@article {2800, title = {Introduction: Media and Religious Controversy}, journal = {Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture}, year = {2019}, abstract = {The phrase {\textquotedblleft}religious controversies{\textquotedblright} is blunt and evocative, and immediately brings up associations to angry mobs, flag burning and, at times, inexplicable rage at seemingly mundane matters. The capacity of religion, whether in its doctrinal, social or institutional form, to generate, propagate and exacerbate controversy appears endless. While this capacity may not be unique to religion, nor recent in origin, the last couple of decades have seen what would appear to be unprecedented levels of religious controversies around the world. This introduction provides a brief backdrop to the overarching theme of mediatized religious controversies, and identifies some cross-cutting issues that have arisen across the different contributions. We identify some general patterns among the controversies dealt with in this special issue, and ask how these patterns may inspire new research efforts.}, url = {https://brill.com/view/journals/rmdc/8/1/article-p1_1.xml?language=en}, author = {Abdel-Fadil, Mona and {\r A}rsheim, Helge} } @article {2790, title = {Counselling Muslim Selves on Islamic Websites: Walking a Tightrope Between Secular and Religious Counselling Ideals?}, journal = {Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture}, year = {2015}, abstract = {This article focuses on the interactive counselling service Problems and Answers (PS), an Arabic language and Islamic online counselling service, which draws on global therapeutic counselling trends. For over a decade, PS was run and hosted by www.IslamOnline.net (IOL). Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this article aims to provide a layered, contextualized understanding of online Islamic counselling, through addressing the {\textquoteleft}invisible{\textquoteright}, {\textquoteleft}behind the screens{\textquoteright} aspects of PS counselling and the meaning making activities that inform the online output. In particular, I examine: 1. The multiple ways in which {\textquoteleft}religion{\textquoteright} shapes the PS counsellors{\textquoteright} counselling output, and 2. The extent to which secular and religious counselling ideals clash, in PS counselling. Drawing on a mixed methods approach, I demonstrate instances in which offline data nuance and generate new understandings of online data. The findings demonstrate the multivocality and variations in the PS counsellors{\textquoteright} perspectives on both religion and counselling psychology, and shed light on possible tensions between professed ideals and actual online practices.}, doi = {10.1163/21659214-90000099}, url = {https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322380732_Counselling_Muslim_Selves_on_Islamic_Websites_Walking_a_Tightrope_Between_Secular_and_Religious_Counselling_Ideals}, author = {Abdel-Fadil, Mona} } @article {2813, title = {The Politics of Affect: the Glue of Religious and Identity Conflicts in Social Media}, journal = {Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Affect theory often overlooks decades of anthropological, feminist, queer, and postcolonial scholarship on emotion. I build on this extensive scholarship of emotion and use my online ethnography of a Facebook group that promotes the public visibility of Christianity as a springboard to build a conceptual framework of the politics of affect. I address three theoretical gaps: 1) the lack of distinction between different emotions, 2) how affect is often performed for someone, and 3) the varying intensities of emotion. I delve into the intricate ways in which emotions fuel identities, worldviews, and their contestations, and how fake news may come to be perceived as affectively factual. This article deepens our understanding of the role of affect in polemic and mediatized conflicts. The role of emotion in religious conflicts and identity politics is not simply analytically useful, but is, at times, the very fabric of which political ideas are made.}, url = {https://brill.com/view/journals/rmdc/8/1/article-p11_11.xml?language=en}, author = {Abdel-Fadil, Mona} } @article {2130, title = {Identity Politics in a Mediatized Religious Environment on Facebook: Yes to Wearing the Cross Whenever and Wherever I Choose}, journal = {Journal of Religion in Europe}, volume = {10}, year = {2017}, pages = {457 {\textendash} 486}, abstract = {The Norwegian Facebook page Yes to Wearing the Cross Whenever and Wherever I Choose was initially created to protest the prohibition of the cross for NRK news anchors. Yet, many of the discussions and audience interactions transpired into heated religio-political debates with strong elements of anti-Muslim, xenophobic, anti-secular, and anti-atheist sentiments. This study aims to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the interplay between media and religion by providing new insights on the variety of ways in which media audiences may {\textquoteleft}add a series of dynamics to conflicts, namely, amplification, framing and performative agency, and co-structuring{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}perform conflict{\textquoteright}, as formulated by Hjarvard et al. It is argued that mediatized conflicts with inherent trigger themes, which tug at core religio-political identity issues, also tend to evoke emotional responses, which, in turn, inspire social media users to perform the conflict in ways that multiply the conflict(s).}, keywords = {Facebook, mediatized, Politics, religious}, url = {http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/18748929-01004001}, author = {Abdel-Fadil, M} } @inbook {1301, title = {Grassroots Religion: Facebook and Offline Post-Denominational Judaism }, booktitle = {Social Media Religion and Spirituality}, year = {2013}, publisher = { De Gruyter}, organization = { De Gruyter}, chapter = {8}, address = {Berlin}, keywords = {Facebook, Jews, Judaism, Online, self-generated, social media, social network, Youth}, url = {http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/46335/1/SMRC_Umbruch_24_7_13.pdf$\#$page=147}, author = {Nathan Abrams and Sally Baker and B. J. Brown} } @inbook {2111, title = {Film, television, and new media studies}, booktitle = {The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Jewish Cultures}, year = {2014}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, edition = {1}, chapter = {8}, address = {London}, abstract = {Screen sources, such as film, television, and new media, are valuable resources for studying both the Jewish past and the present. This is, in part, because of their reliance on visual stereotypes to communicate information quickly and easily. Stereotypes are regularly repeated, simplistic, easily understood, and (often) inaccurate categorizations of a social group (Abrams et al. 2010: 365). Stereotypes in general, and Jewish ones in particular, fulfill many functions and much has been written about this especially in terms of how they perform cultural work in demonizing minority groups from the outside, and perpetuating group solidarity and continuity from the inside. Since stereotypes do not stay static and because screen media tend to rely on them, they allow us to map and track wider changes in the society from which those texts originate. They {\textquotedblleft}change because the cultural patterns on which they are based are becoming anachronistic{\textquotedblright} (Antler 1998: 256). Likewise, screen stereotypes of Jews, existing almost as long as the media themselves, have evolved, and a diachronic study of screen media allows us to map the metamorphosis of the Jew/ess and what this tells us about the societies in which they live at any given point in time. For these reasons, then, the study of Jewish film, television, and new media is a highly pro- ductive field with its own specific histories, identities, agents, productions, production contexts, industries, and festivals.}, keywords = {film, New Media, Television}, issn = {978-0415473781}, url = {https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781135048556}, author = {Abrams, N} } @conference {1015, title = {Cards, Links, and Research: Teaching Technological Learners}, booktitle = {Theology and Pedagogy in Cyberspace II}, year = {2004}, month = {04/2004}, address = {Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston IL}, url = {http://akma.disseminary.org/2004/04/went-well/}, author = {Adam, A. K. M.} } @article {1014, title = {Practicing the Disseminary: Technology Lessons from Napster}, journal = {Teaching Theology and Religion}, volume = {5}, year = {2002}, chapter = {10}, abstract = {Whatever will happen in the way of the confluence of pedagogy and technology, it will not so much perpetuate past models in more efficient ways as it will reflect a stronger element of (for example) the unanticipated success of Napster. The author suggests a fivefold interpretation of Napster{\textquoteright}s implications as a guideline of what cybermedia do well, and how theological educators can use cybermedia to enrich their classroom teaching by distinguishing online from in-class education. Cybermedia serve best when they do not duplicate or usurp functions best accomplished in person, and personal interaction thrives when not burdened with information-transmission that might as well take place online. }, doi = {10.1111/1467-9647.00113}, url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9647.00113/abstract}, author = {Adam, A. K. M.} } @article {1013, title = {The Question Concerning Technology and Religion}, journal = {Journal of Lutheran Ethics}, volume = {12}, year = {2012}, abstract = {The question concerning technology and religion typically confronts us today when skeptics and enthusiasts debate the reality and validity of computers{\textquoteright} mediation of theological experience, when dubious observers denounce the deleterious effects of digital technology on spirituality, or advocates praise the benefits of online piety. ... Are computers making us dumber, more globally aware, less religious, more spiritual?}, url = {http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Journal-of-Lutheran-Ethics/Issues/November-2012/The-Question-Concerning-Technology-and-Religion.aspx}, author = {Adam, A. K. M.} } @article {2817, title = {$\#$WhatBritishMuslimsReallyThink: Negotiating Religious and National Identity on Twitter}, journal = {Zeitschrift f{\"u}r junge Religionswissenschaft}, year = {2017}, abstract = {In the discursive construction of intra-national sameness, religious identity is often a key criterion for inclusion or exclusion from the imagined national community. In today{\textquoteright}s Europe, the boundaries of individual nations are increasingly secured by applying a logic characteristic of Islamophobia and cultural racism. Therefore, the negotiation of Muslim identity and its intersection with the respective national identity category is of particular interest. In this study, the Twitter hashtag $\#$WhatBritishMuslimsReallyThink was examined in order to analyze how members of the British Muslim digital community both construct and reinforce their collective identity as well as employ discursive strategies to negotiate British national identity and their national belonging in the face of exclusionary political rhetoric. Drawing on a corpus of 480 tweets containing the hashtag $\#$WhatBritishMuslimsReallyThink, a mixed-method content analysis approach was employed to analyze the topics and strategies present in the hashtag discourse. Thereby, the issues addressed and the strategies of belonging employed in the Twitter conversation are embedded in a larger public discourse on British national identity and intra-national boundary making. This research investigates Twitter as a site of national and religious identity construction and sheds light on the contested nature of such identity categories.}, url = {https://journals.openedition.org/zjr/896}, author = {Aeschbach, Mirjam} } @article {2075, title = {Sexual Violence Discourse on Internet: Meme, Hoe and the Case of Eno Fariha}, journal = {Jurnal Perempuan}, volume = {21}, year = {2016}, pages = {405-413}, abstract = {Internet memes are presently gaining momentum as the hip media of the internet, yet it also brought the dated notion of sexism and violence against women. The notion is apparent especially after the recent case of violence and murder of Eno Fariha was transformed into memes. Using several superficial aspect of media coverage on Eno{\textquoteright}s case, such as the utilization of hoe for the murder, the creator of said memes basically implies that any women who violate practices identifiable with certain religion is subject to similar act of violence which befalls Eno. Moreover, taking into account that internet memes are made {\textquoteleft}just for laughs{\textquoteright}, the humor of the meme becomes more prevalent than the violence discourse. Further inspection is needed on how much has the discourse spread, especially with memes{\textquoteright} quick and easy spread through the internet, and on its discursive relation with religion and domestification of women.}, keywords = {internet, meme, sexual violence}, url = {http://www.indonesianfeministjournal.org/index.php/IFJ/article/view/147}, author = {Agam, R. A} } @article {2040, title = {Communicating Mixed Messages About Religion through Internet Memes}, journal = {Information, Communication \& Society}, volume = {20}, year = {2017}, pages = {1458-1520}, abstract = {This article investigates the dominant messages Internet memes communicate about religion. Internet memes about religion are defined as, {\textquoteleft}memes circulated on the Internet whose images and texts focus on a variety of religious themes and/or religious traditions{\textquoteright} (Bellar et al., 2013). By drawing on meme genres identified by Shifman (2012) and analyzing techniques used to frame ideas concerning religion in memes, this study identifies common genres found amongst religious Internet meme and core frames used to present messages and assumptions about religion online. This article further draws attention to the importance of studying religion in digital contexts, as it highlights trends, recognized by scholars toward {\textquoteleft}Lived Religion{\textquoteright} within digital culture (Campbell, 2012). Lived Religion argues that contemporary media and digital culture provide important resources for presenting popular beliefs about religion. This study also suggests that studying Internet memes about religion provides a useful lens for understanding popular conceptions about religion within mainstream culture.}, keywords = {digital cultures, internet memes, Lived religion, memes, participatory culture}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1229004}, author = {Aguilar, A and Campbell, H and Stanley, M and Taylor, E} } @unpublished {70, title = {An Orthodox wide network over the Internet for the lesson of religion}, year = {2004}, month = {May 2004}, address = {Volos, Greece}, abstract = {Adapting the Orthodox view of education, {\textquotedblleft}taste and see{\textquotedblright} (Schmemann 1974) to the Internet is quite difficult, because there is a lack of dimensions, interactivity and emotional life in its hole range. So, for a theologian it is not such a big a surprise, if ICT in Religious Education does not pay itself as it perhaps does according to the advocates of the business world. This is because the Orthodox view of Christian education differs from the learning and teaching theories. In spite of all these sceptical thoughts presented above there is no absolute reason to abandon or avoid the Internet in the R.E. The Internet connects people and helps them to share something that is common to them. At its best the www-material supports a deeper understanding of the same substance and paves the way for wider and mutual understanding concerning the Religious teaching and Religious life, and the situation of the Church in different kind of societies (minority-majority position of the Orthodoxy).}, keywords = {internet, network, religion}, url = {http://www.edu.joensuu.fi/ortoweb/oreconf/aikonenristo.pdf}, author = {Risto Aikonen} } @article {2701, title = {Interpreting Islam through the Internet: making sense of hijab}, journal = {Contemporary Islam}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Hijab, the practice of modesty or "covering," is one of the most visible and controversial aspects of Islam in the twenty-first century, partly because the Qur{\textquoteright}an offers so little guidance on proper dress. This forces Muslims to engage in ijtihad (interpretation), which historically has resulted in vast differences in dress around the world. By transcending some of the boundaries of space, time and the body, the Internet has emerged as a place where Muslims from diverse backgrounds can meet to debate ideas and flesh them out through shared experiences. After discussing hijab in the Qur{\textquoteright}an and other traditional sources, this article explores the use of cyberspace as a multi-media platform for learning about and debating what constitutes appropriate Islamic dress. The last section focuses on a case study of the multi-user "hijablog" hosted by thecanadianmuslim.ca, which represents one of the largest in-print discussions on hijab ever recorded in the English language. On this blog and other forums like it, ijtihad has become a critical tool for debate on matters such as hijab, which are important but sparsely discussed in the Qur{\textquoteright}an. }, keywords = {internet, Islam}, url = {https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227123676_Interpreting_Islam_through_the_Internet_Making_sense_of_hijab}, author = {Akou, Heather Marie} } @article {2751, title = {Video games, terrorism, and ISIS{\textquoteright}s Jihad 3.0}, journal = {Terrorism and Political Violence}, year = {2018}, abstract = {This study discusses different media strategies followed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In particular, the study attempts to understand the way ISIS{\textquoteright}s video game that is called {\textquotedblleft}Salil al-Sawarem{\textquotedblright} (The Clanging of the Swords) has been received by the online Arab public. The article argues that the goal behind making and releasing the video game was to gain publicity and attract attention to the group, and the general target was young people. The main technique used by ISIS is what I call {\textquotedblleft}troll, flame, and engage.{\textquotedblright} The results indicate that the majority of comments are against ISIS and its game, though most of the top ten videos are favorable towards the group. The sectarian dimension between Sunnis and Shiites is highly emphasized in the online exchanges, and YouTube remains an active social networking site that is used by ISIS followers and sympathizers to promote the group and recruit others.}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2016.1207633}, author = {Al-Rawi, Ahmed} } @article {2700, title = {Online Reactions to the Muhammad Cartoons: YouTube and the Virtual Ummah}, journal = {Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion}, abstract = {The publication of 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on September 30, 2005, created a great deal of controversy over self-censorship, freedom of speech, and accusations of religious incitement. Muslim activists organized protests, and later hundreds of people were killed and hundreds of others were injured due to violent reactions to the cartoons. This article focuses on how people used YouTube to react to these cartoons by analyzing 261 video clips and 4,153 comments. Results show that the majority of the video clips and comments were moderate and positive in tone toward Islam and Muhammad; however, a small percentage either called for jihad against the West or made lethal threats against the artist. Other comments carried curses or insults against Denmark, while a few others were anti-Islamic. The fact that these online reactions were highly varied in tone suggests that the online public sphere is very much divided.}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jssr.12191}, author = {Al-Rawi, Ahmed} } @article {2763, title = {Facebook as a virtual mosque: the online protest against Innocence of Muslims}, journal = {Culture and Religion}, year = {2016}, abstract = {When the short anti-Islam film the Innocence of Muslims was first posted on YouTube in English, no tangible reactions were seen in the Arab world. However, when the same producer dubbed it into Arabic and posted it on YouTube, street protests started around some parts of the Arab world. The study reported here examines a popular Facebook page identified as The global campaign to counter the hurtful film against the Prophet Muhammed that was created to protest against the Innocence of Muslims film. This study investigated all 6949 Facebook updates and comments that were available on this page by 15 October 2012 and found that a clear majority of posts were Pro-Islamic focusing on prayers for Muhammed and supplications to defend him. This study advances our theoretical understanding of the connection between online and offline religion by providing empirical evidence in relation to this controversial incident.}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14755610.2016.1159591}, author = {Al-Rawi, Ahmed} } @conference {2107, title = {The Beauty of Ugliness: Preserving while Communicating Online with Shared Graphic Photos}, booktitle = {European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work}, year = {2018}, publisher = {Springer }, organization = {Springer }, address = {Nancy, France }, abstract = {In this paper, we report on interviews with 11 Shia content creators who create and share graphic, bloody photos of Tatbeer, a religious ritual involving self-harm practices on Ashura, the death anniversary of the prophet Muhammad{\textquoteright}s grandson. We show how graphic images serve as an object of communication in religious practices with the local community, the inner-self, and a wider audience. In particular, we highlight how content creators appropriated, in their own words, {\textquotedblleft}ugly{\textquotedblright} photos to preserve the authenticity and beauty of their rituals while communicating their own interpretation of such rituals to others. We suggest that ugliness may be regarded as a useful resource to inform systems that seek to invite dialogue with marginalized or minority groups.}, keywords = {Graphic Photos, Gulf Arabs, Online photo sharing, social media}, url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10606-018-9331-3$\#$citeas}, author = {Alshehri, M and Su, N.M} } @article {2880, title = {{\textquoteright}Sharing{\textquoteright} the Catholic faith: How priests establish/maintain religious authority on Facebook}, journal = {Texas A \& M University}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Understanding how religious leaders use the internet to maintain their religious authority has been an area of study in media studies for the past twenty years. Little consensus has been reached as to what religious authority is, in the context of the internet. Nor, has the population of Catholic priests been investigated in light of religious authority on the internet. Therefore, this study seeks to understand strategies used by Catholic priests in the United States on Facebook to establish/maintain their religious authority using Facebook. Data was gathered by survey and in depth interviews with priests who acknowledged using Facebook on a regular basis. Survey data indicated that priests utilized Facebook in ways that mirrored three parts of their priestly identity. They used it as representatives of the institutional Catholic Church, members of the profession of priests, and as individuals. These three parts of priests{\textquoteright} identities led to differing strategies. Being a representative of the institutional Catholic Church included disseminating important Church information and defending doctrinal teachings of the Church. As a member of the profession of priests, they used Facebook to disseminate information about their local Church and build relationships in the professional capacity. As individuals, priests used Facebook to stay in contact with friends and family, sharing life events, using Facebook as a news-aggregate, and as a source of comedic content. It became evident that even the personal ways that priests used Facebook were ways of maintaining religious authority. Contrary to the overt strategies, priests utilized the personal space for covert evangelization. Since the survey data indicated that their identity was so important on Facebook, interview questioning probed why and how identity construction took place. Interview data indicated that authenticity was of the upmost importance when constructing an identity. Priests had to consider various and sometimes contradicting audiences when posting content on Facebook to represent themselves on Facebook. Additionally, their identities had to indicate that they were made in God{\textquoteright}s likeness in order to connect their various identities with a sense of religious authority. This led priests to the strategies indicated in survey data, namely, relationship building, evangelizing, and promoting Church-related content in order to establish/maintain religious authority on Facebook.}, url = {http : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /157014}, author = {Altenhofen, Brian Joseph} } @article {2140, title = {The Use of the Mobile Phone for Religious Mobilization in Niger Republic}, journal = {Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries}, volume = {83}, year = {2017}, pages = {1-19}, abstract = {While many scholars have studied the ways in which the Internet and online social networks are shaping contemporary religious practices and how new information and communication technologies are supporting networked forms of religious activism, only a few have analyzed the relationships between religion and the use of the mobile phone in African countries. However, in Africa as elsewhere, mobile phones are influencing the everyday practices of religion in multiple ways that are not simply anecdotal but affect beliefs and behaviors and raise ethical concerns among believers. In some cases (e.g., divorce, Qur{\textquoteright}an verses, ringtones, prayer disruption), religious authorities have been obliged to draw up rules and provide guidance to the faithful. This article seeks to identify the opportunities offered and the challenges posed to religion by the introduction of mobile phones in Niamey, the capital-city of Niger Republic. It specifically examines how believers are using this device to mobilize co-religionists, to maintain religious ties and religious faith, as well as how they are coping with the challenges and seeking to resolve related issues. The article argues that the mobile phone is helping mediate in new ways and in a new context the religious norms and behaviors that have always guided Muslim communities. In other words, the advent of the mobile phone offers new opportunities but also poses new challenges to believers who strive to cope with this new phenomenon by inventing new ways to integrate the device into everyday practices. The article is based on semi-structured interviews carried out in June, July, and August 2009 in Niger{\textquoteright}s capital city, Niamey, with ordinary Nigerien Muslims. It combines qualitative data obtained through interviews and observation with demographic statistics and survey results to describe the role the mobile phone plays in the current evolution of Islam in Niger.}, keywords = {Mobile phone, Niger Republic, religious mobilization}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2017.tb00618.x}, author = {Alzouma, G} } @article {2815, title = {Mediated Conflict: Shiite Heroes Combating ISIS in Iraq and Syria}, journal = {Communication, Culture \& Critique}, year = {2017}, abstract = {This article analyzes a number of Shiite media productions in Iraq in order to investigate the significance of heroism and religious symbols during a time of heightened sectarian tension. Many of the popular heroes and symbols discussed here have direct and indirect connotations that extend beyond the national boundaries of individual countries, especially since the regional sectarian conflict is very dominant. The article relies on YouTube videos and screenshots taken from a variety of sources and argues that these symbols, heroes, and media productions play an important role in propagating popular political and religious beliefs that contribute toward the solidification of a distinctly Iraqi Shiite Ummah identity whose shared values demarcate them from the rest of the society.}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cccr.12177}, author = {Al-Rawi, Ahmed and Jiwani, Yasmin} } @book {1177, title = {Everyday Religion: Observing Modern Religious Live}, year = {2006}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, organization = {Oxford University Press}, abstract = {Social scientists sometimes seem not to know what to do with religion. In the first century of sociology{\textquoteright}s history as a discipline, the reigning concern was explaining the emergence of the modern world, and that brought with it an expectation that religion would simply fade from the scene as societies became diverse, complex, and enlightened. As the century approached its end, however, a variety of global phenomena remained dramatically unexplained by these theories. Among the leading contenders for explanatory power to emerge at this time were rational choice theories of religious behavior. Researchers who have spent time in the field observing religious groups and interviewing practitioners, however, have questioned the sufficiency of these market models. Studies abound that describe thriving religious phenomena that fit neither the old secularization paradigm nor the equations predicting vitality only among organizational entrepreneurs with strict orthodoxies. In this collection of previously unpublished essays, scholars who have been immersed in field research in a wide variety of settings draw on those observations from the field to begin to develop more helpful ways to study religion in modern lives. The authors examine how religion functions on the ground in a pluralistic society, how it is experienced by individuals, and how it is expressed in social institutions. Taken as a whole, these essays point to a new approach to the study of religion, one that emphasizes individual experience and social context over strict categorization and data collection.}, keywords = {Sociology of religion}, issn = {0195305418}, url = {http://global.oup.com/academic/product/everyday-religion-9780195305418?cc=us\&lang=en\&tab=overview}, author = {Nancy T. Ammerman} } @conference {67, title = {Mediated Islam: Media Religion Interface in the Middle East}, booktitle = {Hamrin International Media Conference}, year = {2009}, month = {October 2009}, address = {J{\"o}nk{\"o}ping, Sweden}, abstract = {Media{\textquoteright}s secular narratives presume that media should be agent of social change directed by project of modernity. The media is supposed to take a shift from pre modern to modern, oppressive to free, from hierarchical to egalitarian, tyrannical to democratic, religious to secular and from backward to enlightened position. The European originated narratives helped western TV channels to shift their dependency from states to the markets. However Muslim societies in Arab Islamic world are not convinced with this project and media of the Muslim world remained critical to secular narratives of media, although supportive to the professional etiquettes. With these apprehensions, Arab Televisions in general and Islamic religious channels in particular have developed their own Arab Islamic narratives. With these two hypothetical boundaries of media religion interface in the Middle East, question of Islam will be main domain of inquiry in this paper. Ignoring the role of media in the Middle East, focus will be on dynamics of Islamic media. There is gap in Arab Islamic media scholarship on how Islamic programming are determined by inter Islamic rivalries. Mediation of Islam as a process continues with all complexities and reconstructs alternative narrations like Pan Islamism, Pan Arabism, and Cultural Islam etc. It requires a framework which includes region{\textquoteright}s own cultural and religious properties.}, keywords = {interface, Islam, Middle East, Muslim}, url = {http://jnu.academia.edu/documents/0043/7626/Mediated_Islam_Paper.pdf}, author = {Omair Anas} } @inbook {105, title = {The Internet and Islam{\textquoteright}s New Interpreters}, booktitle = {New Media in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere}, year = {1999}, pages = {41-55}, publisher = {Indiana University Press}, organization = {Indiana University Press}, address = {Bloomington}, abstract = {This second edition of a widely acclaimed collection of essays reports on how new media-fax machines, satellite television, and the Internet-and the new uses of older media-cassettes, pulp fiction, the cinema, the telephone, and the press-shape belief, authority, and community in the Muslim world. The chapters in this work, including new chapters dealing specifically with events after September 11, 2001, concern Indonesia, Bangladesh, Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, the Arabian Peninsula, and Muslim communities in the United States and elsewhere.New Media in the Muslim Worldsuggests new ways of looking at the social organization of communications and the shifting links among media of various kinds in local and transnational contexts. The extent to which today{\textquoteright}s new media have transcended local and state frontiers and have reshaped understanding of gender, authority, social justice, identities, and politics in Muslim societies emerges from this timely and provocative book. Dale F. Eickelman, Ralph and Richard Lazarus Professor of Anthropology and Human Relations at Dartmouth College, is author ofThe Middle East and Central Asia: An Anthropological ApproachandMuslim Politics(coauthored with James Piscatori). Jon W. Anderson, Professor and chair of Anthropology at The Catholic University of America and co-director of the Arab Information Project at Georgetown University, is author ofArabizing the Internet}, keywords = {information and communication technology, Islam, Quran}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=Moh2l5d85OYC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Anderson, Jon} } @article {2667, title = {New Media, New Publics: Reconfiguring the Public Sphere of Islam}, journal = {Social Research}, volume = {70}, year = {2003}, url = {https://www.jstor.org/stable/40971646?seq=1}, author = {Anderson, Jon W.} } @article {895, title = {From Monthly Bulletins to eLaestadianism? Exploring Attitudes and Use of Internet within the Laestadian Movement}, journal = {Temenos}, volume = {48}, year = {2012}, abstract = {The different groups within the Laestadian movement have devel- oped different strategies when it comes to internet and production of texts. Regarding internet and official websites, there is ambivalence towards the opportunities which this technology and new media offer. Among the approximately twenty different Laestadian groups which exist in the Nordic countries and America, there are only nine official websites in 2012. The article provides an overview over these websites, contents and strategies. Websites are discussed in reference to a well-established tradition of monthly bulletins within the Laesta- dian tradition. The term netnography is used to describe the research on religion and internet, and research ethics are also discussed as a part of doing research on religion and internet.}, keywords = {eLaestadianism, internet research, Laestadian movement, netnography, research ethics}, url = {http://ojs.tsv.fi/index.php/temenos/article/view/7511}, author = {Bengt-Ove Andreassen} } @article {2547, title = {{\textquotedblleft}Genesis at the Shrine: The Votive Art of an Anime Pilgrimage{\textquotedblright} }, journal = {Mechademia}, volume = {9}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {17}, chapter = {217}, keywords = {anime, anime pilgrimage, fan, internet and religion, pilgrimage}, isbn = {978-0-8166-9535-5}, url = {https://tohoku-gakuin.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=pages_view_main\&active_action=repository_view_main_item_detail\&item_id=24113\&item_no=1\&page_id=34\&block_id=86}, author = {Dale K. Andrews} } @article {3351, title = {To be Seen, Not Just Read: Script Use on the Votive Prayer Tablets of Anime, Manga, and Game Fans}, journal = {Japanese Studies}, volume = {42}, year = {2022}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1080/10371397.2022.2031138}, author = {Dale K. Andrews} } @book {2549, title = {{\textquotedblleft}From Digital to Analog: Kaomoji on the Votive Tablets of an Anime Pilgrimage{\textquotedblright}}, series = {Emoticons, Kaomoji and Emoji: The Transformation of Communication in the Digital Age}, year = {2020}, pages = {227-246}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, chapter = {12}, address = {London/New York}, abstract = {incorporate real-life scenery into background imagery. Fans intent on making a connection with their favorite anime characters often decide to visit the places pictured in the anime. They commonly refer to this activity as a {\textquotedblleft}sacred-site pilgrimage{\textquotedblright} (seichi junrei). Over the course of several years beginning in 2007, I have researched the pilgrimage related to the anime production entitled Higurashi no naku koro ni (overseas release name: {\textquotedblleft}When they cry{\textquotedblright}). In particular, I have documented how fans illustrate prayer tablets (ema) with anime characters that they then display at a Shinto shrine as part of their pilgrimage. On the tablets many fans write prayers and messages, sharing their thoughts and feelings about the anime characters, the pilgrimage, the fan community, and life in general. Interestingly though, the fans, who are mostly in their teens and early twenties, inject emoticons, specifically kaomoji, into the text of their prayers and messages. Of course, this is reflective of their generation{\textquoteright}s fluency in terms of digital communication, but looking closely we can also observe that fans use kaomoji in creative and artistic ways. In fact, fans have created new expressions with kaomoji based on the speech of Higurashi no naku koro ni characters and have even adapted kaomoji into the character illustrations. In this paper, I will examine the use of emoticons on prayer tablets, taking note of changes over time, in order to evaluate the significance of this digital to analog transference. }, issn = {978-1-138-58926-1}, author = {Dale K. Andrews} } @article {2548, title = {{\textquotedblleft}An Animated Adoration: The Folk Art of Japanese Gamers{\textquotedblright}}, journal = {Akademisk Kvarter/Academic Quarter}, volume = {10}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {15}, chapter = {118}, keywords = {anime, anime pilgrimage, fan, pilgrimage, religion and internet}, url = {https://japanfolklore.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/8_dalekandrews_ananimatedadoration-2015.pdf}, author = {Dale K. Andrews} } @book {354, title = {The digital divide: Poverty and Wealth in the Information Age}, year = {2000}, publisher = {Wellington}, organization = {Wellington}, address = {Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand}, keywords = {information, Poverty}, url = {http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Digital_Divide.html?id=2a4ZLgAACAAJ}, author = {Caritas Aotearoa and Louise May} } @book {324, title = {The Internet and the Madonna}, year = {2005}, publisher = {The University of Chicago Press.}, organization = {The University of Chicago Press.}, address = {Chicago}, keywords = {celebrities, internet, Madonna, media}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=tEuerA4ai0oC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Paulo Apolito} } @book {292, title = {Religious Internet Communication. Facts, Trends and Experiences in the Catholic Church}, year = {2010}, publisher = {EDUSC}, organization = {EDUSC}, address = {Rome (Italy)}, keywords = {Catholic, Church, Communication, internet}, author = {Arasa, Daniel and Cantoni, Lorenzo and Ruiz, Lucio} } @book {1697, title = {Pluralismo, Tolerancia y religi{\'o}n en Colombia.