The mediatisation of religion: Theorising religion, media and social change

“Finally, the focus on communication (both vertical and horizontal) required specific concern with the roles of material culture, embodiment and group-styles in the construction of religious experience, in short: mediality (Malik, Rüpke, and Wobbe 2007; Meyer 2008; Hjarvard 2011; Lövheim 2011).”

“As regards mediatization of religion, Meyrowitz’s (1993) metaphorical distinctions between media as conduits, languages, and environments may be useful for differentiating between various dimensions of change (cf. Hjarvard, 2011, 2013).”

“Some researchers have used a number of theoretical approaches for digital religion studies, including mediation (Hoover 2006; Martin-Barbero 1993) and mediatization (Giorgi 2019; Hjarvard 2011a, 2011b; Loveheim 2008).”

“Mediatization studies have focused on how various societal practices are influenced by media logics (Livingstone, 2009; Lundby, 2009) including religious practices (Hepp & Krönert, 2010; Hjarvard, 2011) and practices surrounding death and dying (Sumiala & Hakola, 2013).”

“Current studies by Huchings (2011) and Teusner (2010) support both perspectives, namely that online religious communities deliberately replicate familiar offline everyday activities.”

“Hoesterey (2009) described Aa Gym as the person who successfully won the hearts of Indonesian people with marketing messages about Management Qolbu (management of heart) or MQ through books, lectures which nationally delivered on television and seminars.”

“They also provide spaces where traditional religious leaders and understandings of faiths can be challenged and subverted (Echchaibi, 2011; Hjarvard, 2011).”

“According to the theory of the mediatization of religion advanced by Stig Hjarvard (2008, 2011, 2013), the mediatization process impacts the mediation role of religions and, thus, religious authority in different ways.”

“…mediatisation of faith and religious practices (Campbell 2005, 2010; Campbell and DeLashmutt 2014; Berger 2013; Bratosin 2016, 2020; Giorgi 2019; Hjarvard 2011; Martino 2020; Mishol-Shauli and Golan 2019; Reimann 2017), including 2 We understand user-generated live video streaming systems to be…”

“Media also have impacts on other institutions, such as that of religion (Hjarvard 2011).”

“3 In the study of the mediatization of religion, Hjarvard (2011) proposed the term “banal religion” to refer to the unnoticeable religious elements and practices represented by the media which differ from the structured and explicit forms of institutionalized religion.”

“…as research and theories on mediatisation point out, media may transport religious representations, but instead of simply overtaking religious ideas and topoi, they produce and edit them in ways that are unauthorised and independent of religious traditions and communities (Hjarvard 2008, 2011).”

“…of ‘religion’, and the media cannot prevent the Jobcentre from apologising, but the media – especially in our time of the ‘mediatisation’ of religion (Hjarvard 2011) and the so-called ‘media age’ (Hoover 2006) – are more powerful thanMr Jarvis or the Jobcentre in offering the framework for…”

“Although religious mediatization is not a universal phenomenon, according to the first proposition of the theory, media has become an important and often primary source of religious information in many regions (Hjarvard, 2011).”

“Indeed, the study of the generation of religious digital communities (Hoover and Kaneva 2009) occupies an essential part of the existing literature under the umbrella of the discipline known as mediatization of religion (Hjarvard 2011).”

“Although the media make use of religious symbols, the media do not do so with the intension of propagating a specific religious view (Hjarvard 2011:126).”

“The mediatisation of religion theory informs this, as news media becomes instrumental in determining and defining religious meanings, practices and symbols for a wider public (Hjarvard 2011, 2013; Lövheim 2014).”

“…Hjarvard focuses on how mediatization changes religion primarily through weakening religion as a societal institution with a ‘sacred canopy’ function (Hjarvard, 2011; cf. Berger, 1967) and enhancing a development into individualized, bricolage-like forms that are more dependent on other…”

“Engagement in institutionalized religion may be especially important as a group-based coping strategy (Hjarvard, 2011).”

“These findings support research suggesting that social media users value personal identity, individualism, and avoiding traditional factors such as religion and culture.(22,23) As time spent on Facebook increases, it is likely that exposure to different cultures and beliefs increases, shaping people’s perceptions of s…”

“This reverberates observations already made, about the increasing ‘mediatisation’ of Pentecostalism (Gordon and Hancock 2005; Asamoah-Gyadu 2005b; Boutros 2011, 185; Hjarvard 2011).”

