During these years and with the expansion of the internet and social media, we have reached the point where every pilgrim is a media and documentarian during the Arbaeen pilgrimage. For this reason, despite the news censorship of Western media in the previous celebrations of the Arbaeen pilgrimage, this great gathering of Shiites has acted as a super media. Media experts have listed some functions for a phenomenon to be regarded as media and the Arbaeen pilgrimage perfectly embodies those functions. Some of the functions of media in communication sciences are educational function, informing, creating solidarity, mobilizing people, and communicating between generations, all of which we can point to in the great media that is “Arbaeen Walk”.

Virtual space, if we consider “Arbaeen Walk” as a text, with the entry of this large community of pilgrims into the virtual space, the coordinates of this phenomenon have changed and like other phenomena that find virtual life, it has new dimensions such as fluidity, transtemporal, translocality, comprehensiveness and intensification of the reality; In other words, this annual gathering, as a part of the show that is performed every day in the social media, is the meeting point of religion, image and social networks. The mixture of these three is the place where secrets, symbols, and meanings grow, and it has become a huge capacity. furthermore, there is no doubt that communication, the internet, and popular social networks have always played an effective role in the presence of 20 million pilgrims in the Arbaeen procession. People of all countries are present in the Arbaeen procession, and this new event has allowed us to create content on a global scale and convey the message of Islam to the world.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *