everyday Life,” 170.

  44. 44.

    Rainie and Wellman, Networked.

  45. 45.

    Slouka, War of the Worlds; Proulx and Latzko-Toth, “Mapping the Virtual”; Turkle, Alone Together.

  46. 46.

    Yadlin-Segal, “Selfies and Affect.”

  47. 47.

    Erete, “Engaging around Neighborhood.”

  48. 48.

    Miller and Slater, The Internet.

  49. 49.

    Tsuria, “Conservative Judaism.”

  50. 50.

    Coltri, “Women and NRMs.”

  51. 51.

    Golan and Stadler, “Building the Sacred Community”; Golan, “Charting Frontiers.”

  52. 52.

    Golan and Stadler, “Building,” 82.

  53. 53.

    Cheong et al., “The Internet Highway.”

  54. 54.

    Magnatta, “Online Presence.”

  55. 55.

    Brasher, Online Religion, 25.

  56. 56.

    Khosravi, “Ethnographic Approach.”

  57. 57.

    Cheong and Poon, “Weaving Webs.”

  58. 58.

    Westbrook and Saad, “Religious Identity.”

  59. 59.

    “Religion, Globalization and Migration,” 445.

  60. 60.

    Helland, “Online Religion”; Krogh and Pillifant, “House of Netjer.”

  61. 61.

    Lawson, “Wicca”; Singler, “Jediism and Social Media.”

  62. 62.

    Krogh and Pillifant, “House of Netjer,” 212.

  63. 63.

    Banks, “Regulating Hate Speech.”

  64. 64.

    Brown, “White Supremacist.”

  65. 65.

    Hawdon et al., “Exposure to Online Hate,” 1. See also Bliuc et al., “Online Networks.”

  66. 66.

    Berlett, “Hate Online.”

  67. 67.

    Lotan, “Israel, Gaza”; Barberá et al., “Tweeting from Left to Right.”

  68. 68.

    Flaxman et al., “Filter Bubbles,” 299.

  69. 69.

    See, for example, Nauta, “Radical Islam”; Torok, “Social Media.”

  70. 70.

    McFarlane, “Online Violent Radicalization”; O’Hara and Stevens, “Devil’s Long Tail.”

  71. 71.

    Munn, “Alt-Right Pipeline”; Sieckelinck et al., “Transitional Journeys.”

  72. 72.

    Tsuria, “New Media.”

  73. 73.

    Torok, “Social Media,” 39.

  74. 74.

    Nauta, “Radical Islam,” 128.

  75. 75.

    MacFarlane, “Online Violent Radicalization.”

  76. 76.

    Karandikar, “Persuasive Propaganda.”

  77. 77.

    O’Hara and Stevens, “Devil’s Long Tail.”

  78. 78.

    Harindranath, “Social Media,” 60.

  79. 79.

    Munn, “Alt-Right Pipeline.”

  80. 80.

    Hoover, “Religion and Media,” 27.

  81. 81.

    Ibid, 25.

References

  • Banks J (2010) Regulating hate speech online. International Review of Law, Computers & Technology 24(3):233–239

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barassi V, Treré E (2012) Does Web 3.0 come after Web 2.0? Deconstructing theoretical assumptions through practice. New media & society 14(8):1269–1285

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barberá P, Jost JT, Nagler J, Tucker JA, Bonneau R (2015) Tweeting from left to right: is online political communication more than an echo chamber? Psychol Sci 26(10):1531–1542

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baym NK (2000) Tune in, log on: soaps, fandom, and online community. Sage, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bekmagambetov A, Wagner KM, Gainous J, Sabitov Z, Rodionov A, Gabdulina B (2018) Critical social media information flows: political trust and protest behaviour among Kazakhstani college students. Central Asian Survey 37(4):526–545

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bellar W, Campbell HA, Cho KJ, Terry A, Tsuria R, Yadlin-Segal A, Ziemer J (2013) Reading religion in internet memes. Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture 2(2):1–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berlett C. “When hate went online.” Paper presented at the Northeast Sociological Association Spring Conference, Fairfield, CT, 2001. http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/terrorism/insurgency/hate-online.html

