Arguing about religion

BBC World Service Internet forums as sites of postcolonial encounter

Bibliographic Data

ID2178797
AuthorsDavid Herbert (0000-0003-1419-7580), Tracey Black, Ramy Aly (0000-0003-0062-5281)
Year2013
Volume49
Issue5
Pages519-538
Publication date2013-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Postcolonial Writing (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1744-9855 • E-ISSN: 1744-9863
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17449855.2013.844310
OpenAlexW2027010708
LanguageEN
References cited24

This paper compares the content, context and facilitation of discussions about religion and politics on contrasting types of Internet forum in English and Arabic, comparing forums linked to the current affairs output of the BBC World Service (BBCWS), Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiyya between 2007 and 2010. It examines how these forums are structured by a range of technological and political factors, reflecting the postcolonial context of encounter. It demonstrates that the consequences of deploying these technologies in this context are ambivalent. On the one hand, they enable participation in discussion in contexts where political debate is restricted, allow conversation between individuals that would be impossible in embodied form, and strengthen diasporic connectivity. On the other, they are used behind a rhetoric of free speech which masks exclusionary power relations. Comparison between types of BBC forum further demonstrates the importance of how new technologies are deployed for forms of communication and community construction

Ambivalence · Context (archaeology · Conversation · Linguistics · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Public relations · Rhetoric · Sociology · The Internet · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Media, Religion, Digital Communication · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Social Media and Politics · Communication · History · Law · Social Psychology

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