The sacred and the profane: social media and temporal patterns of religiosity in the United Arab Emirates
Large datasets associated with internet search engines and social media platforms are increasingly used to study psychological variables. Over the past decade, big data', as they have become known, have become central to the exploration of a diverse range of topics. Few studies, however, have...
| Authors: | ; ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Carfax Publ.
[2019]
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| In: |
Journal of contemporary religion
Year: 2019, Volume: 34, Issue: 3, Pages: 489-508 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Vereinigte Arabische Emirate
/ Mass data
/ Social media
/ Islam
/ Religiosity
/ Irreligiosity
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| IxTheo Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy BJ Islam KBL Near East and North Africa |
| Further subjects: | B
Islam
B Social media B Religion B Twitter B Profanity |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | Large datasets associated with internet search engines and social media platforms are increasingly used to study psychological variables. Over the past decade, big data', as they have become known, have become central to the exploration of a diverse range of topics. Few studies, however, have examined religiosity (religious belief, commitment, and devotion), particularly Islamic religiosity in the Arab world. This study looked at religiosity in the United Arab Emirates through data extracted from Twitter, a popular social media platform. The data comprised 152 million Twitter messages, spanning the period 1 April-30 September 2016. Bilingual search algorithms were employed to investigate the temporal patterns of religiosity expressed within the dataset. The study also explored patterns in the expression of obscenity (offensive language), hypothesising a negative relationship with religious sentiment. Religiosity followed hypothesised temporal patterns and was also inversely correlated with obscenity. There were differences observed between languages (Arabic vs English) and gender, with males, surprisingly, expressing greater religiosity than females. This research contributes to the nascent study of religiosity through social media. |
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| ISSN: | 1469-9419 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of contemporary religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/13537903.2019.1658937 |