}, volume = {1}, year = {2011}, pages = {202}, publisher = {Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana}, organization = {Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana}, edition = {1}, address = {Medell{\'\i}n, Colombia}, abstract = {Investigaci{\'o}n hist{\'o}rica sobre el catolicismo en Colombia, la pluralidad religiosa y los enfrentamientos pol{\'\i}ticos y religiosos. }, keywords = {colombian church, pluralism, tolerance, war and religion}, isbn = {978-958-696-888-1}, issn = {978-958-696-888-1}, url = {www.upb.edu.co ; https://www.academia.edu/694741/Guerra_y_religi\%C3\%B3n_en_Colombia}, author = {Arboleda, Carlos} } @article {106, title = {Cybernaughts Awake}, year = {1999}, institution = {Church House Publishing}, address = {London}, abstract = {The Church of England Board for Social Responsibility has the task of helping the Church to engage in critical debate with contemporary society. Developments in Information Technology have changed our lives in numerous ways. As the twentieth century draws to a close there can be little doubt that we have only just begun to appreciate the extent to which our social, economic and cultural life is being transformed. The board{\textquoteright}s Science, Medicine and Technology Committee proposed in 1996 that the board should commission a working party to set out some of the ethical and spiritual implications of these extraordinary developments. We are grateful to Professor Derek Burke and his colleagues for the hard work that they have put into the task of producing this report. Cybernauts Awake! is not the sort of title usually associated with the report of a working party commissioned by the Church. The style of the report is deliberately informal. It does not seek to present an official Church view. Rather, it tries to set out as clearly and fairly as possible some of the issues that we all need to be thinking about. It will have served its purpose if it encourages its readers to think - particularly if they read it on the Internet!}, keywords = {cyber, internet}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=w4Lupu5wTNwC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Archbishop{\textquoteright}s Council, Church of England} } @article {1267, title = {DANIEL DENNETT, MEMES AND RELIGION: Reasons for the Historical Persistence of Religion}, journal = {PENSAMIENTO}, volume = {63}, year = {2007}, chapter = {815}, abstract = {In the work which appeared in 2006 titled Breaking the Spell. Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (Viking, New York, 2006) Daniel C. Dennett again explained his ideas on memes and the theory of memes, by applying it to the study of religion from the perspective of evolutionary biology. His conclusions establish that religion is a meme and that its persistence in history is explained by the replicating processes of memetic structures. However, are there reasons of philosophical or scientific rationality for men having persisted in religion? Dennett does not go into a deep rational analysis of religion. He simply states that it has a memetic structure and he considers that this is a sufficient basis to {\guillemotleft}break the spell{\guillemotright}.}, keywords = {Atheism, Dennett, memes, religion}, url = {http://www.sp.upcomillas.es/sites/corporativo/Biblioteca\%20de\%20documentos21/6th\%20Session\%20-\%20Philosophy-Theology/Documents/G.\%20Armengol\%20-\%20Daniel\%20Dennett,\%20Memes\%20and\%20Religion.pdf}, author = {Guillermo Armengol} } @article {209, title = {The Relationship Between Religiosity and Internet Use}, journal = {Journal of Media and Religion}, volume = {3}, year = {2003}, pages = {129-144}, abstract = {With the solidifying of the Internet as an influential form of mediated communica- tion has come a surge of activity among media scholars looking into what leads indi- viduals to use this emerging technology. This study focuses on religiosity as a poten- tial predictor of Internet activity, and uses a combination of secularization theory and uses and gratifications theory as a foundation from which to posit a negative relation between these 2 variables. Religiosity is found to retain a significant negative relation with Internet use at the zero order, and remains a robust negative predictor of the cri- terion variable even after accounting for a host of demographic, contextual, and situ- ational variables. Ramifications for these findings are discussed and an outline for fu- ture research building on our analyses is provided.}, keywords = {internet, religion}, url = {http://www.mendeley.com/research/relationship-between-religiosity-internet/}, author = {Armfield, Greg G. and Holbert, Robert L.} } @article {213, title = {Technophilia and Nature Religion: the Growth of a Paradox}, journal = {Religion }, volume = {32}, year = {2002}, pages = {303-314}, abstract = {This article explores the issues, theoretical paradoxes and potential problems that occur when the ideas and beliefs of Nature Religion adherents (specifically Wiccans) are juxtaposed with many believers{\textquoteright} utilisation and seeming dependence on the technological (read: non-natural), hyper-real communication medium of the Internet for communicating and developing their nature-based ideologies, for the enhancement of their experience of Wiccan practices through ritual, and for community creation and growth. }, keywords = {community, Paradox, religion, Ritual, Wicca}, url = {http://www.mendeley.com/research/technophilia-nature-religion-growth-paradox-4/}, author = {Arthur, Shawn} } @book {336, title = {The Globalization of Communications: Some Religious Implications}, year = {1998}, publisher = {WCC Publications; World Association for Christian Communication.}, organization = {WCC Publications; World Association for Christian Communication.}, address = {Geneva; London}, keywords = {Church, Communication, Globalization}, url = {http://www.amazon.com/Globalization-Communications-Some-Religious-Implications/dp/2825412880}, author = {Arthur, C} } @article {2854, title = {God is Big in Africa: Pentecostal Mega Churches and a Changing Religious Landscape}, journal = {Material Religion}, year = {2019}, abstract = {African megachurches may be roughly typlogised into four broad subsets: the prosperity, the Healing/Deliverance, the Personal Empowerment and Apostolic Teaching, and the Prophetic-Healing types. These types share two important features among themselves, the enchantment of popular imagination through the production and dissemination of miracles and the sacredness of, and obsession with, numbers. While African megachurches constitute powerful (political) republics of their own, building impression socioeconomic, or sacred, corporations, they are yet to translate their newfound resources into critical political culture and strategies to produce common goods for the entire African society.}, url = {https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004412927/BP000019.xml?body=contentSummary-38296}, author = {Asamoah-Gyadu, J. Kwabena} } @inbook {343, title = {Cybergnosis: Technology, Religion, and the Secular}, booktitle = {Religion: Beyond a Concept}, year = {2008}, pages = {687-703}, publisher = {Fordham University Press}, organization = {Fordham University Press}, address = {New York}, keywords = {alternative religion online, internet and religion}, author = {Aupers, Stef and Houtman, Dick and Pels, Peter and De Vries, Hent} } @book {1293, title = {Religions of Modernity: Relocating the Sacred to the Self and the Digital}, year = {2010}, publisher = {BRILL}, organization = {BRILL}, abstract = {Religions of Modernity challenges the social-scientific orthodoxy that, once unleashed, the modern forces of individualism, science and technology inevitably erode the sacred and evoke the profane. The book{\textquoteright}s chapters, some by established scholars, others by junior researchers, document instead in rich empirical detail how modernity relocates the sacred to the deeper layers of the self and the domain of digital technology. Rather than destroying the sacred tout court, then, the cultural logic of modernization spawns its own religious meanings, unacknowledged spiritualities and magical enchantments. The editors argue in the introductory chapter that the classical theoretical accounts of modernity by Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and others already hinted at the future emergence of these religions of modernity}, keywords = {Emile Durkheim, individualism, Max Weber, modernization, religion, Spirituality}, url = {http://books.google.com/books/about/Religions_of_Modernity.html?id=l85zsiTI28sC}, author = {Stef Aupers and Dick Houtman} } @inbook {342, title = {{\textquotedblleft}Where the Zeroes Meet the Ones{\textquotedblright}: Exploring the Affinity between Magic and Computer Technology{\textquotedblright}}, booktitle = {Religions of Modernity: Relocating the Sacred to the Self and the Digital}, year = {2010}, pages = {219-238}, publisher = {Brill}, organization = {Brill}, address = {Leiden}, keywords = {alternative religion online, technopaganism}, author = {Aupers, Stef and Aupers, Stef and Houtman, Dick} } @book {341, title = {Religions of Modernity: Relocating the Sacred to the Self and the Digital}, series = {International Studies in Religion and Society}, volume = {12}, year = {2010}, publisher = {Brill}, organization = {Brill}, address = {Leiden}, keywords = {religion and internet, Sociology of religion}, author = {Aupers, Stef and Houtman, Dick} } @inbook {2094, title = {Where the Zeroes Meet the Ones{\textquoteright} Exploring the Affinity Between Magic And Computer Technology}, booktitle = {In~Religions of Modernity. Relocating the Sacred to the Self and the Digital}, year = {2010}, publisher = {Brill}, organization = {Brill}, address = {Leiden}, abstract = {Religions of Modernity{\textquoteright} challenges the social-scientific orthodoxy that, once unleashed, the modern forces of individualism, science and technology inevitably erode the sacred and evoke the profane. The book{\textquoteright}s chapters, some by established scholars, others by junior researchers, document instead in rich empirical detail how modernity relocates the sacred to the deeper layers of the self and the domain of digital technology. Rather than destroying the sacred tout court, then, the cultural logic of modernization spawns its own religious meanings, unacknowledged spiritualities and magical enchantments. The classical theoretical accounts of modernity by Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and others, it is argued in the introductory chapter, already hinted that there{\textquoteright}s a future for such religions of modernity.}, keywords = {Computer Technology, magic}, issn = {978-9004184510}, url = {https://books.google.com/books?id=l85zsiTI28sC\&pg=PA219\&lpg=PA219\&dq=Where+the+Zeroes+Meet+the+Ones\%E2\%80\%99+Exploring+the+Affinity+Between+Magic+And+Computer+Technology\&source=bl\&ots=PKOkW7Zlke\&sig=I6iq-gAyURsGIdYs-5qxB7fwZ_M\&hl=en\&sa=X\&ved=0ahUKEwi1uMzW}, author = {Aupers, S} } @mastersthesis {46, title = {Church 2.0: A study of church web development}, year = {2007}, month = {December 2007}, school = {Missouri State University}, address = {Springfield, Missouri}, abstract = {Religion is ever present in American culture and on the Internet, and as the Internet shifts from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, churches must reexamine how their web sites address the needs and desires of their audiences. In this project, the researcher studies members of LifePoint Church and their use of the church{\textquoteright}s web site, church web developers{\textquoteright} methods and attitudes toward church web development, and the web sites of LifePoint{\textquoteright}s competitors for the purpose of deciding whether LifePoint should embrace Web 2.0. The researcher applies the results of the three mini-studies to the seven characteristics of Web 2.0: Web as platform, collective intelligence, perpetual beta, specialized databases, lightweight services, device outgrowth, and rich user experiences and concludes that Web 2.0 is indeed worth embracing on LifePoint Online.}, keywords = {Church, web development}, url = {http://www.sarahjoaustin.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/sja_thesis_web.pdf}, author = {Sarah J. Austin} } @article {2177, title = {Islamophobia and Twitter: A Typology of Online Hate Against Muslims on Social Media}, journal = {Policy \& Internet }, volume = {6}, year = {2014}, pages = {133-150}, abstract = {The Woolwich attack in May 2013 has led to a spate of hate crimes committed against Muslim communities in the United Kindom. These incidents include Muslim women being targeted for wearing the headscarf and mosques being vandalized. While street level Islamophobia remains an important area of investigation, an equally disturbing picture is emerging with the rise in online anti-Muslim abuse. This article argues that online Islamophobia must be given the same level of attention as street level Islamophobia. It examines 500 tweets from 100 different Twitter users to examine how Muslims are being viewed and targeted by perpetrators of online abuse via the Twitter search engine, and offers a typology of offender characteristics.}, keywords = {Islamophobia, Muslims, Online, social media, Twitter}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/1944-2866.POI364}, author = {Awan, I} } @book {253, title = {Friending: Real relationships in a virtual world}, year = {2011}, publisher = {InterVarsity Press}, organization = {InterVarsity Press}, address = {Downer Gove, IL}, abstract = {The notion of friendship is under broad review. A highly mobile and increasingly busy society--rootless, some might argue--means that most of our relationships can{\textquoteright}t depend solely on face-to-face contact to flourish. The increasing prominence of the virtual landscape--where the language of friendship has been co-opted to describe relationships ranging from intimate to meaningless--requires that we become fluent in ever-expanding relational technologies. It{\textquoteright}s never been easy to be a friend, but it seems to be getting tougher by the nanosecond.In Friending, Lynne Baab collects the insights, hopes and regrets of people from across the spectrum of age and life circumstance and syncs them with the wisdom of the Bible. Using Colossians 3 and 1 Corinthians 13 as touchpoints, Lynne shows us how we can celebrate and strengthen our relational ties while continuing to practice the timeless discipline of friending in our time.}, keywords = {Facebook, Friending, relationships, Virtual}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=GMgoD2xrM5EC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Baab, Lynn} } @book {252, title = {Reaching Out in a Networked World: Expressing Your Congregation{\textquoteright}s Heart and Soul}, year = {2008}, publisher = {Alban Institute}, organization = {Alban Institute}, address = {Herndon, VA}, abstract = {A congregation communicates its heart and soul through words, photos, actions, programs, architecture, decor, the arts, and countless other aspects of congregational life. In Reaching Out in a Networked World, communications expert and pastor Lynne Baab examines technologies such as websites, blogs, online communities, and desktop publishing. She demonstrates how a congregation can evaluate these tools and appropriately use them to communicate its heart and soul, to convey its identity and values both within and outside the congregation. Baab urges congregation leaders to reflect on the way they communicate. The recent explosion in communication technologies offers many new ways to present values and identity, but no one has much experience thinking about how best to use these tools. Baab seeks to help leaders use these new technologies with more precision, flair, and consistency. When congregations are intentional about communicating who they are and what they value, people in the wider community can get a clear and coherent picture of the congregation and its mission. Newcomers and visitors are more likely to see why faith commitments matter and why and how they might become involved in this congregation, while current members and leaders will greatly benefit from having a unified vision of the congregation{\textquoteright}s heart and soul. }, keywords = {Christianity, Congregation, Heart, network}, url = {http://www.scribd.com/doc/14597552/Reaching-Out-In-a-Networked-World-Excerpt}, author = {Baab, L} } @book {2095, title = {The Gospel in Cyberspace. Nurturing Faith in the Internet Age}, year = {2002}, publisher = {Loyola Press}, organization = {Loyola Press}, address = {Chicago }, abstract = {Global culture has gone from the Age of Print to the Era of the Media. The Gospel in Cyberspace maps these changes and offers guidance in navigating the new frontier as it relates to the Church. Authors Babin and Zukowski draw upon their experience in evangelization, catechesis, and media to lead readers through the new technologies}, keywords = {cyberspace, Faith, Gospel, internet}, issn = {9780829417401}, url = {https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Gospel_in_Cyberspace.html?id=E8OOAAAAMAAJ}, author = {Babin, P and Zukowski, A} } @article {1294, title = {Mapping the Landscape of Digital Petitionary Prayer as Spiritual/Social Support in Mobile, Facebook, and E-mail}, journal = { Journal of Media and Religion}, volume = {12}, year = {2013}, chapter = {1}, abstract = {Traditional prayers can function to provide spiritual and social support for oneself and others. With social media, this support finds a new expression in digital prayers. We map the landscape of digital petitionary prayers for self and others across three different media. In survey one (n = 218), frequency of digital petitionary prayers, described by topic, relationship, place, and outcome, was highest for the mobile medium (phone and text messaging), midrange for Facebook (posting and e-mail), and lowest for traditional e-mail. A second survey (n = 116) revealed that different types and contexts for petitionary prayers are positively associated with love of self, others, and God. Suggestions for future research include investigating the quality and outcomes of petitionary prayers across private, face-to-face, and digital contexts.}, keywords = {Digital, digital prayers, God, mobile, New Media, petitionary prayers, Self, Traditional prayers}, doi = {10.1080/15348423.2013.760385}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15348423.2013.760385$\#$.Ulmi51Csim5}, author = {E. James Baeslera and Yi-Fan Chena} } @article {989, title = {Mapping the Landscape of Digital Petitionary Prayer as Spiritual/Social Support in Mobile, Facebook, and E-mail}, journal = {Journal of Media and Religion }, volume = {12}, year = {2013}, pages = {1-15}, abstract = {Traditional prayers can function to provide spiritual and social support for oneself and others. With social media, this support finds a new expression in digital prayers. We map the landscape of digital petitionary prayers for self and others across three different media. In survey one (n = 218), frequency of digital petitionary prayers, described by topic, relationship, place, and outcome, was highest for the mobile medium (phone and text messaging), midrange for Facebook (posting and e-mail), and lowest for traditional e-mail. A second survey (n = 116) revealed that different types and contexts for petitionary prayers are positively associated with love of self, others, and God. Suggestions for future research include investigating the quality and outcomes of petitionary prayers across private, face-to-face, and digital contexts.}, keywords = {email, Facebook, mobile, Prayer Online}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15348423.2013.760385}, author = {E. James Baeslera and Yi-Fan Chena} } @article {142, title = {Il sacro in Internet. L{\textquoteright}esempio delle Nuove Religioni giapponesi}, journal = {Annali di Ca{\textquoteright} Foscari}, volume = {33}, year = {2002}, pages = {239-264}, author = {Baffelli, E.} } @article {141, title = {Japanese New Religions and the Internet: A Case Study}, journal = {Australian Religious Studies Review}, volume = {23}, year = {2010}, pages = {255-276}, keywords = {internet, Japanese, religion}, url = {http://www.equinoxjournals.com/ARSR/article/view/7863}, author = {Baffelli, Erica} } @book {140, title = {Japanese Religions on the Internet: Innovation, Representation, and Authority}, year = {2011}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {New York}, keywords = {Authority, internet, Japanese, religions}, url = {http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415886437/}, author = {Baffelli, Erica and Reader, Ian and Staemmler, Birgit} } @book {1921, title = {Media and New Religions in Japan}, series = {Routledge Research in Religion, Media, and Culture}, year = {2016}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London and New York}, isbn = { 0415659124}, author = {Erica Baffelli} } @article {2762, title = {The Individual and the Ummah: The Use of Social Media by Muslim Minority Communities in Australia and the United States}, journal = {Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs}, year = {2018}, abstract = {How are perceptions of self and ummah (community) reflected in social media use by members of Muslim minorities in two Western countries, Australia and the United States? This paper explores the use of social media by members of minority communities for the purposes of self-representation and community-building, and perceptions of social media use among members of Muslim minority communities, as a means for them to challenge the narrative of Islam found in mainstream media associated with homogeneity, violence and militancy. The paper is based on analysis of responses of a targeted sample of members of representative Muslim student organizations at two tertiary institutions in Australia and the United States. Asian countries of origin are strongly represented in the migrant and international student communities of these two countries. The survey respondents were asked about their use of social media in relation to how they engage in public discourse about Islam, and how it is used in the negotiation of their religious and secular identities. }, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13602004.2018.1434939?journalCode=cjmm20}, author = {Bahfen, Nasya} } @book {254, title = {The Blogging Church: Sharing the Story of Your Church Through Blogs}, year = {2007}, publisher = {Jossey-Bass}, organization = {Jossey-Bass}, address = {CA}, abstract = {"The Blogging Church" offers church leaders a field manual for using the social phenomenon of blogs to connect people and build communities in a whole new way. Inside you will find the why, what, and how of blogging in the local church. Filled with illustrative examples and practical advice, the authors answer key questions learned on the frontlines of ministry: Is blogging a tool or a toy? What problems will blogging solve? How does it benefit ministry? How do I build a great blog? and Who am I blogging for? "The Blogging Church" is a handbook that will inspire and equip you to join the conversation.The book includes contributions from five of the most popular bloggers in the world--Robert Scoble, Dave Winer, Kathy Sierra, Guy Kawasaki, and Merlin Mann, as well as interviews with blogging pastors such as Mark Driscoll, Craig Groeschel, Tony Morgan, Perry Noble, Greg Surratt, Mark Batterson, and many more. Praise for "The Blogging Church". "Brian Bailey makes two things crystal clear in this book: if you{\textquoteright}ve got a church, then you need to spread your story. And if you need to spread your story, blogs are now an essential tool. Time to pay attention!" Seth Godin, author, "Small Is the New Big" "I had a lot of questions about blogs and their value for my church. I{\textquoteright}m thankful that Brian and Terry are sharing their experiences to answer those questions. Their insights are for everyone in ministry. Whether you are reading blogs, writing blogs, or just trying to figure out how to use the word in a sentence, this book is for you." Mark Beeson, senior pastor, Granger Community Church "My talking head is limited to the pulpit proper. I thank God that there{\textquoteright}s a tool to reach outside the church, to those that are, sadly, outside the church. Thank you Brian and Terry for "The Blogging Church."" Bob Coy, senior pastor, Calvary Chapel, Ft. Lauderdale}, keywords = {Blog, Christianity, Church, story}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=0IKlJ-okiaYC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Bailey, Brian and Storch, Terry and Young, Ed} } @article {1182, title = {Virtual togetherness: an everyday-life perspective}, journal = {Media, Culture \& Society}, volume = {25}, year = {2003}, chapter = {291}, abstract = {The objective of this article is to explore some dimensions of the concept of virtual community, which relates to empowering possibilities in the appropriation of the Internet by domestic users. I contend that users{\textquoteright} participation in what have been called {\textquoteleft}virtual communities{\textquoteright} (Rheingold, 1993) over the Internet constitutes a cultural trend of {\textquoteleft}immobile socialization{\textquoteright}, or in other words, socialization of private experience through the invention of new forms of intersubjectivity and social organization online.}, keywords = {Contemporary Religious Community, New Media and Society, new media engagement, New Technology and Society, online communication, Online community, religion, Religion and the Internet, religious engagement, Sociology of religion, users{\textquoteright} participation}, url = {http://learningspaces.org/irm/Bakardjieva_Togetherness.pdf}, author = {Maria Bakardjieva} } @book {337, title = {Christian Cyberspace Companion : A Guide to the Internet and Christian Online Resources}, year = {1995}, publisher = {Baker Books}, organization = {Baker Books}, address = {Grand Rapids}, abstract = {Reference works and guides to on-line services have been appearing throughout the computer world. This is the first specifically designed for Christians who would like to take advantage of online services. Beginners learn how to choose equipment and software, while experienced net surfers are provided with a glossary of cyberspace terms, the news of coming advances, and much more.}, keywords = {Christianity, cyberspace, internet, resources}, url = {http://books.google.com/books/about/Christian_cyberspace_companion.html?id=28BjHCuLquoC}, author = {Baker, J. D.} } @mastersthesis {55, title = {eTheology: Exporations in Computer Mediated Theological Reflection}, year = {2007}, month = {2007}, school = {St. Michael{\textquoteright}s Theological College}, address = {Landaff, Cardiff, UK}, abstract = {This thesis considers (and critically assesses) how far the {\textquoteleft}new technologies{\textquoteright} associated with the internet {\textendash} hypertext and hypermedia, blogging, wikis and chatterbots1 amongst others {\textendash} might be used in the practice of Theological Reflection (TR). It presents a critical account of how some initiatives in using the internet might create insights and possibilities for TR, as well as highlighting some of the problems and pitfalls that might arise. This is in pursuit of two main research questions: 1. Is TR possible on the internet? 2. If TR is possible on the internet, what then does it add to the sum total of theological reflection and how might it relate to other methods?}, keywords = {Computer, reflection, theology}, url = {http://www.lulu.com/items/volume_62/1765000/1765949/1/print/etheology.pdf}, author = {Duncan Ballard} } @book {350, title = {Ethics in an age of technology: The Gifford Lectures 1989-1991}, year = {1993}, publisher = {HarperSanFrancisco.}, organization = {HarperSanFrancisco.}, address = {San Francisco}, abstract = {The Gifford Lectures have challenged our greatest thinkers to relate the worlds of religion, philosophy, and science. Now Ian Barbour has joined ranks with such Gifford lecturers as William James, Carl Jung, and Reinhold Neibuhr. In 1989 Barbour presented his first series of Gifford Lectures, published as Religion in an Age of Science, in which he explored the challenges to religion brought by the methods and theories of contemporary science. In 1990, he returned to Scotland to present this second series, dealing with ethical issues arising from technology and exploring the relationship of human and environmental values to science, philosophy, and religion and showing why these values are relevant to technological policy decisions. "Modern technology has brought increased food production, improved health, higher living standards, and better communications," writes Barbour. "But its environmental and human costs have been increasingly evident." Most of the destructive impacts, Barbour points out, come not from dramatic accidents but from the normal operation of agricultural and industrial systems, which deplete resources and pollute air, water, and land. Other technologies have unprecedented power to affect people and other forms of life distant in time and space (through global warming and genetic engineering, for example). Large-scale technologies are also expensive and centralized, accelerating the concentration of economic and political power and widening the gaps between rich and poor nations. In examining the conflicting ethics and assumptions that lead to divergent views of technology, Barbour analyzes three social values: justice, participatory freedom, and economic development, and defends such environmental principles as resource sustainability, environmental protection, and respect for all forms of life. He presents case studies of agricultural technology, energy policy, and the use of computers. Looking to the future, he describes the effects of global climate change, genetic engineering, and nuclear war and cautions that we must control our new powers over life and death more effectively. Finally, he concludes by focusing on appropriate technologies, individual life-styles, and sources of change: education, political action, response to crisis, and alternative visions of the good life.}, keywords = {ethics, Gifford, technology}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=7XVa-PqK_8sC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Barbour, I. G.} } @inbook {110, title = {Crossing the Boundary: New Challenges to Religious Authority and Control as a Consequence of Access to the Internet}, booktitle = {Religion and Cyberspace}, year = {2005}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London}, keywords = {Authority, Challenges, control, internet, religion}, url = {http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/9342/}, author = {Eileen Barker} } @article {2882, title = {Charisma and religious leadership: An historical analysis}, journal = {Scientific Study of Religion}, year = {1978}, abstract = {While Max Weber formulated an "ideal" definition of charisma and its routinization, he did not fully address the question of charismatic origins. This paper proposes a theory of charismatic leadership which explores the social conditions under which charisma will emerge. Charismatic leaders are hypothesized to live in periods of radical social change or be cut off from the mainstream of society, perceive religious tradition as relative, and have innovative teachings if their religion is to be institutionalized. They are also not excluded from occupying an institutional office within a traditional religion. The theory is tentatively supported by an examination of biographical data for fifteen charismatic leaders and their successors from various periods of history and from different parts of the world. }, url = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/1385423.}, author = {Douglas F. Barnes} } @article {107, title = {Cultured technology: Internet \& religious fundamentalism}, journal = {The Information Society}, volume = {21}, year = {2005}, pages = {25-40}, abstract = {In this article we identify four principal dimensions of religious fundamentalism as they interact with the Internet: hierarchy, patriarchy, discipline, and seclusion. We also develop the concept of cultured technology, and analyze the ways communities reshape a technology and make it a part of their culture, while at the same time changing their customary ways of life and unwritten laws to adapt to it. Later, we give examples for our theoretical framework through an empirical examination of ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Israel. Our empirical study is based on a data set of 686,192 users and 60,346 virtual communities. The results show the complexity of interactions between religious fundamentalism and the Internet, and invite further discussions of cultured technology as a means to understand how the Internet has been culturally constructed, modified, and adapted to the needs of fundamentalist communities and how they in turn have been affected by it.}, keywords = {control and censorship, cultured technology, cyberspace, digital divide, discipline, hierarchy, localization, online interactions, patriarchy, religious fundamentalism, social capital, virtual communities}, url = {http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.96.170}, author = {Barzilai-Nahon, Karine. and Barzilai, Gadi} } @article {216, title = {Spirituality and Technology: Exploring the Relationship}, journal = {First Monday}, year = {1996}, abstract = {This essay first looks at some of the social and cultural changes associated with the notion of a Digital Revolution, the result of the growth of the Internet and the emergence of {\textquoteright}cyberspace{\textquoteright}. It then examines some basic {\textquoteright}spiritual{\textquoteright} attitudes and how various debates within and between different schools of thought are changing attitudes about technology. Technology can be seen both as a degenerate practice and/or as a means to bring mankind to a higher level of consciousness or to a more well-developed civilization. Finally, the essay will discuss some of the emergent spiritual practices on the Internet itself.}, keywords = {Attitudes, Changes, Cultural, religion, Social}, url = {http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/496/417}, author = {Bauwens, Michael} } @article {2884, title = {A tale of two voices: Relational dialectics theory}, journal = {The Journal of Family Communication}, year = {2004}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15267431.2004.9670130?journalCode=hjfc20}, author = {Leslie A. Baxter} } @book {2883, title = {Relating: Dialogues and Dialectics}, year = {2996}, publisher = {Guilford}, organization = {Guilford}, address = {New York}, abstract = {This book draws on the dialogism of social theorist Mikhail Bakhtin to develop a new approach which the authors term "relational dialectics" to the study of interpersonal communication. Emphasizing a social self instead of a sovereign self, multivocal oppositions instead of binary contradictions, and indeterminate change instead of transcendent synthesis, chapters examine and critique prevailing approaches to interpersonal communication. Building on these theoretical foundations, the volume rethinks such key areas as relationship development, closeness, certainty, openness, communication competence, and the boundaries between self, relationship, and society, and raises intriguing questions for future research.}, url = {https://www.guilford.com/books/Relating/Baxter-Montgomery/9781572301016/summary}, author = {Leslie A. Baxter and Barbara M. Montgomery} } @inbook {495, title = {Interpersonal Life Online}, booktitle = {Handbook of New Media}, year = {2006}, pages = {35-54}, publisher = {Sage}, organization = {Sage}, address = {London }, abstract = {Thoroughly revised and updated, this Student Edition of the successful Handbook of New Media has been abridged to showcase the best of the hardback edition. This Handbook sets out boundaries of new media research and scholarship and provides a definitive statement of the current state-of-the-art of the field. Covering major problem areas of research, the Handbook of New Media includes an introductory essay by the editors and a concluding essay by Ron Rice. Each chapter, written by an internationally renowned scholar, provides a review of the most significant social research findings and insights.