  • Bliuc A-M, Faulkner N, Jakubowicz A, McGarty C (2018) Online networks of racial hate: a systematic review of 10 years of research on cyber-racism. Comput Hum Behav 87:75–86

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boellstorff T (2012) Rethinking digital anthropology. In: Digital anthropology. Berg, London, pp 39–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Brasher BE (2001) Give me that online religion. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown C (2009) www.hate.com: white supremacist discourse on the internet and the construction of whiteness ideology. The Howard Journal of Communications 20(2):189–208

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bunt GR (2018) Hashtag Islam: how cyber-Islamic environments are transforming religious authority. UNC Press Books, Chapel Hill

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell HA (2010) Religious authority and the blogosphere. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 15(2):251–276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell HA (2013a) Introduction. In: Campbell HA (ed) Digital religion: understanding religious practice in new media worlds. Routledge, New York, pp 1–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell HA (2013b) Community. In: Campbell HA (ed) Digital religion: understanding religious practice in new media worlds. Routledge, New York, pp 57–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell HA, Lövheim M (2011) Introduction: rethinking the online–offline connection in the study of religion online. Inf Commun Soc 14(8):1083–1096

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell HA, Altenhofen B, Bellar W, Cho KJ (2014) There’s a religious app for that! a framework for studying religious mobile applications. Mobile Media & Communication 2(2):154–172

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castells M (2000) The rise of the network society. The information age: economy, society, and culture. Wiley-Blackwell, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheong PH, Poon JPH (2009) Weaving webs of faith: examining internet use and religious communication among Chinese protestant transmigrants. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication 2(3):189–207

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheong PH, Poon JPH, Huang S, Casas I (2009) The internet highway and religious communities: mapping and contesting spaces in religion-online. The Information Society 25(5):291–302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coltri MA (2017) Women and NRMs: location and identity. In: Tøllefsen IB, Giudice C (eds) Female leaders in new religious movements. Palgrave Macmillan, pp 11–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Danet B (1998) Text as mask: gender, play and performance. Cybersociety 2:129–158

    Google Scholar 

  • Darling-Wolf F (2008) Disturbingly hybrid or distressingly patriarchal? Gender hybridity in a global environment. In: Hybrid identities. Brill, pp 63–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Eckert S, Chadha K (2013) Muslim bloggers in Germany: an emerging counterpublic. Media, Culture & Society 35(8):926–942

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erete SL (2015) Engaging around neighborhood issues: how online communication affects offline behavior. In: Proceedings of the 18th ACM conference on computer supported cooperative work & social computing (CSCW ‘15). ACM, New York, pp 1590–1601. https://doi.org/10.1145/2675133.2675182

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Flaxman S, Goel S, Rao JM (2016) Filter bubbles, echo chambers, and online news consumption. Public Opin Q 80(S1):298–320

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Golan O (2012) Charting frontiers of online religious communities. In: Campbell H (ed) Digital religion: understanding religious practice in new media worlds. Routledge, New York, pp 155–163

    Google Scholar 

  • Golan O, Stadler N (2016) Building the sacred community online: the dual use of the internet by Chabad. Media, Culture & Society 38(1):71–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Groys B (2011) Religion in the age of digital reproduction. In: Groys B, Weibel P (eds) Medium religion: faith, geopolitics, art. Walther König, Cologne, pp 22–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Harindranath R (2017) Social media, radicalization and extremist violence: challenges for research. In: Hight C, Harindranath R (eds) Studying digital media audiences. Routledge, London, pp 60–75

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hawdon J, Oksanen A, Räsänen P (2017) Exposure to online hate in four nations: a cross-national consideration. Deviant Behav 38(3):254–266

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heidbrink S, Knoll T, Wysocki J (2014) Theorizing religion in digital games. Perspectives and approaches. Online-Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet 5:5–50. https://doi.org/10.11588/rel.2014.0.12156. Last accessed 23 Feb 2020

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helland C (2000) Online-religion/religion-online and virtual communitas. In: Hadden JK, Cowan DE (eds) Religion on the internet: research prospects and promises. JAI, New York, pp 205–222

