“Are You Religious or are You Saved?”
Defining Membership Categories in Religious Discussions on YouTube
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v6i1.47Keywords:
discourse analysis, Evangelical Christian discourse, multimodal analysis, YouTubeAbstract
Using membership categorization analysis, this article investigates membership categories in a YouTube video made by an Evangelical Christian in which he differentiates between “saved” and “religious” users. Analysis will take a discourse-centred, multimodal approach grounded in longitudinal observation, using analysis of video discourse to instruct analysis of video images and user comments. Findings will show that categorization is accomplished by using recognized categories with ambiguous descriptions of category-bound activities that include metaphors, such as “being hungry for God” and not “hanging out with atheists.” These categories are recognized by commenters on the video, but the category bound activities applied to the category members are disputed. Findings will also show that scriptural reference plays an important role in categorization in the video, drawing on direct Bible quotes as well as paraphrases of key passages.
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Benevenuto, F., F. Duarte, T. Rodrigues, V.A. F. Almeida, J. M. Almeida and K. W. Ross. 2008. “Understanding Video Interactions in YouTube.” Paper presented at the 16th ACM international conference on Multimedia. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1459359.1459480
Burgess, J., and J. Green. 2009. YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Conway, M., and L. McInerney. 2008. “Jihadi Video and Auto-radicalisation: Evidence from an Exploratory YouTube Study,” Intelligence and Security Informatics, 108–18.
Eglin, P., and S. Hester. 2003. The Montreal Massacre: A Story of Membership Categorization Analysis. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Evaldsson, A. C. 2005. “Staging Insults and Mobilizing Categorizations in a Multiethnic Peer Group,” Discourse & Society, 16.6, 763.
Jewitt, C. 2002. “The Move from Page to Screen: The Multimodal Reshaping of School English,” Visual Communication, 1.2, 171–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/147035720200100203
Jones, G. M., and B. B. Schieffelin. 2009. “Talking Text and Talking Back. ‘My BFF Jill’ from Boob Tube to YouTube,” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14.4, 1050–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01481.x
Kress, G. 2010. “What is Mode?” in C. Jewitt ed., The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis. London: Routledge, 54–67.
Lange, P. 2007a. “Commenting on Comments: Investigating Responses to Antagonism on YouTube.” Paper presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology Conference, Tampa, Florida.
Lange, P. 2007b. “Searching for the ‘You’ in ‘YouTube’: An Analysis of Online Response Ability.” Paper presented at the EPIC 2007, Keystone, CO, USA.
Lepper, G. 2000. Categories in Text and Talk. London: Sage.
Leudar, I., V. Marsland and J. Nekvapil. 2004. “On Membership Categorization: Us’, ‘Them’ and ‘Doing Violence’ in Political Discourse,” Discourse & Society, 15.2-3, 243–66.
LiftALoft. 2009. “To HisLivingSacrifice: Stay Strong!” Retrieved 19 August, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grhp6FAgCCk
Pihlaja, Stephen. 2010. “The Pope of YouTube: Metaphor and Misunderstanding in AtheistChristian YouTube Dialogue,” The Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue, 3, 25–35. Available online at: http://irdialogue.org/journal/issue03/the-pope-of-youtube-metaphor-andmisunderstanding-in-atheist-christian-youtube-dialogue-by-stephen-pihlaja/
Pihlaja, Stephen. 2011. “Cops, Popes, and Garbage Collectors: Metaphor and Antagonism in an Atheist/Christian YouTube Video Thread,” Language@Internet, 8.1. http://www. languageatinternet.de/articles/2011/pihlaja
Rampton, B. 1995. Crossing: Language and Ethnicity among Adolescents. London: Longman.
Sacks, H. 1995. Lectures on Conversation. Oxford: Blackwell. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ 9781444328301
Schegloff, E. A. 2007. “A Tutorial on Membership Categorization,” Journal of Pragmatics, 39.3, 462–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2006.07.007
van Zoonen, L., F. Hirzalla, and F. Müller. 2009. “Fitna: The Video Battle.” Retrieved 23 August, 2010, from http://xn--2012-4q4c3a3lc.com/departments/ss/research/FITNA/ pdfs/BJoS%20Fitna%20Van%20Zoonen,%20Muller,%20Hirzalla.pdf
YokedtoJesus. 2009. “I doubt JezuzFreek is saved…” Retrieved 21 April, 2010, from http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAm5HUfSO4U
YokedtoJesus. n.d. “YouTube - YokedtoJesus’s Channel.” Retrieved 5 August, 2010, from http:// www.youtube.com/user/YokedtoJesus
YouTube. n.d. “YouTube Community Guidelines.” Retrieved 1 April, 2010, from http:// www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines
Published
2012-01-20
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Pihlaja, S. (2012). “Are You Religious or are You Saved?”: Defining Membership Categories in Religious Discussions on YouTube. Fieldwork in Religion, 6(1), 47-63. https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v6i1.47