}, doi = {http://books.google.com/books?id=P9HkFWEwfFUC\&pg=PA35\&lpg=PA35\&dq=Interpersonal+Life+Online+Baym\&source=bl\&ots=RifQDaNx-L\&sig=F5ez-L-gK7kAFUYHezfmnzydiXU\&hl=en\&sa=X\&ei=em_eT8TKBKSI2gWQtMiFAg\&ved=0CFQQ6AEwBg$\#$v=onepage\&q=Interpersonal\%20Life\%20Online\%20Baym}, url = {http://www.sagepub.com/mcquail6/PDF/062_ch04.pdf}, author = {Baym, Nancy. K.} } @article {2885, title = {Social Interactions across media: Interpersonal communication on the Internet, face-to-face, and the telephone}, journal = {New Media \& Society}, year = {2004}, abstract = {Two studies compared college students{\textquoteright} interpersonal interaction online, face-to-face, and on the telephone. A communication diary assessed the relative amount of social interactions college students conducted online compared to face-to-face conversation and telephone calls. Results indicated that while the internet was integrated into college students{\textquoteright} social lives, face-to-face communication remained the dominant mode of interaction. Participants reported using the internet as often as the telephone. A survey compared reported use of the internet within local and long distance social circles to the use of other media within those circles, and examined participants{\textquoteright} most recent significant social interactions conducted across media in terms of purposes, contexts, and quality. Internet interaction was perceived as high in quality, but slightly lower than other media. Results were compared to previous conceptualizations of the roles of internet in one{\textquoteright}s social life.}, url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444804041438}, author = {Nancy K. Baym and Yan Bing Zhang and Mei-Chen Lin} } @inbook {494, title = {Interpersonal Life Online}, booktitle = {Handbook of New Media}, year = {2006}, pages = {35-54}, publisher = {Sage}, organization = {Sage}, address = {London }, abstract = {Thoroughly revised and updated, this Student Edition of the successful Handbook of New Media has been abridged to showcase the best of the hardback edition. This Handbook sets out boundaries of new media research and scholarship and provides a definitive statement of the current state-of-the-art of the field. Covering major problem areas of research, the Handbook of New Media includes an introductory essay by the editors and a concluding essay by Ron Rice. Each chapter, written by an internationally renowned scholar, provides a review of the most significant social research findings and insights. }, doi = {http://books.google.com/books?id=P9HkFWEwfFUC\&pg=PA35\&lpg=PA35\&dq=Interpersonal+Life+Online+Baym\&source=bl\&ots=RifQDaNx-L\&sig=F5ez-L-gK7kAFUYHezfmnzydiXU\&hl=en\&sa=X\&ei=em_eT8TKBKSI2gWQtMiFAg\&ved=0CFQQ6AEwBg$\#$v=onepage\&q=Interpersonal\%20Life\%20Online\%20Baym}, url = {http://www.sagepub.com/mcquail6/PDF/062_ch04.pdf}, author = {Baym, Nancy. K.} } @book {462, title = {Internet Inquiry: Conversations About Method}, year = {2009}, publisher = {Sage Publishing}, organization = {Sage Publishing}, address = {London }, abstract = {Internet Inquiry presents distinctive and divergent viewpoints on how to think about and conduct qualitative Internet research. Organized around methodological questions, this book addresses ethical, practical, and logistical issues, employing an approach that fosters open-ended dialogue. Each question is addressed by three researchers from different disciplines and nations to promote interdisciplinary thinking. Editors Annette N. Markham and Nancy K. Baym facilitate a dynamic understanding of quality in Internet research, emphasizing that while good research choices are varied, they are also deliberate, studied, and internally consistent.}, keywords = {conversations, internet}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=cd6YjAf5f44C\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Nancy Baym and Annette Markhan} } @inbook {493, title = {Interpersonal Life Online}, booktitle = {Handbook of New Media}, year = {2006}, pages = {35-54}, publisher = {Sage}, organization = {Sage}, address = {London }, abstract = {Thoroughly revised and updated, this Student Edition of the successful Handbook of New Media has been abridged to showcase the best of the hardback edition. This Handbook sets out boundaries of new media research and scholarship and provides a definitive statement of the current state-of-the-art of the field. Covering major problem areas of research, the Handbook of New Media includes an introductory essay by the editors and a concluding essay by Ron Rice. Each chapter, written by an internationally renowned scholar, provides a review of the most significant social research findings and insights. }, keywords = {life, Online, relationships}, doi = {http://books.google.com/books?id=P9HkFWEwfFUC\&pg=PA35\&lpg=PA35\&dq=Interpersonal+Life+Online+Baym\&source=bl\&ots=RifQDaNx-L\&sig=F5ez-L-gK7kAFUYHezfmnzydiXU\&hl=en\&sa=X\&ei=em_eT8TKBKSI2gWQtMiFAg\&ved=0CFQQ6AEwBg$\#$v=onepage\&q=Interpersonal\%20Life\%20Online\%20Baym}, url = {http://www.sagepub.com/mcquail6/PDF/062_ch04.pdf}, author = {Baym, Nancy. K.} } @book {395, title = {Personal Connections in the Digital Age}, year = {2010}, publisher = {John Wiley \& Sons, Inc.}, organization = {John Wiley \& Sons, Inc.}, address = {Cambridge}, abstract = {The internet and the mobile phone have disrupted many of our conventional understandings of our selves and our relationships, raising anxieties and hopes about their effects on our lives. This timely and vibrant book provides frameworks for thinking critically about the roles of digital media in personal relationships. Rather than providing exuberant accounts or cautionary tales, it offers a data-grounded primer on how to make sense of these important changes in relational life. The book identifies the core relational issues these media disturb and shows how the ways we talk about them echo historical discussions about earlier communication technologies. Chapters explore how we use mediated language and nonverbal behavior to develop and maintain communities, social networks, new relationships, and to maintain relationships in our everyday lives. It combines research findings with lively examples to address questions such as whether mediated interaction can be warm and personal, whether people are honest about themselves online, whether relationships that start online can work, and whether using these media damages the other relationships in our lives. Throughout, the book argues for approaching these questions with firm understandings of the qualities ofmedia as well as the social and personal contexts in which they are developed and used. Personal Connections in the Digital Age will be required reading for all students and scholars of media, communication studies, and sociology, as well as all those who want a firmer understanding of digital media and everyday life--Publisher.}, keywords = {Connection, Digital, relationships}, url = {http://books.google.com/books/about/Personal_Connections_in_the_Digital_Age.html?id=JRyOQAAACAAJ}, author = {Baym, N.} } @article {2739, title = {Muslims on the Path of the Salaf Al-Salih}, journal = {Information, Communication \& Society}, year = {2011}, abstract = {The transfer of religious rituals into computer-mediated environments (CMEs) has attracted the attention of scholars in recent years. This article aims to contribute to this field by analysing the ritual dynamics in Dutch and German chat rooms as well as Internet discussion forums popular among Muslims following the Salafiyya. Two questions stand in the centre of the analysis: How are rituals transferred to new CMEs? And what accounts for the varying success of transfer processes? Religious rituals are understood to be successful when they (a) reproduce the core values and norms of a community; (b) involve a significant number of believers; and (c) protect the sacred from the profane. The ritual landscape of a religion undergoes a transformation in the course of the transfer process with mixed results: some rituals like the Muslim conversion ritual migrate successfully while other transfer processes yield ambiguous results, as the discussion of the ritual acts of gender segregation shows. Furthermore, in the case of some rituals like the Muslim prayer, a migration is not even attempted, while, on the other hand, some religious practices can become increasingly ritualized in the new environment and enter the ritual repertoire of a community. This contribution argues that the diverse outcomes of ritual transfer processes are partly the result of the interplay between affordances of CMEs and the exigencies of ritual segments.}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369118X.2011.597414}, author = {Becker, Carmen} } @article {2764, title = {{\textquotedblleft}Gaining Knowledge{\textquotedblright}; Salafi Activism in German and Dutch Online Forums}, journal = {Masaryk University Journal of Law and Technology}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Recent years have witnessed an expansion of Salafi activism into computer-medi- ated environments like online discussion forums. Forum activities are part of the activists{\textquoteright} endeavour to access the religious sources (Quran and Sunnah) and, through these sources, the lives of the prophet Muhammad and the first generations of Muslims. The prophet and the first generations embody the perfect model of a (Muslim) life which Salafi Muslims strive to emulate. This article analyses the knowledge practices of Salafi Muslims in Dutch and German discussion forums re- volving around the religious sources. Knowledge practices are understood as mean- ing-making activities that tell people how to behave and how to "be in the world". Four aspects are central to Salafi knowledge practices in Dutch and German for- ums: (1) Fragmentation and re-alignment form the basic ways of dealing with di- gitized corpus of Islamic knowledge and (2) open the way for Salafi Muslims to en- gage in "Islamic argumentation" in the course of which they "excavate" behaviour- al rules in form of a "script" from Quran and Sunnah. (3) These practices are set within the cognitive collaboration of forum members and part of a broader decent- ralizing tendency within Islam. (4) And finally, narratives and sensual environ- ments circulating in forums help activists to overcome contradictions and ambigu- ities while trying to put the script, which tells them what to do in which situation, into practice.}, url = {https://www.researchgate.net/publication/238749062_Gaining_Knowledge_Salafi_Activism_in_German_and_Dutch_Online_Forums}, author = {Becker, Carmen} } @inbook {217, title = {Computer-mediated religion: religion on the internet at the turn of the twenty-first century}, booktitle = {From Sacred Text to the Internet}, year = {2001}, pages = {219-263}, publisher = {Ashgate}, organization = {Ashgate}, address = {Aldershot, UK}, abstract = {This study demonstrates how diaspora religious traditions utilized the Internet to develop significant network connections among each other and also to their place of origins. By examining the early Usenet system, I argue that the religious beliefs and practices of diaspora religious traditions were a motivating factor for developing Usenet groups where geographically dispersed individuals could connect with each other in safe, supportive, and religiously tolerant environments. This article explores the new forms of religious practices that began to occur on these sites, focusing on the manner in which Internet technology and the World Wide Web were utilized for activities such as long-distance ritual practice, cyber pilgrimage, and other religiously-motivated undertakings. Through these new online religious activities, diaspora groups have been able to develop significant connections not only among people, but also between people and the sacred homeland itself. }, keywords = {Computer, internet, religion, twenty-first century}, url = {http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue3/helland.html}, author = {Beckerlegge, Gwilym} } @article {351, title = {Blogging: report from a grassroots revival}, journal = {Stimulus}, volume = {12}, year = {2004}, pages = {24-30}, abstract = {The article reports on the current growth rate of weblogs and bloggers. According to research firm Gartner Inc., 200 million people have given up blogging, more than thrice as many as are active. Blog aggregator Technorati.com estimates that 3 million new blogs are launched every month. It is said that the secret of some of the top Christian blogs is that they are team efforts.}, keywords = {Blog, Blogging, Christianity}, url = {http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=c0057ab8-7d48-4813-86c0-881d143c76b7\%40sessionmgr10\&vid=2\&hid=21\&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ\%3d\%3d$\#$db=a9h\&AN=26940153}, author = {Bednar, T.} } @book {2886, title = {Undivided. Coming out, being whole, living free of shame}, year = {2018}, publisher = {HarperOne}, organization = {HarperOne}, address = {New York}, abstract = {Vicky Beeching, called {\textquotedblleft}arguably the most influential Christian of her generation{\textquotedblright} in The Guardian, began writing songs for the church in her teens. By the time she reached her early thirties, Vicky was a household name in churches on both sides of the pond. Recording multiple albums and singing in America{\textquoteright}s largest megachurches, her music was used weekly around the globe and translated into numerous languages. But this poster girl for evangelical Christianity lived with a debilitating inner battle: she was gay. The tens of thousands of traditional Christians she sang in front of were unanimous in their view {\textendash} they staunchly opposed same-sex relationships and saw homosexuality as a grievous sin. Vicky knew if she ever spoke up about her identity it would cost her everything. Faced with a major health crisis, at the age of thirty-five she decided to tell the world that she was gay. As a result, all hell broke loose. She lost her music career and livelihood, faced threats and vitriol from traditionalists, developed further health issues from the immense stress, and had to rebuild her life almost from scratch. But despite losing so much she gained far more: she was finally able to live from a place of wholeness, vulnerability, and authenticity. She finally found peace. What{\textquoteright}s more, Vicky became a champion for others, fighting for LGBT equality in the church and in the corporate sector. Her courageous work is creating change in the US and the UK, as she urges people to celebrate diversity, live authentically, and become undivided.}, url = {https://www.amazon.com/Undivided-Coming-Becoming-Whole-Living/dp/0062439901}, author = {Vicky Beeching} } @article {304, title = {From {\textquoteright}Televangelist{\textquoteright} to {\textquoteright}Intervangelist{\textquoteright}: The Emergence of the Streaming Video Preacher}, journal = {Journal of Religion and Popular Culture}, volume = {23}, year = {2011}, pages = {101-117}, abstract = {The present study begins by recovering the origins of the terms "televangelism" and "televangelist." "Televangelism" first appeared in 1958 as the title of a proselytization project of the Southern Baptist Convention that combined dramatic television programs with efforts to engage viewers in person. "Televangelist" was introduced in 1975 to describe an emerging type of American television preacher, the most successful of whom built powerful parachurch organizations. The neologism "intervangelist" is then presented to label contemporary video preachers broadcasting online. A content analysis of video platforms on the site Streaming Faith reveals a group of intervangelists who head established or aspiring megachurches. It is demonstrated that the information and opportunities for interaction surrounding the videos of these intervangelists provide their ministries with tools for gaining the attention and donations of viewers, as well as resources for attracting physical attendees to their churches. }, keywords = {Christianity, Evangelicalism, internet, Streaming Video, Televangelism}, url = {http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/10v704n674gjn622/}, author = {Bekkering, Denis J.} } @article {2173, title = {Private practice: Using digital diaries and interviews to understand evangelical Christians{\textquoteright} choice and use of religious mobile applications}, journal = {New Media \& Society }, volume = {19}, year = {2016}, pages = {111-125}, abstract = {Religious mobile applications (apps) offer a relatively new space for religious practices such as studying sacred texts, prayer, and meditation. To date, most studies in the digital religion literature, and to some extent in general mobile app studies, focus inquiry on app content and/or design only. This study advances these areas of study by extending inquiry to the mobile app audience by exploring how Evangelical Christians actually choose and use religious mobile apps, and how app engagement informs their religious identities. Data from qualitative digital diary reports and in-depth interviews were analyzed within Campbell{\textquoteright}s networked religion framework, specifically through the storied identity and networked community concepts. Findings explicate the combination of online and offline resources used for choosing apps, shifting core religious practices from offline to mobile contexts, and a lack of networked community engagement for sharing private religious app experiences.}, keywords = {digital diaries, Digital Religion, Evangelical Christians, mobile application, mobile audiences, networked community, networked religion, storied identity}, url = {http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444816649922}, author = {Bellar,W} } @article {2066, title = {Private practice: Using digital diaries and interviews to understand evangelical Christians{\textquoteright} choice and use of religious mobile applications}, journal = {New Media and Society}, volume = {19}, year = {2017}, pages = {111-125}, abstract = {Religious mobile applications (apps) offer a relatively new space for religious practices such as studying sacred texts, prayer, and meditation. To date, most studies in the digital religion literature, and to some extent in general mobile app studies, focus inquiry on app content and/or design only. This study advances these areas of study by extending inquiry to the mobile app audience by exploring how Evangelical Christians actually choose and use religious mobile apps, and how app engagement informs their religious identities. Data from qualitative digital diary reports and in-depth interviews were analyzed within Campbell{\textquoteright}s networked religion framework, specifically through the storied identity and networked community concepts. Findings explicate the combination of online and offline resources used for choosing apps, shifting core religious practices from offline to mobile contexts, and a lack of networked community engagement for sharing private religious app experiences.}, keywords = {digital diaries, Evangelical Christian, mobile apps, religion}, url = {http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444816649922}, author = {Bellar, W} } @inbook {2056, title = {The Intersection of Religion and Mobile Technology}, booktitle = {Encyclopedia of Information Science \& Technology}, year = {2018}, pages = {6161-6170}, publisher = {IGI Global}, organization = {IGI Global}, edition = {4}, address = {Hershey, PA}, keywords = {mobile technology, religion}, issn = {9781522522553}, author = {Bellar, W and Cho, J and Campbell, H}, editor = {Z. Yeng} } @article {2065, title = {Reading religion in Internet memes}, journal = {Journal of Religion, Media, and Digital Culture}, volume = {2}, year = {2013}, abstract = {This article provides a preliminary report of a study of religious-oriented internet memes and seeks to identify the common communication styles, interpretive practices and messages about religion communicated in this digital medium. These findings argue that memes provide an important sphere for investigating and understanding religious meaning-making online, which expresses key attributes of participatory culture and trends towards lived religion.}, keywords = {internet memes, religion}, url = {http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/21659214-90000031}, author = {Bellar, W and Campbell, H and Cho, K and Terry, A and Tsuria, R and Yadlin-Segal, A and Zeimer, J} } @inbook {2058, title = {Religious Use of Mobile Phones}, booktitle = {Encyclopedia of Information Science \& Technology}, year = {2018}, pages = {6161-6170}, publisher = {IGI Global}, organization = {IGI Global}, edition = {4}, address = {Hershey, PA}, keywords = {Digital Religion, mobile phones, religious}, issn = {9781522522553}, url = {https://www.igi-global.com/book/encyclopedia-information-science-technology-fourth/173015}, author = {Bellar, W and Cho, J and Campbell, H} } @article {346, title = {Mass Media and Religious Identity: A Case Study of Young Witches}, journal = {Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion }, volume = {48}, year = {2009}, pages = {501-514}, chapter = {501}, keywords = {alternative religion online, identity, teen witches}, author = {Berger, Helen and Douglas Ezzy} } @article {405, title = {Mass media and religious identity: a case study of young witches}, journal = {Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion}, volume = {48}, year = {2009}, pages = {501-514}, abstract = {Drawing on interviews with 90 young people who have become Witches, we explore the visual media{\textquoteright}s influence on identity formation and maintenance. Witchcraft is a late modern religion that is highly individualistic and many young people report they have become a Witch without any interaction with other Witches. The rapid growth of interest in this religion among the young since The Craft was first shown provides an important example of the mass media{\textquoteright}s role in formation of contemporary religious identity. We argue that representations of Witchcraft in the visual mass media (along with other cultural trends such as environmentalism, feminism, and individualism) and cultural resources such as books, Internet sites, and magazines provide a mediated form of social interaction that sustains the plausibility of Witchcraft as a religion. It also helps the young to develop and legitimate their beliefs and practices and develop their Witchcraft persona.}, url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2009.01462.x/abstract}, author = {Berger, H. and Ezzy, D.} } @inbook {175, title = {The Internet as Virtual Spiritual Community: Teen Witches in the United States and Australia}, booktitle = {Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet}, year = {2004}, pages = {175-188}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {New York}, abstract = {After sex, religion is one of the most popular and pervasive topics of interest online, with over three million Americans turning to the internet each day for religious information and spiritual guidance. Tens of thousands of elaborate websites are dedicated to every manner of expression.Religion Onlineprovides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to this burgeoning new religious reality, from cyberpilgrimages to neo-pagan chatroom communities. A substantial introduction by the editors presenting the main themes and issues is followed by sixteen chapters addressing core issues of concern such as youth, religion and the internet, new religious movements and recruitment, propaganda and the countercult, and religious tradition and innovation. The volume also includes thePew Internet and American Life ProjectExecutiveSummary, the most comprehensive and widely cited study on how Americans pursue religion online, and Steven O{\textquoteright}Leary{\textquoteright}s field-definingCyberspace as SacredSpace.}, keywords = {Australia, neo-pagan, religion, United State, Virtual, witches}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=xy0PJrrWXH4C\&pg=PA163\&lpg=PA163\&dq=The+Internet+as+Virtual+Spiritual+Community:+Teen+Witches+in+the+United+States+and+Australia.+In+Religion+Online:+Finding+Faith+on+the+Internet\&source=bl\&ots=ahRdNXH5kL\&sig=0e7v2M0VD1breU}, author = {Berger, Helen and Douglas, Ezzy} } @article {2727, title = {Hijabers: How young urban muslim women redefine themselves in Indonesia}, journal = {International Communication Gazette}, year = {2014}, abstract = {This paper analyzes the dissemination of {\textquoteleft}Hijaber{\textquoteright} style through different forms of cyber media (blogs and social network sites) in order to determine how young, computer savvy Muslim Indonesians explore their gender and religious identities while working in the {\textquoteleft}creative economy{\textquoteright} through cyberspace. This article shows the plurality and flexibility of the Hijaber trend{\textemdash}compared to more conventional forms{\textemdash}and explores its significance for urban Indonesian youth.}, url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1748048514524103}, author = {Beta, Annisa R} } @article {2858, title = {Commerce, piety and politics: Indonesian young Muslim women{\textquoteright}s groups as religious influencers}, journal = {New Media \& Society}, year = {2019}, abstract = {The article discusses the indiscernibility of social-media-based young Muslim women{\textquoteright}s groups{\textquoteright} (YMWGs) transformative roles in socio-political analysis, standing in contrast to the groups{\textquoteright} visibility in Indonesian young women{\textquoteright}s everyday lives. How does the (in)visibility of the YMWGs reconfigure the (political) subjectivity of Muslim womanhood? How should we understand the influence of this form of {\textquoteleft}women{\textquoteright}s movement{\textquoteright} in the re-invention of Muslim identity? This article proposes the notion of {\textquoteleft}social media religious influencer{\textquoteright} to understand the groups{\textquoteright} conflation of religious, political and commercial elements in their online and offline representations and their encouragement to their followers to do self-transformation. The article demonstrates how, although such creative conflation challenges prevailing ideas about young Muslim women, it requires the young women to remain and take part in the prevailing gender regime by maintaining female conformity. }, url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444819838774}, author = {Beta, Annisa R} } @booklet {54, title = {Religion on the Internet: Cyborg Anthropology and Religion 2.0}, year = {2009}, month = {Spring 2009}, publisher = {Millsaps College}, address = {Jackson, Mississippi}, abstract = {The central claim of this course is that technology affects understandings of community and identity. As anthropologists, we will investigate online religious communities in order to learn how religious practices and beliefs function in virtual spaces. By the end of the semester, you will be able to analyze and explain online religious practices as well as analyze and explain your own role as an anthropologist of online religion. This course will be driven by your own research. Each of you will investigate a specific online religious community over the course of the semester, asking: how does religion function online? How do people interact without bodies? How can a scholar represent an online community to an outside audience?}, keywords = {cyborg, internet, religion}, url = {not found}, author = {Annie Blakeney-Glazer} } @article {1931, title = {Media Theology: New Communication Technologies as religious constructs, metaphors, and experiences}, journal = {New Media and Society}, volume = {1}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Recent studies have seen religious observance as inherently related to available communication technologies. This study follows this thrust but complements the focus on religious praxis with a look at media theology{\textemdash}the ideological dimension of the religion and media nexus. It traces three distinct facets of media theology: the way religious sensibilities affect how we create, shape, apply, and establish a relationship with media technologies; how media technologies serve as tools for grasping aspects of theology; and finally, how media use can launch mental and existential religious experiences. The study{\textquoteright}s orientation is historical, charting the development of the relationship between media technologies and the religious mind in the Abrahamic religions from the biblical media of fire and cloud through script and electric communications and all the way to the Internet. Keywords}, keywords = {Biblical media, information and communication technology (ICT), internet, media theology, New Media, religion, religious experience, science technology society (STS)}, doi = {10.1177/1461444816649915}, url = {http://nms.sagepub.com/cgi/doi/10.1177/1461444816649915}, author = {Blondheim, Manaheim and Rosenberg, Hananel} } @article {2744, title = {Religion, communications, and Judaism: the case of digital Chabad}, journal = {Media, Culture \& Society}, year = {2017}, abstract = {In their article on {\textquoteleft}Building the Sacred Community Online{\textquoteright}, Oren Golan and Nurit Stadler zoom in on the latest attempts of Chabad, the extrovert Jewish Hasidic group, to harness the newest digital technologies to propagate and popularize its staunchly traditionalist reading of Jewish heritage. Also known as {\textquoteleft}Lubavitch{\textquoteright}, Chabad is the Hebrew acronym of {\textquoteleft}Wisdom, Intellect, Knowledge{\textquoteright}, three of the more elevated kabalistic spheres (cf. Proverbs 3, 19{\textendash}20). To many, Chabad{\textquoteright}s embrace of communication technologies looks like an example of enlisting the devil to do God{\textquoteright}s work, though it does not look like that to them. This paradox, and Golan and Stadler{\textquoteright}s account of its newest coming, touches on some of the most fundamental issues of Jewish communications, as well as the much broader problem of religion and communications. The general religion and communication nexus may be divided into two major themes. One is the issue of religious communications, or media theology {\textendash} namely, the problem of interaction of God and humans. But it also consists of the issue of communicating religion, namely, the handling and disseminating of what the religious believe to be a divine message in this world. As we shall see, both these issues are particularly relevant to Chabad. But the more immediate context for understanding Chabad and its use of media is the universe of Jewish communications. Here too there is a duality: {\textquoteleft}Jewish{\textquoteright} connotes both Jews and Judaism {\textendash} a social entity and a religion {\textendash} and here too, both aspects are relevant to understanding Chabad{\textquoteright}s media practices today. }, url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0163443715615417}, author = {Blondheim, Menahem and Katz, Elihu} } @article {1309, title = {Baring Their Souls in Online Profiles or Not? Religious Self-Disclosure in Social Media}, journal = {Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion}, volume = {50}, year = {2011}, chapter = {744}, abstract = {This study measured the prevalence of religious self-disclosure in public MySpace profiles that belonged to a subsample of National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) wave 3 respondents (N = 560). Personal attributes associated with religious identification as well as the overall quantity of religious self-disclosures are examined. A majority (62 percent) of profile owners identified their religious affiliations online, although relatively few profile owners (30 percent) said anything about religion outside the religion-designated field. Most affiliation reports (80 percent) were consistent with the profile owner{\textquoteright}s reported affiliation on the survey. Religious profile owners disclosed more about religion when they also believed that religion is a public matter or if they evaluated organized religion positively. Evangelical Protestants said more about religion than other respondents. Religiosity, believing that religion is a public matter, and the religiosity of profile owners{\textquoteright} friendship group were all positively associated with religious identification and self-disclosure.}, keywords = {emerging adults, New Media, religious identity, self-disclosure, social media}, url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2011.01597.x/abstract;jsessionid=9B8826AC18C2E87FC1ED90C4479B63D2.f01t04}, author = {Piotr S. Bobkowski and Lisa D. Pearce} } @book {396, title = {Coming of Age in Second Life. An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human}, year = {2008}, publisher = {Princeton University Press}, organization = {Princeton University Press}, address = {Princeton, NJ}, abstract = {Millions of people around the world today spend portions of their lives in online virtual worlds. Second Life is one of the largest of these virtual worlds. The residents of Second Life create communities, buy property and build homes, go to concerts, meet in bars, attend weddings and religious services, buy and sell virtual goods and services, find friendship, fall in love--the possibilities are endless, and all encountered through a computer screen. Coming of Age in Second Life is the first book of anthropology to examine this thriving alternate universe. Tom Boellstorff conducted more than two years of fieldwork in Second Life, living among and observing its residents in exactly the same way anthropologists traditionally have done to learn about cultures and social groups in the so-called real world. He conducted his research as the avatar "Tom Bukowski," and applied the rigorous methods of anthropology to study many facets of this new frontier of human life, including issues of gender, race, sex, money, conflict and antisocial behavior, the construction of place and time, and the interplay of self and group.Coming of Age in Second Life shows how virtual worlds can change ideas about identity and society. Bringing anthropology into territory never before studied, this book demonstrates that in some ways humans have always been virtual, and that virtual worlds in all their rich complexity build upon a human capacity for culture that is as old as humanity itself.}, keywords = {anthropology, Second Life, Virtual}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=wjGYLP02cXUC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Boellstorff, T.} } @inbook {2132, title = {The Complexities of Mediatization: Charting the Road Ahead}, booktitle = {Dynamics Of Mediatization}, number = {Transforming Communications {\textendash} Studies in Cross-Media Research}, year = {2017}, pages = {315-331}, publisher = {Palgrave Macmillan, Cham}, organization = {Palgrave Macmillan, Cham}, abstract = {This chapter discusses some of the complexities of mediatization that have appeared in the volume. Firstly, we reflect on the complexities related to the institutional, cultural and social dimensions of mediatization as well as the various levels of mediatization (e.g., with reference to a macro-micro scale). Secondly, on this basis, we systematize the main features that run through the complex nature of the mediatization process, and we account for three kinds of complexity: the complexity of the media environment or landscape, the complexity of an entanglement of practices with digital media technologies, and the complexity of the levels of analysis. Reflecting these complexities, in a third section, the chapter delineates some future trajectories of mediatization research.}, keywords = {mediatization}, issn = {978-3-319-62982-7}, url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-62983-4_15$\#$citeas}, author = {Bolin, G and Hepp, A} } @article {2888, title = {Mapping and leveraging influencers in social media to shape corporate brand perceptions}, journal = {Corporate Communications: An International Journal}, year = {2011}, abstract = {The emerging new influencer community is wielding significant power over the perceptions of brands and companies, largely driven by the rapid expansion of social media channels through which influencers communicate. The {\textquotedblleft}nobodies{\textquotedblright} of the past are now the new {\textquotedblleft}somebodies{\textquotedblright} demanding the attention of communication professionals who seek continuous engagement with targeted consumers throughout the various channels of the social web. The purpose of this paper is to present a means of identifying these new {\textquotedblleft}somebodies{\textquotedblright}.}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1108/13563281111156853}, url = {https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/13563281111156853/full/html}, author = {Norman Booth and Matic, J. A.} } @book {352, title = {Power failure: Christianity in the culture of technology}, year = {2003}, publisher = {Brazos Press}, organization = {Brazos Press}, address = {Grand Rapids, MI}, abstract = {We live in a culture shaped and fueled by technology. Usually we equate access to technology with opportunity and the chance to pursue "the good life." Power Failure raises some crucial, if disconcerting, questions about technology: If technology liberates us, what kind of liberation does it promise? Are we prospering, and by what definition? Albert Borgmann looks at the relationship between Christianity and technology by examining some of the "invisible" dangers of a technology-driven lifestyle. Specifically, he points out how utility and consumption have replaced connection to physical things and meaningful practices in everyday life. Power Failure calls us to redeem and restrain technology through simple Christian practices, including citizen-based decision making, shared meals, and daily Scripture reading.}, url = {http://books.google.com/books/about/Power_failure.html?id=NVfXAAAAMAAJ}, author = {Borgmann, A.} } @article {2067, title = {Religious memetics. Institutional authority in digital/lived religion}, journal = {Journal of Communication Inquiry}, volume = {39}, year = {2015}, pages = {357-377}, abstract = {Recently leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS/Mormon) faith have called upon members to {\textquotedblleft}sweep the earth{\textquotedblright} with positive religious messages through social media. This digital moment in Mormonism exemplifies the interrelation and concomitant tension between everyday lived religion, technology, and religious institutions. While studies on digital religion have emphasized the push of participatory culture into everyday lived religion, this research on religious memes contributes to an emergent vein of digital religion scholarship focused on institutional authority. In our analysis of the {\textquotedblleft}doubt your doubts{\textquotedblright} meme and antimemes we theorize religious memetics as a space for the reconnection of the everydayness of religious practice, which boils down meaningful moments of faith into facile, nonthreatening avenues for sharing religion. While this is beneficial for institutions, the reflexive and metonymic function of religious memes ruptures routine, offering participants momentary pauses from the demands of orthodox religious life.}, keywords = {Digital Religion, religious memetics}, url = {http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0196859915603096}, author = {Borrough, B and Feller, G} } @article {2743, title = {Typing my Religion. Digital use of religious webs and apps by adolescents and youth for religious and interreligious dialogue}, journal = {Church, Communication and Culture}, year = {2017}, abstract = {With 13 religions, 8061 religious centers, 2 million of young people, Catalonia accommodates a wide range of religions. Almost 90\% of people own digital devices. In this framework, we aim to study the consumption of digital media by Catalan millennials from all over the region, with only young people from the city of Barcelona being excluded for the purpose of analysis in future projects. Religious apps, games, websites, online communities and participation in forums are some of the main issues we want to explore. We also aim to establish whether or not these devices contribute to consolidate online religious communities and to achieve inter-religious dialogue. For fulfilling this goal, we surveyed more than 1800 young people aged 12{\textendash}18 years. Methodology also included in-depth interviews with coordinators from youth organizations and netnography. This research is based on previous investigations into communication, digital media, sociology and religion by authors such as Campbell, Elzo, Leurs and Hemming.}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23753234.2017.1347800}, author = {Bosch, M{\'\i}riam D{\'\i}ez and Sanz, Josep Llu{\'\i}s Mic{\'o} and Gauxachs, Alba Sabat{\'e}} } @article {2122, title = {Open wall churches. Catholic construction of online communities}, journal = {Prisma Social revista de investigaci{\'o}n social}, year = {2017}, pages = {298-323}, abstract = {The discussion regarding how global Catholic organizations have employed the new tools of digital media has become increasingly poignant and no longer focuses on liturgical limitations but on participation, social justice and new frameworks for reaching new targets. From the Vatican itself, specifically through the Pope{\textquoteright}s profiles on social media, Catholicism has proven to have an increasingly responsive presence on the web, although Catholics are usually creative without breaking the rules in the ways they extend their religiosity into new platforms. Newly born digital portals have embraced new participatory tools that shape other ways of understanding communion, which is a key concept among Christian communities. Rather than dwelling on whether Catholic portals are incorporating secular strategies to foster engagement, we explore the 19 most powerful Catholic websites according to Alexa ranking, and divide them into different categories that allow us to analyse how they build communities and thus foster the concept of belonging, which is one of the aims that they pursue. Data have been collected in three different moments (2014, 2015 and 2016) where these websites, belonging to 5 languages (Spanish, English, French, Portuguese and Italian) from 9 countries have been taken into account, according to Catholic population indexes. }, keywords = {Catholic, churches, online communities}, url = {https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=6234753}, author = {Bosch, M.D. and Sanz, J.LM. and Abello, J.M.C and Sanchez, J.S.I and Gauxachs, A.S} } @book {2862, title = {Perplexed Religion}, year = {2020}, publisher = {Observatory of Media, Religion and Culture}, organization = {Observatory of Media, Religion and Culture}, url = {http://www.obsblanquerna.com/perplexed-religion-3/}, author = {Diez bosch, Miriam and Melloni, Alberto and Mic{\`o}, Josep Luis} } @inbook {1255, title = {Lwa Like Me: Gender, Sexuality and Vodou Online}, booktitle = {Media, Religion and Gender Key Issues and New Challenges}, year = {2013}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, chapter = {7}, keywords = {Digital Religion, GENDER, New Media, online activities}, url = {http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415504737/}, author = {Alexandra Boutros} } @article {2861, title = {Trending $\#$hijabfashion: Using Big Data to Study Religion at the Online\&$\#$8211;Urban Interface}, journal = {Nordic Journal of Religion and Society}, year = {2018}, abstract = {This article discusses the potential and the limitations of big data analysis for the study of religion. While big data analysis is often perceived as overtly positivistic because of its quantitative and computational nature, we argue instead that it lends itself to an induc-tive approach. Since the data are typically not collected for the purpose of testing specific hypotheses, it can best be seen as a resource for serendipitous exploration. We therefore pose a number of substantive research questions regarding the global circulation and local mediation of sartorial styles and practices among Muslim women. We present an analysis of the $\#$hijabfashion hashtag on Instagram, drawing on a database of 15 million posts. }, url = {https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325186172_Trending_hijabfashion_Using_Big_Data_to_Study_Religion_at_the_Online-Urban_Interface}, author = {Boy, John D. and Uitermark, Justus and Wiersma, La{\"\i}la} } @inbook {498, title = {Why Youth Heart Social Network Sites}, booktitle = {Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume}, year = {2007}, pages = {119-142}, publisher = {MIT Press}, organization = {MIT Press}, address = {Cambridge, MA}, abstract = {Social network sites like MySpace and Facebook serve as "networked publics." As with unmediated publics like parks and malls, youth use networked publics to gather, socialize with their peers, and make sense of and help build the culture around them. This article examines American youth engagement in networked publics and considers how properties unique to such mediated environments (e.g., persistence, searchability, replicability, and invisible audiences) affect the ways in which youth interact with one another. Ethnographic data is used to analyze how youth recognize these structural properties and find innovative ways of making these systems serve their purposes. Issues like privacy and impression management are explored through the practices of teens and youth participation in social network sites is situated in a historical discussion of youth{\textquoteright}s freedom and mobility in the United States. }, keywords = {Social Networking, Young, Youth}, url = {http://www.danah.org/papers/WhyYouthHeart.pdf}, author = {Boyd, Danah} } @article {597, title = {More Than Half of Mobile Users Avoid Certain Apps Due to Privacy Concerns}, year = {2012}, month = {09/2012}, institution = {Pew Research Center{\textquoteright}s Internet \& American Life Project}, type = {Report}, address = {Washington, D.C. }, abstract = {More than half of mobile application users have uninstalled or avoided certain apps due to concerns about the way personal information is shared or collected by the app, according to a nationally representative telephone survey conducted by the Pew Research Center{\textquoteright}s Internet \& American Life Project.}, keywords = {App, Privacy}, url = {http://pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2012/PIP_MobilePrivacyManagement.pdf}, author = {Jan Lauren Boyles and Aaron Smith and Mary Madden} } @book {2096, title = {Give Me That Online Religion}, year = {2004}, publisher = {Rutgers University Press}, organization = {Rutgers University Press}, address = {New Jersey }, abstract = {As the Internet and the World Wide Web overcome barriers of time and space, religion enjoys an ever-increasing accessibility on a global scale. Inevitably, people online have sought out encounters with the otherworldly, launching religion into cyberspace. In this compelling book, Brenda Brasher explores the meaning of electronic faith and the future of traditional religion.