Mia Lövheim

Personal and Popular The Case of Young Swedish Female Top-bloggers

Abstract This article argues that the theory of social representations can give valuable contributions to media research. It offers a new theory-based approach for studying how the media and citizens socially represent societal and political issues colouring our age, or some specific time period. Two fundamental communicative mechanisms – anchoring and objectification – are posited by the theory. These mechanisms, with a set of subcategories, are presented and it is shown how they can be used as conceptual analytical tools in empirical analysis. Concrete examples are given from a study on climate change and the media.

Mediatisation of religion: A critical appraisal

Media as a context for shaping religion in modern society has generally been overlooked in the mainstream sociology of religion. This article discusses the relevance of the thesis of a mediatisation of religion presented by Stig Hjarvard for studying religious transformation in a modern, Western society. Though the theory contributes to sociology of religion through its focus on how the characteristics of modern mass media relate to the processes of secularisation, the narrow approach to religion and to the interplay between modernisation and religion in the thesis so far limits its validity. This article suggests two starting points for the development of a theory to better grasp the implications of mediatisation of religion in the contemporary world; first, an understanding of religion that better acknowledges the complexities of modern religion and second, an understanding of mediatisation that also acknowledges the agency of religious actors to take part in the shaping of media as well as modern society.

INTRODUCTION: Rethinking the online–offline connection in the study of religion online

In one of the first edited collections addressing existential and philosophical perspectives on computer-mediated communication, Ess (1996, p. 9) stated, ‘If CMC only partially effects the revolutionary transformations of values and social structures envisioned by its enthusiasts, then religion – as humanity’s oldest expression of values and community – is likely both to impact and to be impacted by these transformations’. After a decade and a half of published research on religion online, we are finally able to begin to make some educated claims about the impact of the Internet on religious culture and social forms. In the initial waves of religion and Internet research, focus was often on how the Internet would drastically change religious practice and ideology, due to the growth of religious communities online and the integration of religious rituals and practices into digital environments. Much attention was given to the plurality of religious expressions online, particularly of fringe or secretive religious groups that were now able to achieve a public platform making them more visible (Hennerby & Dawson 1999; Fernback 2002). In scholarship concerning how mainstream religions such as Christianity and Islam were responding to new media technologies, research focused on the fact that the Internet made it possible to reach out to new groups, while also challenging offline institutional control over traditional practices and theology (O’Leary & Brasher 1996; Bunt 2000). However, in the past decade, as the Internet has increasingly become embedded in the everyday lives of many individuals, facilitating their social, economic and work-related tasks, researchers’ attention has been drawn to investigating the connection between online and offline religious behaviours and beliefs. No longer are the online and offline seen as completely distinct fields of practice, as for many they are integrated spheres of interaction: the Internet constitutes the space where individuals and groups live out their social and spiritual lives, and offline boundaries and relations often inform the online sphere. At the heart of the intersection of the online–offline social world is the important issue of the relationship between new media technology and religious change.

The mediatisation of religion debate: An introduction

Within the growing literature on religion and media, a more specific debate has recently developed in relation to the mediatisation of religion. The Danish scholar, Stig Hjarvard, has undertaken leading work in articulating a detailed theory of the mediatisation of religion, arguing that contemporary religion is increasingly mediated through secular, autonomous media institutions and is shaped according to the logics of those media. This special issue is the first extended discussion of Hjarvards thesis by researchers working across different disciplines and areas of study. This introduction sets out the background and key concepts for this debate, discusses why the mediatisation of religion debate is important for sociological and cultural understandings of contemporary religion, and provides a brief summary of the arguments of the individual articles within this collection.

Considering critical methods and theoretical lenses in digital religion studies

This article introduces a special issue on critical methods and theoretical lenses in Digital Religion studies, through contextualising them within research trajectories found in this emerging field. By starting from the assertion that current “fourth-wave of research on religion and the Internet,” is focused on how religious actors negotiate the relationships between multiple spheres of their online and offline lives, article authors spotlight key theoretical discussions and methodological approaches occurring within this interdisciplinary area of inquiry. It concludes with notable methodological and theoretical challenges in need of further exploration. Together it demonstrates how religion is practiced and reimagined within digital media spaces, and how such analysis can contribute to broader understanding of the social and cultural changes new media technologies are facilitating within society.

Mediatization: analyzing transformations of religion from a gender perspective:

Within the growing literature on religion and media, a more specific debate has developed concerning the theory of mediatization and religion (Hjarvard and Lövheim, 2012; Lövheim and Lynch, 2011). This debate was initiated in 2008 by Stig Hjarvard’s work on the mediatization of religion. One of the core themes in the debate has been the understanding of religion and religious change underpinning the theory (Lövheim, 2011a, 2014). The mediatization perspective advocated by 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 institutions, such as the media, for maintaining their organization and legitimacy. This perspective has been challenged primarily by advocates for a ‘mediation-approach’ (Meyer, 2013; Stolow, 2005), which argue that mediation is an integral part of how religion develops in society. Thus, increased mediation and subsequent transformations in beliefs and social organization cannot be seen as a weakening of religion. My own approach has attempted to seek a middle ground between these understandings of media, religion, and change. Starting from Nick Couldry and Andreas Hepp’s (2013) depiction of two main approaches to the mediatization concept, this approach mainly follows ‘the social-constructivist tradition’, which focuses on the role of various media in the communicative construction of socio-cultural reality (cf. Lundby, 2013: 197). I envision a theory of media and religion that analyzes mediatization of religion as a dynamic process where religion is molded by the logic of particular media, but also – in

Personal and Popular

Abstract While early blogging research focused on top-ranked blogs commenting on public events, recent research confirms that most blogs today concern the personal life of the blogger. The present article focuses on a particular case of blogs that falls in between these categories. In Sweden, personal blogs written by young women have dominated the ranking lists of the most popular blogs during recent years. This new phenomenon is approached through an analysis of the characteristics and content of 20 top-ranked blogs authored by young women. Through their popularity, these bloggers have come to introduce commercial and professional aspects of blogging that challenge the conventions of personal blogs. The article analyses how the bloggers negotiate these conventions in self-presentations, postings and relations to readers and how they seek to perform a self through the blog that integrates different aspects of blogging. A crucial part of this process is identification with the gender conventions of “ordinary girls”.

Introduction: Relaunching the Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture

Welcome to the relaunch of the Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture! After six years of open-access publication, we are starting a new network of partnerships for this journal, including a new publisher (Brill), a new partner organization (the International Society for Media, Religion and Culture) and a new pricing system. We are also expanding our scope beyond digital technologies to include the whole field of religion, media and culture. This short introduction, co-authored by the Editor of this journal (Tim Hutchings) and the President of our partner society (Mia Lövheim), is designed to explain what the journal now represents and how it will work in the future.

Chapter 2 Attitudes: Tendencies and Variations

This chapter presents an overview of religiosity and attitudes to religious diversity in media and other public spaces based on a cross-Scandinavian survey conducted in 2015. Although Scandinavians ...

Religion and the Media: Continuity, Complexity, and Mediatization

This chapter begins with a presentation of the particular features of the Nordic media systems and their transformations since 1980. The following analyzes three forms of mediatized religion: journalism on religion (in major newspapers), religion in popular media (popular magazines and films), and religious media (religious programs in the public service broadcasting and the Internet presentations by the Nordic majority churches). The conclusions show no simple pattern of a decline or resurgence of the visibility of religion in the media. This chapter also asks what the media do to religion (mediatization theory), and concludes that the media genre has a profound impact on the representation of religion, which results in a complex pattern of increased diversity of topics and perspectives.