A sociological treatise on the presentation of religion in digital culture: The case of YouTube

Religious groups are trying to produce a digital religious culture space by adapting to the logic of digital platforms in activities carried out in the digital environment. While these groups engage in activities on the YouTube platform in parallel with the mentioned adaptation process, they remain under the influence of visualization and turn the phenomenon of religion into an object of dramatic representation. Here, there is a tension and change arising from the hierophany on a non-sacred area. This research focuses on such a problem of religious tension and change, tries to reach the multiple sources of this problem and read the religious phenomenon from the center of the triangle formed by the fields of digitalization, dramaturgy and discourse. In this sense, the main purpose of the research is to try to understand the discursive transformation of the religious phenomenon in the digital culture space in general, and in the YouTube space dominated by visuality in particular. However, since the digital space is large and the data has the potential to change instantly, it is not possible to achieve such a goal completely in a single study. For this reason, the religious and discursive transformation mentioned is limited to a typical example that reflects the basic tendencies of the YouTube space. In this context, the research was limited to 7 themes that are assumed to be evident on the Huzme YouTube channel, which offers a typical view of these themes. The statistical data in this study was updated on 20 August 2023. Since this date, the content produced on the Huzme channel has been excluded from the scope of the research and changes in statistical data have not been taken into account. The data was collected by observation and document review techniques from 21 videos selected by criterion sampling method among 580 videos detected on the Huzme channel with the last update on this date. Then, it was analyzed with the "Critical Discourse Analysis Application Model" developed by me based on the digital-dramaturgical foundation on which the research was built. In this analysis, Huzme is trying to build an independent religious identity on YouTube; Huzme tries to display religious thoughts through sympathetic visuals of daily life routines; In this presentation process, Huzme revised traditional religious privacy norms in certain aspects; Huzme tries to exist through consumption habits that will make the group feel special and attract the audience; Although presents a naive image, Huzme gradually turns to using confrontational language; In this sense, it has been found that Huzme builds a naive authority over the audience and finally Huzme synthesizes traditional religious discourse and modern religious discourse. As a result, it is hoped that this study will contribute to the field by proposing a concrete discourse analysis model to analyze religious discourse forms in digital culture and demonstrating the applicability of this model.