}, keywords = {online religion}, issn = {9780813534367}, url = {https://books.google.com/books/about/Give_Me_that_Online_Religion.html?id=oMpwqAiWHpoC}, author = {Brasher, B} } @book {108, title = {Give me that online religion}, year = {2001}, publisher = {Jossey-Bass Publishers}, organization = {Jossey-Bass Publishers}, address = {California}, abstract = {As the Internet and the World Wide Web overcome barriers of time and space, religion enjoys an ever-increasing accessibility on a global scale. Inevitably, people online have sought out encounters with the otherworldly, launching religion into cyberspace. In this compelling book, Brenda Brasher explores the meaning of electronic faith and the future of traditional religion. Operating online allows long-established religious communities to reach hearts and minds as never before. Yet more startling is the case by which anyone with Internet access can create new circles of faith. Bringing religion online also narrows the gap between pop culture and the sacred. Electronic shrines and kitschy personal Web "altars" idolize living celebrities, just as they honor the memory of religious martyrs. Looking ahead, Brasher envisions a world in which cyber-concepts and technologies challenge conventional notions about the human condition, while still attempting to realize age-old religious ideals such as transcendence and eternal life. As the Internet continues its rapid absorption of culture, Give Me That Online Religion offers pause for thought about spirituality in the cyberage. Religion{\textquoteright}s move to the online world does not mean technology{\textquoteright}s triumph over faith. Rather, Brasher argues, it assures religion{\textquoteright}s place in the wired universe, meeting the spiritual demands of Internet generations to come.}, keywords = {Online, religion}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=oMpwqAiWHpoC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Brasher, Brenda} } @article {1920, title = {La m{\'e}dialisation du religieux dans la th{\'e}orie du post n{\'e}o-protestantisme}, journal = {Social Compass}, volume = {Vol. 63}, year = {2016}, month = {July/2016}, pages = {1-16}, type = {peer reviewed}, chapter = {1}, abstract = {This article proposes a theory of post neo-Protestantism highlighting the key relationships maintained by this new postmodern manner of thinking and living religion with the medialization, that is to say, with the {\textquoteleft}mediatization of everything{\textquoteright} as a model of public communication developed in favor of broadband internet, wireless internet or social media. In this perspective, it is shown that post neo-Protestantism is basically the virtualization of neo-Protestantism still clinging to modernity and the communicative individual pragmatics of this virtualization now inescapably linked to new media.}, keywords = {internet, medialization, post neo-Protestantism, postmodernism, religion}, issn = {14617404}, doi = {10.1177/0037768616652335}, url = {http://scp.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/07/19/0037768616652335.full.pdf?ijkey=mTGIzHzyxkVZAYF\&keytype=finite}, author = {Bratosin, Stefan} } @article {1892, title = {Church In The Public Sphere: Production Of Meaning Between Rational And Irrational}, journal = {Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies}, volume = {Vol 13}, year = {2014}, month = {07/2014}, pages = {3-20}, chapter = {3}, abstract = {In the public sphere and especially in the media, the discourse on the Church and about the Church on faith and religion is often tainted by the confusion of meaning due, among other things, to the mutual borrowing less rigorous {\textendash} epistemologically and methodologically {\textendash} of the concepts which engage various disciplines (theology, sociology, anthropology, political science, information and communication science, and so on) who take possession of problematic centered on the relation between mankind and divinity. This article presents some basic benchmarks for analyzing and understanding the construction of meaning as well as the rationality or irrationality of these issues by convening the disciplinary distinction between the content of the concepts of organization and that of the institution.}, keywords = {Church, Faith, media, production of meaning, public sphere, religion, symbolic forms}, issn = {1583-0039}, url = {http://jsri.ro/ojs/index.php/jsri/article/view/741}, author = {Bratosin, Stefan} } @proceedings {1891, title = {M{\'e}dia, spiritualit{\'e} et la{\"\i}cit{\'e} : Regards crois{\'e}s franco-roumains}, year = {2015}, pages = {146}, publisher = {Iarsic}, edition = {Iarsic}, address = {Les Arcs/France}, abstract = {This scientific event brought together different authorities, academic institutions and political and media organizations at the Villa No{\"e}l in Bucharest to make an assessment on the sensitive questions related to religious freedom and liberty of conscience, on spirituality and secularity, full of meaning symbols, with a significant emotional and ethical charge. This book is a contribution to the public sphere debate on the secularity and the spirituality in the service of freedom considering two paradigmatic cases, two European countries: Romania {\textendash} statistically the most religious country of Europe, and France {\textendash} statistically the less religious country of Europe. *** Cette manifestation scientifique a r{\'e}uni diff{\'e}rentes instances, institutions et organisations acad{\'e}miques, politiques et m{\'e}diatiques {\`a} la Villa No{\"e}l afin de dresser un bilan sur les questionnements sensibles li{\'e}s {\`a} la libert{\'e} religieuse et de conscience, {\`a} la spiritualit{\'e} et {\`a} la la{\"\i}cit{\'e}, symboles charg{\'e}s de sens intellectuel, {\'e}thique et {\'e}motionnel. Les communications sont une contribution au d{\'e}bat concernant la prise de distance {\'e}pist{\'e}mologique et {\'e}thique {\guillemotleft} politiquement correct {\guillemotright} pour une la{\"\i}cit{\'e} et une spiritualit{\'e} au service de la libert{\'e} en consid{\'e}rant deux cas paradigmatiques, deux pays europ{\'e}ens, la Roumanie et la France, dont l{\textquoteright}un est statistiquement le plus religieux de l{\textquoteright}Europe et l{\textquoteright}autre le moins religieux, et qui, dans leurs espaces publics respectifs, d{\'e}clinent diff{\'e}remment la relation entre spiritualit{\'e} et la{\"\i}cit{\'e}.}, keywords = {France, la{\"\i}cit{\'e}, media, secularity, Spirituality}, isbn = {978-2953245066}, issn = {978-2953245066}, url = {http://iarsic.com/en/product/media-spiritualite-et-laicite-regards-croises-franco-roumains/}, author = {Bratosin, Stefan} } @proceedings {1890, title = {Espace public et communication de la foi}, year = {2014}, month = {12/2014}, pages = {510}, publisher = {Iarsic}, edition = {Iarsic}, address = {Les Arcs/France}, abstract = {Questioning the faith in its communicability in the public sphere is an open issue. This book is the evidence that, according to Gilbert Durand reflection on the sacred expressed in an interview for Essachess - Journal for Communication Studies in 2011, shortly before his death, the communication of faith in the public sphere seems "both changing and unchanging", changing because the communication as production of the meaning in a practiced context makes it changing and unchanging because it is always related to a single Truth. *** Interroger la foi dans sa communicabilit{\'e} dans l{\textquoteright}espace public demeure un chantier ouvert. Cet ouvrage repr{\'e}sente le t{\'e}moignage que, selon une r{\'e}flexion de Gilbert Durand sur le sacr{\'e} exprim{\'e}e dans un entretien pour Essachess - Journal for Communication Studies en 2011, peu avant sa mort, la communication de la foi dans l{\textquoteright}espace public semble {\guillemotleft} {\`a} la fois changeante et immuable {\guillemotright}, changeante car la communication comme production de sens dans un contexte pratiqu{\'e} la rend changeante et immuable car elle reste toujours li{\'e}e {\`a} une seule et unique V{\'e}rit{\'e}.}, keywords = {communication {\textendash} group and community, Faith, public sphere, religion}, isbn = {978-2953245028}, issn = {978-2953245028}, url = {http://iarsic.com/en/product/espace-public-et-communication-de-la-foi/}, author = {Bratosin, Stefan and Tudor, Mihaela-Alexandra} } @conference {1894, title = {La foi et le langage : paradigmes de sens pour les m{\'e}dias}, booktitle = {4th Workshop international Essachess: M{\'e}dia, spiritualit{\'e} et la{\"\i}cit{\'e} : Regards crois{\'e}s franco-roumains}, year = {2015}, month = {12/2015}, publisher = {Iarsic}, organization = {Iarsic}, address = {Bucarest-Villa Noel}, abstract = {Cette communication t{\^a}chera de montrer dans la perspective d{\textquoteright}une {\'e}pist{\'e}mologie sociale que les paradigmes de sens irr{\'e}ductibles pour toute type de m{\'e}diatisation sont la foi et le langage. Elle produira une argumentation en faveur de l{\textquoteright}hypoth{\`e}se que ce qui est fondamentalement sp{\'e}cifique pour les diff{\'e}rents approches m{\'e}diatiques de la r{\'e}alit{\'e} ne r{\'e}side pas dans la production de sens, mais dans la direction que chaque type de m{\'e}diatisation se donne pour orienter la vie de l{\textquoteright}individu, de la soci{\'e}t{\'e} et d{\textquoteright}une mani{\`e}re g{\'e}n{\'e}rale du monde. Enfin, la communication apportera une lecture de la libert{\'e} de conscience dans ce contexte o{\`u} l{\textquoteright}{\^e}tre humain - un existant donn{\'e} - doit s{\textquoteright} "in-former" sous la pression de l{\textquoteright}{\^e}tre social - un existant historique construit collectivement.}, keywords = {Faith, freedom of opinion, language, media, mediatization, religion, secularization}, isbn = {978-2-9532450-6-6}, url = {http://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/45600/ssoar-2015-bratosin-La_foi_et_le_langage.pdf?sequence=3}, author = {Bratosin, Stefan} } @inbook {1274, title = {Initial Steps towards a Theory of Cyberspace}, booktitle = {Cyberculture Now}, year = {2013}, publisher = {Inter-Disciplinary Press}, organization = {Inter-Disciplinary Press}, keywords = {Cyberculture studies, Cyberspace Theory, digital storytelling, Internet and New Media, Virtual Environment, Web Anthropology, Web Sociology}, url = {https://www.interdisciplinarypress.net/online-store/ebooks/digital-humanities/cyberculture-now}, author = {Harris Breslow} } @book {109, title = {Virtual Gods}, year = {1997}, publisher = {Harvest House.}, organization = {Harvest House.}, address = {Eugene, Oregon}, abstract = {Millions of computer users have discovered that cyberspace allows them to leap over barriers of time, place, and social status to connect with people from all over the world. Long after this book was written it foresaw alienation in cyberspace. Now a Harvard dropout named Mark Zuckerberg has given the world Facebook, becoming a billionaire in his twenties. Facebook has shown how untold numbers crave social connection so desperately -- even people they have never met -- that they will divulge anything to drive their ratings up. There are other doorways in this rapidly expanding digital universe. Virtual reality and holograms are poised to explode. Digital special effects in movies such as James Cameron{\textquoteright}s groundbreaking film Avatar -- shown in 3D on IMAX with scenes of computer generated synthetic reality -- have shown where this technology can take us. Audiences are craving the next leap beyond Avatar.Virtual Gods is a book written before its time. It explores technological doorways still ahead that could open the way to a future only partially glimpsed by such writers as Aldous Huxley, who showed us so much in his prescient Brave New World. Ahead are invasive aspects to this emerging technology--the ability to spy on subjects, inject microchips, etc -- that would have given George Orwell chills. It is worth a deeper look, which this book provides.}, keywords = {Gods, Virtual}, author = {Brooke, Tal} } @book {2889, title = {Ready to be a thought leader? How to increase your influence, impact, and success}, year = {2014}, publisher = {Jossey-Bass Publishing}, organization = {Jossey-Bass Publishing}, address = {California}, abstract = {The how-to guide to becoming a go-to expert Within their fields, thought leaders are sources of inspiration and innovation. They have the gift of harnessing their expertise and their networks to make their innovative thoughts real and replicable, sparking sustainable change and even creating movements around their ideas. In Ready to Be a Thought Leader?, renowned executive talent agent Denise Brosseau shows readers how to develop and use that gift as she maps the path from successful executive, professional, or civic leader to respected thought leader. With the author{\textquoteright}s proven seven-step process--and starting from wherever they are in their careers--readers can set a course for maximum impact in their field. These guidelines, along with stories, tips, and success secrets from those who have successfully made the transition to high-profile thought leader, allow readers to create a long-term plan and start putting it into action today, even if they only have 15 minutes to spare. Offers a step-by-step process for becoming a recognized thought leader in your field Includes real-world examples from such high-profile thought leaders as Robin Chase, founder and former CEO of Zipcar; Chip Conley, author of PEAK and former CEO of JDV Hospitality; and more Written by Denise Brosseau, founder of Thought Leadership Lab, an executive talent agency that helps executives become thought leaders, who has worked with start-up CEOs and leaders from such firms as Apple, Genentech, Symantec, Morgan Stanley, Medtronic, KPMG, DLA Piper, and more Ready to Be a Thought Leader? offers essential reading for anyone ready to expand their influence, increase their professional success, have an impact far beyond a single organization and industry, and ultimately leave a legacy that matters.}, url = {https://www.amazon.com/Ready-Be-Thought-Leader-Influence/dp/1118647610}, author = {Denise Brosseau} } @article {2723, title = {The Religious Facebook Experience: Uses and Gratifications of Faith-Based Content}, journal = {Social Media + Society}, year = {2017}, abstract = {This study explores why Christians (N = 335) use Facebook for religious purposes and the needs engaging with religious content on Facebook gratifies. Individuals who access faith-based content on Facebook were recruited to participate in an online survey through a series of Facebook advertisements. An exploratory factor analysis revealed four primary motivations for accessing religious Facebook content: ministering, spiritual enlightenment, religious information, and entertainment. Along with identifying the uses and gratifications received from engaging with faith-based Facebook content, this research reveals how the frequency of Facebook use, the intensity of Facebook use for religious purposes, and also religiosity predict motivations for accessing this social networking site for faith-based purposes. The data revealed those who frequently use Facebook for posting, liking, commenting, and sharing faith-based content and who are more religious are more likely to minister to others. Frequent use also predicted seeking religious information. The affiliation with like-minded individuals afforded by this medium provides faith-based users with supportive content and communities that motivate the use of Facebook for obtaining spiritual guidance, for accessing religious resources, and for relaxing and being entertained.}, url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305117703723}, author = {Brubaker, Pamela Jo and Haigh, Michel M.} } @article {2890, title = {The presentation of self in the online world: Goffman and the study of online identities}, journal = {Journal of Information Science}, year = {2013}, abstract = {This paper presents an exemplification and discussion of the contemporaneity of Erving Goffman{\textquoteright}s work and of its applicability to the analysis of identity and presentation of self in the blogging and Second Life (SL) contexts. An analysis of online identity and interaction practices in 10 different cases of bloggers and SL inhabitants and of their online spaces is presented in terms of: expressions given; embellishment as a minor form of persona adoption; dividing the self; conforming and {\textquoteleft}fitting in{\textquoteright}; and masking, anonymity and pseudonimity. The key finding of the research is that, contrary to engaging with the process of whole persona adoption, participants were keen to re-create their offline self online, but engaged in editing facets of self. This emphasizes the key premise in Goffman{\textquoteright}s work that, when in {\textquoteleft}front stage{\textquoteright}, people deliberately chose to project a given identity. It is concluded that Goffman{\textquoteright}s original framework is of great usefulness as an explanatory framework for understanding identity through interaction and the presentation of self in the online world. Equally, the online environment, with its enhanced potential for editing the self, can offer opportunities to contribute to the further development of the Goffman framework. }, url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0165551512470051?journalCode=jisb}, author = {Liam Bullingham and Ana C. Vasconcelos} } @book {122, title = {Islam in the Digital Age: E-jihad, Online Fatwas and Cyber Islamic Environments}, year = {2003}, publisher = {Pluto Press}, organization = {Pluto Press}, address = {London}, abstract = {The Internet is very big in the Arab world. After Al-Jazeera, it is the second most important source of dissenting opinion. Literally, millions of people in the Muslim world rely on web-sites to get their information and fatwas. A whole new life of cyber Imams and a new culture is emerging through Internet programmes and will have a profound effect on Arab consciousness. This book documents all this and examines various sites and offers the first comprehensive analysis of the impact of the Internet on Islamic culture. Zia Sardar, author of Postmodernism and the Other and Why Do People Hate America. The Internet is an increasingly important source of information for many people in the Muslim world. Many Muslims in majority and minority contexts rely on the Internet -- including websites and e-mail -- as a primary source of news, information and communication about Islam. As a result, a new media culture is emerging which is having a significant impact on areas of global Muslim consciousness. Post-September 11th, this phenomenon has grown more rapidly than ever.Gary R. Bunt provides a fascinating account of the issues at stake, identifying two radical new concepts: Firstly, the emergence of e-jihad ({\textquoteright}Electronic Jihad{\textquoteright}) originating from diverse Muslim perspectives -- this is described in its many forms relating to the different definitions of {\textquoteright}jihad{\textquoteright}, including on-line activism (ranging from promoting militaristic activities to hacking, to co-ordinating peaceful protests) and Muslim expression post 9/11. Secondly, he discusses religious authority on the Internet -- including the concept of on-line fatwas and their influence in diverse settings, and the complexities of conflicting notions of religious authority.}, keywords = {cyber, Digital, fatwas, Islam, jihad}, author = {Gary Bunt} } @book {111, title = {Virtually Islamic: Computer-Mediated Communication and Cyber Islamic Environments}, year = {2000}, publisher = {University of Wales Press}, organization = {University of Wales Press}, address = {Lampeter, Wales}, author = {Gary Bunt} } @inbook {218, title = {Rip.Burn.Pray: Islamic Expression Online}, booktitle = {Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet}, year = {2004}, pages = {123-134}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {New York}, abstract = {After sex, religion is one of the most popular and pervasive topics of interest online, with over three million Americans turning to the internet each day for religious information and spiritual guidance. Tens of thousands of elaborate websites are dedicated to every manner of expression.Religion Onlineprovides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to this burgeoning new religious reality, from cyberpilgrimages to neo-pagan chatroom communities. A substantial introduction by the editors presenting the main themes and issues is followed by sixteen chapters addressing core issues of concern such as youth, religion and the internet, new religious movements and recruitment, propaganda and the countercult, and religious tradition and innovation. The volume also includes thePew Internet and American Life ProjectExecutiveSummary, the most comprehensive and widely cited study on how Americans pursue religion online, and Steven O{\textquoteright}Leary{\textquoteright}s field-definingCyberspace as SacredSpace.}, keywords = {Islam, Online, Prayer}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=xy0PJrrWXH4C\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Gary Bunt} } @article {2696, title = {islam@britain.net: {\textquoteleft}British Muslim{\textquoteright} identities in Cyberspace}, journal = {Islam and Christian{\textendash}Muslim Relations}, year = {1999}, abstract = {The Internet represents a significant communication tool for the expression of Islamic concepts and notions of identity, on web pages ranging from the constructs of organizations through to the pronouncements of individuals. Cyber Islamic Environments provide indicators of what it means to be a {\textquoteleft}Muslim{\textquoteright} in Britain that augment other sources of knowledge. This paper presents an overview of prominent sites, and introduces issues connected with studying Islam and Muslims through this electronic medium.}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09596419908721192}, author = {Bunt, Gary R.} } @book {248, title = {IMuslims: Rewiring the House of Islam}, year = {2009}, publisher = {UNC Press}, organization = {UNC Press}, address = {Chapel Hill, NC}, abstract = {Exploring the increasing impact of the Internet on Muslims around the world, this book sheds new light on the nature of contemporary Islamic discourse, identity, and community. The Internet has profoundly shaped how both Muslims and non-Muslims perceive Islam and how Islamic societies and networks are evolving and shifting in the twenty-first century, says Gary Bunt. While Islamic society has deep historical patterns of global exchange, the Internet has transformed how many Muslims practice the duties and rituals of Islam. A place of religious instruction may exist solely in the virtual world, for example, or a community may gather only online. Drawing on more than a decade of online research, Bunt shows how social-networking sites, blogs, and other "cyber-Islamic environments" have exposed Muslims to new influences outside the traditional spheres of Islamic knowledge and authority. Furthermore, the Internet has dramatically influenced forms of Islamic activism and radicalization, including jihad-oriented campaigns by networks such as al-Qaeda. By surveying the broad spectrum of approaches used to present dimensions of Islamic social, spiritual, and political life on the Internet, iMuslimsencourages diverse understandings of online Islam and of Islam generally.}, keywords = {information and communication technology, Islam, social networks, study of religion}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=qIbwHwTYqqcC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Gary Bunt} } @book {2172, title = {Christians Under Covers: Evangelicals and Sexual Pleasure on the Internet}, year = {2016}, publisher = {University of California Press}, organization = {University of California Press}, address = {Berkeley, CA}, abstract = {Christians under Covers shifts how scholars and popular media talk about religious conservatives and sex. Moving away from debates over homosexuality, premarital sex, and other perceived sexual sins, Kelsy Burke examines Christian sexuality websites to show how some evangelical Christians use digital media to promote the idea that God wants married, heterosexual couples to have satisfying sex lives. These evangelicals maintain their religious beliefs while incorporating feminist and queer language into their talk of sexuality{\textemdash}encouraging sexual knowledge, emphasizing women{\textquoteright}s pleasure, and justifying marginal sexual practices within Christian marriages. This illuminating ethnography complicates the boundaries between normal and subversive, empowered and oppressed, and sacred and profane.}, keywords = {Christians, Evangelicals, internet, sexual behavior}, issn = {9780520286337}, url = {https://books.google.com/books?id=2aowDwAAQBAJ\&dq=internet+and+Christians\&lr=\&source=gbs_navlinks_s}, author = {Burke, K} } @inbook {509, title = {Reading race on-line; discovering racial identity in usenet discussions}, booktitle = {Communities in Cyberspace}, year = {1999}, pages = {60-75}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London \& New York}, abstract = {This wide-ranging introductory text looks at the virtual community of cyberspace and analyses its relationship to real communities lived out in today{\textquoteright}s societies. Issues such as race, gender, power, economics and ethics in cyberspace are grouped under four main sections and discussed by leading experts: * identity * social order and control * community structure and dynamics * collective action. This topical new book displays how the idea of community is being challenged and rewritten by the increasing power and range of cyberspace. As new societies and relationships are formed in this virtual landscape, we now have to consider the potential consequences this may have on our own community and societies. Clearly and concisely writtenwith a wide range of international examples, this edited volume is an essential introduction to the sociology of the internet. It will appeal to students and professionals, and to those concerned about the changing relationships between information technology and a society which is fast becoming divided between those on-line and those not. }, keywords = {identity, internet, race, Usenet}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=210IkjyN8gEC\&pg=PA10\&lpg=PA10\&dq=Reading+race+on-line;+discovering+racial+identity+in+usenet+discussions\&source=bl\&ots=Xv2QeLJjvv\&sig=K1teJw4Ir9QY9__-Z6D_XYGqEN4\&hl=en\&sa=X\&ei=C7ffT9qxO4Oa2gXb0KmWCg\&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBw$\#$v=onepa}, author = {Burkhalter, B} } @book {572, title = {Analyzing Media Texts}, series = {Continuum Research Methods Series}, year = {2003}, publisher = {Continuum}, organization = {Continuum}, address = {London }, abstract = {Andrew Burn and David Parker outline how multi-modality theory can be used to analyze texts which employ multiple semiotic modes and media, in such a way that a balanced consideration is given to the characteristics of each mode, how they integrate, and how they distribute textual functions between them. The methods are rooted in a view of significance as dependent on social context, and fulfilling the social and communicative interests of both producers of textual production and use contingent upon digital formats will also be a determining content of the analytical method.}, keywords = {data, media, multimodality, Social, theory}, issn = {082646470X}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=Oqn8TTphM5IC\&pg=PA62\&lpg=PA62\&dq=Burn,+A.+\%26+Parker,+D.+\%282003\%29.+Analyzing+Media+Texts\&source=bl\&ots=tEOW5buDSD\&sig=WAAVjudlOWBv6nIT89oE3mxCg5U\&hl=en$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Burns, Andrew and Parker, David} } @book {1284, title = {Invisible Users}, year = {2012}, publisher = {The MIT Press}, organization = {The MIT Press}, abstract = {An account of how young people in Ghana{\textquoteright}s capital city adopt and adapt digital technology in the margins of the global economy. Among other subjects: Religious practice and belief were a frequent point of reference for Ghanaian Internet users when they spoke about their social relationships, aspirations, and their use of technologies including the Internet. The way they talked about this belief was marked by a sense of the presence of spiritual forces (good and evil).}, keywords = {Africa, digital technologies, Ghana, Ghanaian, internet, network technologies, religious practice, spiritual, users, Youth}, url = {http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780262301459}, author = {Jenna Burrell} } @article {1932, title = {Religious Memetics: Institutional Authority in Digital/Lived Religion}, journal = {Journal of Communication Inquiry}, volume = {39}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Recently leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS/Mormon) faith have called upon members to "sweep the earth" with positive religious messages through social media. This digital moment in Mormonism exemplifies the interrelation and concomitant tension between everyday lived religion, technology, and religious institutions. While studies on digital religion have emphasized the push of participatory culture into everyday lived religion, this research on religious memes contributes to an emergent vein of digital religion scholarship focused on institutional authority. In our analysis of the "doubt your doubts" meme and antimemes we theorize religious memetics as a space for the reconnection of the everydayness of religious practice, which boils down meaningful moments of faith into facile, nonthreatening avenues for sharing religion. While this is beneficial for institutions, the reflexive and metonymic function of religious memes ruptures routine, offering participants momentary pauses from the demands of orthodox religious life.}, keywords = {Digital Religion, Lived religion, meme, mormonism, religious memetics}, doi = {10.1177/0196859915603096}, url = {http://jci.sagepub.com/content/39/4/357.abstract}, author = {Burroughs, Benjamin and Feller, Gavin} } @article {373, title = {Come to a Correct Understanding of Buddhism: a case study on spiritualising technology, religious authority, and the boundaries of orthodoxy and identity in a Buddhist Web forum}, journal = {New Media and Society}, volume = {13}, year = {2011}, pages = {58-74}, abstract = {This study examines the Buddhist message forum, E-sangha, to analyze how this forum{\textquoteright}s founder and moderators {\textquoteleft}spiritualized the Internet{\textquoteright} (Campbell, 2005a, 2005b) using contemporary narratives of the global Buddhist community, and in doing so, provided these actors with the authority to determine the boundaries of Buddhist orthodoxy and identity and validate their control of the medium through social and technical means. Through a structural and textual analysis of E-sangha{\textquoteright}s Web space, this study demonstrates how Web producers and forum moderators use religious community narratives to frame Web environments as sacred community spaces (spaces made suitable for religious activities), which inherently allows those in control of the site the authority to set the boundaries of religious orthodoxy and identity and hence, who can take part in the community.}, keywords = {Authority, Buddhism, spiritual, technology}, url = {http://nms.sagepub.com/content/13/1/58.abstract}, author = {Busch, L.} } @article {1310, title = {De-Centering and Re-Centering: Rethinking Concepts and Methods in the Sociological Study of Religion}, journal = {Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion}, volume = {50}, year = {2011}, chapter = {437}, keywords = {methods, religion, Research, scholar, Sociology of religion}, url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2011.01585.x/full}, author = {Wendy Cadge and Peggy Levitt and David Smilde} } @article {2725, title = {Holy selfies: Performing pilgrimage in the age of social media}, journal = {The International Journal of Information, Diversity, \& Inclusion}, year = {2018}, abstract = {In this article, we examine the selfie-taking and sharing practices of Muslim pilgrims in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. We introduce the concept of the {\textquotedblleft}holy selfie{\textquotedblright} (a selfie taken during either theHajj or the Umrah pilgrimages) and report on a visual content analysis of a sample of 100 holy selfies publicly available on social networking platforms. We seek to reach an understanding of the work that holy selfies do in the context of the expressions of spiritual and religious identity of those producing them. Our findings suggest that the embodied experience of pilgrims at the holy sites finds an expressive release through holy selfies, with many pilgrims viewing selfie-taking as an important part of their journey. The selfies (and associated features) capture and document pilgrims{\textquoteright} experiences, contribute to their meaning-making, enable the sharing of memories with loved ones, and attract online followers. Our study provides a picture of how holy selfies blur the gender line (as many males as females take them), emerge despite the opposition of Saudi authorities, and serve as a means of engaging with a multiplicity of audiences. We seek to start a conceptual and methodological conversation about this emerging phenomenon of identity construction involving the use of new media along with the construction of affiliative identities among geographically dispersed communities of Muslim pilgrims. The taking of holy selfies can thus be read as a tactic used by 21st-century Muslims to create opportunities for self-representation and community building in a context of increasing Islamophobia.}, url = {https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/ijidi/article/view/32209}, author = {Caidi, Nadia and Beazley, Susan and Marquez, Laia Colomer} } @article {2891, title = {Unscrewing the big leviathan: How actors macrostructure reality and how sociologists help them to do so}, journal = {Advances in Social Theory and Methodology, Routledge and Kegan Paul}, year = {1981}, chapter = {pp. 227-303}, abstract = {This social theory article explores the problem of micro and macro society without accepting an a priori scale to measure the levels; it demonstrates that by letting the actors build their own scale, the growth of science and technology becomes explainable.}, url = {http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/388}, author = {Michel Callon and Latour B.} } @inbook {2053, title = {Studying Jewish Engagement with Digital Media and Culture}, booktitle = {Digital Judaism: Jewish Negotiations with Digital Media and Technology}, year = {2015}, pages = {1-15}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {New York}, abstract = {The study of new media, religion and digital culture has been in existence for almost two decades. During this time scholars have explored a wide range of religious group{\textquoteright}s engagement with the internet, yet it is clear that some religious traditions, such as Christianity and Islam, have received much more attention than others. As Campbell and Lovheim (2011) noted in their assessment of the study of religion and the internet, there is still a need for a more nuanced understanding of the negotiation of the internet as a medium for religious practice within some religious groups. Also more careful consideration is called for regarding what some scholars have described as {\textquotedblleft}digital religion{\textquotedblright}{\textemdash}the relationship between the online-offline religious contexts-within some religious traditions. This chapter argues that the study of Jewish groups and the internet has arguably been an understudied area in need of more significant attention and critical examination.}, keywords = {culture, digital media, Judaism}, issn = {978-0415736244}, url = {https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317817345/chapters/10.4324\%2F9781315818597-5}, author = {Campbell, H} } @inbook {320, title = {Internet and Cyber Environments}, booktitle = {Encyclopedia of Religion, Communication and Media}, year = {2006}, pages = {177-182}, publisher = {Berkshire Publications/Sage Reference}, organization = {Berkshire Publications/Sage Reference}, address = {Great Barrington}, abstract = {Communication is at the heart of all religions. As an essential aspect of religion, communication occurs between believers, between religious leaders and followers, between proponents of different faiths, and even between practitioners and the deities. The desire to communicate with as well as convert others is also an aspect of some of the world{\textquoteright}s major religions. The Encyclopedia of Religion, Communication, and Media explores all forms of religious communication worldwide and historically, with a special emphasis on oral and written forms of communication. This A-Z organized reference work analyzes how and why the world{\textquoteright}s religions have used different means of communications through topics dealing with: * Theory and concepts in religious communication, including rhetoric, persuasion, performance, brainwashing, and more * Forms of verbal communication, such as chanting, speaking in tongues, preaching, or praying * Forms of written communication, such as religious texts,parables, mystical literature, and modern Christian publishing * Other forms of communication, including art, film, and sculpture * Religious communication in public life, from news coverage and political messages to media evangelism and the electronic church * Communication processes and their effects on religious communication, including non-sexist language, communication competence, or interfaith dialogue * Biographies of major religious communicators, including Muhammad, Jesus, Aristotle, Gandhi, and Martin Luther From the presence of religion on the internet to the effects of religious beliefs on popular advertising, communication and media are integral to religion and the expression of religious belief. With its international and multicultural coverage, this Encyclopedia is an essential and unique resource for scholars, students, as well as the general reader interested in religion, media, or communications. {\guillemotleft} Less Preview this book {\guillemotright} What people are saying - Write a review Editorial Review - Library Journal vol. 132 iss. 11 p (c) 06/15/2007 A plethora of existing encyclopedias covers the independent study of religion, communication, and the media. Few, however, manage to bring these disparate fields together. Stout (journalism \& media studies, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas; coeditor, Journal of Media and Religion ) has carefully chosen respected international scholars with expertise in a wide range of subjects{\textemdash}e.g., communication, religion, theology, and the media{\textemdash}to create this unprecedented interdisciplinary, cross-cultural encyclopedia concentrating on the various forms of written and oral religious methods used to communicate with divinity around the world. The 124 A-to-Z signed entries explore not only traditional media but also new media (e.g., cyber environments, film, and sculpture). The entries appear in a standardized format, each ranging from one to three pages in length. Major schools of thought, ancient and modern traditions, theories, and gurus are described, and each entry highlights the influence of religion on human history and contemporary society. Key ideas are often supported with excerpts, and articles are supplemented with photos and sidebars. BOTTOM LINE The division of entries into well-defined key sections and the extensive index allow efficient access to the information. These features, together with the further reading section, make this an ideal choice for large public or academic libraries serving university students, journalists, and those seeking a more thorough understanding of religion and communication{\textquoteright}s interconnection.{\textemdash}Hazel Cameron, Western Washington Univ. Libs., Bellingham Editorial Review - Library Journal vol. 132 iss. 11 p (c) 06/15/2007 A plethora of existing encyclopedias covers the independent study of religion, communication, and the media. Few, however, manage to bring these disparate fields together. Stout (journalism \& media studies, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas; coeditor, Journal of Media and Religion ) has carefully chosen respected international scholars with expertise in a wide range of subjects{\textemdash}e.g., communication, religion, theology, and the media{\textemdash}to create this unprecedented interdisciplinary, cross-cultural encyclopedia concentrating on the various forms of written and oral religious methods used to communicate with divinity around the world. The 124 A-to-Z signed entries explore not only traditional media but also new media (e.g., cyber environments, film, and sculpture). The entries appear in a standardized format, each ranging from one to three pages in length. Major schools of thought, ancient and modern traditions, theories, and gurus are described, and each entry highlights the influence of religion on human history and contemporary society. Key ideas are often supported with excerpts, and articles are supplemented with photos and sidebars. BOTTOM LINE The division of entries into well-defined key sections and the extensive index allow efficient access to the information. These features, together with the further reading section, make this an ideal choice for large public or academic libraries serving university students, journalists, and those seeking a more thorough understanding of religion and communication{\textquoteright}s interconnection.