#Halal Culture on Instagram

Abstract

Halal is a notion that applies to both objects and actions, and means permissible according to Islamic law. It may be most often associated with food and the rules of selecting, slaughtering, and cooking animals. In the globalized world, halal can be found in street corners of New York and beauty shops of Manila. In this study, we explore the cultural diversity of the concept, as revealed through social media, and specifically the way it is expressed by different populations around the world, and how it relates to their perception of (i) religious and (ii) governmental authority, and (iii) personal health. Here, we analyze two Instagram datasets, using Halal in Arabic (325,665 posts) and in English (1,004,445 posts), which provide a global view of major Muslim populations around the world. We find a great variety in the use of halal within Arabic, English, and Indonesian-speaking populations, with animal trade emphasized in first (making up 61% of the language's stream), food in second (80%), and cosmetics and supplements in third (70%). The commercialization of the term halal is a powerful signal of its detraction from its traditional roots. We find a complex social engagement around posts mentioning religious terms, such that when a food-related post is accompanied by a religious term, it on average gets more likes in English and Indonesian, but not in Arabic, indicating a potential shift out of its traditional moral framing.

Health Misinformation in Search and Social Media

“…This study expands the misinformation research prominent in Social Computing, which has been largely focused on the political domain (Shu et al, 2017;Gupta et al, 2013;Ma et al, 2015;Shao et al, 2016), to healthcare -where erroneous beliefs and actions may cause serious bodily harm. Complementing HCI literature on human computer use and its sociocultural implications, this work extends current work on monitoring social media during crises and pandemics (Gui et al, 2017), as well as on the tracking of specific behaviors within a community of interest (such as in the work proposed by Mejova et al (2016), Almeida et al (2016) and Mejova et al (2017)). Below, we elaborate on the ecosystem of health communication and monitoring, possible application of our model, its theoretical contributions, and limitations.…”

Challenges of Self-Presentation and Athlete Branding Among Saudi Female Exercisers: An Auto-ethnography of a Muslim Saudi Personal Trainer Instagram User

“…The Halal lifestyle started as Islamic law and later shifted into a philosophy related to health and ethics of manufacturing a product among the world with different religions. Instagram played a significant role in this spread (Mejova & Benkhedda, 2017).…”

Mengarusutamakan Halal Lifestyle: Antara Peluang Dan Tantangan Kapasitas Perlindungan Sosial Dalam Trend Global

“…Di Amerika Serikat, Mitchell (2018) berusaha mengkonvensi Halal I-Heart yang menawarkan kesempatan bagi masyarakat Amerika untuk belajar dan berbagi cara-cara baru serta manfaat menjalani halal lifestyle. Hal ini membuktikan bahwa budaya halal lifestyle bersifat universal, sebagaimana diungkapkan dalam penelitian Mejova et al, (2017) yang menyatakan bahwa saat ini istilah halal tidak lagi secara eksklusif didefinisikan dalam konteks agama, tetapi telah berubah menjadi istilah gaya hidup yang terkait dengan industri kesehatan dan mode di seluruh dunia.…”