Holy Selfie in Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy: A Comparative Analysis of a New Visual Canon
https://doi.org/10.22394/2073-7203-2020-38-2-235-262
EDN: NFRXFI
Abstract
Analyzing the visual content from Instagram, the article addresses the phenomenon of “holy selfie" as a way of expressing religious identity used by Orthodox and Catholic adepts. Selfie as a technique of online self-presentation allows believers to report about their connections to sacred places, persons, events and objects. Despite the disapproval of Orthodox and Catholic priests, taking a selfie is a way to consolidate religious communities around offline religious experience. The articles draws upon the conceptual and methodological analysis of studies focused on selfies and the representation of religion in the media and uses content analysis of 200 selfies presented in the open Instagram segment, as well as the opinions by Catholic and Orthodox priests about selfie. The analysis shows, firstly, that, in the holy selfie, the memorial and communicative functions are merged together. Secondly, we can distinguish between the two fundamentally different “visual canons of selfies" elaborated by Orthodox and Catholic users. Both “canons", despite their spontaneous origins as expressing existential and communicative needs of the believers, are shaped by the media policies of the respective religious institutions.
Keywords
religion,
selfie,
“holy selfie,
” Eastern Orthodoxy,
Catholicism,
commemoration,
media memory,
canon
Supporting agencies: This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Researches, the project “The Social Construction of Historical Memory in the Digital World” (№ 19-011-00265).
About the Authors
Sophia Tikhonova
Saratov National Research State University named for N.G. Chernyshevsky
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Elena Medvedeva
Saratov State Medical University named after V.I. Razumovsky
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
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Review
For citations:
Tikhonova S., Medvedeva E. Holy Selfie in Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy: A Comparative Analysis of a New Visual Canon. State, Religion and Church in Russia and Worldwide. 2020;38(2):235-262. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22394/2073-7203-2020-38-2-235-262. EDN: NFRXFI
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