{\textemdash}Hazel Cameron, Western Washington Univ. Libs., Bellingham Related books {\guilsinglleft} Media and Religion Stout, Daniel A. Stout Routledge Encyclopedia of Religion, Communication, and Media Daniel A. Stout Religion and mass media Daniel A. Stout, Judith Mitchell Buddenbaum Religion and popular culture Daniel A. Stout, Judith Mitchell Buddenbaum {\guilsinglright} Selected pages Title Page Table of Contents Index Common terms and phrases advertising American Anabaptists audience Baha{\textquoteright}i beliefs Bible broadcast Buddenbaum Buddhist Catholic century Christ Christian Church conflict Confucius congregation contemporary contemporary Christian music context create dance Daoist defined definition developed difficult divine early Evangelical example faith field figures film find first five Further Reading gious God{\textquoteright}s Greek groups Haredi Hindu Hinduism holy human images individual influence Internet interpretive community Islam Jesus Jewish Jews Judaism leaders ligious literacy mass media means Mennonites ment modern moral mosque movement Muslim Native American official one{\textquoteright}s oral organizations Orthodox political popular culture pornography practice prayer priests programs prophets Protestant Protestantism published Qur{\textquoteright}an radio reflect reli religion religious communities ritual Roman sacred sacrifice scholars secular sermon sexual shaman significant social society specific spiritual stories symbols televangelism televangelists television temple texts theology tion tradition University Press videos Western word worship York Bibliographic information Title Encyclopedia of religion, communication, and media Volume 8 of Religion and Society Routledge encyclopedias of religion and society Author Daniel A. Stout Editor Daniel A. Stout Edition illustrated Publisher CRC Press, 2006 ISBN 0415969468, 9780415969468 Length 467 pages Subjects Language Arts \& Disciplines {\guilsinglright} Communication Studies Communication Communication - Religious aspects Communication/ Religious aspects Language Arts \& Disciplines / Communication Studies Reference / Encyclopedias Religion / General Religion / Religion, Politics \& State Export Citation BiBTeX EndNote RefMan About Google Books - Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - Blog - Information for Publishers - Report an issue - Help - Sitemap - Google Home {\textcopyright}2011 Google}, keywords = {cyber, environment, internet}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=TN-qpt7kAK4C\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @article {1191, title = {Religion and the Internet: A microcosm for studying Internet trends and implications}, journal = {new media \& society}, volume = {15}, year = {2012}, chapter = {680}, abstract = {This article argues that paying close attention to key findings within the study of religion and the Internet, a subfield of Internet Studies, can enhance our understanding and discussion of the larger social and cultural shifts at work within networked society. Through a critical overview of research on religion online, five central research areas emerge related to social practices, online{\textendash}offline connections, community, identity, and authority online. It is also argued that observations about these themes not only point to specific trends within religious practice online, but also mirror concerns and findings within other areas of Internet Studies. Thus, studying religion on the Internet provides an important microcosm for investigating Internet Studies{\textquoteright} contribution in a wide range of contexts in our contemporary social world.}, keywords = {Authority, community, Computer, Contemporary Religious Community, cyberspace, identity, internet, Mass media, network, New Media and Society, new media engagement, New Technology and Society, offline, Online, online communication, Online community, religion, religion and internet, Religion and the Internet, religiosity, religious engagement, religious identity, Religious Internet Communication, Religious Internet Communities, Ritual, sociability unbound, Sociology of religion, users{\textquoteright} participation, virtual community, virtual public sphere, {\textquotedblleft}digital religion{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}Internet Studies{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}media and religion{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}media research{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}networked society{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}online identity{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}religion online{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}religious congregations{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}religious media research{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}religious practice online{\textquotedblright}}, url = {http://nms.sagepub.com/content/15/5/680.abstract}, author = {Heidi A Campbell} } @book {2062, title = {Religion and the Internet}, series = {Research Methods and Theories in Digital Religion Studies}, volume = {3}, year = {2018}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London}, keywords = {internet, religion}, issn = {9781138093690}, url = {https://books.google.com/books?id=lp5gswEACAAJ\&dq=religion+and+the+internet+volume+3+Research+Methods+and+Theories+in+Digital+Religion+Studies\&hl=en\&sa=X\&ved=0ahUKEwib-s3ipsTbAhVHrVkKHdBOD1IQ6AEIJzAA}, author = {Campbell, H} } @article {89, title = {"What hath God wrought{\textquotedblright}: Considering how religious communities culture (or kosher) the cell phone}, journal = {Continuum: Journal of Media and Culture}, volume = {21}, year = {2007}, pages = {191-203}, keywords = {cell phone, Israel, kosher phone, Orthodox Judaism, religion}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10304310701269040}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @article {2048, title = {Studying technology \& ecclesiology in online multi-site worship}, journal = {Journal of Contemporary Religion}, volume = {29}, year = {2014}, pages = {267-285}, abstract = {This study brings together research approaches from media studies and practical theology in order to study and understand the relationship between online technological features of multi-site worship and the larger offline worshipping community to which it is connected. From the perspective of media studies we reflect on how new media technologies and cultures are allowed to shape online worship spaces and how larger institutional traditions and structures are allowed to shape technologically mediated church events. From the perspective of practical theology we use the notion of inculturation as a lens for a better understanding of the specific ways in which Christian worship practices adapt, change, and respond to the new cultural setting which emerges from the online worship context. Together, these approaches illuminate the interplay between digital technology and ecclesiological tradition in shaping multi-site church worship practices.}, keywords = {Online, technology, worship}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537903.2014.903662}, author = {Campbell, H and Delashmutt, M} } @inbook {315, title = {Texting the Faith: Religious Users and Cell Phone Culture}, booktitle = {The cell phone reader. Essays in social transformation}, year = {2006}, pages = {139-154}, publisher = {Peter Lang}, organization = {Peter Lang}, address = {New York}, abstract = {The Cell Phone Reader offers a diverse, eclectic set of essays that examines how this rapidly evolving technology is shaping new media cultures, new forms of identity, and media-centered relationships. The contributors focus on a range of topics, from horror films to hip-hop, from religion to race, and draw examples from across the globe. The Cell Phone Reader provides a road map for both scholars and beginning students to examine the profound social, cultural and international impact of this small device.}, keywords = {cell phone, Faith, religious, Texting}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=U8uOkAp998IC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @article {2720, title = {Religious Authority and the Blogosphere}, journal = {Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication}, year = {2010}, abstract = {It is often argued that the internet poses a threat to traditional forms of authority. Within studies of religion online claims have also been made that the internet is affecting religious authority online, but little substantive work has backed up these claims. This paper argues for an approach to authority within online studies which looks separately at authority: roles, structures, beliefs/ideologies and texts. This approach is applied to a thematic analysis of 100 religious blogs and demonstrates that religious bloggers use their blogs to frame authority in ways that may more often affirm than challenge traditional sources of authority.}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2010.01519.x}, author = {Campbell, Heidi A.} } @book {83, title = {When Religion Meets New Media}, year = {2010}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London}, abstract = {This book focuses on how different Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities engage with new media. Rather than simply reject or accept new media, religious communities negotiate complex relationships with these technologies in light of their history and beliefs. I suggest a method for studying these processes called the "religious-social shaping of technology" and students are asked to consider four key areas: religious tradition and history; contemporary community values and priorities; negotiation and innovating technology in light of the community; communal discourses applied to justify use. A variety of examples such as the Christian e-vangelism movement, Modern Islamic discourses about computers and the rise of the Jewish kosher cell phone, demonstrate the dominant strategies which emerge for religious media users, as well as the unique motivations that guide specific groups. }, keywords = {Christianity, Islam, Judaism, New Media}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=UykFd5cBsrYC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @article {2043, title = {Framing the Human-Technology Relationship: How Religious Digital Creatives Enact Posthuman Discourses}, journal = {Social Compass}, volume = {63}, year = {2016}, pages = {302-318}, abstract = {This article highlights the fact that careful study of common posthuman outlooks, as described by Roden (2015), reveals three unique narratives concerning how posthumanists view the nature of humanity and emerging technologies. It is argued that these narratives point to unique frames that present distinct understandings of the human-technology relationship, frames described as the technology-cultured, enhanced-human, and human-technology hybrid frames. It is further posited these frames correlate and help map a range of ways people discuss and critique the impact of digital culture on humanity within broader society. This article shows how these frames are similarly at work in the language used by Religious Digital Creatives within Western Christianity to justify their engagement with digital technology for religious purposes. Thus, this article suggests careful analysis of ideological discussions within posthumanism can help us to unpack the common assumptions held and articulated about the human-technology relationship by members within religious communities.}, keywords = {Digital Creatives, religion, technology}, url = {http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0037768616652328}, author = {Campbell, H} } @article {93, title = {Spiritualising the internet: Uncovering discourse and narrative of religious internet usage}, journal = {Online {\textendash} Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet}, volume = {1}, year = {2005}, abstract = {Heidi Campbell deals with an important aspect of {\textquotedblright}lived religion{\textquotedblright} and the Internet. In her contribution Spiritualising the Internet: Uncovering Discourses and Narratives of Religious Internet Usage, she focuses on how spiritual or religious worldviews shape the use and study of the Internet. Individuals and groups typically employ one of a range of conceptual models (such as the Internet as an information tool, identity workshop, common mental geography, social network or spiritual space) to frame their understanding of Internet technology and how it should be used. Narratives about the nature of this technology are often embedded within these discourses. Of particular interest to Campbell is the identification of narratives used to shape religious or spiritual Internet usage. Some of these can be described as offering a religious identity, support network, spiritual network or worship space. According to Campbell, religious narratives describe the religious group{\textquoteright}s motivations and beliefs about acceptable use of technology in spiritual pursuits. They also highlight a process of negotiation and framing that is often undertaken in order to justify religious Internet usage. Campbell introduces Katz and Aakhus{\textquoteright}s Apparageist theory of the social use of mobile technology, which provides one way to discuss this religious apologetic process related to the Internet. She is convinced that it also helps to uncover how technological selection can be linked to the spiritual worldviews to which individuals and/or groups ascribe.}, keywords = {internet, religion, technology, theory of religion online}, url = {http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/volltexte/2005/5824/pdf/Campbell4a.pdf}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @inbook {2052, title = {Methodological Challenges, Innovations and Growing Pains in Digital Religion Research}, booktitle = {Digital Methodologies in the Sociology of Religion}, year = {2015}, pages = {1-12}, publisher = {Bloomsbury Publishing}, organization = {Bloomsbury Publishing}, address = {London}, keywords = {Digital Religion}, issn = {9781472571182}, url = {https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/digital-methodologies-in-the-sociology-of-religion-9781472571182/}, author = {Campbell, H and Altenhofen, B} } @inbook {319, title = {A Review of Religious Computer-Mediated Communication Research}, booktitle = {Mediating Religion: Conversations in Media, Culture and Religion}, year = {2003}, pages = {213-228}, publisher = {T \& T Clark/Continuum}, organization = {T \& T Clark/Continuum}, address = {Edinburgh}, abstract = {This is the first book to bring together many aspects of the interplay between religion, media and culture from around the world in a single comprehensive study. Leading international scholars provide the most up-to-date findings in their fields, and in a readable and accessible way.37 essays cover topics including religion in the media age, popular broadcasting, communication theology, popular piety, film and religion, myth and ritual in cyberspace, music and religion, communication ethics, and the nature of truth in media saturated cultures.}, keywords = {Communication, Computer, religion, Research}, url = {http://books.google.com/books/about/Mediating_religion.html?id=X6uEQgAACAAJ}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @book {2671, title = {When Religion Meets New Media: Media, Religion and Culture}, year = {2007}, publisher = {Media, Religion, and Culture }, organization = {Media, Religion, and Culture }, abstract = {This lively book focuses on how different Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities engage with new media. Rather than simply reject or accept new media, religious communities negotiate complex relationships with these technologies in light of their history and beliefs. Heidi Campbell suggests a method for studying these processes she calls the "religious-social shaping of technology" and students are asked to consider four key areas: religious tradition and history; contemporary community values and priorities; negotiation and innovating technology in light of the community; communal discourses applied to justify use. A wealth of examples such as the Christian e-vangelism movement, Modern Islamic discourses about computers and the rise of the Jewish kosher cell phone, demonstrate the dominant strategies which emerge for religious media users, as well as the unique motivations that guide specific groups.}, url = {https://www.routledge.com/When-Religion-Meets-New-Media/Campbell/p/book/9780415349574}, author = {Campbell, Heidi} } @article {44, title = {The Question of Christian Community Online: The Case of the Artist World Network}, journal = {Studies in World Christianity}, volume = {13}, year = {2007}, pages = {261-267}, publisher = {Edinburgh University Press}, address = {Edinburgh, Scotland}, abstract = {The past decade has seen a steady growth of technologies and practices that can be described as religion online. In many respects Christian groups and users have led the way in using the web for spiritual practices. From church websites becoming a common form of congregational advertising and communication to the rise of cyber churches and online prayer meetings, numerous forms of Christian practice have been transposed online. The Christian community has also been at the forefront of debates over the potential impact of {\textquoteleft}doing religion{\textquoteright} online. Concerns voiced by theologians, pastors and Christian scholars have included the potential that technology might become a substitute for God, the Internet could draw people away for organised religion towards individualised spiritualities, and that the Internet might reshape notions of traditional ritual and community. In light of these questions a new area of research has developed which involves exploring how Christian religious practice is being transformed in the age of Internet technology. Within such studies, the question of Christian or religious community online continues to surface as a central area of concern. As more and more Christian Internet users become involved in various chat, email and blogging groups, they are increasingly seeing and referring to these online social networks as religious communities. For many believers their Christian community involves both online and offline friendships and affiliations, a concept still problematic and contentious to many religious leaders. Thus, the purpose of this article is to investigate what constitutes a Christian community online and the possibilities and challenges that exist when Christians who gather for religious purpose online begin to conceive of their group as a Christian community. This is done by exploring a particular Christian online bulletin board, the {\textquoteleft}Artist World Network{\textquoteright}, in order to understand how this group sees itself and functions as community. This investigation provides a way to address the question of what constitutes an online Christian community. It also opens up discussion on the possibilities and challenges online religious communities pose for offline Christian community.}, keywords = {Christianity, community, internet, religion online}, url = {http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/swc.2007.13.3.261?journalCode=swc}, author = {Heidi Campbell and Patricia Caulderon} } @book {2061, title = {Religion and the Internet}, series = {Key Themes in the Study of Digital Religion}, volume = {2}, year = {2018}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London}, abstract = {Religion and the Internet will present a range of scholarly articles that offer a critical overview of the interdisciplinary study of new media, religion and digital culture. Scholars have documented individuals using computer networks for religious discussions and enagagment since the early 1980s. In the mid 1990s, when the Internet became publicly accessible, scholars began to study how users were translating and transporting their religious practices onto this new digital platform. This collection will cover the development of the study of Religion and the Internet over the past three decades, highlighting the core research topics, approaches and questions that have been explored by key international scholars at the intersection of new media and religion. The collection seeks to present how new forms of religious practices have emerged and been interrogated by scholars. It will also present how religious communities have negotiated their engagement with digital techologies and the online and offline implications this has had for religious practioners and individuals.}, keywords = {internet, religion}, issn = {9781138093683}, url = {https://books.google.com/books?id=QrGhswEACAAJ\&dq=religion+and+the+internet+volume+2\&hl=en\&sa=X\&ved=0ahUKEwjhiYyrocTbAhWjo1kKHUlfCicQ6AEIJzAA}, author = {Campbell, H} } @book {792, title = {Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds}, year = {2012}, pages = {276}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London}, abstract = {Digital Religion offers a critical and systematic survey of the study of religion and new media. It covers religious engagement with a wide range of new media forms and highlights examples of new media engagement in all five of the major world religions. From cell phones and video games to blogs and Second Life, the book:provides a detailed review of major topics, includes a series of case studies to illustrate and elucidate the thematic explorations and considers the theoretical, ethical and theological issues raised. Drawing together the work of experts from key disciplinary perspectives, Digital Religion is invaluable for students wanting to develop a deeper understanding of the field. }, keywords = {Digital Religion, Religion \& New Media, Sociology of religion, Technoculture}, issn = {978-0-415-67611-3}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=ox4q7T59KikC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Heidi A Campbell} } @article {2038, title = {Religious Communication and Technology}, journal = {The Annals of the ICA}, volume = {41}, year = {2017}, abstract = {This article provides a review of contemporary research on religious communication and technologies through the lens of Digital Religion Studies, which explores how online and offline religious spheres become blended and blurred through digital culture. Summarizing the emergence and growth of studies of religion and the Internet, and offering an overview of scholarship demonstrating how religious actors negotiate their relationships and spiritual activities within their online{\textendash}offline lives, enable us to look critically at the state of Digital Religion Studies. This article also highlights current trends and emerging themes within this area including increasing attention being paid to theoretical developments, approaching digital religion as lived religion, and the influence of postsecular and posthuman discourses within this scholarship.}, keywords = {Digital Religion, internet, religion}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23808985.2017.1374200}, author = {Campbell, H} } @article {88, title = {Bloggers and religious authority online}, journal = {Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication}, volume = {15}, year = {2010}, pages = {251-266}, chapter = {251}, abstract = {It is often argued that the internet poses a threat to traditional forms of authority. Within studies of religion online claims have also been made that the internet is affecting religious authority online, but little substantive work has backed up these claims. This paper argues for an approach to authority within online studies which looks separately at authority: roles, structures, beliefs/ideologies and texts. This approach is applied to a thematic analysis of 100 religious blogs and demonstrates that religious bloggers use their blogs to frame authority in ways that may more often affirm than challenge traditional sources of authority.}, keywords = {Authority, blogs, religion, religious authority}, url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2010.01519.x/full}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @article {323, title = {Religion and the Internet}, journal = {Communication Research Trends}, volume = {26}, year = {2006}, pages = {3-24}, keywords = {internet, religion}, url = {http://cscc.scu.edu/trends/v25/v25_1.pdf}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @article {2042, title = {Surveying Theoretical Approaches within Digital Religion Studies}, journal = {New Media and Society}, volume = {19}, year = {2017}, pages = {15-24}, abstract = {This article provides an overview of the development of Digital Religion studies and the theoretical approaches frequently employed within this area. Through considering the ways and theories of mediatization, mediation of meaning, and the religious{\textendash}social shaping of technology have been engaged and applied in studies of new media technologies, religion, and digital culture we see how Digital Religion studies has grown into a unique area of inquiry informed by both Internet studies and media, religion, and culture studies. Overall, it offers a concise summary of the current state of research inquiry within Digital Religion studies.}, keywords = {Digital Religion, internet, mediation of meaning, mediatization, New Media, religion, religious{\textendash}social shaping of technology, theory}, url = {http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444816649912}, author = {Campbell, H} } @article {92, title = {Making space for religion in internet studies}, journal = {The Information Society}, volume = {21}, year = {2005}, pages = {309-315}, abstract = {This paper seeks to address how religion fits into the larger domain of Internet studies and why studies of religion within CMC need to be given more attention. An argument is made for the need to take religion online more seriously, not just because it is an interesting phenomena or a popular use of the Internet, but also because religion continues to be an important part of contemporary life for many people. A summary of the growth and development of religion online is presented along with an overview of how religion has been approached and studied on the Internet. This review shows what CMC studies of religion might offer in approaching research questions related to authority, identity construction and community online. It calls for recognition of the contribution and possibilities that under-represented areas within interdisciplinary research, like religion, might offer Internet studies as a whole.}, keywords = {CMC, Internet Studies, religion, religion online}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01972240591007625$\#$preview}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @article {457, title = {Understanding the relationship between religious practice online and offline in a networked society}, journal = {Journal of the American Academy of Religion}, volume = {80}, year = {2012}, pages = {64-93}, abstract = {This article suggests that religious practice online, rather than simply transforming religion, highlights shifts occurring within broader Western culture. The concept of {\textquotedblleft}networked religion{\textquotedblright} is introduced as a way to encapsulate how religion functions online and suggests that online religion exemplifies several key social and cultural changes at work in religion in general society. Networked religion is defined by five key traits{\textemdash}networked community, storied identities, shifting authority, convergent practice, and a multisite reality{\textemdash}that highlight central research topics and questions explored within the study of religion and the internet. Studying religion on the internet provides insights not only into the common attributes of religious practice online, but helps explain current trends within the practice of religion and even social interactions in networked society.}, keywords = {network, offline, Online, religion, society}, url = {http://jaar.oxfordjournals.org/content/80/1/64.short}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @book {2051, title = {Religion and the Internet }, series = {Mapping the Rise of the Study of Religious Practice Online}, volume = {1}, year = {2018}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London}, abstract = {Religion and the Internet will present a range of scholarly articles that offer a critical overview of the interdisciplinary study of new media, religion and digital culture. Scholars have documented individuals using computer networks for religious discussions and enagagment since the early 1980s. In the mid 1990s, when the Internet became publicly accessible, scholars began to study how users were translating and transporting their religious practices onto this new digital platform. This collection will cover the development of the study of Religion and the Internet over the past three decades, highlighting the core research topics, approaches and questions that have been explored by key international scholars at the intersection of new media and religion. The collection seeks to present how new forms of religious practices have emerged and been interrogated by scholars. It will also present how religious communities have negotiated their engagement with digital techologies and the online and offline implications this has had for religious practioners and individuals.}, keywords = {Digital Religion, internet, religion}, issn = {9781138093669}, url = {https://www.crcpress.com/Religion-and-the-Internet/Campbell/p/book/9781138093669}, author = {Campbell, H} } @inbook {318, title = {Congregation of the Disembodied}, booktitle = {Virtual Morality}, year = {2003}, pages = {179-199}, publisher = {Peter Lang}, organization = {Peter Lang}, address = {London}, abstract = {Contents: Mark J. P. Wolf: Introduction - Gordon Hull: Digital Media and the Scope of {\guillemotleft} Computer Ethics - Emma Rooksby: Empathy in Computer-Mediated Communication - Mark J. P. Wolf: From Simulation to Emulation: Ethics, Worldviews, and Video Games - Paul J. Ford: Virtually Impacted: Designers, Spheres of Meaning, and Virtual Communities - Jason B. Jones: Communities of Envy: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on the Virtual Classroom - Jo Ann Oravec: OnLine Advocacy of Violence and Hate-Group Activity: The Internet as a Platform for the Expression of Youth Aggression and Anxiety - Chris Nagel: Hating in the Global Village - Leda Cooks: The Discursive Construction of Global Listserv Ethics: The Case of Panama-L - Heidi Campbell: Congregation of the Disembodied: A Look at Religious Community on the Internet - Maura McCarthy: Free Market Morality: Why Evangelicals Need Free Speech on the Internet - Andrew Careaga: World Wide Witness: Friendship Evangelism on the Internet - Kathy T. Hettinga: GraveImages: A Faith Visualized in a Technological Age.}, keywords = {Congregation, disembodied}, url = {http://tamu.academia.edu/HeidiCampbell/Papers/712633/Congregation_of_the_Disembodied._A_Look_at_Religious_Community_on_the_Internet}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @book {2060, title = {Networked Theology: Negotiating Faith in Digital Culture}, year = {2016}, publisher = {Baker Academic}, organization = {Baker Academic}, address = {Grand Rapids, MI}, abstract = {This informed theology of communication and media analyzes how we consume new media and technologies and discusses the impact on our social and religious lives. Combining expertise in religion online, theology, and technology, the authors synthesize scholarly work on religion and the internet for a nonspecialist audience. They show that both media studies and theology offer important resources for helping Christians engage in a thoughtful and faith-based critical evaluation of the effect of new media technologies on society, our lives, and the church.}, keywords = {digital cultures, Faith, theology}, issn = {9780801049149}, url = {http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/networked-theology/343270}, author = {Campbell, H and Garner, S} } @article {2037, title = {The Dissonance of {\textquotedblleft}Civil{\textquotedblright} Religion in Religious-Political Memetic Discourse During the 2016 Presidential Elections}, journal = {Social Media+Society}, keywords = {Politics, religion}, author = {Campbell, H and Arrezndo, K and Dundas, K and Wolf, C} } @article {87, title = {How the iPhone became divine: Blogging, religion and intertextuality}, journal = {New Media and Society}, volume = {12}, year = {2010}, pages = {1191-127}, abstract = {This article explores the labeling of the iPhone as the {\textquoteleft}Jesus phone{\textquoteright} in order to demonstrate how religious metaphors and myth can be appropriated into popular discourse and shape the reception of a technology. We consider the intertextual nature of the relationship between religious language, imagery and technology and demonstrate how this creates a unique interaction between technology fans and bloggers, news media and even corporate advertising. Our analysis of the {\textquoteleft}Jesus phone{\textquoteright} clarifies how different groups may appropriate the language and imagery of another to communicate very different meanings and intentions. Intertextuality serves as a framework to unpack the deployment of religion to frame technology and meanings communicated. We also reflect on how religious language may communicate both positive and negative aspects of a technology and instigate an unintentional trajectory in popular discourse as it is employed by different audiences, both online and offline. }, keywords = {blogs, cell phone, fandom, intertexuality, iPhone, Jesus phone, religion, religious discourse, technology}, url = {http://nms.sagepub.com/content/12/7/1191}, author = {Heidi Campbell and Antonio LaPastina} } @article {2046, title = {Gaming Religionworlds: Why Religious Studies Should Pay Attention to Religion in Gaming}, journal = {Journal of the American Academy of Religion}, volume = {84}, year = {2016}, pages = {641-664}, abstract = {This roundtable article discusses the intersection between digital gaming, new media, and Religious Studies in order to provide an agenda for this growing conversation. We argue that religion plays a prominent role in gaming culture with significant impact on popular collective imaginations; therefore, studying religion in gaming should be central to religious scholars{\textquoteright} work in trying to understand perceptions of religion in popular culture. This collaborative conversation demonstrates how careful attention to religious narratives, rituals, and behaviors within game studies and environments can open up a space for critical reflection on how popular understandings of religion are manifest within contemporary media and society. Overall, it demonstrates what Religious Studies can and should contribute to the study of games by considering several critical questions about the study of religion within digital gaming and speculating where this field should be heading.}, keywords = {gaming, religion}, url = {https://academic.oup.com/jaar/article-abstract/84/3/641/1751477?redirectedFrom=fulltext}, author = {Campbell, H and Grieve, G.P and Gregory, R and Lufts, S and Wagner, R and Zeiler, X} } @inbook {2055, title = {Internet and social media}, booktitle = {Routledge{\textquoteright}s Companion to Religion and Popular Culture}, year = {2015}, pages = {154-168}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London}, abstract = {Religion and popular culture is a fast-growing field that spans a variety of disciplines. This volume offers the first real survey of the field to date and provides a guide for the work of future scholars. It explores key issues of definition and of methodology, religious encounters with popular culture across media, material culture and space, ranging from videogames and social networks to cooking and kitsch, architecture and national monuments representations of religious traditions in the media and popular culture, including important non-Western spheres such as Bollywood.}, keywords = {internet, social media}, issn = {9781138322738}, author = {Campbell, H and Teusner, P. E} } @inbook {322, title = {Religious Authority in the Age of the Internet}, booktitle = {Virtual Lives: Christian Reflection }, year = {2011}, pages = {59-68}, publisher = {Baylor University Press}, organization = {Baylor University Press}, abstract = {As the internet changes how we interact with one another, it transforms our understanding of authority by creating new positions of power, flattening traditional hierarchies, and providing new platforms that give voice to the voice- less. How is it reshaping Christian leadership and institu- tions of authority?}, keywords = {Authority, internet, religion}, doi = {http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/130947.pdf}, url = {http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/130950.pdf}, author = {Heidi Campbell and Paul Teusner} } @article {2674, title = {Framing the human-technology relationship: How Religious Digital Creatives engage posthuman narratives}, journal = {Social Compass}, year = {2016}, abstract = {This article highlights the fact that careful study of common posthuman outlooks, as described by Roden (2015), reveals three unique narratives concerning how posthumanists view the nature of humanity and emerging technologies. It is argued that these narratives point to unique frames that present distinct understandings of the human-technology relationship, frames described as the technology-cultured, enhanced-human, and human-technology hybrid frames. It is further posited these frames correlate and help map a range of ways people discuss and critique the impact of digital culture on humanity within broader society. This article shows how these frames are similarly at work in the language used by Religious Digital Creatives within Western Christianity to justify their engagement with digital technology for religious purposes. Thus, this article suggests careful analysis of ideological discussions within posthumanism can help us to unpack the common assumptions held and articulated about the human-technology relationship by members within religious communities.}, url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0037768616652328?journalCode=scpa}, author = {Campbell, Heidi} } @book {2064, title = {Playing with Religion in Digital Games}, year = {2014}, publisher = {Indiana University Press}, organization = {Indiana University Press}, address = {Bloomington, IN}, abstract = {Shaman, paragon, God-mode: modern video games are heavily coded with religious undertones. From the Shinto-inspired Japanese video game Okami to the internationally popular The Legend of Zelda and Halo, many video games rely on religious themes and symbols to drive the narrative and frame the storyline. Playing with Religion in Digital Games explores the increasingly complex relationship between gaming and global religious practices. For example, how does religion help organize the communities in MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft? What role has censorship played in localizing games like Actraiser in the western world? How do evangelical Christians react to violence, gore, and sexuality in some of the most popular games such as Mass Effect or Grand Theft Auto? With contributions by scholars and gamers from all over the world, this collection offers a unique perspective to the intersections of religion and the virtual world.}, keywords = {digital games, religion}, issn = {978-0-253-01253-1}, url = {http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=807175}, author = {Campbell, H and Grieve, G} } @article {91, title = {Postcyborg ethics: A new way to speak of technology?}, journal = {EME: Exploration in Media Ecology}, volume = {15}, year = {2006}, pages = {279-296}, keywords = {cyborg, ethics, religion, technology}, url = {http://www.media-ecology.org/publications/Explorations_Media_Ecology/v5n4.html}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @inbook {317, title = {This is my church: Seeing the internet and club culture as spiritual space}, booktitle = {Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet}, year = {2004}, pages = {107-121}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {New York}, abstract = {After sex, religion is one of the most popular and pervasive topics of interest online, with over three million Americans turning to the internet each day for religious information and spiritual guidance. Tens of thousands of elaborate websites are dedicated to every manner of expression. Religion Online provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to this burgeoning new religious reality, from cyberpilgrimages to neo-pagan chatroom communities. A substantial introduction by the editors presenting the main themes and issues is followed by sixteen chapters addressing core issues of concern such as youth, religion and the internet, new religious movements and recruitment, propaganda and the countercult, and religious tradition and innovation. The volume also includes the Pew Internet and American Life Project Executive Summary, the most comprehensive and widely cited study on how Americans pursue religion online, and Steven O{\textquoteright}Leary{\textquoteright}s field-defining Cyberspace as Sacred Space.