This talk provides a grounded analysis of the multiple ways in which social media audiences shape mediatized religious conflicts and engage in identity politics online.
Drawing on an online ethnography of a conservative Christian online environment, this talk seeks to examine the role of participatory audiences in framing and amplifying mediatized conflicts about religion and national identity. The group under study was initially created to promote the visibility of Christian symbols in public space.
Yet, many of the discussions transpired into zealous religio-political debates with strong elements of anti-Muslim and xenophobic sentiments. Formations, negotiations, and contestations of religious and national identities are integral to the ways the participants perform the conflict(s).
Hence, this online group can be viewed as a mediatized religious environment where identity politics and religious disputes are played out openly.
Mona Abdel-Fadil is a post.doc. at the Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo (mona.abdel-fadil@media.uio.no)