How does offline
religious culture and political culture set the basis or create standards for
what should be considered authentic expressions online?
There are several ways in which offline religious culture
sets the standard for what is considered to be authentic online. For example,
in many churches, authority members such as pastors and priests set the tone
for what is acceptable on and offline. Youth pastors can be especially
important when helping young men and women decipher what to post online so that
they are consistent and reflective of the way they carry themselves offline. In
addition, many pastors or authority figures in churches hold their own social
media accounts, such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Even Pope Francis has
nearly 10 million followers on Twitter, where he tweets out inspiring words and
prayers each day. By leading an example of how to act offline and what to post
online, followers of the church will observe and mirror authority figures’ authentic
patterns.
On the other hand, political authenticity online is a bit
more difficult to shape. As seen in political speeches and on TV
advertisements, often time’s political figures aim to tear their opposing
candidates down in order to lift themselves up. Attack commercial advertisements
and physical flyers exemplify the way that politicians set the tone for what is
“authentic” offline, which thus sets the standard for “online” authenticity. Because
of this, the vast majority of political discourse that can be found on the
Internet is degrading and demeaning to opposing candidates. This is perfectly
illustrated through two Republican Jesus memes below:
In the first meme, current
President-elect Donald Trump is directly referenced by the mention of the
"wall" that he proposed to build along the United States/Mexico
border. The second photo references Socialism, another political/economic
theory. These photos take an authoritative figure like Jesus Christ, who sets
the highest standard for what is considered to be “authentic” and turns it into
negative political discourse.
Are the online and
offline contexts broke-away, bridged, blended or blurred?
The online and offline context of the first meme is somewhat
broken-away. Although the first
Republican Jesus meme references Donald Trump, it doesn’t specifically mention
anything biblical. However, the second meme does connect a political ideal and
a biblical reference, which bridges
the online/offline contexts that exist here.