“individual autonomy involved in social media usage would secularize attitudes and break down religious allegiances (Hjarvard, 2011), including views of religious authority, recent research from scholars of religion and communication shows that new media do not necessarily eliminate the importance of pre-existing relig…”

“Inspired by Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology,3 we have focused on the role of bodily movements, actions, and gestures in conveying 2 Malik, Rüpke and Wobbe 2007; Meyer 2008; Hjarvard 2011; Lövheim 2011.”

“…of religion is beneficial to understand the complex relationships among media, religion, and social changes, he does not agree with some media scholars’ assumption that the mediatization of religion will lead to increased individualization and secularization (Hepp, 2009; Hjarvard, 2011).”

“According to Hjarvard (2011), the mediatization of Western societies affected religion under three main respects: (a) media are a primary source of religious information and experience, (b) media independently elaborate secular and sacred meanings and (c) media have appropriated social functions…”

“Stig Hjarvard (2008a, 2011, 2013) should be considered a forerunner in the study of media, religion and culture, for using the mediatization theory to analyse religious change.”

“The concept of media logic(1) suggests that religion is accommodated to and serves the purpose of the media (Hjarvard 2011).”

“This study also reported similar results from studies conducted by Coman and Coman (2017), Cheong et al. (2012), and Hjarvard (2011).”

“(Hjarvard 2011, p. 119).”

“16,17 Second, significant group memberships (such as religion) have been found to be protective against sexual risk in some populations, 18,19 although this has not been studied in the Lebanese population.”

“The definition of mediatisation by Hjarvard (2011) is taken as a starting point, which considers the process by which the essential elements of social and cultural activity take on a media format.”

“Indeed, in the more general predominance of media culture in all the domains of human life, also religious experience has been “mediatized,” meaning that religious symbols and practices have been reshaped by the digital words (Hjarvard, 2011).”

“It aims to underline that these mechanisms are often taken from granted, despite their signi fi cant impact on media ’ s uses and appropriations and the fact that they are deeply embedded in our everyday experiences (Billig, 1995; Dinnen, 2018; Hjarvard, 2011).”

“As Stig Hjarvard (2011) has noted, the institutional logic of the media can subsume the internal logic of religions.”

“Mass media as well as social media are so strongly embedded in our everyday life, becoming ‘commonplace, natural components of everyday life’ (Hjarvard 2011, 122), that we no longer perceive a one-sided influence but rather an interaction and transaction between actors and structures: ‘media are…”

“Our research context also enables us to contribute to studies of mediatisation of religion, considering the social process through which religious institutions become, at least to some extent, dependent on the logic of the media (Hjarvard, 2011).”

“Religious institutions are encouraged to accommodate to the demands of the new media in the early 2000s in order to be able to project their voices into the digital media’s public sphere (Hjarvard, 2011).”

“…that the Catholic Church has been taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the Internet for years—as evidenced by numerous publications on the mediatization of religion (Helland 2000; Hjarvard 2008, 2011, 2016; Bratosin 2016; Andok 2018; Adamski et al. 2020; Jupowicz-Ginalska et al. 2020).”

“…and had four South-Sami male joikers dressed in the South-Sami kofte with them (Larsen 2020). appeal in popular culture mediations (Alver et al. 1999; Hjarvard 2011; Endsjø and Lied 2011), due to its subjectively oriented, emotional, sensuous, embodied, and nature oriented character (Taylor 2013)…”

“Media may make virtual worlds and narratives that welcome individuals to have encounters of a religious-like character [29].”

“…in Northern and Western Europe, often becomes an “identitarian Christianism” which is “devoid of any religious content” (Brubaker 2017, p. 1210), in the context of the broader processes of culturalization and banalization of religion in the contemporary world (Griera et al. 2021; Hjarvard 2011).”

“The Platformed Cohesion Model proposed later in this article builds on these foundations while foregrounding how platform architectures condition cohesion outcomes (Campbell, 2012; Hjarvard, 2011; van Dijck et al., 2018).”

“…is the fact that the media become the main source of information about religious issues, as well as taking over the role hitherto played by religious institutions, including in the areas of spiritual guidance, ritual passages, and a sense of community and belonging (Hjarvard 2011:124).”

“Among various approaches to mediatization, two seem to have gained most attention in social sciences: the institutional, proposed by Stig Hjarvard (2011), and the constructivist, developed mostly by Friedrich Krotz, Andreas Hepp et al. Both concepts acknowledge the importance of media in society…”

“…I often ponder on the term ‘mediatisation’, or, as some scholars (Couldry 2008; Silverstone 2007; Thumim 2008) prefer, ‘mediation’, which describes the way in which high modern society is shaped and influenced by various mass media technology (Hjarvard 2008; 2011; Krotz 2008; Lundby 2009).”