The Religious Media and the Sociology of Religious Transformations: Moroccan Youths As a Case Study

The religious field in Morocco has known a dynamic process of transformations. It is a process characterized by producing and reproducing concepts, practices, beliefs, values, and directions of orientation. With the emergence of the concept: “The religious media”, two main trends have come into the surface: Values of consuming the religious products and Values of radicalization. For us, there are three key factors that shaped the emergence of “the Religious media” along with its results: First, the socio-political atmosphere, which helped new forms of religiosity to appear after the decline of political Islamic movements as a result of desacralizing its leaders and institutions, which paved the way for the radical Salafist discourse to exert its impact through numerous religious media outlets (more than 120.000 radical Salafist media outlets according to Brookings institute in 2016) . Second, the economic factor, through exploiting the religious enthusiasm of a huge category of Muslims to consume Islamic foods, goods and services (commodification of religion and spirituality), where the religious media plays a great role in their process of advertising. Third, the intellectual and philosophical factor, represented in the wave of detraditionalization, or the fluidity and erosion of traditional religious values in favor of a secularized individualistic tendencies within the religion. These factors and others contributed to the emergence of the religious media and its subsequent impacts among the youths in particular. The present paper offers not only an insight into the aspects and Actors in the religious media in Morocco, but also traces, through a quantitative and qualitative fieldwork, the impact of this type of media on the youths stopping at discourse analysis of a number of religious media outlets, and utilizing questionnaires to discover the attitudes, representations and practices of Moroccan youths in regards to the religious media products.