}, keywords = {Christianity, Church, club culture, internet}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=xy0PJrrWXH4C\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @book {2849, title = {Digital Creatives and the Rethinking of Religious Authority}, year = {2020}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, abstract = {Much speculation was raised in the 1990s, during the first decade of internet research, about the extent to which online platforms and digital culture might challenge traditional understandings of authority, especially in religious contexts. Digital Creatives and the Rethinking of Religious Authority explores the ways in which religiously-inspired digital media experts and influencers online challenge established religious leaders and those who seek to maintain institutional structures in a world where online and offline religious spaces are increasingly intertwined. In the twenty-first century, the question of how digital culture may be reshaping notions of whom or what constitutes authority is incredibly important. Questions asked include: Who truly holds religious power and influence in an age of digital media? Is it recognized religious leaders and institutions? Or religious digital innovators? Or digital media users? What sources, processes and/or structures can and should be considered authoritative online, and offline? Who or what is really in control of religious technological innovation? This book reflects on how digital media simultaneously challenges and empowers new and traditional forms of religious authority. It is a gripping read for those with an interest in communication, culture studies, media studies, religion/religious studies, sociology of religion, computer-mediated communication, and internet/digital culture studies.}, url = {https://www.routledge.com/Digital-Creatives-and-the-Rethinking-of-Religious-Authority/Campbell/p/book/9781138370975}, author = {Campbell, Heidi A.} } @inbook {374, title = {How Religious Communities Negotiate New Media Religiously}, booktitle = {Digital Religion, Social Media and culture: Perspectives, Practices, Futures}, year = {2012}, pages = {81-96}, publisher = {Peter Lang}, organization = {Peter Lang}, address = {New York}, abstract = {This lively book focuses on how different Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities engage with new media. Rather than simply reject or accept new media, religious communities negotiate complex relationships with these technologies in light of their history and beliefs. Heidi Campbell suggests a method for studying these processes she calls the "religious-social shaping of technology" and students are asked to consider four key areas: religious tradition and history; contemporary community values and priorities; negotiation and innovating technology in light of the community; communal discourses applied to justify use. A wealth of examples such as the Christian e-vangelism movement, Modern Islamic discourses about computers and the rise of the Jewish kosher cell phone, demonstrate the dominant strategies which emerge for religious media users, as well as the unique motivations that guide specific groups.}, keywords = {communities, New Media, religion}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=UykFd5cBsrYC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Campbell, H.} } @inbook {2059, title = {Religion and New Media}, booktitle = {International Encyclopedia of the Social \& Behavioral Sciences}, volume = {20}, year = {2015}, pages = {273{\textendash}278}, publisher = {Elsevier}, organization = {Elsevier}, edition = {2}, address = {Oxford}, keywords = {New Media, religion}, issn = {9780080970868}, url = {https://www.elsevier.com/books/international-encyclopedia-of-the-social-andampamp-behavioral-sciences/wright/978-0-08-097086-8}, author = {Campbell, H and Connelly, L} } @article {86, title = {Religious engagement with the internet within Israeli Orthodox groups}, journal = {Israel Affairs}, volume = {17}, year = {2011}, pages = {364-383}, abstract = {This article provides an overview of research on religion and the Internet within the Israeli context, highlighting how Orthodox Jewish groups have appropriated and responded to the Internet. By surveying Orthodox use of the Internet, and giving special attention to the ultra Orthodox negotiations, a number of key challenges that the Internet poses to the Israeli religious sector are highlighted. Exploring these debates and negotiations demonstrates that while the Internet is readily utilized by many Orthodox groups, it is still viewed by some with suspicion. Fears expressed, primarily by ultra Orthodox groups, shows religious leaders often attempt to constrain Internet use to minimize its potential threat to religious social norms and the structure of authority. This article also highlights the need for research that addresses the concerns and strategies of different Orthodox groups in order to offer a broader understanding of Orthodox engagement with the Internet in Israel.}, keywords = {Authority, community, internet, Israel, Judaism, Orthodox, religion, ultra Orthodox}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537121.2011.584664$\#$preview}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @article {2045, title = {Problematizing the Human-Technology Relationship through Techno-Spiritual Myths Presented in The Machine, Transcendence and Her}, journal = {Journal of Religion \& Film}, volume = {20}, year = {2016}, pages = {Article 21 }, abstract = {This article explores three common techno-spiritual myths presented in three recent science fiction films, highlighting how the perceived spiritual nature of technology sets-out an inherently problematic relationship between humanity and technology. In The Machine, Transcendence and Her, human-created computers offer salvation from human limitations. Yet these creations eventually overpower their creators and threaten humanity as a whole. Each film is underwritten by a techno-spiritual myths including: {\textquotedblleft}technology as divine transcendence{\textquotedblright} (where technology is shown to endow humans with divine qualities, {\textquotedblleft}technological mysticism{\textquotedblright} (framing technology practice as a form of religion/spirituality) and {\textquotedblleft}techgnosis{\textquotedblright} (where technology itself is presented as a God). Each myth highlights how the human relationship to technology is often framed in spiritual terms, not only in cinema, but in popular culture in general. I argue these myths inform the storylines of these films, and spotlight common concerns about the outcome of human engagement with new technologies. By identifying these myths and discussing how they inform these films, a techno-spirituality grounded in distinctive posthuman narratives about the future of humanity is revealed.}, keywords = {spiritual, technology}, url = {https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol20/iss1/21/}, author = {Campbell, H} } @book {95, title = {Exploring Religious Community Online: We are one in the Network}, year = {2005}, pages = {213}, publisher = {Peter Lang Publishing}, organization = {Peter Lang Publishing}, type = {Monograph}, address = {New York}, abstract = {Exploring Religious Community Online is a first comprehensive study of the development and implications of online communities for religious groups. This book investigates religious community online by examining how Christian communities have adopted internet technologies, and looks at how these online practices pose new challenges to offline religious community and culture. }, keywords = {Christianity, community, email, internet, religion, religious identity}, isbn = {978-0820471051}, issn = {978-0820471051}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=nkEHmdr-7ZUC\&pg=PA153\&lpg=PA153\&dq=exploring+religious+community+online+heidi+campbell\&source=bl\&ots=3cedZPB9S1\&sig=Aw3jXmsZmvnlHK7agc6uIzQUSoI\&hl=en\&ei=tNOZTprkGqbKsQLRwqW3BA\&sa=X\&oi=book_result\&ct=result\&resnum=4\&sqi=2\&v}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @inbook {123, title = {Internet and Religion}, booktitle = {The Blackwell Handbook of Internet Studies}, year = {2011}, publisher = {Blackwell Publishers}, organization = {Blackwell Publishers}, address = {Oxford, UK}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=3CakiQW_GVAC\&pg=PA247\&lpg=PA247\&dq=The+Use+of+Internet+Communication+by+Catholic+Congregations:+A+Quantitative+Study\&source=bl\&ots=7jHuXxT_rI\&sig=N_CclUEsihldDHr_L1a9PNoTWbg\&hl=en\&ei=ZguqTrGuOuOlsQLx9MSXDw\&sa=X\&oi=book_res}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @inbook {2054, title = {Sanctifying the Internet: Aish{\textquoteright}s Use of the Internet for Digital Outreach}, booktitle = {Digital Judaism: Jewish Negotiations with Digital Media and Technology}, year = {2015}, pages = {74-90}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {New York}, abstract = {The internet is increasingly used by different Jewish groups as a tool of outreach, especially for religious organizations committed to calling secular Jews back into a religious lifestyle. One example of using the internet to connect, educate and encourage Jews is the work of Aish.com, the digital presence of Aish HaTorah. Due to its Orthodox outlook, it functions under a set of self-imposed rules in its web work to monitor and make sure the content and images that appear on the site support its conservative values and beliefs. While it seeks to be innovative in the types of information and forums it provides (from video podcasts and blogs to online seminars and courses), it insists its work is not a whole-scale endorsement of the internet for all religious Jews. Rather, the internet is presented as a necessary tool to be used in outreach to secular Jews. Aish.com allows Aish HaTorah the means to meet and influence secular Jews wherever they are. By using the internet within a bounded approach and by carefully monitoring web content, those working for the site avoid problematic images and topics as it seeks to sanctify the internet through bringing Torah and a Torah-based lifestyle into the digital realm}, keywords = {digital outreach, internet}, issn = { 978-0415736244}, url = {https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317817345/chapters/10.4324\%2F9781315818597-9}, author = {Campbell, H and Bellar, W} } @inbook {321, title = {Internet and Cyber Environments}, booktitle = {Encyclopedia of Religion, Communication and Media}, year = {2006}, pages = {177-182}, publisher = {Berkshire Publications/Sage Reference}, organization = {Berkshire Publications/Sage Reference}, address = {Great Barrington}, abstract = {Communication is at the heart of all religions. As an essential aspect of religion, communication occurs between believers, between religious leaders and followers, between proponents of different faiths, and even between practitioners and the deities. The desire to communicate with as well as convert others is also an aspect of some of the world{\textquoteright}s major religions. The Encyclopedia of Religion, Communication, and Media explores all forms of religious communication worldwide and historically, with a special emphasis on oral and written forms of communication. This A-Z organized reference work analyzes how and why the world{\textquoteright}s religions have used different means of communications through topics dealing with: * Theory and concepts in religious communication, including rhetoric, persuasion, performance, brainwashing, and more * Forms of verbal communication, such as chanting, speaking in tongues, preaching, or praying * Forms of written communication, such as religious texts,parables, mystical literature, and modern Christian publishing * Other forms of communication, including art, film, and sculpture * Religious communication in public life, from news coverage and political messages to media evangelism and the electronic church * Communication processes and their effects on religious communication, including non-sexist language, communication competence, or interfaith dialogue * Biographies of major religious communicators, including Muhammad, Jesus, Aristotle, Gandhi, and Martin Luther From the presence of religion on the internet to the effects of religious beliefs on popular advertising, communication and media are integral to religion and the expression of religious belief. With its international and multicultural coverage, this Encyclopedia is an essential and unique resource for scholars, students, as well as the general reader interested in religion, media, or communications.}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=TN-qpt7kAK4C\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @article {2758, title = {Creating digital enclaves: Negotiation of the internet among bounded religious communities:}, journal = {Media, Culture \& Society}, year = {2011}, abstract = {This article examines the motivation behind bounded groups{\textquoteright} creation of digital enclaves online. Through in-depth interviews with 19 webmasters and staff of selected Israeli Orthodox websites three critical areas of negotiation are explored: (1) social control; (2) sources of authority; and (3) community boundaries. Examining these tensions illuminates a detailed process of self-evaluation which leads religious stakeholders and internet entrepreneurs to form these digital enclaves in order to negotiate the core beliefs and constraints of their offline communities online. These offer spaces of safety for members within the risk-laden tracts of the internet. Examining the tensions accompanying the emergence of these religious websites elucidates community affordances as well as the challenges to the authority that integration of new media poses to closed groups and societies.}, url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0163443711404464}, author = {Campbell, Heidi A. and Golan, Oren} } @book {2063, title = {Digital Judaism: Jewish negotiations with digital media and culture}, year = {2015}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {New York}, abstract = {In this volume, contributors consider the ways that Jewish communities and users of new media negotiate their uses of digital technologies in light of issues related to religious identity, community and authority. Digital Judaism presents a broad analysis of how and why various Jewish groups negotiate with digital culture in particular ways, situating such observations within a wider discourse of how Jewish groups throughout history have utilized communication technologies to maintain their Jewish identities across time and space. Chapters address issues related to the negotiation of authority between online users and offline religious leaders and institutions not only within ultra-Orthodox communities, but also within the broader Jewish religious culture, taking into account how Jewish engagement with media in Israel and the diaspora raises a number of important issues related to Jewish community and identity. Featuring recent scholarship by leading and emerging scholars of Judaism and media, Digital Judaism is an invaluable resource for researchers in new media, religion and digital culture.}, keywords = {culture, digital judaism, digital media, Digital Religion, Jewish religion}, issn = {978-0415736244}, url = {https://books.google.com/books?id=IKYGCAAAQBAJ\&printsec=frontcover\&dq=978-0415736244\&hl=en\&sa=X\&ved=0ahUKEwj88ouMqMTbAhXjt1kKHf-7CykQ6AEILjAB$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Campbell, H} } @article {90, title = {Who{\textquoteright}s got the power? The question of religious authority and the internet}, journal = {Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication}, volume = {12}, year = {2007}, chapter = {14}, abstract = {While many themes have been explored in relation to religion online{\textemdash}ritual, identity construction, community{\textemdash}what happens to religious authority and power relationships within online environments is an area in need of more detailed investigation. In order to move discussions of authority from the broad or vague to the specific, this article argues for a more refined identification of the attributes of authority at play in the online context. This involves distinguishing between different layers of authority in terms of hierarchy, structure, ideology, and text. The article also explores how different religious traditions approach questions of authority in relation to the Internet. Through a qualitative analysis of three sets of interviews with Christians, Jews, and Muslims about the Internet, we see how authority is discussed and contextualized differently in each religious tradition in terms of these four layers of authority.}, keywords = {Authority, Christianity, internet, Islam, Judaism}, url = {http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue3/campbell.html}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @inbook {261, title = {Islamogaming: Digital Dignity via Alternative Storytelling}, booktitle = {Halos and avatars: Playing (video) games with God}, year = {2010}, pages = {63-74}, publisher = {Westminster Press}, organization = {Westminster Press}, address = {Louisville}, abstract = {Craig Detweiler{\textquoteright}s collection of up-to-the-minute essays on video games{\textquoteright} theological themes (and yes, they do exist!) is an engaging and provocative book for gamers, parents, pastors, media scholars, and theologians--virtually anyone who has dared to consider the ramifications of modern society{\textquoteright}s obsession with video games and online media. Together, these essays take on an exploding genre in popular culture and interpret it through a refreshing and enlightening philosophical lens.}, keywords = {Christianity, game studies, Islam, public sphere, video games, virtual worlds}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=GomyEvcocJsC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @article {2049, title = {There{\textquoteright}s a Religious App for that!: A Framework for Studying Religious Mobile Applications}, journal = {Mobile Media \& Communication}, volume = {2}, year = {2014}, pages = {154-172}, abstract = {This article provides a new methodological approach to studying religious-oriented mobile applications available on the iTunes app store. Through an extensive review of 451 religious apps a number of problems were noted when relying solely on iTunes categories to identify app functions and purpose. Thus further analysis was done in order to present a new typology and framing of religious apps, which more accurately describe their design. We suggest that the 11 new categories offered here suggest a critical framework for studying religious apps. Thus this study provides a starting point for scholars interested in analyzing religious mobile applications to investigate how app developers integrate religious goals into their designs, and consider the primary ways people are expected to practice religion through mobile apps.}, keywords = {App, religious, religious applications}, url = {http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2050157914520846}, author = {Campbell, H and Altenhofen, B and Bellar, W and Cho, K.J} } @article {2797, title = {How the iPhone became divine: new media, religion and the intertextual circulation of meaning}, journal = {New Media \& Society}, year = {2010}, abstract = {This article explores the labeling of the iPhone as the {\textquoteleft}Jesus phone{\textquoteright} in order to demonstrate how religious metaphors and myth can be appropriated into popular discourse and shape the reception of a technology. We consider the intertextual nature of the relationship between religious language, imagery and technology and demonstrate how this creates a unique interaction between technology fans and bloggers, news media and even corporate advertising. Our analysis of the {\textquoteleft}Jesus phone{\textquoteright} clarifies how different groups may appropriate the language and imagery of another to communicate very different meanings and intentions. Intertextuality serves as a framework to unpack the deployment of religion to frame technology and meanings communicated. We also reflect on how religious language may communicate both positive and negative aspects of a technology and instigate an unintentional trajectory in popular discourse as it is employed by different audiences, both online and offline.}, url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444810362204}, author = {Campbell, Heidi A. and La Pastina, Antonio C.} } @inbook {316, title = {The Internet as Social-Spiritual Space}, booktitle = {Netting citizens: Exploring citizenship in the Internet age}, year = {2004}, pages = {208-231}, publisher = {St. Andrew{\textquoteright}s Press}, organization = {St. Andrew{\textquoteright}s Press}, address = {Edinburgh}, keywords = {internet, Social, spiritual}, url = {http://clydeserver.com/bairdtrust/pdfs/2004/chapter09opt.pdf}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @article {2812, title = {Contextualizing current digital religion research on emerging technologies}, journal = {Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies}, year = {2019}, abstract = {This article provides an overview of contemporary research within the interdisciplinary arc of scholarship known as digital religion studies, in which scholars explore the intersection between emerging digital technologies, lived and material religious practices in contemporary culture, and the impact the structures of the network society have on understandings of spirituality and religiosity. Digital religion studies specifically investigates how online and offline religious spaces and practices have become bridged, blended, and blurred as religious groups and practitioners seek to integrate their religious lives with technology use within different aspects of digital culture.}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hbe2.149}, author = {Campbell, Heidi A. and Evolvi, Giulia} } @article {573, title = {Rethinking the online-offline connection in religion online}, journal = {Information, Community \& Society }, volume = {18}, year = {2011}, month = {11/2011}, chapter = {1083-1086}, abstract = {This special issue of Information, Communication and Society aims to present current research on the connection between online and offline religion and map out significant questions and themes concerning how this relationship takes shape among different religious traditions and contexts. By bringing together a collection of studies that explore these issues, we seek to investigate both how the Internet informs religious cultures in everyday life, and how the Internet is being shaped by offline religious traditions and communities. In order to contextualize the articles in the special issue, we offer a brief overview of how religion online has been studied over the past two decades with attention given to how the intersection of online-offline religion has been approached. This is followed by a discussion of key questions in the recent study of the relationship between online and offline religion and significant themes that emerge in contemporary research on religious uses of the Internet. These questions and themes help contextualize the unique contributions this special issue offers to the current discourse in this area, as well as how it might inform the wider field of Internet studies. We end by suggesting where future research on religion and the Internet might be headed, especially in relation to how we understand and approach the overlap between online and offline religion as a space of hybridity and social interdependence. }, keywords = {internet and religion, offline, Online, religion}, doi = {10.1080/1369118X.2011.597416}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2011.597416}, author = {Heidi Campbell and L{\"o}vheim, Mia} } @article {85, title = {Creating digital enclaves: Negotiation of the internet amongst bounded religious communities}, journal = {Media, Culture and Society}, volume = {33}, year = {2011}, pages = {709-724}, publisher = {Sage}, chapter = {709}, abstract = {This article examines the motivation behind bounded groups{\textquoteright} creation of digital enclaves online. Through in-depth interviews with 19 webmasters and staff of selected Israeli Orthodox websites three critical areas of negotiation are explored: (1) social control; (2) sources of authority; and (3) community boundaries. Examining these tensions illuminates a detailed process of self-evaluation which leads religious stakeholders and internet entrepreneurs to form these digital enclaves in order to negotiate the core beliefs and constraints of their offline communities online. These offer spaces of safety for members within the risk-laden tracts of the internet. Examining the tensions accompanying the emergence of these religious websites elucidates community affordances as well as the challenges to the authority that integration of new media poses to closed groups and societies. }, keywords = {Authority, community, internet, Israel, Judaism}, url = {http://mcs.sagepub.com/content/33/5/709.abstract}, author = {Heidi Campbell and Oren Golan} } @article {1008, title = {Al Jazeera{\textquoteright}s Framing of Social Media During the Arab Spring. }, journal = {CyberOrient}, volume = {6}, year = {2012}, abstract = {This study investigates how Al Jazeera framed social media in relation to the revolutions and protests of the {\textquotedblleft}Arab Spring{\textquotedblright} within its broadcast media coverage. A content analysis of Arabic language broadcasts appearing from January 25th through February 18th 2011, covering the protests in Tahrir Square, was conducted using the Broadcast Monitoring System (BMS) and Arab Spring Archive. Through this analysis we see a number of common narratives being used by Al Jazeera to frame social media and make claims about the influence they had on the protests and related social movements. By noting the frequency of social communications technologies referenced, ways in which these technologies were characterized and interpreting supporting themes with which they were identified helps illuminate the assumptions promoted by Al Jazeera regarding the role and impact of social communications technology on these events.}, keywords = {activism, Arab Spring, democracy, Egypt, information and communication technology, internet, public sphere, satellite TV, social media}, url = {http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7758}, author = {Heidi Campbell and Diana Hawk} } @article {2044, title = {Accessing Changes in the Study of Religious Communities in Digital Religion Studies}, journal = {Church, Communication \& Culture}, volume = {1}, year = {2016}, pages = {73-89}, abstract = {This article provides a focused review of researches undertaken within Digital religion studies in the last three decades, specifically highlighting how religious communities have been studied and approached within this area. It highlights the dominant theoretical and methodological approaches employed by scholars during what is being described as the four stages of research on religious communities emerging over this period of time. Thus, this article presents the findings of key studies emerging during these stages to illuminate how the study of religious communities online has evolved over time. It also offers insights into how this evolution specifically relates to the study of Catholic community online. Finally, a theoretical analysis is given, assessing current research on religious communities within Digital Religion studies, and approaches for future research are proposed.}, keywords = {Community online, Digital Religion, internet, offline, Online, religious communities}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23753234.2016.1181301}, author = {Campbell, H and Virtullo, A} } @article {2736, title = {INTRODUCTION: Rethinking the online{\textendash}offline connection in the study of religion online}, journal = {Information, Communication \& Society}, year = {2011}, abstract = {This article introduces current research on the connection between online and offline religion and map out significant questions and themes concerning how this relationship takes shape among different religious traditions and contexts. By bringing together a collection of studies that explore these issues, we seek to investigate both how the Internet informs religious cultures in everyday life and how the Internet is being shaped by offline religious traditions and communities. In order to contextualize the articles in the special issue, we offer a brief overview of how religion online has been studied over the past two decades with attention given to how the intersection of online{\textendash}offline religion has been approached. This is followed by a discussion of key questions in the recent study of the relationship between online and offline religion and significant themes that emerge in contemporary research on religious uses of the Internet. These questions and themes help contextualize the unique contributions this special issue offers to the current discourse in this area, as well as how it might inform the wider field of Internet studies. We end by suggesting where future research on religion and the Internet might be headed, especially in relation to how we understand and approach the overlap between online and offline religion as a space of hybridity and social interdependence.}, url = {https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283610732_INTRODUCTION_Rethinking_the_online-offline_connection_in_the_study_of_religion_online}, author = {Campbell, Heidi A. and L{\"o}vheim, Mia} } @article {94, title = {Challenges created by online religious networks}, journal = {Journal of Media and Religion}, volume = {3}, year = {2004}, pages = {81-99}, abstract = {This article considers the challenges that online religious communities raise for religious culture. A survey of cultural changes in media, community, and religion uncovers similar structural shifts, from hierarchical structures to more open, dynamic relationship patterns in society. Examining this shift helps explain why cyber-religion and online religious communities have become emergent phenomenon. Emphasis is placed on the argument that the Internet has thrived because it has surfaced in a cultural landscape that promotes fluid yet controlled relationships over tightly bound hierarchies. Religious online communities are expressions of these changes and challenge traditional religious definitions of community. Especially problematic is the image of community as a network of relations. This article also addresses common concerns and fears of religious critics related to online communities through an analysis of current literature on these issues, along with a synthesis of research studies relating to the social use and consequences of the Internet.}, keywords = {community, internet, religion}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15328415jmr0302_1$\#$preview}, author = {Heidi Campbell} } @inbook {2098, title = {PICTURE: The Adoption of ICT by Catholic Priest}, booktitle = {Digital Religion, Social Media and Culture. Perspectives, Practices and Futures}, year = {2012}, pages = {131{\textendash}149}, publisher = {Peter Lang}, organization = {Peter Lang}, address = {New York}, abstract = {This anthology - the first of its kind in eight years - collects some of the best and most current research and reflection on the complex interactions between religion and computer-mediated communication (CMC). The contributions cohere around the central question: how will core religious understandings of identity, community and authority shape and be (re)shaped by the communicative possibilities of Web 2.0? The authors gathered here address these questions in three distinct ways: through contemporary empirical research on how diverse traditions across the globe seek to take up the technologies and affordances of contemporary CMC; through investigations that place these contemporary developments in larger historical and theological contexts; and through careful reflection on the theoretical dimensions of research on religion and CMC. In their introductory and concluding essays, the editors uncover and articulate the larger intersections and patterns suggested by individual chapters, including trajectories for future research.}, keywords = {Catholic, ICT}, issn = {9781433114748}, url = {https://books.google.com/books/about/Digital_Religion_Social_Media_and_Cultur.html?id=I7GqtgAACAAJ}, author = {Cantoni, L and Rapetti, E and Tardini, S and Vannini, S and Arasa, D} } @inbook {2097, title = {Online Communication of the Catholic World Youth Days}, booktitle = {Reflecting on Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage}, year = {2012}, pages = {130{\textendash}144}, publisher = {ATLAS}, organization = {ATLAS}, address = {Arnhem}, abstract = {This paper aims to explore the ways in which religious tourism in India fosters religious tolerance. Design/methodology/approach {\textendash} The paper uses a conceptual apparatus derived from the basic structure of religious tourism comprising motivation, journey and destination, to understand various aspects of tolerance. Tolerance, with the implicit meaning of diversity and pluralism, is examined at two levels {\textendash} intra-religion and inter-religion {\textendash} using field investigations from three Hindu pilgrimage sites, namely, Vrindavan, Tuljapur, Shegaon and review of one Muslim site called Ajmer Sharif. These sites exhibit a range of combinations, sectarian traditions within Hindu and their interactions with others, including Muslims and foreigners. Findings {\textendash} Each of the sites provides different sets of opportunities for the {\textquotedblleft}others{\textquotedblright} to get exposed to religious and cultural aspects. It is found that tolerance within the Hindu sects and with non-Hindus from other religious faiths is a function of their engagement with cultural performances and participation in the religious tourism economy in a pilgrimage site. Originality/value {\textendash} On a broader level, this paper argues that conceptualising tolerance within a social and cultural sphere helps in a better understanding of tolerance and identifying areas within religious tourism where it can be promoted. A conscious effort to promote tolerance through religious tourism will add value to religious tourism and help it thrive. }, keywords = {Catholic, online communication, Youth}, issn = { 978-90-75775-53-2}, url = {http://www.atlas-webshop.org/Reflecting-on-Religious-Tourism-and-Pilgrimage}, author = {Cantoni, L and Stefania, M and De Ascanis, S} } @article {124, title = {The Use of Internet Communication by Catholic Congregations: A Quantitative Study}, journal = {Journal of Media and Religion}, volume = {6}, year = {2007}, pages = {291-309}, abstract = {This article presents a first attempt to measure the use of the internet by all 5,812 Catholic religious congregations and autonomous institutes worldwide (with 858,988 members). The research was conducted through a questionnaire sent by e-mail, hence first selecting those institutions which at least have an access to internet communication through an e-mail account (2,285: 39.3\% of the total), receiving 437 responses (19.1\% of the e-mail owners). The study shows great differences between centralized institutes and autonomous ones: the former ones make a higher use of the Internet than the latter ones; moreover, differences are also found among centralized institutes, namely between male and female ones. Two explanatory elements have been found, both depending on the own mission (charisma) of institutes: (1) first, the different approach to the external world: the institutes more devoted to contemplation and less active in the outside world make limited and basic use of the Internet, if any; (2) second, institutes whose aim is to assist poor and sick persons tend to use the internet less than the others, due to their different prioritization of resources. }, keywords = {Catholic, Communication, religion}, author = {Cantoni, Lorenzo and Zyga, Slawomir} } @article {1188, title = {The Use of Internet Communication by Catholic Congregations: A Quantitative Study}, journal = {Journal of Media and Religion}, volume = {6}, year = {2007}, pages = {291-309}, abstract = {This article presents a first attempt to measure the use of the internet by all 5,812 Catholic religious congregations and autonomous institutes worldwide (with 858,988 members). The research was conducted through a questionnaire sent by e-mail, hence first selecting those institutions which at least have an access to internet communication through an e-mail account (2,285: 39.3\% of the total), receiving 437 responses (19.1\% of the e-mail owners). The study shows great differences between centralized institutes and autonomous ones: the former ones make a higher use of the Internet than the latter ones; moreover, differences are also found among centralized institutes, namely between male and female ones. Two explanatory elements have been found, both depending on the own mission (charisma) of institutes: (1) first, the different approach to the external world: the institutes more devoted to contemplation and less active in the outside world make limited and basic use of the Internet, if any; (2) second, institutes whose aim is to assist poor and sick persons tend to use the internet less than the others, due to their different prioritization of resources.}, keywords = {Catholic, Catholic religious congregations, Computer, congregations, Contemporary Religious Community, cyberspace, email, internet, internet communication through an e-mail account, Mass media, network, New Media and Society, new media engagement, New Technology and Society, online communication, Online community, religion, religion and internet, Religion and the Internet, religiosity, religious engagement, religious identity, Religious Internet Communication, Religious Internet Communities, sociability unbound, Sociology of religion, users{\textquoteright} participation, virtual community, virtual public sphere, {\textquotedblleft}media research{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}religion online{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}religious media research{\textquotedblright}}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15348420701626797$\#$.Uinxtsasim5}, author = {Cantoni, L and Zyga, S} } @book {126, title = {EMinistry: Connecting with the net generation}, year = {2001}, publisher = {Kregel Publishing}, organization = {Kregel Publishing}, address = {Grand Rapids, MI}, abstract = {An Internet savvy youth pastor and journalist advises church leaders on creative and effective use of leading-edge technology to reach the Net Generation.}, keywords = {Connection, ministry, next generation}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=oRdC4ebrh88C\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Careaga, Andrew} } @book {353, title = {eMinistry : connecting with the net generation}, year = {2001}, publisher = {Kregel Publications}, organization = {Kregel Publications}, address = {Grand Rapids, MI}, abstract = {An Internet savvy youth pastor and journalist advises church leaders on creative and effective use of leading-edge technology to reach the Net Generation.}, keywords = {Connection, generation, ministry}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=oRdC4ebrh88C\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Careaga, A.} } @book {125, title = {E-vangelism: Sharing the Gospel in Cyberspace}, year = {1999}, publisher = {Huntington House Publishers}, organization = {Huntington House Publishers}, address = {Lafayette, LA}, abstract = {"E-vangelism: Sharing the Gospel in Cyberspace" by Andrew Careaga (Vital Issues Press) discusses saving souls in cyberspace. Chapter one, "E-vangelism: Fishing the Net," is online. Other chapters include "Getting Started," "The Wide, Wide World of the World Wide Web," "Chatting for Christians" and "Piercing the Darkness." "A lot of churches, parachurch ministries and devout believers see cyberspace as a new mission field," Careaga says. "They{\textquoteright}re using the Internet as a tool to get their message out, and it seems to be working." "E-vangelism" focuses on how churches, parachurch organizations and individuals are using the Internet to communicate their theology to the online world. Order this inspirational book online.}, keywords = {cyberspace, evangelism, Gospel, internet}, url = {www.e-vangelsim.com}, author = {Careaga, Andrew} } @article {48, title = {Communicating Jesus in a virtual world}, volume = {54}, year = {2009}, month = {Summer 2009}, pages = {12-15}, abstract = {This article suggests various strategies for and advantages of using various communication technologies{\textemdash}texting, Facebook, Twitter, blogging, online chatting{\textemdash}to evangelize in New Zealand, particularly to a younger generation. Drawing on various Scriptural references and Christian theological arguments, Carswell explains how such online technologies can help those attempting to share the Gospel of Christ with others.}, keywords = {Communication, Jesus, Virtual}, url = {http://www.tscf.org.nz/uploads/publications/canvas_summer_web.pdf}, author = {Ben Carswell} } @article {40, title = {The Basilica of Guadalupe on the Internet: The Diffusion of Religious Practices in the Era of Information Technologies}, journal = {Renglones, Revista Arbitrada en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades}, volume = {61}, year = {2009}, month = {September 2009}, pages = {27-36}, publisher = {Instituto Tecnol{\'o}gico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, A.C.