Abstract
This paper theorizes the concept of the “public” as it takes on entirely new meanings in the digital era. Through the lens of the medium of blogging and a close examination of the progressively Christian, decidedly feminist blogosphere, it explores the shifting register of public religiosity as it reconfigures in light of the dynamics of new media culture. What does the birth and death of the religious blog say about changing publicness? How do bloggers conceive of voice and develop the blog as a platform for the projection of a personal brand? How do networked bloggers cultivate unique public personas and strive to resist the pressures of communicative capitalism, while also developing income-earning brands? This paper argues that due to the internet’s blurring of previously established boundaries (e.g., public vs. private, other vs. self, commercial vs. domestic, outsider vs. insider), religiosity requires increasingly more publicity and self-disclosure as neoliberal, habitual, and social media social media encroach into previously, exclusively private life domains. The data for this study derives from qualitative study of a corpus of networked blog texts created between 2011 and 2015.
Presenters
Travis CooperAssociate Adjunct Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Religion, Media, Blogs, Voice, Neoliberalism, Publics, Christianity, Discourse Analysis
