initial analysis Archives

Islam and Covid on UK Twitter in early 2020

Posted on May 20, 2024 - 8:50 am by Recovira

Dr Sean Durbin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Manchester Metropolitan University

In addition to the ethnographic fieldwork that we are conducting across different communities in Europe for this project, we have also been working on a social media strand, aimed at helping us understand how people online were discussing religion in relation to the restrictions imposed in the early months of the pandemic from March to June 2020.

To do this we have been using a social listening platform that allows us to scrape publicly available data off the web and analyse it, making it useful to conduct discourse analysis of large amounts of naturally occurring data. In this context, scraping refers to a technique for the automated collection of online data. Scrapers are essentially bits of software code that enable researchers to automatically download data from the web, which can then be classified and modelled in different ways.

Using boolean search terms related to Islam, Christianity and other religious traditions in conjunction with pandemic related keywords such as lockdown, COVID-19, etc, we originally hoped to see how different communities talked about what they were doing to adapt their practices to a the sudden requirement to stay indoors. However, in an effort at cross-country comparability, as well as other practical considerations, we opted instead to focus on the public discussion that was occurring online about religion/religious communities, and related issues (e.g. religious freedom).

What we have found in the UK, is that Muslims and Islam were vastly overrepresented in this online discussion. Although Muslims represent roughly 6% of the population in the UK they made up roughly 75% of the online discussion of religious groups in our data scrape. Christians and Christianity on the other hand made up only 19% of mentions online.

What accounts for this over representation? Based on our analysis of the most engaged tweets, much of the conversation around Muslims online was driven in some way by claims or beliefs that Muslims would not abide by lockdown rules, especially over the Ramadan period, and therefore would contribute to the spread of COVID-19. This topic was then spread further by other Twitter users who would mock or rebuke these claims, all of which contributed to the over-representation of Muslims in public Twitter discourse during our period of focus.

Making sense of our data

Posted on May 17, 2024 - 5:18 pm by Recovira

Dr Sean Durbin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Manchester Metropolitan University

When you’ve spent the better part of 12 months, getting to know and getting involved in the communities that are participating in this research project, the amount of information that a researcher gathers can be overwhelming.

In my case, I have spent the past year with different Church of England congregations. During that time I have attended and observed regular services, and participated in community events, including evening Bible studies, weekday cooking classes, and outdoor gardening activities. I have interviewed members and leaders, and simply observed what they have been doing.

All of this is part of the repertoire of research tools that comprise ethnographic research methods, which are used to inform our understanding how these different congregations function and, in our case, interact with the virtual age. Throughout the course of conducting fieldwork like this, drafting fieldnotes about seemingly ordinary things can often be a challenge. I have often asked myself whether something is or isn’t important to jot down. You have to constantly remind yourself that what might not seem significant could end up being very important, so it’s useful make a record of it.

The end result of all of this work, though, is pages and pages of field notes outlining what I saw or experienced at each event I attended, as well as interview recordings from the over twenty interviews conducted as part of my work on this project.

Now, with all this information compiled in some form, I have the task of making sense of it all. This work involves transcribing interviews and coding them for themes and subthemes, not only so that I can develop a coherent picture of my own research findings, but also so that I can share these findings with my colleagues who have been conducting similar research in their own countries.

All of which is to say, making sense of all this data is a time consuming but vitally important part of the research process.

Image credit – Ian Panelo – Pexels

Diving into the data and sensing the importance of senses

Posted on February 27, 2024 - 1:57 pm by Recovira

Anne Lundahl Mauritsen, Postdoctoral Researcher, Aarhus University

As the RECOVIRA project proceeds, we are still in the process of analyzing the data in both Denmark and in the other participating countries. In our former Danish blogpost, we emphasized to clear trends in the data: First, that all the Danish religious communities we have visited have returned to meeting physically and second, that resources are highly conditional for how the groups adapt digitally. As we plan the articles we will write this spring, out interest in understanding the community aspect has only increased. What is it about community which is so hard to replicate online and which makes people go back to meeting face to face rather than digitally? To near an answer to this question, we will present just a few quotes from informants in the study. Interestingly, both informants in their quotes mention the importance of the senses:

“I mean, the many, many smells are an important element. I have – on a regular Sunday – counted the many, between 8-12 nationalities at a regular Sunday service (…) The sensual, the sensual means something, I mean in my lecture this Sunday I will touch upon Grundtvig’s thesis of how we’re human first and then Christians, there is something about how being human opens for the sensual which then becomes an opening towards the divine”

“Well, if I should tie this up, then I would say that what is essential to me is the community where we look each other in the eyes and sense each other, it has been the smells, it can be different things, and that can never be replaced by digital, by a digital presence”

Clearly, to both informants the senses which come into play in the presence of other community members are an important part of feeling connected and clearly this is lacking in a digital service. It seems as if smelling each other and gaining eye contact are key factors in feeling part of the group, which could potentially have interesting explanations founded in theories from the fields of psychology and evolutionary biology as well as aesthetic studies. There is much more to unpack in terms of what constitutes community, but we have a strong feeling of this being an important starting point, which we will pursue over the next few months of analysis.

Et indblik i digital religion blandt unge i Danmark

Posted on November 28, 2023 - 12:01 pm by Recovira

Anne Lundahl Mauritsen, Postdoctoral Researcher, Aarhus University

Dataindsamlingen i den danske del af RECOVIRA-projektet er stadig undervejs, og vi har nu vendt blikket mod to religionsgrupper, der primært har både unge medlemmer og unge ledere. I dette blogpost giver vi en smagsprøve på de første fund fra feltarbejdet i disse to grupper og relaterer det til tidligere præsenterede pointer og temaer i det forrige danske blogpost.

