Abstract
Introduction. Modern media reality is characterized by the active penetration of digital technologies into all spheres of public life, including religious communications. Interactive geomedia Google Maps is one of the channels for representing religious space. However, user content can offend the religious feelings of believers and contain narratives as tools of information warfare. The author’s discovery of violations of community standards and the non-systematic approach of administrators to their elimination prompted him to investigate the participation of «small narratives» in constructing a digital image of sacred space using geomedia.
Relevance and purpose. The relevance is due to the active use of new ways of representing sacred space and the need to rethink the functional purpose of interactive geomedia as a type of new media. The purpose of the article is to identify the features of representing religious space in interactive geomedia Google Maps and to describe the mechanisms of communicative practices for constructing a digital image of religious institutions.
Methodology. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is the concepts of geomedia and new spatial media. The methods of analysis and synthesis, generalization and comparison, content analysis and discourse analysis were also applied to identify the features of the representation of religious objects and the systematization of user content. The empirical analysis was carried out on the materials of reviews, text, visual and audiovisual content of four specific religious institutions of world religions.
Results. As a result of the analysis of reviews on the pages of sacred objects, five «small narratives» were systematized, which are constructed by users: sacralization, pilgrimage, tourist-consumer, visual-representative and historical-cultural. Their dominance depends on the religious tradition and tourist attractiveness of the object.
Conclusions. The study found that interactive geomedia Google Maps constructs religious space through a combination of sacred, cultural and consumer dimensions. The constant influx of new reviews, photographs, and video materials makes its digital representation incomplete and creates conditions for its permanent reconstruction through a multitude of individual «small narratives».
References
1. Basilica di San Pietro. Google Maps. 2026. https://lnk.ua/2L0HvD43E
2. Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Google Maps. 2026. https://lnk.ua/7n8Bx6ag2
3. Elwood, S., & Leszczynski, A. (2013). New spatial media, new knowledge politics.Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 38(4), 544–559. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2012.00543.x
4. Google. (n.d.-c). [Mahabodhi Temple]. Retrieved April 2, 2026, Retrieved from https://lnk.ua/zAqIueL9o
5. Google. (n.d.-d). [Masjid al-Haram]. Retrieved April 2, 2026, Retrieved from https://lnk.ua/x9vKYhsfb
6. McQuire, S. (2016). Geomedia: Networked cities and the future of public space. Polity Press.
7. Plantin, J.-C., Lagoze, C., Edwards, P. N., & Sandvig, C. (2018). Infrastructure studies meet platform studies in the age of Google and Facebook. New Media & Society, 20(1), 293–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816661553
8. Plantin, J.-C. (2018). Google Maps as cartographic infrastructure: From participatory mapmaking to database maintenance. International Journal of Communication, 12, 489–506.
9. Shelton, T., Zook, M., & Graham, M. (2012). The technology of religion: Mapping religiouscyberscapes. The Professional Geographer, 64(4), 602–617. https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2011.614571
10. Slusar, W. (2015). «Tablet consciousness» as a subjective component of «rational violence» in the globalized world. Studia Warmińskie, 52, 51–61. https://doi.org/10.31648/sw.120
11. Sokolovskyi, O., Slyusar, V., & Hordiichuk, O.(2024). The experience of religious organizations in the formation and development of the chaplaincy movement in Ukraine. Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe, 44(3), 74–92. https://doi.org/10.55221/2693-2229.2517
12. Solodovnyk, D., Havryliuk, I., Sypchenko, I., Ishchenko, O., & Kyrylenko, O. (2023). Data journalism visualization in Ukraine and in Europe: A comparative analysis. Amazonia Investiga, 12(64), 30–44. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.64.04.10
13. Solemenko, L.(2023). Sposoby vyrazhennia emotsiinykh reaktsii yak komunikatyvna praktyka korystuvachiv sotsialnykh merezh [Ways of expressing emotional reactions as a communicative practice of social network users]. Obraz, 3(43), 102–110. https://doi.org/10.21272/Obraz.2023.3(43)-102-110
14. Tielietova, S., & Tielietov, O. (2025). Intehratsiia media v sotsialni merezhi yak providna tendentsiia suchasnoi mediakonverhentsii [Integration of media into social networks as the leading trend of modern media convergence]. Obraz, 3(49), 154–165. https://doi.org/10.21272/Obraz.2025.3(49)-154-165
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.