The Study of Catholic Religious Authority on Facebook

A study is being conducted by Brian Altenhofen, a doctoral candidate at Texas A&M University under the direction of Dr. Heidi Campbell, in order to look at the way American Catholic Priests use Facebook. Recent studies have looked at the way new media is being negotiated by religious leaders of the Buddhist, Islamist, and Evangelical Christian faiths. Similarly, this study aims to discover the ways Catholic Priests negotiate social media in order to maintain and/or establish religious authority. In order to discover this, participants are needed to conduct a survey and follow-up interview. Ideal participants will be American Catholic Priests who use Facebook on a fairly regular basis (3 or more times a week) in order to conduct either personal and/or professional business on the social media site. If you know American catholic Priests that use Facebook pass this flyer along and have them email brianaltenhofen@tamu.edu.