}, address = {Tlaquepaque, Mexico}, abstract = {This article discusses the use of new information technologies for the purpose of disseminating religious beliefs. It deals in particular with the web awareness strategy used by the Basilica of Guadalupe, a pioneering institution in the use of an Internet site for religious purposes in Mexico. The author examines the relationship between media and people, rituals and spaces involved in religious practices; he also gives an overview of the different communication models favored by the Catholic Church at different moments in the history of media. With a qualitative research method, using in{\textendash}depth interviews as data collection tool, a semantic content analysis is performed, allowing identification of the main courses for the Basilica{\textquoteright}s online awareness strategy. One conclusion is that the main use for the web site is broadcasting information and providing services to the faithful, which subordinates the religious message to the advantages and conditions imposed by the medium, as well as its specific hazards, from the emitter{\textquoteright}s point of view. Given its relevance in Mexico, the communication strategy applied by the Basilica can shed light on the steps that other entities linked to the Catholic Church in this country could take in the future.}, keywords = {Basilica of Guadalupe, Catholic Church, communication {\textendash} group and community, information technologies, internet, media, religion, religious practices {\textendash} diffusion}, url = {http://renglones.iteso.mx/upload/archivos/pablo_aburto.pdf}, author = {Pablo Ignacio Aburto Carvajal} } @article {1245, title = {Virtual Ritual, Real Faith : the Revirtualization of Religious Ritual in Cyberspace}, journal = {Online {\textendash} Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet}, volume = {02.1}, year = {2006}, chapter = {73}, abstract = {Cheryl Anne Casey deals with Practicing Faith in Cyberspace: Conceptions and Functions of Religious Rituals on the Internet. She examines the emerging phenomenon of online religious rituals and their functions for participants in order to illuminate the relationship between changing technologies of communication and our changing conceptions of religion. Her case study considers an online Episcopalian church service within the framework of ritual theory. Keys to the analysis are the particular design chosen for the service (given the multifarious forms which rituals can take in cyberspace) and the relationship between choice of design and the tenets of the particular faith group. The objective of this study is to shed light on the relationship between conceptions of religion, religious experience, and changing media environments by examining online rituals and the meanings and functions these rituals hold for those who access them}, keywords = {Contemporary Religious Community, cyberspace, Episcopalian church, internet, media environments, New Media and Society, new media engagement, New Technology and Society, online communication, religious experience, RELIGIOUS RITUAL}, url = {http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/ojs/index.php/religions/article/view/377/353}, author = {Cheryl Anne Casey} } @book {2892, title = {The network society: A cross-cultural perspective}, year = {2004}, publisher = {Edward Elgar Publishing}, organization = {Edward Elgar Publishing}, address = {Cheltenham, UK}, abstract = {Manuel Castells - one of the world{\textquoteright}s pre-eminent social scientists - has drawn together a stellar group of contributors to explore the patterns and dynamics of the network society in its cultural and institutional diversity. The book analyzes the technological, cultural and institutional transformation of societies around the world in terms of the critical role of electronic communication networks in business, everyday life, public services, social interaction and politics. The contributors demonstrate that the network society is the new form of social organization in the Information age, replacing the Industrial society. The book analyzes processes of technological transformation in interaction with social culture in different cultural and institutional contexts: the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Finland, Russia, China, India, Canada, and Catalonia. The topics examined include business productivity, global financial markets, cultural identity, the uses of the Internet in education and health, the anti-globalization movement, political processes, media and identity, and public policies to guide technological development. Taken together these studies show that the network society adopts very different forms, depending on the cultural and institutional environments in which it evolves. The Network Society, now available in paperback, is an outstanding and original volume of direct interest in academia - particularly in the fields of social sciences, communication studies, and business schools - as well as for policymakers engaged in technological policy and economic development. Business and management experts will also discover much of value to them within this book. Contributors: S.K. Acord, W.E. Baker, T. Bates, C. Benner, N. Bulkley, M. Castells, A. Chatterjee, K.M. Coleman, M.I. D{\'\i}az de Isla, K.N. Hampton, P. Himanen, J.S. Juris, J.E. Katz, J. Linchuan Qiu, R.D. Pinkett, R.E. Rice, T. Sancho, L.J. Servon, A. Sey, I. Tubella, M. Van Alstyne, E. Vartanova, B. Wellman, R. Williams, S. Woolgar, C. Zaloom}, url = {https://www.amazon.com/Network-Society-Cross-Cultural-Perspective/dp/1845424352}, author = {Manuel Castells} } @book {574, title = {The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business and Society}, year = {2001}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, organization = {Oxford University Press}, address = {New York}, abstract = {Manuel Castells is one of the world{\textquoteright}s leading thinkers on the new information age, hailed by The Economist as "the first significant philosopher of cyberspace," and by Christian Science Monitor as "a pioneer who has hacked out a logical, well-documented, and coherent picture of early 21st century civilization, even as it rockets forward largely in a blur." Now, in The Internet Galaxy, this brilliantly insightful writer speculates on how the Internet will change our lives. Castells believes that we are "entering, full speed, the Internet Galaxy, in the midst of informed bewilderment." His aim in this exciting and profound work is to help us to understand how the Internet came into being, and how it is affecting every area of human life--from work, politics, planning and development, media, and privacy, to our social interaction and life in the home. We are at ground zero of the new network society. In this book, its major commentator reveals the Internet{\textquoteright}s huge capacity to liberate, but also its ability to marginalize and exclude those who do not have access to it. Castells provides no glib solutions, but asks us all to take responsibility for the future of this new information age. The Internet is becoming the essential communication and information medium in our society, and stands alongside electricity and the printing press as one of the greatest innovations of all time. The Internet Galaxy offers an illuminating look at how this new technology will influence business, the economy, and our daily lives.}, keywords = {Business, Economy, internet, society}, isbn = {0199255776}, url = {http://www.amazon.com/Internet-Galaxy-Reflections-Business-Clarendon/dp/0199241538/ref=sr_1_1?s=books\&ie=UTF8\&qid=1347470288\&sr=1-1\&keywords=0199241538}, author = {Castells, Manuel} } @article {1265, title = {Making the Internet Kosher: Orthodox (HAREDI) Jews and their Approach to the WORLD WIDE WEB}, journal = {Masaryk University Journal of Law and Technology}, volume = {3}, year = {2009}, chapter = {99}, abstract = {This article surveys the approach of Orthodox Judaism {\textendash} especially the Haredi (Ultra- Orthodox) Judaism {\textendash} to the Internet. In the introduction we compare the approach of the Abrahamic religions to the Internet. Then we focus on the Haredi community (especially in the contemporary State of Israel) and their specific approach to the Internet. This article argues that the use of the Internet, although officially banned by many Haredi Rabbis, is in fact tolerated on a pragmatic basis. We also survey which kind of {\textquotedblleft}protection against secular threads{\textquotedblright} the Haredim1 use (filtering software, Holy Shabbat protection). In the last part of this article the role of the Internet in Israeli religious politics, and by its uses by fundamentalist and radical Jewish groups, is surveyed}, keywords = {Halakha, Haredim, Judaism, Kosher, Rabbi, religious fundamentalism, Religious law, the Internet, Ultra-Orthodox Jews}, url = {https://mujlt.law.muni.cz/storage/1267475339_sb_06-cejka.pdf}, author = {Cejka, M} } @article {1266, title = {{\textquotedblleft}Islamophobia{\textquotedblright} in the West: A Comparison Between Europe and America}, year = {2009}, institution = {Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University}, address = {Washington, DC}, keywords = {America, anti-terrorism, Europe, Islam, Islamophobia, Muslims, xenophobia}, url = {http://www12.georgetown.edu/sfs/docs/ACMCU_Islamophobia_txt_99.pdf}, author = {Jocelyn Cesari} } @article {127, title = {Finding God on the Web}, volume = {149}, year = {1996}, pages = {52-59}, keywords = {God, internet}, url = {http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985700,00.html}, author = {Chama, Joshua. R. C.} } @article {2895, title = {Secularization as declining religious authority }, journal = {Social Forces}, year = {2994}, abstract = {Secularization is most productively understood not as declining religion, but as the declining scope of religious authority. A focus on religious authority (1) is more consistent with recent developments in social theory than is a preoccupation with religion; (2) draws on and develops what is best in the secularization literature; and (3) reclaims a neglected Weberian insight concerning the sociological analysis of religion. Several descriptive and theoretical {\textquotedblleft}pay-offs{\textquotedblright} of this conceptual innervation are discussed: new hypotheses concerning the relationship between religion and social movements; the enhanced capacity to conceptually apprehend and empirically investigate secularization among societies, organizations, and individuals; and clearer theoretical connections between secularization and other sociological literatures. Ironically, these connections may indeed spell the end of secularization theory as a distinct body of theory, but in a different way than previously appreciated. }, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/72.3.749}, url = {https://academic.oup.com/sf/article-abstract/72/3/749/2233014?redirectedFrom=PDF}, author = {Mark Chaves} } @article {2901, title = {Religious authority in the modern world}, journal = {Society}, year = {2003}, url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12115-003-1034-8}, author = {Chavez, M} } @article {280, title = {Religious Communication and Epistemic Authority of Leaders in Wired Faith Organizations}, journal = {Journal of Communication}, volume = {61}, year = {2011}, pages = {938-958}, abstract = {The mediation of communication has raised questions of authority shifts in key social institutions. This paper examines how traditional sources of epistemic power that govern social relations in religious authority are being amplified or delegitimized by Internet use, drawing from in-depth interviews with protestant pastors in Singapore. Competition from Internet access is found to delocalize epistemic authority to some extent; however, it also re-embeds authority by allowing pastors to acquire new competencies as strategic arbiters of religious expertise and knowledge. Our study indicates that while religious leaders are confronted with proletarianization, deprofessionalization and potential de-legitimization as epistemic threats, there is also an enhancement of epistemic warrant as they adopt mediated communication practices that include the social networks of their congregation. }, keywords = {Authority, internet, theory of religion online}, doi = {10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01579.x}, url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com}, author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Huang, Shirlena and Poon, Jessie} } @inbook {284, title = {Religion 2.0? Relational and hybridizing pathways in religion, social media and culture}, booktitle = {Digital Religion, Social Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices, Futures}, year = {2012}, pages = {1-24}, publisher = {Peter Lang}, organization = {Peter Lang}, chapter = {Religion 2.0? Relational and hybridizing pathways in religion, social media and culture.}, address = {New York}, keywords = {Authority, community, identity, internet, religion, social media}, url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com}, author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Ess, Charles} } @article {58, title = {Faith Tweets: Ambient Religious Communication and Microblogging Rituals}, journal = {Journal of Media and Culture}, volume = {13}, year = {2010}, month = {May 2010}, abstract = {The notion of ambient strikes a particularly resonant chord for religious communication: many faith traditions advocate the practice of sacred mindfulness, and a consistent piety in light of holy devotion to an omnipresent and omniscient Divine being. This paper examines how faith believers appropriate the emergent microblogging practices to create an encompassing cultural surround to include microblogging rituals which promote regular, heightened prayer awareness. Faith tweets help constitute epiphany and a persistent sense of sacred connected presence, which in turn rouses an identification of a higher moral purpose and solidarity with other local and global believers. Amidst ongoing tensions about microblogging, religious organisations and their leadership have also begun to incorporate Twitter into their communication practices and outreach, to encourage the extension of presence beyond the church walls.}, keywords = {ambient, Blogging, Communication, religion, Twitter}, url = {http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/viewArticle/223}, author = {Pauline Hope Cheong} } @article {279, title = {Cultivating online and offline pathways to enlightenment: Religious authority in wired Buddhist organizations}, journal = {Information, Communication \& Society}, volume = {14}, year = {2011}, pages = {1160-1180}, abstract = {In light of expanding epistemic resources online, the mediatization of religion poses questions about the possible changes, decline and reconstruction of clergy authority. Distinct from virtual Buddhism or cybersangha research which relies primarily on online observational data, this paper examines Buddhist clergy communication within the context of established religious organizations with an integrationist perspective on interpersonal communication and new and old media connections. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Buddhist leaders in Singapore, this paper illustrates ways in which priests are expanding their communicative competency, which we label {\textquotedblleft}strategic arbitration{\textquotedblright} to maintain their authority by restructuring multimodal representations and communicative influence. This study expands upon previous research by Cheong, Huang \& Poon (in press) and finds that constituting Buddhist religious epistemic authority in wired organizational contexts rests on coordinating online-offline communicative acts. Such concatenative coordination involves normalizing the aforementioned modality of authority through interpersonal acts that positively influences epistemic dependence. Communicative acts that privilege face-to-face mentoring and corporeal rituals are optimized in the presence of monks within perceived sacred spaces in temple grounds, thereby enabling clergy to perform ultimate arbitration. However, Buddhist leaders also increase bargaining power when heightened web presence and branding practices are enacted. The paper concludes with limitations and recommendations for future research in religious authority. }, keywords = {Authority, community, internet, religion, theory of religion online}, doi = {10.1080/1369118X.2011.579139}, url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com}, author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Huang, Shirlena and Poon, Jessie} } @article {1302, title = {Transnational immanence: the autopoietic co-constitution of a Chinese spiritual organization through mediated communication}, journal = {Information, Communication \& Society}, volume = {Online}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Information and communication technologies are often cited as one major source, if not the causal vector, for the rising intensity of transnational practices. Yet, extant literature has not examined critically how digital media appropriation affects the constitution of transnational organizations, particularly Chinese spiritual ones. To address the lack of theoretically grounded, empirical research on this question, this study investigates how the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation (Tzu Chi), one of the largest Taiwan-based civil and spiritual nonprofit organizations among the Chinese diaspora, is co-constituted by various social actors as an operationally closed system through their mediated communication. Based on an innovative theoretical framework that combines Maturana and Varela{\textquoteright}s notion of {\textquoteleft}autopoiesis{\textquoteright} with Cooren{\textquoteright}s ideas of {\textquoteleft}incarnation{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}presentification{\textquoteright}, we provide a rich analysis of Tzu Chi{\textquoteright}s co-constitution through organizational leaders{\textquoteright} appropriation of digital and social media, as well as through mediated interactions between Tzu Chi{\textquoteright}s internal and external stakeholders. In so doing, our research expands upon the catalogue of common economic and relational behaviors by overseas Chinese, advances our understanding of Chinese spiritual organizing, and reveals the contingent role of digital and social media in engendering transnational spiritual ties to accomplish global humanitarian work.}, keywords = {Asia, Authority, autopoiesis, Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, communicative constitution of organizations, information and communication technologies, nonprofit, social media, Taiwan, transnationalism}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369118X.2013.833277$\#$.Ulm51VCsim5}, author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Jennie M. Hwang and Boris H.J.M. Brummansb} } @inbook {376, title = {Mediated Intercultural Communication Matters: Understanding new media, change and dialectics}, booktitle = {New Media and Intercultural Communication: Identity, Community and Politics}, year = {2012}, pages = {1-20}, publisher = {Peter Lang}, organization = {Peter Lang}, address = {New York}, keywords = {community, New Media, Politics}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17513057.2011.598047$\#$preview}, author = {Cheong, P.H and Macfadyen L. and Martin, J.} } @article {2860, title = {Religion, Robots and Rectitude: Communicative Affordances for Spiritual Knowledge and Community}, journal = {Applied Artificial Intelligence}, year = {2020}, abstract = {In light of growing concerns on AI growth and gloomy projections of attendant risks to human well-being and expertise, recent development of robotics designed to fulfill spiritual goals can help provide an alternative, possibly uplifting vision of global futures. To further understanding of the potential of robots as embodied communicators for virtuous knowledge and community, this paper discusses the affordances or possibilities of action of robots for spiritual communication by drawing upon the recent highly publicized case of Xian{\textquoteright}Er the robot monk (XE). By discussing XE{\textquoteright}s communicative affordances including its searchability, multimediality, liveliness and extendibility, findings illustrate how robots can facilitate religious education, augment priestly authority and cultivate spiritual community. Contrary to abstract and dystopic visions of AI, findings here temper extreme pronouncements of societal disorder and points to prospects for pious and positive interplays between AI technology and society while also identifying various limitations for spiritual communication. In doing so, this paper unpacks the profound relations between religion, robots and rectitude, contributing interdisciplinary insights into an understudied area of AI development as faith leaders and adherents interact with new technological features and applications in their desire for transcendence. }, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08839514.2020.1723869}, author = {Cheong, Pauline Hope} } @article {283, title = {{\textquoteleft}WWW.Faith.Org{\textquoteright}: (Re)structuring communication and social capital building among religious organizations.}, journal = {Information, Communication and Society}, volume = {11}, year = {2008}, pages = {89-110}, abstract = {This paper examines the relationships between Internet and social capital building within religious organizations, a relatively understudied foci. Building upon theoretical insights provided by new institutionalism and recent research on the Internet, social capital and religion, this article explores the ways in which religious organizations, have (re)structured their norms, values, and practices of religious community in light of the incorporation of the Internet into their congregational life. Drawing from interviews conducted with Christian and Buddhist religious leaders in Toronto, this article discusses three major relationships in which the effects of the Internet on social capital may be understood, that is, complementary, transformative, and perverse relationships. Religious organizations are traditionally associated with relatively high stocks of social capital, yet findings here suggest that their communicative norms, values, and practices are changing to varying extent. The results also indicate that the relationship between the Internet and social capital building is largely complementary; however the Internet is perceived by some to be a {\textquoteleft}mixed blessing{\textquoteright}, facilitating the potential transformation of organizational practices that affect community norms while leading to the dispersion of religious ties that could undermine community solidarity. Thus, contrary to earlier studies that have documented no evidence of innovations involving the reconfiguration of organizational practices and the adjustment of mission or services, findings here illustrate how some religious organizations have expanded the scope of their calling and restructured their communicative practices to spur administrative and operational effectiveness. Like other organizations, religious organizations are not insulated from technological changes including those associated with the Internet{\textquoteright}s. This study clarifies and identifies key ways in which the distinct spirituality, cultural values, and institutional practices and norms of religious organizations influence communication processes that constitute bridging and bonding forms of social capital in this dot.org. era of faith. }, keywords = {community, internet, social capital, theory of religion online}, url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com}, author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Poon, Jessie} } @article {2719, title = {The vitality of new media and religion: Communicative perspectives, practices, and changing authority in spiritual organization}, journal = {New Media \& Society}, abstract = {We are witnessing the growth of a distinct sub-field focusing on new media and religion as the relationship between the two is not just important, it is vital. I discuss in this article how this vitality is both figurative and literal in multiple dimensions. Mediated communication brings forth and constitutes the (re)production of spiritual realities and collectivities, as well as co-enacts religious authority. In this way, new mediations grounded within older communication practices serve as the lifeblood for the evolving nature of religious authority and forms of spiritual organizing. Further research to identify diverse online and embodied religious communication practices will illuminate a richer understanding of digital religion, especially as a globally distributed phenomenon.}, keywords = {Authority, Communication}, url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444816649913}, author = {Cheong, Pauline Hope} } @article {1926, title = {Cheong, P. H. (2014). Tweet the Message? Religious Authority and Social Media Innovation. Journal of Religion, Media \& Digital Culture, 3(3), 2{\textendash}19.}, journal = {Religion, Media, and Digital Culture}, volume = {3}, year = {2014}, pages = {1-19}, abstract = {Religious believers have historically adapted Scripture into brief texts for wider dissemination through relatively inexpensive publications. The emergence of Twitter and other microblogging tools today afford clerics a platform for real time information sharing with its interface for short written texts, which includes providing links to graphics and sound recordings that can be forwarded and responded to by others. This paper discusses emergent practices in tweet authorship which embed and are inspired by sacred Scripture, in order to deepen understanding of the changing nature of sacred texts and of the constitution of religious authority as pastors engage microblogging and social media networks. Drawing upon a Twitter feed by a prominent Christian megachurch leader with global influence, this paper identifies multiple ways in which tweets have been encoded to quote, remix and interpret Scripture, and to serve as choice aphorisms that reflect or are inspired by Scripture. Implications for the changing nature of sacred digital texts and the reconstruction of religious authority are also discussed.}, keywords = {Bible, pastors, religious authority, Singapore, social media, Twitter}, url = {http://jrmdc.com/papers-archive/volume-3-issue-3-december-2014/}, author = {Cheong, Pauline Hope} } @inbook {674, title = {Authority}, booktitle = {Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds}, year = {2012}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London}, abstract = {Digital Religion offers a critical and systematic survey of the study of religion and new media. It covers religious engagement with a wide range of new media forms and highlights examples of new media engagement in all five of the major world religions. From cell phones and video games to blogs and Second Life, the book: provides a detailed review of major topics includes a series of case studies to illustrate and elucidate the thematic explorations considers the theoretical, ethical and theological issues raised. Drawing together the work of experts from key disciplinary perspectives, Digital Religion is invaluable for students wanting to develop a deeper understanding of the field.}, keywords = {Apps, Authority, Digital, media, religion, technology}, issn = {9780415676106 }, author = {Cheong, P}, editor = {Heidi Campbell} } @article {177, title = {The Chronicles of Me: Understanding Blogging as a Religious Practice}, journal = {Journal of Media and Religion}, volume = {7}, year = {2008}, pages = {101-131}, abstract = {Blogs represent an especially interesting site of online religious commu- nication. Analysis of the content of 200 blogs with mentions of topics related to Christianity, as well as interviews of a subset of these bloggers, suggests that blogs provide an integrative experience for the faithful, not a third place, but a melding of the personal and the communal, the sacred and the profane. Religious bloggers operate outside the realm of the conventional nuclear church as they connect and link to mainstream news sites, other nonreligious blogs, and online collaborative knowledge networks such as Wikipedia. By chronicling how they experience faith in their everyday lives, these bloggers aim to communicate not only to their communities and to a wider public but also to themselves. This view of blogging as a contemplative religious experience differs from the popular characterization of blogging as a trivial activity. }, keywords = {blogs, hyperlinks, internet, religion}, url = {http://drexel.academia.edu/KyoungheeKwon/Papers/78691/The_chronicles_of_me_Understanding_blogging_as_a_religious_practice}, author = {Cheong, Pauline and Halavais, Alex and Kwon, Kyounghee} } @article {282, title = {The Internet Highway and Religious Communities: Mapping and Contesting Spaces in Religion-Online}, journal = {The Information Society}, volume = {25}, year = {2009}, pages = {291-302}, abstract = {We examine {\textquoteleft}religion-online{\textquoteright}, an underrepresented area of research in new media, communication, and geography, with a multi-level study of the online representation and (re)-presentation of Protestant Christian organizations in Singapore, which has one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the world and also believers affiliated with all the major world religions. We first critically discuss and empirically examine how online technologies are employed for religious community building in novel and diverse ways. Then we investigate the role religious leaders play through their mental representations of the spatial practices and scales through which their religious communities are imagined and practiced online. We show how churches use the multimodality of the Internet to assemble multiple forms of visible data and maps to extend geographic sensibilities of sacred space and create new social practices of communication.}, keywords = {Authority, community, geography, internet, theory of religion online}, doi = {10.1080/01972240903212466}, url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com}, author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Huang, Shirlena and Poon, Jessie and Casas, Irene} } @article {1925, title = {The vitality of new media and religion: Communicative perspectives, practices, and authority in spiritual organization}, journal = {New Media and Society}, volume = {1}, year = {2016}, month = {2016}, pages = {1-8}, abstract = {It is significant that we are witnessing the growth of a distinct subfield focusing on new media and religion as the relationship between the two is not just important, it is vital. I discuss in this article how this vitality is both figurative and literal in multiple dimensions. Mediated communication brings forth and constitutes the (re)production of spiritual realities and collectivities, as well as co-enacts religious authority. In this way, new mediations serve as the lifeblood for religious organizing and activism. Further research in religious communication will illuminate a richer understanding of digital religion, especially as a globally distributed phenomenon.}, keywords = {Authority, Communication, convergence, digital media, Globalization, religion, spiritual organizing}, doi = {10.1177/1461444816649913}, url = {http://nms.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/05/30/1461444816649913.abstract}, author = {Cheong, Pauline H.} } @book {286, title = {Digital Religion, Social Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices, Futures}, year = {2012}, publisher = {Peter Lang}, organization = {Peter Lang}, address = {New York}, keywords = {Authority, avatars, community, history, identity, internet, online church, social media, theology, theory of religion online}, url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com}, author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Fischer-Nielsen, Peter and Gelfgren, Stefan and Ess, Charles} } @article {176, title = {Weaving Webs of Faith: Examining Internet Use and Religious Communication Among Chinese Protestant Transmigrants}, journal = {Journal of International and Intercultural Communication}, volume = {2}, year = {2009}, pages = {189-207}, abstract = {This paper examines the relationship between new media use and international communication that addresses religiosity and affirms users{\textquoteright} standpoints occupied by transmigrants that are marginalized in dominant societal structures. Drawing from focus group interviews among recent Chinese Protestant immigrants in Toronto, we argue that new media {\textquotedblleft}use{\textquotedblright} is broadened by users{\textquoteright} cultural appropriation in situational contexts to include proxy internet access as accommodative communication given the political and legal constraints in their home country. Chinese transmigrants not only reinterpret and alter semantic associations that spiritualize the internet, they also engage in innovative strategies that involve the intertwining of offline and online communicative modes. These include deploying complementary media forms or communicating in codes that are mutually understood among participating members to facilitate intragroup networking among Chinese religious communities. Implications are discussed with regard to the importance of cultural norms and situational context in shaping mediated international communication. }, keywords = {Chinese, Communication, Immigrants, Media use}, doi = {10.1080/17513050902985349}, url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com}, author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Poon, Jessie} } @article {281, title = {Religious Communication and Epistemic Authority of Leaders in Wired Faith Organizations.}, journal = {Journal of Applied Communication Research}, volume = {39}, year = {2011}, pages = {452-454}, abstract = {The mediation of communication has raised questions of authority shifts in key social institutions. This article examines how traditional sources of epistemic power that govern social relations in religious authority are being amplified or delegitimized by Internet use, drawing from in-depth interviews with protestant pastors in Singapore. Competition from Internet access is found to delocalize epistemic authority to some extent; however, it also reembeds authority by allowing pastors to acquire new competencies as strategic arbiters of religious expertise and knowledge. Our study indicates that although religious leaders are confronted with proletarianization, deprofessionalization, and potential delegitimization as epistemic threats, there is also an enhancement of epistemic warrant as they adopt mediated communication practices that include the social networks of their congregation.}, keywords = {Authority, internet}, doi = {10.1080/00909882.2011.577085}, url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01579.x/abstract}, author = {Pauline Hope Cheong} } @inbook {285, title = {Twitter of Faith: Understanding social media networking and microblogging rituals as religious practices}, booktitle = {Digital Religion, Social Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices, Futures}, year = {2012}, pages = {191-206}, publisher = {Peter Lang}, organization = {Peter Lang}, address = {New York}, keywords = {blogs, internet, microblogging, social media}, author = {Pauline Hope Cheong} } @book {2077, title = {Digital methodologies in the sociology of religion}, year = {2015}, publisher = {Bloomsbury Academic}, organization = {Bloomsbury Academic}, address = {London, England}, abstract = {This volume considers the implementation difficulties of researching religion online and reflects on the ethical dilemmas faced by sociologists of religion when using digital research methods. Bringing together established and emerging scholars, global case studies draw on the use of social media as a method for researching religious oppression, religion and identity in virtual worlds, digital communication within religious organizations, and young people{\textquoteright}s diverse expressions of faith online. Additionally, boxed tips are provided throughout the text to serve as reminders of tools that readers may use in their own research projects.}, keywords = {Digital, Sociology of religion}, issn = {9781472571182}, url = {https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/digital-methodologies-in-the-sociology-of-religion-9781472571182/}, author = {Cheruvallil-Contractor, S and Shakkour, S} } @article {348, title = {Online Religion in Nigeria: The Internet Church and Cyber Miracles}, journal = {Journal of Asian and African Studies}, year = {2012}, abstract = {This study examines the use of the Internet and computer-mediated communication for Christian worship in Nigeria. The seven largest and fastest growing churches in Nigeria are selected for the study, highlighting the benefits and dangers associated with online worship. The utilization of the Internet to disseminate the Christian message and attract membership across the world, and the dissemination of religious tenets and fellowship online, have resulted in the emergence of the {\textquoteleft}Internet church{\textquoteright} for members who worship online in addition to belonging to a local church. Most interesting is the increasing widespread claim of spiritual experience or {\textquoteleft}miracles{\textquoteright} through digital worship. However, there is fear that online worship endangers the offline house fellowship system, which is viewed as the reproductive organ of the local offline church. Exclusive online worshippers are also said to be susceptible to deception and divided loyalty. }, keywords = {Christianity, Church, Nigeria, Online, religion}, url = {http://jas.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/01/24/0021909611430935.abstract}, author = {Innocent Chiluwa} } @inbook {2057, title = {Religious Use of Mobile Phones}, booktitle = {Encyclopedia of Mobile Phone Behavior}, volume = {1}, year = {2015}, pages = {308-321}, publisher = {IGI Global}, organization = {IGI Global}, address = {Hershey, PA}, keywords = {Digital Religion, mobile phones, religious}, issn = {978-1466682399}, url = {https://books.google.com/books?id=bIkfCgAAQBAJ\&pg=PA318\&lpg=PA318\&dq=Religious+Use+of+Mobile+Phones+campbell\&source=bl\&ots=TbHQw5CLCS\&sig=gAA9VmqoTfuXPv2bxCI-Ga0B1dc\&hl=en\&sa=X\&ved=0ahUKEwjSh8bsmMTbAhVC-6wKHZI0CXcQ6AEINTAD$\#$v=snippet\&q=308\&f=false}, author = {Cho, J and Campbell, H} } @article {327, title = {New Media and Religion: Observations of Research}, journal = {Communication Research Trends}, year = {2011}, keywords = {New Media, Online, religion}, url = {http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7081/is_1_30/ai_n57221190/?tag=content;col1}, author = {Cho, Kyong} } @article {128, title = {Religious Perspective on Communication Technology}, journal = {Journal of Media and Technology}, volume = {1}, year = {1997}, pages = {37-47}, keywords = {Communication, Perspective, technology, View}, author = {Christians, Clifford} } @article {2838, title = {Synecdoche, Aesthetics, and the Sublime Online: Or, What{\textquoteright}s a Religious Internet Meme?}, journal = {Journal of Media and Religion}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Hoping to court young people increasingly distancing themselves from institutional religious affiliation, religious organizations like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are creating and circulating aesthetic short-form videos (memes) rife with existential cinematic tropes aimed at invoking a sublime, affective viewing experience. Unlike the destabilizing cinema that inspired them, however, these religious memes do not have the luxury of equivocation. Institutional religious messages online must aim to instill divine experiences in spectators even while transcending the constraints of mobile media that circulates them. Responding to this exigency, institutional religious messages overcome these restrictions by using synecdoche to create a necessarily incomplete iteration of the sublime. {\textquotedblleft}Earthly Father, Heavenly Father,{\textquotedblright} an example of a short video religious meme by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, lets the familiar cinematic tropes innovated by filmmakers such as Terrence Malick do the work of the sublime in order to represent the much larger, transcendent experience of personal communion with God. }, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15348423.2020.1728188?journalCode=hjmr20}, author = {Church, Scott Haden and Feller, Gavin} } @article {1186, title = {Digital Gravescapes: Digital Memorializing on Facebook}, journal = {The Information Society: An International Journal}, volume = {29}, year = {2013}, chapter = {184}, abstract = {I conduct a textual analysis of a digital memorial to understand the ways in which the digital sphere has disrupted or altered material and aesthetic displays of death and the associated genre of discourses surrounding death. I first use Morris{\textquoteright}s history of traditional gravescapes to situate digital memorials within their broader historical context. I then draw on the functional genre of eulogies, in particular Jamieson and Campbell{\textquoteright}s systematic description of eulogies, as a textual analytic to understand Facebook{\textquoteright}s unique memorializing discourse. My analysis suggests that the affordances of the Internet allow for a peculiar dynamic wherein the bereaved engage in communication with the deceased instead of with each other and yet strengthen the communal experience, as their personal communications are visible to the entire community. While the digital memorials lack the permanence of traditional gravescapes, the ongoing conversation they foster sublimates death into the process of communication.