Maximilian Lechner

Media & Communication , Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich

      • Working title: From Anthroposophy to Zodiac. Esotericism on social media in the field of tension between offer, content and dispositional reception
      • Short description: Digital media enable esoteric actors to respond to society’s ongoing search for meaning. Through social media, they disseminate alternative healing practices, spiritual concepts, and holistic worldviews, often overlapping with science-skeptical and critical societal narratives. At the same time, esotericism can offer individual orientation, emotional relief, and a sense of community. This dissertation project examines esoteric communication from both the providers’ and the recipients’ perspectives, using “traditional” methods such as surveys as well as computational approaches (like topic modeling and sentiment analysis). It contributes to the empirical study of contemporary esotericism in digital publics and offers insights for discourse research, political education and media literacy.
m.lechner@ifkw.lmu.de
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