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The Digital Landscape of God: Narrative, Visuals and Viewer Engagement of Religious Videos on YouTube
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The Digital Landscape of God: Narrative, Visuals and Viewer Engagement of Religious Videos on YouTube

Rongyi Chen, Ziyan Xin, Qing Xiao, Ruiwei Xiao, Jingjia Xiao, Bingbing Zhang, Hong Shen and Zhicong Lu
ArXiv.org
Cornell University
09/13/2025
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2509.10957
url
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2509.10957View
Preprint (Author's original) This preprint has not been evaluated by subject experts through peer review. Preprints may undergo extensive changes and/or become peer-reviewed journal articles. Open Access

Abstract

The digital transformation of religious practice has reshaped how billions of people engage with spiritual content, with video-sharing platforms becoming central to contemporary religious communication. Yet HCI research lacks systematic understanding of how narrative and visual elements create meaningful spiritual experiences and foster viewer engagement. We present a mixed-methods study of religious videos on YouTube across major religions, developing taxonomies of narrative frameworks, visual elements, and viewer interaction. Using LLM-assisted analysis, we studied relationships between content characteristics and viewer responses. Religious videos predominantly adopt lecture-style formats with authority-based persuasion strategies, using salvation narratives for guidance. All prefer bright lighting, with Buddhism favoring warm tones and prominent symbols, Judaism preferring indoor settings, and Hinduism emphasizing sacred objects. We identified differentiated patterns of emotional sharing among religious viewers while revealing significant correlations between content characteristics and engagement, particularly regarding AI-generated content. We provide evidence-based guidance for creating inclusive and engaging spiritual media.
 Computer Science - Human-Computer Interaction

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