Introduction of Research Topic and Question
On March 11,2020, the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus, Covid-19, a pandemic 1. Within 2 days, the then US President Donald Trump declared a nationwide emergency and by the end of the month, populations across the United States and the globe began entering lock down and social distancing. A majority of organizations and businesses responded by moving in-person activities like school, work, and celebrations to online platforms.
Many religious institutions were not exempt to this rule. Religious communities were uniquely impacted by the lock downs and social distance measures as various aspects of religious life such as congregating, singing, pilgrimage and certain rituals were ill-advised to limit the spread of Covid-19 2. Although met with resistance, the United States move to close churches, mosques, and synagogues bore the question are religious institutions and the services they provide are essential.
Previous studies on religious behaviors suggest a correlation between fear and beliefs, exposing casual links that fear motivates religious faith and the latter mitigates fear 3.This project will explore if, and how, online sentiment changed within the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith communities during the pandemic.
I will use the online forum of Reddit, described as “home to thousands of communities, endless conversation, and human connection,” to explore changes over the 2020-2021 time period 4. Reddit has over 50 million daily active uniques, over 100 thousand active communities, and over 13 billion posts and comments on its platform. The specific communities of interest for this project are r/Christianity, r/Judaism, r/Islam, and r/COVID19.
r/Christianity - 316k members
* About: “r/Christianity is a subreddit to discuss Christianity and aspects of Christian life. All are welcome to participate.”
* Created: January 25, 2008
* Source:[https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/]
r/Judaism - 71k members
* About: “The place for anybody and anything Jew-ish”
* Created: May 27, 2008
* Source: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Judaism/]
r/Islam - 192k members
* About: “r/islam is the place to discuss any topics related to Islam & Muslims.”
* Created: March 5, 2008
* Source: [https://www.reddit.com/r/islam/]
r/Covid19 - 362k
* About: “In December 2019, SARS-CoV-2 emerged in the city of Wuhan, China. This subreddit seeks to facilitate scientific discussion of this potential global public health threat. We have very strict rules. Please make sure to read them before posting or commenting. Moderators may lock or remove comments or posts at their discretion.”
* Created: Feb 11, 2020
* Source: [https://www.reddit.com/r/COVID19/]
The goal of this research is to conduct a comparative, sentiment analysis of three major faith communities, r/Christianity, r/Judaism, and r/Islam during the first 2 years of the pandemic. Initial questions to guide the research include:
* How did the content and sentiment within these subreddit groups change over time?
* How does sentiment between r/Christianity, r/Judaism, and r/Islam compare to each other?
* How did sentiment within the faith communities compare to that of r/Covid19?
Sources:
1.CDC. CDC museum COVID-19 timeline. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Published January 5, 2022. [https://www.cdc.gov/museum/timeline/covid19.html]
2. Papazoglou AS, Moysidis DV, Tsagkaris C, Dorosh M, Karagiannidis E, Mazin R. Spiritual Health and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Impacts on Orthodox Christianity Devotion Practices, Rituals, and Religious Pilgrimages. J Relig Health. 2021;60(5):3217-3229. [doi:10.1007/s10943-021-01347-x]
3.Meza D. In a Pandemic Are We More Religious? Traditional Practices of Catholics and the COVID-19 in Southwestern Colombia , published online ahead of print, 2020 Aug 31. International Journal of Latin American Religions. 2020;1-17. [doi:10.1007/s41603-020-00108-0]
4. Press. Redditinc. [https://www.redditinc.com/press]