Mediatization of religious communication on social media

In today's world, where the boundary between virtual and real environments is becoming more and more blurred, social media is becoming the most important medium that meets the communication needs of individuals. Social media goes beyond the individual's need to receive news and affects their preferences. The concept of mediatization, which deals with the media as a form of acculturation, is a concept that can help explain the effects of social media, especially on culture. In order for the content produced in the new public sphere provided by social media to reach more people, content creators prepare contents in accordance with the language of this environment. As explained by the term mediatization, this brings all kinds of content to reach the receiver through mediation. In this study, the current situation was evaluated in the context of religious communication, and the mediatization dimensions of religious communication, the opportunities it provides and the threats it may cause were discussed. Within the scope of the study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 university students aged between 19 and 28 and 5 content creators who produce religious content on social media. The findings were analysed by descriptive analysis method, and the findings classified under different themes were compared with the findings of previous studies in the literature. According to the findings, the medium of religious communication is changing from traditional media to social media. Along with this, the traditional language of religion is also changing, but this language sometimes turns into a different interpretation of the traditional language and sometimes becomes mediatized. In the study, suggestions were made on how the language of religion in social media should be in line with the opinions obtained from both content creators and users.