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoover SM (2012) Religion and the media in the 21st century. Trípodos 1(29):27–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Iannaccone LR (1992) Religious markets and the economics of religion. Social Compass 39(1):123–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iordache C, Van Audenhove L, Loisen J (2019) Global media flows: a qualitative review of research methods in audio-visual flow studies. International Communication Gazette 81(6-8):748–767

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins H (2008) Convergence culture: where old and new media collide. New York University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Karandikar S (2019) Persuasive propaganda: an investigation of online deceptive tactics of Islamist, White, and Zionist extremists. In: Chiluwa IE, Samoilenko SA (eds) Handbook of research on deception, fake news, and misinformation online. IGI Global, pp 538–555

    Google Scholar 

  • Khosravi S (2000) www.iranian.com, an ethnographic approach to an online diaspora. ISIM Newsletter 6:1–4

    Google Scholar 

  • Klassen C (2002) Cybercoven: being a witch online. Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 31(1):51–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kraidy M (2005) Hybridity, or the cultural logic of globalization. Temple University Press, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Krogh MC, Pillifant BA (2004) The House of Netjer: a new religious community online. In: Dawson LL, Cowan DE (eds) Religion online: finding faith on the internet. Routledge, London, pp 107–219

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawson K (2010) Examining online communities through Wicca. Augsburg Honors Review, Article 3(1):10

    Google Scholar 

  • Li PH (2013) A virtual Chinatown: the diasporic mediasphere of Chinese migrants in New Zealand. Brill, Leiden

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lotan G. Israel, Gaza, War & Data: social networks and the art of personalizing propaganda. Huffington Post, August 7, 2014. Last accessed 18 Feb 2020. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/israel-gaza-war-social-networks-data_b_5658557

  • Lövheim M (2012) “A voice of their own” young Muslim women, blogs and religion. In: Hjarvard S, Lövheim M (eds) Mediatization and religion: Nordic perspectives. Nordicom, Göteborg, pp 129–145

    Google Scholar 

  • MacFarlane B. Online Violent Radicalisation (OVeR): challenges facing law enforcement agencies and policy stakeholders. In ARC Linkage Project on Radicalisation—Conference 2010

    Google Scholar 

  • Magnatta S (2015) Online presence: the internet and the fourteenth Dalai Lama. Journal of the Southwest Conference on Asian Studies 8:23–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Maguire M (2007) The Islamic internet: authority, authenticity and reform. In: Thussu DK (ed) Media on the move: global flow and contra-flow. Routledge, New York, pp 237–250

    Google Scholar 

  • McLaughlin L (2007) Transnational feminism and the revolutionary association of the women of Afghanistan. In: Thussu DK (ed) Media on the move: global flow and contra-flow. Routledge, New York, pp 195–208

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller D, Slater D (2000) The internet: an ethnographic approach. Berg, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Munn L (2019 June 3) Alt-right pipeline: individual journeys to extremism online. First Monday 24(6). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v24i6.10108. Last accessed 23 Feb 2020

  • Nauta A (2013) Radical Islam, globalisation and social media: martyrdom videos on the internet. In: Gillespie M, Herbert D, Greenhill A (eds) Social media and religious change. De Gruyter, Berlin, pp 121–142

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • O’Hara K, Stevens D (2009) The Devil’s long tail: religious moderation and extremism on the web. IEEE Intell Syst 24(6):37–43

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pastina L, Antonio C, Straubhaar JD (2005) Multiple proximities between television genres and audiences: the Schism between Telenovelas’ global distribution and local consumption. International Communication Gazette 67(3):271–288

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pieterse JN (2004) Globalization or empire? Routledge, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Poonam S. Modi’s message was simple: Hindus first. Foreignpolicy.com, May 24, 2019., accessed 17 Feb 2020, https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/05/24/modis-message-was-simple-hindus-first/

  • Proulx S, Latzko-Toth G (2005) Mapping the virtual in social sciences: on the category of ‘virtual community’. J Community Inform 2(1):42–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Radde-Antweiler K, Zeiler X (eds) (2018) Mediatized religion in Asia: studies on digital media and religion. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Rainie H, Wellman B (2012) Networked: the new social operating system. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rheingold H (2000) The virtual community: homesteading on the electronic frontier. MIT press

