TEDified Islam : postsecular storytelling in new media

Abstract

For more than a decade, we have witnessed the growth of a distinct research sub-field concentrated on new media and Islam. This aims to explore how the digital mediated communications constitute the (re)production of Islamic subjectivities, collectivities and form of religious authority. However, these studies have concerned the investigation of mainstream Islamic content-production platforms as well as Muslim presence in digital media knowledge spaces. Since there is increasing visibility of knowledge production on Islam in secular media, it is significant to explore more deeply the characteristics of secular media discourse on Islam. Identifying TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) as a secular platform, this study examines how TED produces knowledge on Islam by focusing on both the ideological standpoints and communication practices involved in this process. TED is a non-profit global conference media organiser that curates formatted brief speeches "" TED Talks "" and publishes them online. This study investigates the knowledge production on Islam in a series of TED Talks delivered by both Muslims and non-Muslims. It asks how TED represent Islam in this series of talks, how both Muslim and non-Muslim TED viewers respond to the representation of Islam in TED Talks as well as on the communication platform and practices, and what kind of authority the TED speakers embody as 'spokespersons of Islam'. This study provides a thorough examination of the discursive features of the text that emerge at the nexus of the sacred and secular within a popular media space. Discourse analysis was used to identify how specific forms of postsecular thinking mediate the contemporary engagement between secularism and religion in this space. Therefore, this study, using postsecular imagination as a conceptual framing, explores how Islamic values and practices are represented in TED Talks and how postsecular spokespersons rethink conceptions about what 'counts' as religious authority. This study adopts a holistic discursive methodological approach, arguing that a vibrant understanding of a discourse can be made possible by analysing its three separate but strongly interconnected aspects "" the producer, text, and the audience. Therefore, the methodical framework of this study is designed with a combination of discourse analysis of the text (TED Talks on Islam), qualitative audience analysis using both Muslim and non-Muslim TED viewers, and online interviews with TED speakers on Islam. The analysis is built on the premise of postsecular discourse that suggests certain emerging sociological conditions instigate new configurations of both the secular and the sacred, and trigger new responses based on increased consciousness and complementary learning (Habermas, 2008). This thesis contains four empirical chapters. While the first two chapters discuss the representation of Islam in TED Talks, the third chapter analyses audience response to this knowledge production. The final empirical chapter explores the nature of the authority of TED speakers on Islam as new spokespersons in new media.

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English