Summer School 2013 "Situating Media" - Participants
Allison Ferry (Montréal)
The Free Hugs Campaign, Religion and Online Public Spheres: A Case Study
Since the start of the Free Hugs campaign in 2004 by an Australian man who addresses himself under the pseudonym “Juan Mann,” it has spread around the world, promoting hugs between strangers as “the purest form of love”. My thesis will examine this campaign through the lens of current religion and media scholarship in order to explore the role of user-generated media in the transmission of values, beliefs, and ideologies across communities into greater society. Media promoting the campaign (YouTube videos, Facebook pages, websites) make no explicit reference to religious thought; however, I will demonstrate that the online media promoting Free Hugs utilize implicit, if not explicit forms of religious thought and practice to support their purpose. Upon demonstrating this connection, I will investigate whether and how contributors to the Free Hugs campaign understand this correlation. This case study will add to current scholarly discussions addressing the relationship between: religion, media, and the public sphere; religion and social activism; and the role played by new Internet technologies in urban life.
Allison Ferry is a Master's student at Concordia University Montréal in the Master's of Media Studies program. Her interests include the function of religion in contemporary social movements, and the influence of online user generated media on the expression of value in modern secular spaces. Her previous work has focused primarily on homophobia in Canadian high schools, specifically on the unique experiences of First Nations LGBTQ youth (article in progress).