Digital Journalistic Uses of the Terms “Sacred” and “Trivial”: Online Press Releases on Portrayals of Hindu Deities in the usa

Abstract

The understanding of what is “sacred” and needs protection from alleged “trivialising” or “profaning” is obviously diverse. Especially in cases of severe dissent this is negotiated in public, including increasingly in digital journalistic contexts.This article discusses media oppositions to an alleged “trivializing” of Hindu deities in the usa. It contextualizes and analyzes with coding techniques press releases from the website of Rajan Zed, president of the Nevada based Universal Society of Hinduism and the Indo-American Leadership Confederation. The article highlights that and how these press releases, each addressing a specific case of a purported trivialization of Kali, are utilized to propagate specific objectives and interpretations of Hinduism. The article presents an analysis of the verbal content of the online press releases, contextualizes this by discussing the subtext of the verbal expressions, and thus exemplifies that and how digital journalistic contexts contribute to current negotiations of religious identity and authority.