Intercultural Communications Studies XXX: 1 (2021)
A. MISSIER
Framing of Fundamentalism in the Digital Media Space Clyde A. MISSIER Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands Abstract: This paper seeks to understand the relationship between media and the framing of religious fundamentalism in the digital media space. It investigates the fundamentalism phenomenon through concepts of mass communication and framing theories, and examines several empirical findings of framing of fundamentalism in Canada, France, the Netherlands and India. This inquiry is also an attempt to examine and review the current literature and definitions of religious fundamentalism in the humanities and social sciences. This paper argues that the symbolic constructs and frames in the media of extreme beliefs and their activists are biased and incomplete, and considers the implications for further research in digital media and religious fundamentalism. Keywords: Religion, fundamentalism, framing, digital media, social media. 1.
Introduction
The transition from analogue to digital has probably become the meta-context of the new millennium and opened possibilities for the public to directly access content around the globe. In a world without the internet, the geographical location of resources used was limited. However, today, the direct access to the World Wide Web has reduced humans' locational dependence. People are globally encouraged to seek information and communicate about their needs. Internet-facilitated digital apps fueled with cutting edge technology have reshaped our world and empowered citizens around the globe to connect and keep our new digital social economy going. Sadly the internet and our digital technologies have also enabled different forms of dynamics. The social media networks, arguably the embodiment of our direct-access society 1 , also disseminate the global ferocity of today‘s hate, violence, xenophobia, hyperethnocentrism and conspiracy theories. These ferocities are exacerbated by the global rise of religious fundamentalism and right wing extremist organizations which have the potential to disrupt societies. The cutting-edge technologies of the late 19th and 20th century‘s industrial revolution deprived and marginalized humans and unleashed radical views such as communism, fascism (Salzman, 2008, p. 219) and right-wing Christian fundamentalism in the US (Moore, 1993, pp. 45- 49). The ongoing digital revolution has created a new onlinemedia sphere filtered through the prism of lethal social media apps which also makes us question how human activity, groups and audiences are represented in the new digital media space; it is therefore important to examine frames of extreme beliefs and strong religious movements and the characteristics of their activists, whom we often call: religious fundamentalists. Various scholars (Juergensmeyer, 2017; Clarke, 2017; Salzman, 2008; Ruthven, 2007; Droogers, 2005; Appleby, 2003) have tried to find 1
Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor describes the ―direct-access‖ society as follows: ―We have moved from a hierarchical order of personalized links to an impersonal egalitarian one; from a vertical world of mediated- access to horizontal, direct-access societies‖ (Taylor, C. 2007, p.209).
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