MEDIATIZED SPIRITUALITY AS A NEW FORM OF SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Keywords:
Mediatization, spirituality, social consciousness, digital culture, identity, media society.Abstract
This article examines mediatized spirituality as an emerging form of social consciousness shaped by digital communication technologies, networked media, and symbolic interaction in contemporary society. While spirituality was traditionally rooted in institutional religion, communal rituals, and localized moral frameworks, the digital age has transformed its modes of expression, transmission, and experience. Through social media, online communities, algorithmic recommendation systems, and virtual rituals, spirituality increasingly becomes mediated, individualized, and globally circulated. The article argues that mediatized spirituality should be understood not merely as a religious phenomenon, but as a broader socio-cultural transformation in which identity, values, meaning, and collective imagination are reconstructed through media environments. The study employs philosophical, sociological, and media-theoretical approaches to analyze the implications of this shift for modern social consciousness.
References
1.Campbell, H. A. (2012). Digital religion: Understanding religious practice in new media worlds. Routledge.
2.Evolvi, G. (2022). Religion and the internet: Digital religion, (hyper)mediated spaces, and materiality. Zeitschrift für Religion, Gesellschaft und Politik, 6, 9–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41682-021-00087-9 (Springer)
3.Hjarvard, S. (2011). The mediatization of religion: Theorising religion, media and social change. Culture and Religion, 12(2), 119–135.
4.Meyer, B. (2012). Mediation and immediacy: Sensational forms, semiotic ideologies and the question of the medium. Social Anthropology, 20(2), 165–179.
5.Nwankwo, A. O. (2017). Mediatized spirituality: A critical appraisal of the media-religion nexus in Nigeria. Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations, 19(3), 17–31. https://doi.org/10.21018/rjcpr.2017.3.242 (Journal of Communication)
6.Panchenko, S., & Rizun, V. (2025). Mediatization of religion: Toward understanding pilgrimage in the digital environment. Current Issues of Mass Communication, 38, 128–141. https://doi.org/10.17721/CIMC.2025.38.128-141 (cimc.knu.ua)
7.Stig Hjarvard, S. (2008). The mediatization of society. Nordicom Review, 29(2), 105–134.
8 . Weber, M. (1905/2002). The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism (P. Baehr & G. C. Wells, Trans.). Penguin Books.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
- The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms:
- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Notices:
You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.






