Mediatizing the Holy Community—Ultra-Orthodoxy Negotiation and Presentation on Public Social-Media

Nakhi Mishol-Shauli,Oren Golan

doi:10.3390/rel10070438

Abstract

In recent years, media theorists stress macroscopic relations between digital communications and religion, through the framing of mediatization theory. In these discussions, media is conceptualized as a social institution, which influences religious establishments and discourse. Mediatization scholars have emphasized the transmission of meanings and outreach to individuals, and the religious-social shaping of technology. Less attention has been devoted to the mediatization of the religious community and identity. Accordingly, we asked how members of bounded religious communities negotiate and perform their identity via public social media. This study focuses on public performances of the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel, rhetorically and symbolically expressed in groups operating over WhatsApp, a mobile instant messaging and social media platform. While a systematic study of instant messaging has yet to be conducted on insular-religious communities, this study draws upon an extensive exploration of over 2000 posts and 20 interviews conducted between 2016–2019. The findings uncover how, through mediatization, members work towards reconstructing the holy community online, yet renegotiate enclave boundaries. The findings illuminate a democratizing impact of mediatization as growing masses of ultra-Orthodox participants are given a voice, restructure power relations and modify fundamentalist proclivities towards this-worldly activity, to influence society beyond the enclave’s online and offline boundaries.

Highlights

In the past two decades, there has been a notable proliferation in religious communities’ use of online social media
From the 48 WhatsApp groups followed, seven categories were identified to encompass the corpus of these data: (1) News; (2) religion; (3) Hasidic music and videoclips; (4) voluntary and communal aid; (5) regional groups (i.e., Haredi areas and some of mixed towns or neighborhoods); (6) political groups; (7) instrumental groups
By examining mediatization effects on religion, this study focused on the communal variant

Summary

Introduction

In the past two decades, there has been a notable proliferation in religious communities’ use of online social media. Online social networks are considered harbingers of modernity, and may be seen as individualizing both religion and communal practices (Hoover and Echchaibi 2014; Rainie and Wellman 2012), devout groups, including fundamentalists, increasingly engage social networks for religious and communal purposes (Campbell 2010; Hoffman and Schweitzer 2015). The use of platforms offering individual agency by members of groups that promote collective causes makes social network sites a new arena for ongoing identity discourse among members of bounded religious communities. Given their engagement in these newfound platforms, the question begs, of how they manifest their sense of belonging online.

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Results

Conclusion