Islamophobia in Work Environment and Social Media: A Virtual Ethnography Example

Özet

In this study, Islamophobia among Turks, a Muslim community, was investigated. As in other areas, Islamophobia is becoming more evident in working environments. The first signals of this situation started to be given in social media environments. With the spread of the internet and interactive media, people have become sharing everything on social media. Those who are exposed to Islamophobic behaviors in the working environment also make various posts on social networks. However, similarly, antiIslamic posts are quite common even in Muslim societies. In this study, the Islamophobia that employees are exposed to was evaluated within the framework of both the work environment and social media. Virtual ethnography was used as a method in the research. Interviews were held on Twitter which is a social media medium. Within the scope of the study, in-depth interviews were conducted with 3 recruiters and 10 employees for three months. According to the results of the study, Islamophobia is very common in the work environment and it is only a small example reflected on social media. Also, the posts revealing Islamophobia on social media do not prevent the existing problem. Because the shares on social media are instantaneous, the effect is also instantaneous.