Project Description
The research questions of this study are:
• Why do people become atheist or religious social media influencers?
• How are atheist influencers promoting varieties of atheism? What forms of atheism are they promoting? To what extent do atheist influencers reinforce the scientism of New Atheism? How are religious influencers promoting new forms of their religion?
• How do atheist and religious influencers perceive their role in atheist and religious communities? Who do atheist and religious influencers perceive as their primary audience?
• How do atheist influencers perceive atheism as a digital community? Do religious influencers have a similar perception of their religious communities online?
• How do atheist and religious influencers choose their discourses for online digital creation?
• What strategies do atheist and religious influencers employ to promote atheism or their religion?
The objective of this research is to understand the experiences of social media influencers who primarily create content on religion, atheism, spirituality, and secular humanism. This research is, in part, motivated by growing research on religion and social media and the creation of digital communities. The primary methodology are in-depth interviews with social media influencers. Interviews with social media influencers are completed by the PI's of the study over Zoom.
Tasks and Responsibilites
The student's primary task will be editing interview transcripts that were automatically transcribed using Zoom's transcription function.