Det fremstår forholdsvist tydeligt, at de yngre grupper bruger digitale værktøjer og sociale medier i højere grad end grupper med ældre medlemmer og ledere. I den ene gruppe ser vi således en helt specifik grafisk vision og en gennemtænkt strategi for brugen af særligt Facebook og Instagram samt en professionel ansat til at varetage blandt andet denne kommunikation. Her anvendes Facebook særligt i to henseender; for det første som et kalenderredskab, hvor ’begivenheds ’-funktionen bruges til at skabe overblik over de mange events, gruppen har; for det andet har gruppen en række mindre, kreative fællesskaber, og disse fællesskaber har typisk en selvstændig Facebook-gruppe, som anvendes til intern kommunikation, og som dermed er fællesskabsunderstøttende. Instagram bruges i stedet til at give løbende, levende updates fra de daglige arrangementer i gruppen, særligt via ’story ’-formatet, og gruppen er desuden bevist om, at den ungegruppe, de rækker ud til generelt, bruger Instagram mere end Facebook, hvorfor de lægger en vedvarende indsats i at være nærværende på Instagram.

Den anden religionsgruppe er mindre organiseret og mere frivilligt drevet, hvorfor helhedsindtrykket er lidt mindre organiseret. I denne religionsgruppe bruges også både Facebook og Instagram, i mange henseender på samme måde som i førstnævnte gruppe; til at dele ud af fællesskabets aktiviteter og koordinere disse samt til at give et løbende indblik i gruppens daglige liv. Grupperne har derfor en række fællestræk i forhold til deres inddragelse af det digitale, men hvad der er særligt interessant er at vi selv i disse grupper, som så aktivt inddrager det digitale, ser, at den digitale indsats ikke kan stå for sig selv, men i stedet anvendes til at få brugerne til at komme til de fysiske aktiviteter. Endnu en gang virker det således tydeligt, at der er elementer ved dét at skabe et autentisk, meningsfuldt, sammenhængende religiøst fællesskab, som skal skabes i det fysiske fremfor det digitale samvær.

Vi kan også forsigtigt konkludere, i tråd med en pointe fremsat i den sidste danske blogpost, at den digitale indsats konkret ofte er betinget af hvilke konkrete ressourcer, der er til rådighed i religionsgrupperne. Er der finansielle og/eller menneskelige ressourcer til at varetage den digitale indsats, bliver denne typisk mere konsekvent, hvorimod grupper med mangel på disse ressourcer ofte får en mere fragmenteret digitalt præsens på sociale medier. Den danske dataindsamling går nu ind i den mere afsluttende proces. Over de næste par måneder er det således vores ambition at runde det fysiske og digitale feltarbejde af samt foretage de sidste interviews, for dernæst at påbegynde en dybere analyse af materialet.

An initial analysis of the Danish data

Posted on September 18, 2023 - 1:29 pm by Recovira

Anne Lundahl Mauritsen, Postdoctoral Researcher, Aarhus University

RECOVIRA-projektet skrider fremad, og i denne blogpost – det første af sin slags på dansk – giver vi et indblik i de fund, vi indtil videre har identificeret i de danske data. I vores sidste blogpost var vi i det første stadie af feltarbejdet og havde indsamlet data primært i den buddhistiske gruppe. Siden da har vi gennemført dataindsamling i en af kirkerne samt interviewet forskellige repræsentanter for andre religiøse grupper. Grupperne, som disse repræsentanter tilhører, bliver ikke genstand for feltarbejde, men disse mere fritstående interviews har alligevel givet en større bredde til projektet, i det flere grupper får en stemme. Vi har nu etableret kontakt til den næste kirke, hvor der skal indsamles data. Desværre har det vist sig svært at få en muslimsk gruppe til at deltage i projektet, men vi forsøger via forskellige netværk at se, om ikke det alligevel kan lade sig gøre.

For nu har vi altså indsamlet lidt over halvdelen af data, og vi kan således begynde at se nogle trends i materialet, om end vi ikke endnu har lavet en dybdegående analyse. Vi vil her præsentere to tendenser.

For det første er det en gennemgående tendens, at grupperne er vendt tilbage til at møde fysisk til deres praksisser. Mange informanter fremhæver, at dét at mødes fysisk og være nærværende sammen i samme rum ikke kan erstattes digitalt, fordi følelsen af fællesskab og sammenhørighed ikke på samme måde kan genskabes igennem det digitale. Dét at få øjenkontakt med et andet medlem eller med lederen eller at dufte og sanse rummet og at mærke stemningen fremhæves af mange som absolut essentielt og meningsgivende for dem i deres religiøse liv. Videre har flere informanter også pointeret at forskellige ritualer, såsom nadvere eller belæringer, virker mest autentiske og virkelige, når den religiøse leder er fysisk present.

For det andet kan vi se, at håndteringen af pandemien og den digitale omstilling, grupperne har gennemført eller forsøgt at gennemføre, er stærkt afhængig af de lokale ressourcer, gruppen har til rådighed. Disse ressourcer relaterer sig blandt andet til de generationer, der er repræsenteret i gruppen, de digitale ressourcer og udstyr, der har været adgang til og diversiteten i gruppen. Grupper med yngre medlemmer, medlemmer, der har digitale kompetencer og generelt grupper med flere medlemmer er lykkedes bedre med at omstille sig til det digitale end mindre grupper med ældre og færre medlemmer.

Vi ser frem til at have det samlede materiale indsamlet og til at påbegynde en dybere analyse, både på den danske såvel som på de andre landes data, men for nu kan ovenstående give et første indblik i projektets fund.

Image credit: image provided by the author