The Theory of Hypermediation: Anti-Gender Christian Groups and Digital Religion

Abstract

The article elaborates the theory of hypermediation to describe actions related to digital religion that involve various media platforms. According to this theory, media simultaneously hold material, institutional, and technological characteristics. Furthermore, hypermediation entails the creation of affective spaces between physical and digital actions. The theory of hypermediation draws upon literature on religion and media and is applied to case studies of anti-gender movements: Christian-inspired groups that oppose same-sex unions and promote traditional family values. The group Sentinelle in Piedi employs the Internet to organize silent protests at which people read books as an implicit criticism of media institutions and technologies. La Manif Pour Tous stages performances in physical settings to provoke emotional reactions, then it enhances their impact through online circulation. The article uses these examples to show how the concept of hypermediation can be a starting point to analyze the multimedia character of contemporary religion across material actions and digital spaces.