ONLINE RELIGION IN MODERN VISUAL CULTURE:
AN EXAMINATION ABOUT ONLINE BELIEF PRACTICES OF M GENERATION

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the ideas, motivations, and approaches of M Generation’s online belief practices within the framework of modern visual culture and technical communication tools. In this context, how the Internet and social media influenced the online practices of M Generation in the modern visual culture were embodied as the basic problem of the study. In this respect, the primary aim is to frame the nature of visual culture on the theoretical level and the basic features giving it a modern characteristic, putting the relationship between the modern visual culture and media on a meaningful basis, determining the mediatic effects of this relationship and concretizing the media views of religion within the framework of media and religion. On the field level, it was questioned how young Muslims expressed themselves and their beliefs through the internet and social media specific to Generation M and how the symbolic resources of the media area relate to the meanings and practices related to belief, spirituality, religion, and transcendence. In this study, in order to interpret the perceptions and experiences of Generation M directly within the framework of the narratives obtained from the first person, the method of qualitative analysis was used. Observation and semi-structured interview data collection techniques were used together with the questionnaire. The questionnaire was conducted by 20 participants selected by snowball sampling technique. As a result, the study reveals that the internet and social media, which can be considered as value-laden instruments due to both their cultural determinations and their technical characteristics, have a serious impact on shaping the online beliefs of young Muslims. It can be said that this effect has a secularizing character because it subordinates the content/essence of religious-looking practices to the secular and secularizing nature of modern visual culture. This shows that some of the practices of the young Muslims' online beliefs may be inherent in a secular understanding, even though they have a religious look.

FLUIDIZATION OF RELIGIOUS IDENTITIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
A CYBER-ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

Abstract

The forms of manifestation and fluidization of religious identities on social media are the main subject of this research. The stages of identity and religion in the adventure of digitization, the overlap or differentiation of individuals’ social media identities with their offline identities, the contexts of interaction between social media and religion, the experience of religiosity on social media in the transition of online-offline spheres are the main areas of interest of our study. First of all, the trace of identity in social theory was applied on the basis of traditional, modern, and postmodern periods. It was also investigated that how the cyberspace world, which brought new perspectives to ontological contexts such as time and space, digitized identity and religion. Then, the findings of the field research we conducted in Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were presented in a systematic way.
Firstly, themes such as liking, surveillance, consumption, privacy, and socialization were discussed as implicit indicators of identity and religious identity on social media. The themes related to explicit indicators of religious identity such as sharing religious content, the authenticity of religious knowledge, televangelism, religious communities, religious authority, and online ritual were examined in the context of experiencing of religiosity on online environments. In our study, qualitative method was preferred due to the fluid structure of social media. And cyber-ethnographic observation, in-depth interview and document review were used as data collection techniques. In conclusion, this study suggests that it is difficult to keep stable the religious identities of individuals who are experiencing instant transitions between social networks and everyday life under the dynamic conditions of our age as they were before cyberspace. Our study also puts forward that following reflections on religious life of the views of fluid identity on individual and social levels is very important to understand the religiosity of today

POLITICS ORIENTED ISLAMOPHOBIC RHETORIC IN TURKEY:
EXAMPLE OF PRESS IN THE PERIOD OF REFAHYOL GOVERNMENT

Abstract

The concept of Islamophobia expresses the fear based on prejudice and discrimination against the religion of Islam and Muslims. The concept, constructed by combining the words Islam and phobia, is used to describe the acts of discrimination, exclusion and violence against Muslims. In the historical background of the concept, which started to be apparent more intensely in the literature especially with the events of September 11, 2001, the traces of anti-Islamism, which was consciously built by the West, are available. This contrast has strengthened by the East-West distinction and increased as Islam was defined as the religion of the East. Many studies conducted with an orientalist point of view, which are far from being scientific, prejudiced and interpretative, contain a view that categorizes Islam, identifies with radicalism and ultimately positions as the enemy. This production was carried out by Western men of letters, artists and philosophers, and it found place in newspapers, magazines, television and virtual environments in the modern age; Thanks to technological tools, these narratives were continued and Westerners read Islam based on these constructions.
This long-standing history of Islamophobia is closely followed in the literature, and the concept is the subject of many studies. However, the limitation of the field studies, which addresses the concept from the perspective of the mass media, which has played an active role in the shaping of it since 20th and 21st centuries, is noteworthy at first glance. This limitation includes a more problematic view in terms of the studies on the existence and nature of the concept in the societies of which the majority of the population consists of Muslim societies in the form of self-orientalist paradigm. Because of the reason given, the study aims to question the existence of Islamophobia in the societies where the majority of the population consists of Muslims in the example of Turkey.

THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RELIGIOUS IDENTITY OF YOUTH:
A RESEARCH ON INONU UNIVERSITY
STUDENTS OF FACULTY OF COMMUNICATION AND FACULTY OF THEOLOGY

Abstract

With the youth period, the individual begins to understand his identity and reflect it on his lifestyle. However, the fragmentation and ambiguity of the identity, which was a whole in the traditional period, within the individualist modernist and deconstructive postmodernist period, necessitates the definition and understanding of these sub-identity types. In connection with this development, religious identity separated from personal identity has become one of the identities questioned and discussed. Religious identity, which is shaped within the framework of the integrity of belief, understanding and mentality, is under the influence of the representatives of the secular understanding such as education and the media, and on the other hand, it is exposed to processes and tools that will affect the spiritual beliefs, moral values and individual habits. remains.The university, which is the educational tool of the modern period, is important in terms of being a turning point in the lives of young people and profoundly affecting their identity, especially their religious identity.
In addition, the young people who have university education; Knowing how they view the media, which is seen as the weapon of the modern and secular world within the framework of their education and their religious understanding, and what kind of roles they attribute to their identity, especially in the shaping of their religious identity, is another essential issue. In this context, qualitative analysis method was chosen and semi-structured interview technique was used to make inferences about how effective the media is in the construction of religious identity of university students. As a sample, as a result of the analysis of the data obtained from the interviews in which 40 participants from İnönü University Faculty of Communication and Faculty of Theology were included; It has been determined that the family is the main founding element in the construction of the religious identity of the youth. Afterwards, it was observed that he was influenced by the close environment, written sources, and people and institutions whose knowledge was trusted. In this sense, it has been observed that the media is dominant in terms of obtaining information and role models. Considering the role of the media in the processes contributing to the construction of religious identity; It has been found to serve as a means of expanding the religious perspective and acquiring practices that reinforce religious understanding and belief.