    Google Scholar 

  • Riches T, Wagner T (2012) The evolution of Hillsong music: from Australian Pentecostal congregation into global brand. Aust J Commun 39(1):17

    Google Scholar 

  • Sieckelinck S, Sikkens E, van San M, Kotnis S, De Winter M (2019) Transitional journeys into and out of extremism. A biographical approach. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 42(7):662–682

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singler B (2014) “See mom it is real”: the UK census, Jediism and social media. Journal of Religion in Europe 7(2):150–168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slouka M (1995) War of the worlds: cyberspace and the high-tech assault on reality. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone AR (1991) Will the real body please stand up? In: Benedikt M (ed) Cyberspace: first steps. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 81–118

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas S (2005) The global resurgence of religion and the transformation of international relations: the struggle for the soul of the twenty-first century. Palgrave Macmillan, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Thumma SL, Bird W (2015) Megafaith for the megacity: the global megachurch phenomenon. In: Brunn S (ed) The changing world religion map: sacred places, identities, practices, and politics. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 2331–2352

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Thussu DK (2007) Mapping global media flow and contra-flow. In: Thussu DK (ed) Media on the move: global flow and contra-flow. Routledge, New York, pp 11–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Torok R (2016) Social media and the use of discursive markers of online extremism and recruitment. In: Khader M, Neo LS, Ong G, Mingyi ET, Chin J (eds) Combating violent extremism and radicalization in the digital era. IGI Global. Information Science Reference, Hershey, pp 39–69

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Tsuria, Ruth. New media in the Jewish bedroom: exploring religious Jewish online discourse concerning gender and sexuality. PhD diss., Texas A&M University, 2017

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsuria R (2019) Conservative Judaism and online media. In: Grant A, Sturgill A, Chen CH (eds) Religion online: how digital technology is changing the way we worship and pray. Praeger Press, New York, pp 144–160

    Google Scholar 

  • Turkle S (2017) Alone together: why we expect more from technology and less from each other. Hachette UK, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Vásquez MA (2016) Religion, globalization and migration. In: Woodhead L, Partridge C, Kawanami H (eds) Religions in the modern world: traditions and transformations. Taylor and Francis, London, pp 472–494

    Google Scholar 

  • Verschueren P (2006) From virtual to everyday life. In: Servaes J, Carpentier N (eds) Towards a sustainable information society: deconstructing WSIS. Intellect Books, Bristol, pp 169–184

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner R (2013) You are what you install: religious authenticity and identity in mobile apps. In: Campbell HA (ed) Digital religion: understanding religious practices in new media worlds. Routledge, New York, pp 199–208

    Google Scholar 

  • Westbrook DA, Saad SM (2017) Religious identity and borderless territoriality in the Coptic E-diaspora. Journal of International Migration and Integration 18(1):341–351

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whitehead AL, Perry SL, Baker JO (2018) Make America Christian again: Christian nationalism and voting for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Sociology of Religion 79(2):147–171

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yadlin-Segal A. Online homelands: Israeli-Persian identity between the online and the offline. PhD diss., Texas A&M University, 2017

    Google Scholar 

  • Yadlin-Segal A (2018) What’s in a smile? Politicizing disability through selfies and affect. J Comput-Mediat Commun 24(1):36–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zaphiris P, Ang CS, Laghos A (2012) Online communities. In: Sears A, Jacko JA (eds) Human computer interaction handbook: fundamentals, evolving technologies, and emerging applications. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 604–618

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeidan DS (2018) The resurgence of religion: a comparative study of selected themes in Christian and Islamic fundamentalist discourses. Brill, Leiden

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeiler X (2014) The global mediatization of Hinduism through digital games: representation versus simulation in Hanuman: Boy Warrior. In: Campbell HA, Grieve GP (eds) Playing with religion in digital games. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, pp 66–87

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhao S, Grasmuck S, Martin J (2008) Identity construction on Facebook: digital empowerment in anchored relationships. Comput Hum Behav 24(5):1816–1836

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Tsuria, R., Yadlin-Segal, A. (2021). Digital Religion and Global Media: Flows, Communities, and Radicalizations. In: Ward, S.J.A. (eds) Handbook of Global Media Ethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32103-5_10

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics