THE MEDIATIZATION OF SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE: BLOG, PODCAST AND STREAMING CULTURE

Abstract

This article examines how contemporary digital media reshape spiritual experience through blogs, podcasts and streaming culture. Drawing on mediatization theory and the concept of “networked religion,” it argues that spiritual life is increasingly organized through media logics and platform infrastructures rather than only through traditional institutions. Blogs allow believers to narrate spiritual journeys in public, creating archives of “storied identities.” Podcasts offer intimate, portable forms of teaching and testimony that accompany everyday routines. Streaming culture – especially the live broadcasting of religious services and spiritual talks – turns worship into a real‑time, interactive event that can be accessed from almost anywhere. Empirical studies show that a significant share of adults now watch religious services online, listen to religion-focused podcasts and use apps for scripture reading, particularly since the COVID‑19 pandemic accelerated the digitalization of religion.