1. Tweeting Revelations
Twitter as a means of discussing
mediated religion and religious
'news' events.
Ruth Deller
Sheffield Hallam University
@ruthdeller @RadShef
2. Tweeting Revelations
• What is Twitter?
• How do you use it?
• Trending topics
• Searching
• @replies
• Retweeting (RTs)
• My own research
• Method
• Findings
• Potential of Twitter for research into religion and
media
9. Revelations
• Eight part series of single documentaries
about religion and belief, shown on Channel 4
during summer 2009.
• The first programme, ‘How to find God’ was
made by Jon Ronson, a prominent media
personality and Twitter user, about the Alpha
course.
10. Method
• Monitored Twitter for three hours before,
during and after broadcast.
• Searched for key terms and saved copies of
tweets.
• Invited people tweeting to an exit survey
(week 1) and to a live chat or forum (weeks 2-
8).
11. 1. ‘How to Find God’
• 829 unique tweets during the period
• Documentary maker Jon Ronson
(@jonronson) was online throughout
answering questions.
• 447 tweets were either retweets or questions
to Ronson (or replies to questions)
• Exit survery Rted by Ronson and some other
users; 80 replies in first two hours after
broadcast.
12. 1. ‘How to Find God’
• "Accidentally". @jonronson you crafty peice
of work! #alpha
• @jonronson Ed sums up why I don't take
Communion when Mam drags me to Mass
back home. Tongues is just weird altogether
#alpha
• @jonronson Sorry I'm late to the Alpha twitter
party, was it uncomfortable waiting to see if
anyone spoke in tongues? BTW Excellent film.
13. 1. ‘How to find God’
• About to sit down and enjoy @jonronson's
alpha course film on channel 4!
• Documentary about Alpha Course on C4. If
only good things came out of religion (and
mild indoctrination), maybe it wouldn't make
me so angry.
• Watching a programme on the Alpha Course.
Always wanted to go on it to further my
knowledge but I'm scared of who it could
make me become.
14. Table of findings
` How to find God Muslim School Commando The Exhumer Muslim and Looking Divorce: Jewish Talking to the How Do You
Chaplains for Love Style Dead Know God
Exists?
Tweets 829 14 22 23 15 18 25 52
Unique users 495 13 20 20 15 17 25 43
@mentions and RTs 447 0 3 2 0 1 5 3
'Am watching' 68 2 6 4 4 3 4 10
Critical of people featured 5 4 0 1 0 5* 4 4
38**
Supportive of people featured 7 2 8 0 1 0 0 6
Critical of religion/ belief 22 2 0 1 0 4 2 4
Supportive of religion/ belief 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Like programme 101 2 19 3 5 2 6 8
Dislike programme 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
Personal experience 55 0 0 0 0 2 2 3
Interesting 31 1 5 3 6 2 4 5
Unexpected TV watching 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1
Humour 68 1 0 6 1 2 2 2
Other 111 2 0 3 4 2 6 22
15. Different perspectives
• lol @ muslim school. muslim bitches be crazy.
its funny when thr R 2 of them talking to the
camera with head scarfs i cant tell whos
talking.
• Both mums have good attitude towards their
daughters and reason behind decision for
Muslim school is interesting
16. Different perspectives
• Why is it when religious commentators
mention the atheist bus campaign, they never
mention religious ads telling people they'll go
to hell.
• is watching religious "thinkers" spout
meaningless bullshit on some daft programme
on C4.
• Is finding channel 4's Revelations: how do you
know God exists? so helpful and wishes
everyone could watch it.
17. Humour
• Watching Channel 4 doc about spiritualists.
One of them's reading a newspaper called
Psychic News. Obviously its for not very good
psychics.
• going to watch a tele programme about
talking to the dead . Bit like when my missus
talks to me.
• Watching a programe on exhumation - just
put me off my banana!
18. Personal experience
• Tonight's "Revelations" (on C4+1 in 10mins if
you aren't watching it now) is about the
Spiritualist Church. My family was involved;
bizarre.
• Watched programme about religious divorces
within the Orthodox Jewish community. Got
progressively angrier and remembered why I
walked away.
19. The ‘mundane’
• why am i watching "Divorce Jewish Style"
rofll./ gotta have a bath like, but thats effort
mannn.
• soo hungry, gonna watch jewish divorce
programme.
20. Usefulness?
• Mediated coverage – TV, radio, press
• Big events – festivals, conferences
• News events
• Everyday religion? (e.g. religious organisations
using Twitter)
