Anna Neumaier in a Deutschlandfunk interview on religion on social media

As part of the program Breitband on Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Anna Neumaier was interviewed as an expert on religion and social media about the impact of digital platforms on the representation and perception of religion. The main topic of the episode on January 18 was a kind of stocktaking of the functionality of TikTok and the social significance of the social network for people all over the world.

In the interview, Neumaier was asked about the key findings of her research into religion and religiosity on Tiktok. Among other things, she explained that platforms such as TikTok often make extreme positions more visible - not necessarily in terms of dangerous or radical content, but in terms of strongly conservative or particularly progressive religious ideas. Such content often replaces traditional boundaries, for example between denominations or traditions, and instead focuses independently on value issues such as gender roles, climate protection or abortion. This phenomenon reflects the dynamics of how social or religious debates are conducted in general, which in turn are reflected in the algorithms of the platforms.

The interview with Anna Neumaier shed light on a number of other fascinating questions about the interaction between religion and social media. For example, it was discussed whether and how the representation of religion differs on the various platforms and which specific characteristics or trends stand out. The discussion also revolved around whether certain religious groups prefer to use specific platforms, what challenges users face in differentiating between traditional religion, esotericism and related fields and whether and to what extent social media represents an opportunity or a risk for traditional religious communities, which are increasingly losing social influence in Germany.

Neumaier is researching religious content and its reception in social media with colleagues from the Universities of Frankfurt and Rostock in the Religion - Digitality - Confessionality (REDICON) research project.

The full interview with Anna Neumaier (from about 17:30 min.) can be listened to in the Deutschlandfunk Kultur media library:
https://www.ardaudiothek.de/episode/breitband/kuenstliche-intelligenz-wie-synthetische-inhalte-menschliche-interaktion-gefaehrden/deutschlandfunk-kultur/14086089/