Mediatizing Islam: The Digital Turn and the Promotion of Piety in a Pakistani Culture Industry = Mediatiser l'Islam : le tournant numerique et la promotion de la piete dans une industrie culturelle pakistanaise / Elliot Marcel Montpellier.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Montpellier, Elliot Marcel, author.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania. Anthropology, degree granting institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cultural anthropology.

Religion.

Mass communications.

Anthropology--Penn dissertations.

Penn dissertations--Anthropology.

Local Subjects:

Cultural anthropology.

Religion.

Mass communications.

Anthropology--Penn dissertations.

Penn dissertations--Anthropology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (331 pages)

Contained In:

Dissertations Abstracts International 85-03A.

Place of Publication:

[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] : University of Pennsylvania, 2022.

Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2023

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This dissertation brings attention to the role of an entertainment television genre- distinguished from explicitly religious television-in habituating audiences to forms of piety in Pakistani public culture. The project draws on the idea of 'side-chizen', articulated by a leading drama industry figure that I translate and elaborate as 'religion-adjacent,' to argue that, though implicitly framed, such themes are legible to audiences as religiously engaged. Drawing on fieldwork in Karachi, two North American diasporic communities, and digital spaces where drama viewers engage productions, my work illustrates how the industry crafts themes that largely circumvent censorship and public outcry on contentious religious issues (e.g., blasphemy, sectarianism, and politics), but that nevertheless index forms of religion that are steeped in collective pious sensibilities. This ethnographic investigation of pious mediatization in dramas is coupled with observations of how audience practices enregister dramas' discursive and visual registers, amplifying them in everyday contexts in Pakistan, diaspora, and online. In its comparative focus between how such themes exist in production spaces and how they are activated by audiences, the dissertation draws on a concept of feedback to examine the qualities of this open secret and its publicity. The project analyzes how digital techniques and technologies have repositioned the interactional framework between audiences and institutional actors across this culture industry. It demonstrates how the shift from notions of an imagined national audience to segmentable, quantifiable viewership-through global platforms and local broadcasts-alters the forms of religiosity circulated in the industry. This inquiry analyzes how reliance on audience data encourages not only commercial impulses, but also the incorporation of religious notions of individual relationships to the divine, dislocated appeals to Sufi themes, and emphasis on Sunni norms. I argue that reliance on these pious tropes and themes in this entertainment genre ironically leads to a more religiously-conscious and homogenous public. This dynamic, I contend, is only possible due to the expansion of personal media and the communication feedback generated by this media industry.

Notes:

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 85-03, Section: A.

Advisors: Mitchell, Lisa; Committee members: Agha, Asif; Elias, Jamal; Mukherjee, Rahul.

Department: Anthropology.

Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2023.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175

ISBN:

9798380387835

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.

This item is not available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.