Orthodox Bloggers' Media Discourse on Artificial Intelligence: Interpretation Strategies and Eschatological Narratives

Abstract

In the context of digitalization of the media space, artificial intelligence is becoming an ideological factor, influencing public consciousness, including religious consciousness. In the field of media communications for the audience of believers, Orthodox Christian bloggers act as leaders of public opinion and interpreters of new socio-cultural challenges related, in particular, to the spread of digital control, automation of daily life and the introduction of algorithmic decision-making systems. In such conditions, the media discourse of Orthodox bloggers acquires special importance as a space for the formation of value attitudes and religious interpretations of technological changes. Despite the growing interest in the religious aspects of digital technologies, there is practically no research in modern humanities linking the media discourse of Orthodox bloggers about artificial intelligence with eschatological narratives and interpretation strategies. The purpose of the study is to identify the strategies of interpretation through which Orthodox bloggers form and broadcast ideas about artificial intelligence within the framework of modern religious media discourse. The methodological basis of the research was the discourse analysis, elements of critical discourse analysis, narrative analysis and qualitative coding of media texts. The study revealed five strategies for interpreting AI in the media discourse of Orthodox bloggers, among which the eschatologically disturbing model dominates, considering AI as a threat to traditional religious consciousness. Along with it, critical-protective, rational-theological, pragmatic-ethical and institutional-synthetic models are presented. In this context, eschatological narratives act as a meaningful component of interpretation strategies and are implemented through stable plots about digital control, dehumanization of society, loss of spiritual freedom and the possible substitution of technological mechanisms for the human principle. The obtained results contribute to the theory of religious media discourse and expand the understanding of the role of Orthodox bloggers in shaping the value orientations of believers in the era of technological transformations.