Preacher Playlist: Reception and Curation of Celebrity Pastors in the Korean Diaspora

Abstract

Korean megachurches use digital media to distribute religious content across transnational boundaries. Megachurches upload sermons, live-stream worship services and publicise events on websites, mobile apps and social media platforms. Studying the reception side reveals a fuller picture of how religious content circulates and how it is interpreted, curated and used. This chapter provides insights into how Korean-American Christian women in the U.S. incorporate religious digital media produced in South Korea into their everyday lives. The study finds that Korean-American women 1) gather knowledge of popular pastors and develop expertise on their preaching styles, 2) diagnose their own spiritual needs as well as those of others, and access religious digital media content in order to address these needs, and 3) use online religious content to curate daily routines that adhere to their conceptions of a faithful life. The women exercise a form of spiritual authority as curates of digital media content.