Digital Religion Meets Politics: Religious Values, Practices and Communication of European Politicians in a Digitalized World (DiRel)
Funded by Fliedner Fachhochschule Düsseldorf
PI: Prof. Dr. Eva-Maria Euchner
Team: David Schweizer, Prof. Dr. Daniela Braun
New digital technologies are transforming the landscape of religion and religious practices. “Christianity influencer”, faith tweets, digital chaplaincy, or online Islamic hate speech are popular examples in place. The rapidly growing scholarship, known as digital religion studies, explores the extent to which traditional religious practices are being adapted to digital environments and how aspects of digital culture are informing offline religious groups and institutions. While the young field profits from interdisciplinary collaborations and perspectives, the political dimension of this transformation is still underdeveloped. For instance, we know very little of how political actors rely on religion in a digitalized world. How do they communicate religious values in virtual settings? How do they adjust religious practices? And how can we explain differences among politicians? This study will provide first-hand empirical evidence by exploring online and offline religious practices, values and perceptions of candidates running for the European Parliament. We employ a mixed-methods design, in which Tweets of the MEPs are scraped and explored via qualitative and quantitative content analysis techniques, and lateron combined with data on offline-religious behaviour.
Key research questions:
- How do politicians rely on religion in a digitalized world?
- How do they communicate religious values in virtual settings?
- And how can we explain differences in politicians’ religious communication and behavior in the European context?