}, keywords = {Contemporary Religious Community, cyberspace, Death, digital media, digital memorials, discourse, eulogy, Facebook, gravescapes, memorializing, memorializing discourse, New Media and Society, new media engagement, New Technology and Society, online communication, Online community, religion, Religion and the Internet, religious engagement, rhetoric, social media, Sociology of religion, virtual community, virtual public sphere, {\textquotedblleft}religion online{\textquotedblright}}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01972243.2013.777309$\#$.UikZdDasim7}, author = {Scott Church} } @inbook {129, title = {Online Religion: The Internet and Religion}, booktitle = {The Internet Encyclopedia}, year = {2004}, pages = {798-811}, publisher = {John Wiley \& Sons, Inc.}, organization = {John Wiley \& Sons, Inc.}, edition = {2nd}, address = {Hoboken, NJ}, author = {Ciolek, Matthew.T.} } @article {2083, title = {Considering religion and mediatization through a case study of~J+K{\textquoteright}s big day (The J K wedding entrance dance): a response to Stig Hjarvard}, journal = {Culture and Religion~}, volume = {12}, year = {2011}, pages = {167{\textendash}184}, abstract = {This article reviews the strengths and weaknesses of Hjarvard{\textquoteright}s theory of the mediatisation of religion. By suggesting actor-network theory as a methodological approach to the study of the mediatisation of religion, this article proposes a case study of the viral wedding video, J K wedding entrance dance, to highlight problems with the assertion that the media are replacing or displacing religion{\textquoteright}s authoritative role in society. Drawing upon recent theories of how digital and mobile media are reshaping society by enabling participation, remediation and bricolage, I suggest instead that the media do not bring about secularisation, but rather that the media are contributing to a personalisation of what it means to be religious (or not). This article thus introduces an alternative definition to the concept of mediatisation: that mediatisation may be understood as the process by which collective uses of communication media extend the development of independent media industries and their circulation of narratives, contribute to new forms of action and interaction in the social world and give shape to how we think of humanity and our place in the world. }, keywords = {actor-network theory, mediatization, personalization, religion, secularization, viral video, wedding}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14755610.2011.579717}, author = {Clark, LS} } @article {2904, title = {A quick look back at online worship in 2009.}, year = {2009}, url = {https://northlandchurch.church/blogs/a_quick_look_back_at_online_worship_in_2009/}, author = {Clark, N.} } @inbook {407, title = {The constant contact generation: exploring teen friendship networks online}, booktitle = {Girl Wide Web. Girls, the Internet, and the Negotiation for Identity}, year = {2005}, pages = {203-222}, abstract = {Given the rapidly growing presence of girls online, serious academic inquiry into the relationship between girls and the Internet is imperative. Girl Wide Web is an innovative collection of cutting-edge research exploring a wide sweep of issues related to the ways adolescent girls interact with the Internet. Employing a range of methodologies and theoretical perspectives primarily within cultural studies, the authors examine a variety of topics-from instant messaging and web-diaries to online fan communities and Internet advertising that targets young girls. Taken together, these essays provide a rich portrait of the complex relationship among girls, the Internet, and the negotiation of identity.}, keywords = {constant, friendships, generation, networks, teens, Youth}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=M_aTqHdkt4UC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Clark, L. S.} } @inbook {2092, title = {Digital storytelling and collective religious identity in a moderate to progressive youth group}, booktitle = {Digital religion: Understanding religious practice in new media worlds}, year = {2013}, pages = {147{\textendash}154}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London}, abstract = {Digital Religion offers a critical and systematic survey of the study of religion and new media. It covers religious engagement with a wide range of new media forms and highlights examples of new media engagement in all five of the major world religions. From cell phones and video games to blogs and Second Life, the book: provides a detailed review of major topics, includes a series of case studies to illustrate and elucidate the thematic explorations considers the theoretical and ethical and theological issues raised.}, keywords = {digital storytelling, religious identity, youth group}, issn = {9780415676106}, url = {https://www.bookdepository.com/Digital-Religion/9780415676106}, author = {Clark, LS and Dierberg, J} } @book {2903, title = {Religion and authority in a remix culture: how a late night TV host became an authority on religion}, year = {2011}, pages = {111-119}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London}, abstract = {This Reader brings together a selection of key writings to explore the relationship between religion, media and cultures of everyday life. It provides an overview of the main debates and developments in this growing field, focusing on four major themes: Religion, spirituality and consumer culture Media and the transformation of religion The sacred senses: visual, material and audio culture Religion, and the ethics of media and culture. This collection is an invaluable resource for students, academics and researchers wanting a deeper understanding of religion and contemporary culture. }, author = {Clark, L.S.} } @book {406, title = {From Angels to Aliens: Teenagers, the Media and the Supernatural}, year = {2003}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, organization = {Oxford University Press}, address = {Oxford}, abstract = {Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Left Behind series are but the latest manifestations of American teenagers{\textquoteright} longstanding fascination with the supernatural and the paranormal. In this groundbreaking book, Lynn Schofield Clark explores the implications of this fascination for contemporary religious and spiritual practices. Relying on stories gleaned from more than 250 in-depth interviews with teens and their families, Clark seeks to discover what today{\textquoteright}s teens really believe and why. She finds that as adherence to formal religious bodies declines, interest in alternative spiritualities as well as belief in "superstition" grow accordingly. Ironically, she argues, fundamentalist Christian alarmism about the forces of evil has also fed belief in a wider array of supernatural entities. Resisting the claim that the media "brainwash" teens, Clark argues that today{\textquoteright}s popular stories of demons, hell, and the afterlife actually have their roots in the U.S.{\textquoteright}s religious heritage. She considers why some young people are nervous about supernatural stories in the media, while others comfortably and often unselfconsciously blur the boundaries between those stories of the realm beyond that belong to traditional religion and those offered by the entertainment media. At a time of increased religious pluralism and declining participation in formal religious institutions, Clark says, we must completely reexamine what young people mean--and what they may believe--when they identify themselves as "spiritual" or "religious." Offering provocative insights into how the entertainment media shape contemporary religious ideas and practices, From Angels to Aliens paints a surprising--and perhaps alarming--portrait of the spiritual state of America{\textquoteright}s youth.}, keywords = {angels, media, supernatural, teenagers}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=iQoQbO-D9HYC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Clark, L. S.} } @article {247, title = {Exploring Religion and Mediatization through a Case Study of J + K{\textquoteright}s Big Day: A Response to Stig Hjarvard}, journal = {Journal of Religion and Culture}, volume = {12}, number = {2}, year = {2011}, month = {June 2011}, type = {Research}, chapter = {167}, abstract = {This article reviews the strengths and weaknesses of Hjarvard{\textquoteright}s theory of the mediatization of religion. Suggesting actor-network-theory as a methodological approach to the study of the mediatization of religion, the article proposes a case study of the viral wedding video JK Wedding Entrance Dance to highlight problems with the assertion that the media are replacing or displacing religion{\textquoteright}s authoritative role in society. Drawing upon recent theories of how digital and mobile media are reshaping society by enabling participation, remediation, and bricolage, I suggest instead that the media do not bring about secularization, but rather that the media are contributing to a personalization of what it means to be religious (or not). The article thus introduces an alternative definition to the concept of mediatization: that mediatization may be understood as the process by which collective uses of communication media extend the development of independent media industries and their circulation of narratives, contribute to new forms of action and interaction in the social world, and give shape to how we think of humanity and our place in the world.}, keywords = {media, religion, Stig Hjarvard}, author = {Lynn Schofield Clark} } @article {356, title = {The Message of the Medium: The Challenge of the Internet to the Church and Other Communities}, journal = {Studies in Christian Ethics}, volume = {13}, year = {2000}, pages = {91-100}, abstract = {Imagine, if you can, a small room, hexagonal in shape, like the cell of a bee. It is lighted neither by window nor by lamp, yet it is filled with a soft radiance. There are no apertures for ventilation, yet the air is fresh. There are no musical instruments, and yet, at the moment that my meditation opens, this room is throbbing with melodious sounds. An armchair is in the centre, by its side a reading-desk {\textemdash} that is all the furniture. And in the armchair there sits a swaddled lump of flesh {\textemdash} a woman, about five feet high, with a face as white as a fungus. It is to her that the little room belongs.}, keywords = {Chrisitan, ethics, internet}, url = {http://sce.sagepub.com/content/13/2/91.abstract}, author = {Clough, D.} } @article {2093, title = {Network apocalypsis: revealing and reveling at a new age festival}, journal = {International Journal for the Study of New Religions~}, volume = {5}, year = {2015}, pages = {167{\textendash}188}, abstract = {This article analyzes the Synthesis 2012 festival, which coincided with the end of the Mayan calendar in December 2012. The festival was held in and around the village of Pist{\'e} in Yucat{\'a}n, Mexico, and broadcast live via a web based video stream. We gathered ethnographic data about the event both onsite and via the Internet. Presenting and analyzing that data here, we consider the way that these two different modes of access to the ethnographic event(s) reveal and obscure different dimensions of participants{\textquoteright} presence at the festival.}, keywords = {network, New Age}, url = {https://web.b.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true\&profile=ehost\&scope=site\&authtype=crawler\&jrnl=20419511\&AN=118603850\&h=rM14s6XtNxswvf\%2fauapJubXgAxd7LDcgrr91RYvg9QVQBCyHaoVFBxEdTKG\%2bcKpFwe\%2bNGS3YmFuHMrNVv8bAJQ\%3d\%3d\&crl=c\&resultNs=AdminWebAuth\&resultLo}, author = {Coats, C and Murchison, J} } @book {178, title = {Cybergrace: The Search for God in the Digital World}, year = {1998}, publisher = {Crown Publishing}, organization = {Crown Publishing}, address = {New York}, abstract = {Theologian and high-tech consultant Jennifer Cobb combines her expertise to create a new theory of the Divine in the Information Age. As computers and artificial intelligence systems become more sophisticated, the question of whether we can find spiritual life in cyberspace is beginning to be asked. CyberGrace: The Search for God in the Digital World is a bold, thought-provoking, affirmative answer to one of the most intriguing inquiries of our time. Until now, an unbridgeable schism has separated the world of the spirit and that of the machine. According to an increasingly compelling concept known as emergence, the gulf may be an imaginary one. Fifty years ago, Jesuit paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin combined his lifelong passions of God and science to predict the emergence of cyberspace, based on his studies of evolution. Using Teilhard{\textquoteright}s theories as a starting point, Jennifer Cobb asserts that as technical systems become more complex--with simple, predictable mechanisms coalescing into hierarchies of increasing organization--something elegant, inspired, and absolutely unpredictable simply and suddenly "emerges." Many observers today see this "hand of God" showing itself in disparate disciplines, from evolutionary theory to artificial intelligence--and especially in the furthest realms of cyberspace, where brute computation seems to give way to divine inspiration. CyberGrace offers paradoxical evidence that our machines may be conduits to a deeper spirituality. With daily headlines announcing dizzying advances in science and information technology, many people wonder about their--and their children{\textquoteright}s--ability to lead lives imbued by a sense of the sacred. In the new world, where the search for spirituality may seem scattered and unfocused, Cobb brilliantly uses the most popular and prevalent phenomenon of our times--the computer--to find a world filled with meaning and love.}, keywords = {cyber, Digital, God, grace}, author = {Cobb, Jennifer} } @book {130, title = {The Wonder Phone in the Land of Miracles. Mobile Telephony in Israel}, year = {2008}, publisher = {Hampton Press, Inc}, organization = {Hampton Press, Inc}, address = {Cresskill, NJ}, abstract = {Studies conducted over several years in Israel explored social aspects of the developing mobile phone phenomenon. Using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods the research examined the place that the "Wonder Phone" has been occupying in many facets of life. It was concluded that the mobile is "not only talk"--as a recent campaign slogan of one of Israel{\textquoteright}s mobile providers suggests. Rather, it is a medium through which Israelis define their gendered and national identities; it offers an experience of "being there" and a security net holding family members and loved ones together, especially in terms of terror and war; and it provides a lifeline during existential crises around which rituals of mourning are crystallized. In analyzing the mobile phone as it is contextualized in Israeli society, two opposing social forces can clearly be seen: on the one hand, the mobile is an expression of late modernity and globalization; but on the other hand it is recruited as a tool--as well as a symbol--for the expression of locality and patriotic sentiments.}, keywords = {Israel, mobile, technology, Telephone}, author = {Cohen, Akiba and Lemish, Dafna and Schejter, Amit} } @book {2363, title = {God, Jews \& the Media: Religion \& Israel{\textquoteright}s media}, year = {2012}, publisher = {Routledge Publishers}, organization = {Routledge Publishers}, address = {New York}, abstract = {The book centres around the relationship of Judaism and mass media. It examines how the Jewish religion and the Jewish People have been influenced by the media and the media age. In order to understand contemporary Jewish identity in the twentieth and twenty-first century, one needs to go beyond the Synagogue, Jewish customs and law (halakhah) and the holy days to incorporate such modern phenomena as mass media and their impact upon Jewish existence. The book seeks to provide a comprehensive, yet easy-to-read text, examining the manifold interactions between Jewish religious identity and mass media. As a religious system influenced by news values and mass media inputs, Mediated Judaism is necessarily influenced by the market forces of news values. Much in religion is not newsworthy. Much in religion does not concern such newsworthy elements as social conflict or elites. Religious belief, often drawing upon the sub-conscious, does not fit such criteria of newsworthiness. Religion-related items that do get defined as news do not stay for long upon the news agenda but are replaced by what else is happening in the news agenda at any particular time. God, Jews \& the Media: Religion and Israel{\textquoteright}s Media Routledge (2012) CONTENTS |Preface: Israel TV interviews God Part 1 Mediated Judaism Chapter 1 Media, Judaism, \& Culture Chapter 2 The Jewish Theory of Communication Part 2 Media Culture Wars Chapter 3 Constructing Religion News: the religion reporter decides Chapter 4 News Values, Ideology and the religion story Chapter 5 Mikva News Chapter 6 Dual loyalties: the modern Orthodox dilemma Chapter 7 Identity, Unity \& Discord Part 3 Issues in Mediated Judaism Chapter 8 www.techno-Judaism Chapter 9 Kosher Advertising Chapter 10 The Marketing of the Rabbi Chapter 11 At bay in the Diaspora Chapter 12 From out of Zion shall come forth the foreign news Conclusion: Judaism in the Information Age Selected bibliography }, isbn = {978-0-415-47503-7 hbk}, issn = {978-1-138-82453-9 pbk}, author = {Yoel Cohen} } @inbook {2108, title = {When the most popular format reaches the most atypical country: reality TV and religion in Israel}, booktitle = {Religion and Reality TV: Faith in Late Capitalism}, year = {2018}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, chapter = {6}, address = {London}, abstract = {This chapter looks at the ways in which Judaism finds expression in reality shows in Israel. Three aspects are examined: reaction to the programs from religious leaders and religious communities; participation of religious people in the shows; and the appearance of religion-related topics in the programs.}, keywords = {Israel, reality TV, religion}, issn = {9781134792078}, url = {https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781134792078}, author = {Cohen, Y and Hetsroni, A} } @book {2361, title = {Spiritual News:Reporting Religion Around the World }, year = {2018}, publisher = {Peter Lang Publishers}, organization = {Peter Lang Publishers}, address = {New York}, abstract = {. SPIRITUAL NEWS: Reporting Religion Around the World Yoel Cohen (editor) The media{\textquoteright}s coverage of religion is an important question for academic researchers, given the central role which news media play in ensuring that people are up-to-date with religion news developments. Not only is there a lack of treatment of the subject in other countries, but there is also the absence of comparative study on news and religion. A key question is how the media, the political system, the religions themselves, the culture, and the economy influence how religion is reported in different countries. The book SPIRITUAL NEWS: Reporting Religion around the World is intended to fill this gap. The book is divided into six parts: an introductory section; the newsgathering process; religion reporting in different regions; media events concerning religion; political and social change and the role of religion news; future trends. TABLE OF CONTENTS Part A: Introduction Yoel Cohen: Religion News in the Twenty-First Century 1. Stewart Hoover: Religion and the News in the Age of Media Change Part B: Newsgathering 2. Joyce Smith, Foreign News: the "Religion Story" 3. Yoel Cohen, The Religion Reporter 4. Miriam Diez Biesch, The Vaticanologists: Covering the Holy See 5. Tim Hutchings, Digital Futures of Religion Journalism 6. Daniel Stout, Convergence, Digital Media, and the Paradigm Shift in Religion News Coverage in the United States Part C: Regional Patterns 7. Victor Khroul, Religion and News Media in Post-Soviet Russia. 9. Magali do Nascimento Cunha, Religious Exclusivism and Roman Catholicism in Brazilian News Media 10. Walter C Ihejirika and Andrew D Dewan, Development Journalism \& Religion Reporting: The Nigerian Case 11. Keval Kumar, Reporting Religion in Indian News Media: Hindu Nationalism, {\textquoteleft}Reconversions{\textquoteright} and the Secular State 12. Qingjiang Yao \& Zhaoxi Liu, Media and Religion in China: Publicizing Gods Under the Atheist Governance PART D: Media Events 13. Giulia Evolvi, Habemus Papas: Pope Francis{\textquoteright} Election as a Religious Media Event 14. Leo Eko, The Argument of Force Versus the Force of Argument: the Charlie Hebdo Terrorist Attack as a Global Meta Event PART E: The Influence of Religion Reporting 15. Noha Mellor, Religious Ideologies and News Ethics: the case of Saudi Arabia 16. Haryati Abdul Karim, Sinners or Alternative Identities? Contrasting Discourses on LGBT Communities in Two Malaysian Daily Newspapers 16. Yoel Cohen, Holy Days, News Media, and Religious Identity: A Case Study in Jewish Holy Days and the Israeli Press and News Websites PART F:The Impact of New Media upon Religion 19. Lorenzo Cantoni, Daniel Arasa \& Juan Narbona, The Catholic Church and Twitter 18.Christian Bourret and Karim Fraoua, Religion, Social Media and Societal Changes: The Case of "Marriage for All" in France. 19. Babak Rahimi, Internet News, Media Technologies, and Islam: the Case of Shafaqna }, author = {Yoel Cohen} } @book {2360, title = {Spiritual News:Reporting Religion Around the World }, year = {2018}, publisher = {Peter Lang Publishers}, organization = {Peter Lang Publishers}, address = {New York}, abstract = {. SPIRITUAL NEWS: Reporting Religion Around the World Yoel Cohen (editor) The media{\textquoteright}s coverage of religion is an important question for academic researchers, given the central role which news media play in ensuring that people are up-to-date with religion news developments. Not only is there a lack of treatment of the subject in other countries, but there is also the absence of comparative study on news and religion. A key question is how the media, the political system, the religions themselves, the culture, and the economy influence how religion is reported in different countries. The book SPIRITUAL NEWS: Reporting Religion around the World is intended to fill this gap. The book is divided into six parts: an introductory section; the newsgathering process; religion reporting in different regions; media events concerning religion; political and social change and the role of religion news; future trends. TABLE OF CONTENTS Part A: Introduction Yoel Cohen: Religion News in the Twenty-First Century 1. Stewart Hoover: Religion and the News in the Age of Media Change Part B: Newsgathering 2. Joyce Smith, Foreign News: the "Religion Story" 3. Yoel Cohen, The Religion Reporter 4. Miriam Diez Biesch, The Vaticanologists: Covering the Holy See 5. Tim Hutchings, Digital Futures of Religion Journalism 6. Daniel Stout, Convergence, Digital Media, and the Paradigm Shift in Religion News Coverage in the United States Part C: Regional Patterns 7. Victor Khroul, Religion and News Media in Post-Soviet Russia. 9. Magali do Nascimento Cunha, Religious Exclusivism and Roman Catholicism in Brazilian News Media 10. Walter C Ihejirika and Andrew D Dewan, Development Journalism \& Religion Reporting: The Nigerian Case 11. Keval Kumar, Reporting Religion in Indian News Media: Hindu Nationalism, {\textquoteleft}Reconversions{\textquoteright} and the Secular State 12. Qingjiang Yao \& Zhaoxi Liu, Media and Religion in China: Publicizing Gods Under the Atheist Governance PART D: Media Events 13. Giulia Evolvi, Habemus Papas: Pope Francis{\textquoteright} Election as a Religious Media Event 14. Leo Eko, The Argument of Force Versus the Force of Argument: the Charlie Hebdo Terrorist Attack as a Global Meta Event PART E: The Influence of Religion Reporting 15. Noha Mellor, Religious Ideologies and News Ethics: the case of Saudi Arabia 16. Haryati Abdul Karim, Sinners or Alternative Identities? Contrasting Discourses on LGBT Communities in Two Malaysian Daily Newspapers 16. Yoel Cohen, Holy Days, News Media, and Religious Identity: A Case Study in Jewish Holy Days and the Israeli Press and News Websites PART F:The Impact of New Media upon Religion 19. Lorenzo Cantoni, Daniel Arasa \& Juan Narbona, The Catholic Church and Twitter 18.Christian Bourret and Karim Fraoua, Religion, Social Media and Societal Changes: The Case of "Marriage for All" in France. 19. Babak Rahimi, Internet News, Media Technologies, and Islam: the Case of Shafaqna }, author = {Yoel Cohen} } @inbook {357, title = {Science, Technology and Mission}, booktitle = {The Local Church in a Global Era: Reflections for a New Century}, year = {2000}, publisher = {Eerdmans}, organization = {Eerdmans}, address = {Grand Rapids, MI}, abstract = {How is the church being affected by globalization? What does wider and more direct contact between the world religions mean for Christians? What is God doing in the midst of such change? This important volume explores the implications of today{\textquoteright}s emerging global society for local churches and Christian mission. Prominent scholars, missionaries, and analysts of world trends relate Christian theology and ethics to five clusters of issues-stewardship, prosperity, and justice; faith, learning, and family; the Spirit, wholeness, and health; Christ, the church, and other religions; and conflict, violence, and mission-issues that pastors and congregations will find critical as they think through the mission of the church in our time. }, keywords = {Missions, science, technology}, url = {http://books.google.ca/books?id=uyicpL7_HwAC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Cole-Turner, R.} } @article {1942, title = {Ethnographic Approaches to Digital Media}, journal = {Annual Review of Anthropology}, volume = {39}, year = {2010}, pages = {87-505}, abstract = {his review surveys and divides the ethnographic corpus on digital me dia into three broad but overlapping categories: the cultural politics of digital media, the vernacular cultures of digital media, and the pro saics of digital media. Engaging these three categories of scholarship on digital media, I consider how ethnographers are exploring the com plex relationships between the local practices and global implications of digital media, their materiality and politics, and their banal, as well as profound, presence in cultural life and modes of communication. I consider the way these media have become central to the articulation of cherished beliefs, ritual practices, and modes of being in the world; the fact that digital media culturally matters is undeniable but showing how, where, and why it matters is necessary to push against peculiarly arrow presumptions about the universality of digital experience.}, keywords = {cell phone, Communication, computers, Ethnography}, doi = { 10.1146/annurev.anthro.012809.10494}, author = {Coleman, E. G.} } @article {368, title = {Ethics in Internet}, year = {2000}, keywords = {ethics, internet}, url = {http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_20020228_church-internet_en.html}, author = {Pontifical Council for Social Communications} } @article {369, title = {The Church and Internet}, url = {http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_20020228_church-internet_en.html}, author = {Pontifical Council for Social Communications} } @article {160, title = {Ethics in Internet}, year = {2002}, url = {www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pccs_doc_20020228_ethics-internet_en.html}, author = {Pontifical Council For Social Communications} } @article {657, title = {Ethics in Internet }, year = {2002}, keywords = {Catholic, Christianity, Communication, ethics, internet, media, Pontifical}, url = {www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pccs_doc_20020228_ethics-internet_en.html}, author = {Pontifical Council For Social Communications} } @article {3003, title = {Church and the Internet}, year = {2002}, url = {https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_20020228_church-internet_en.html}, author = {Pontifical Council For Social Communications} } @book {526, title = {Introductory remarks: Richard Rouse, Official, Pontifical Council for Culture}, year = {2011}, publisher = {Vatican}, organization = {Vatican}, address = {Vatican City}, author = {Pontifical Council for Social Communications} } @inbook {2159, title = {Virtual Buddhism: Online Communities, Sacred Places and Objects}, booktitle = {The Changing World Religion Map}, year = {2015}, pages = {3869-3882}, publisher = {Springer }, organization = {Springer }, address = {Dordrecht}, abstract = {Until recently, there has been a dearth of research which focuses on Buddhism online. This chapter contributes to our understanding of the relationships between media, religion and culture and specifically explores the themes of authority, community, identity and ritual. Examining Buddhism on the internet helps us to identify the position of Buddhism in society, the possible implications both online and offline and how people engage and communicate in a place (cyberspace) not constrained by geographic boundaries. An interdisciplinary approach, drawing from material culture, anthropology and religious studies examines how Buddhists, primarily in the U.S. and U.K., use the internet in daily life. This includes how they express their belief, practice Buddhist rituals, develop communities and communicate with others. {\textquotedblleft}Virtual Buddhism{\textquotedblright} is illustrated by examples of virtual places, ritual and religious artefacts found in the online world of Second Life and how social media (Facebook and blogs) are used by Buddhists and non-Buddhists. This chapter provides an introduction to some Buddhist groups and individuals who use the internet and mobile technologies to engage with Buddhism. The discourse raises a number of questions, for example, why Buddhist communities are evolving online and the blurring of boundaries between offline and online environments which could challenge traditional concepts of Buddhist authority. Understanding how the internet is being used in the 21st century, is a huge undertaking. The examples presented provide insights into how some individuals are using mobile technologies, social media, and virtual worlds to establish Buddhism online, offline, and negotiate both spheres simultaneously.}, keywords = {Buddhism, online communities, sacred place, Virtual}, issn = {978-94-017-9375-9}, url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-9376-6_204$\#$citeas}, author = {Connelly, L} } @inbook {673, title = {Virtual Buddhism: Buddhist Ritual in Second Life}, booktitle = {Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds}, year = {2012}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {2012}, abstract = {Digital Religion offers a critical and systematic survey of the study of religion and new media. It covers religious engagement with a wide range of new media forms and highlights examples of new media engagement in all five of the major world religions. From cell phones and video games to blogs and Second Life, the book: provides a detailed review of major topics includes a series of case studies to illustrate and elucidate the thematic explorations considers the theoretical, ethical and theological issues raised. Drawing together the work of experts from key disciplinary perspectives, Digital Religion is invaluable for students wanting to develop a deeper understanding of the field.}, keywords = {App, Buddhism, religion, Second Life, technology, Virtual}, issn = {9780415676106 }, author = {Connelly, L}, editor = {Campbell, H.} } @book {131, title = {Muslim Networks from Hajj to Hip Hop}, year = {2005}, publisher = {University of North Carolina Press}, organization = {University of North Carolina Press}, address = {Chapel Hill, NC}, abstract = {Crucial to understanding Islam is a recognition of the role of Muslim networks. The earliest networks were Mediterranean trade routes that quickly expanded into transregional paths for pilgrimage, scholarship, and conversion, each network complementing and reinforcing the others. This volume selects major moments and key players from the seventh century to the twenty-first that have defined Muslim networks as the building blocks for Islamic identity and social cohesion. Although neglected in scholarship, Muslim networks have been invoked in the media to portray post-9/11 terrorist groups. Here, thirteen essays provide a long view of Muslim networks, correcting both scholarly omission and political sloganeering. New faces and forces appear, raising questions never before asked. What does the fourteenth-century North African traveler Ibn Battuta have in common with the American hip hopper Mos Def? What values and practices link Muslim women meeting in Cairo, Amsterdam, and Atlanta? How has technology raised expectations about new transnational pathways that will reshape the perception of faith, politics, and gender in Islamic civilization? This book invokes the past not only to understand the present but also to reimagine the future through the prism of Muslim networks, at once the shadow and the lifeline for the umma, or global Muslim community.}, keywords = {culture, hajj, Islam, Muslim}, author = {Cooke, Miriam and Lawrence, Brude} } @mastersthesis {262, title = {Gaming with God: A Case for the Study of Religion in Video Games}, year = {2011}, abstract = {This study is an analysis of religion in video games and makes the case that more formal work needs to be done on the subject. Despite the prevalence of video games in society today, little formal research has been done on the subject of religion in video games. Video games give the audience a level of interactivity that other forms of entertainment cannot provide. Religion has been at odds with the entertainment industry for decades and as a new form of entertainment media, video games have been using religion for some time. Most often it is used in the story of the game to deepen the storyline, but other times it is a central theme that the game revolves. This thesis looks at two popular video game franchises, Halo and Assassin{\textquoteright}s Creed, and examines the religious references contained within each of them. It then looks at different controversies that have arisen because of the inclusion of religion in these games. What is interesting about the negative reactions to these games is that they have not come to the attention of the general public even though video games are one of the fastest growing industries in the world. This is because there has been no research done on the subject of religion in video games so the public has nothing go by.}, keywords = {gaming, God, religion, video games}, url = {http://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005\&context=theses}, author = {Corliss, Vander} } @book {364, title = {Mission-shaped Church : church planting and fresh expressions of church in a changing context}, year = {2004}, publisher = {Church House}, organization = {Church House}, address = {London}, abstract = {An overview of recent developments in church planting. Detailed, practical, well-researched book describes the varied and exciting "fresh expressions" of church being created. Includes questions and challenges to help local churches engage with the issues.}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=eRYBUM9GK3AC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Mission and Public Affairs Council} } @book {179, title = {Cyberhenge: Modern Pagans on the Internet}, year = {2005}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {New York}, abstract = {InCyberhenge, Douglas E. Cowan brings together two fascinating and virtually unavoidable phenomena of contemporary life--the Internet and the new religious movement of Neopaganism. For growing numbers of Neopagans-Wiccans, Druids, Goddess-worshippers, and others--the Internet provides an environment alive with possibilities for invention, innovation, and imagination. From angel channeling, biorhythms, and numerology to e-covens and cybergroves where neophytes can learn everything from the Wiccan Rede to spellworking, Cowan illuminates how and why Neopaganism is using Internet technology in fascinating new ways as a platform for invention of new religious traditions and the imaginative performance of ritual. This book is essential reading for students and scholars of new religious movements, and for anyone interested in the intersections of technology and faith.}, keywords = {comparative religion, cults, cyberspace, internet, neopaganism, religious aspects}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=dE8vh7i80-IC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Cowan, Douglas} } @article {2697, title = {Online U-Topia: Cyberspace and the Mythology of Placelessness}, journal = {Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion}, year = {2005}, abstract = {The World Wide Web. The Information Superhighway. Cyberspace. Powerful metaphors that have infused our culture with a sense of its own technological prowess and superiority. According to some of its most ardent enthusiasts, in cyberspace we can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone we choose. We slip in and out of virtual identities as easily as we change our clothes. With the knowledge of the ages available to us at the click of a mouse, learning becomes little more than a process of searching and downloading. Using the Internet to spackle over any unfortunate gaps in our knowledge, we become "instant experts" on virtually any topic (Wright 2000). Online, we can "visit" remote places: check the weather on the Ross Ice Shelf, make a virtual pilgrimage up Ireland{\textquoteright}s Croagh Patrick (MacWilliams 2004), or marvel at the wonders observed through the Hubble Telescope. Not surprisingly, the World Wide Web is replete with religion-from simple congregational websites to fully orbed Wiccan cybercovens, from virtual puja (Dawson and Cowan 2004) to virtual hajj (Bunt 2000), and from Internet libraries designed to "crack" the Sumerian code (Cassidy 2002) to what some observers regard as the online revival of a populist Marian mysticism (Apolito 2005). According to one sociologist, the Internet "is the most portentous development for the future of religion to come out of the twentieth century" (Brasher 2001:17). And indeed, for some, the Internet has even become a metaphor for God (Turkle 1995; Henderson 2000). While both these latter claims may seriously overstate the reality of the situation, that religion and the Internet have become intimately and integrally linked is beyond dispute. In little more than a decade, a powerful set of interrelated mythologies has arisen about "life on the {\textquoteright}net"{\textquoteright}-whatever we take that to mean ultimately-that challenges many of our heretofore accepted notions of society, culture, community, and the self (Rheingold 1993; Turkle 1995; Barlow [1996] 2001; for less utopian views, see Kroker and Weinstein 1994; Roszak 1994; Slouka 1995; Stoll 1995; Kroker and Kroker 1996; Wynn and Katz 1997). However useful computer-mediated communications have become, though, in many ways the World Wide Web represents at least as much the triumph of hyperbole and marketing as it does the next step in technological evolution. Often used as though its meaning is entirely transparent, the concept of "cyberspace" has traveled like a meme through the cultural consciousness since its introduction in the mid-1980s (Gibson 1984), an ambitious and ambiguous metonym that encompasses what popularly passes for the experiential totality of the Internet. The question, though, in terms of this Forum, is where do we go when we are online? Where is the "place" in cyberspace?}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2005.00284.x}, author = {Cowan, Douglas E.} } @inbook {220, title = {Contested Spaces: Movement, Countermovement and E-Space Propaganda}, booktitle = {Religion Online. Finding Faith on the Internet}, year = {2004}, pages = {255-271}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {New York}, abstract = {After sex, religion is one of the most popular and pervasive topics of interest online, with over three million Americans turning to the internet each day for religious information and spiritual guidance. Tens of thousands of elaborate websites are dedicated to every manner of expression.Religion Onlineprovides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to this burgeoning new religious reality, from cyberpilgrimages to neo-pagan chatroom communities. A substantial introduction by the editors presenting the main themes and issues is followed by sixteen chapters addressing core issues of concern such as youth, religion and the internet, new religious movements and recruitment, propaganda and the countercult, and religious tradition and innovation. The volume also includes thePew Internet and American Life ProjectExecutiveSummary, the most comprehensive and widely cited study on how Americans pursue religion online, and Steven O{\textquoteright}Leary{\textquoteright}s field-definingCyberspace as SacredSpace.}, keywords = {movement, online space, propaganda}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=xy0PJrrWXH4C\&dq=Contested+Spaces:+Movement,+Countermovement+and+E-Space+Propaganda\&source=gbs_navlinks_s}, author = {Cowan, Douglas} } @mastersthesis {41, title = {At the Frontlines of God{\textquoteright}s Army: BattleCry as a Microcosm of Modern Evangelical Culture}, volume = {BA}, year = {2008}, month = {April 2008}, school = {Wesleyan University}, address = {Middletown, Connecticut}, abstract = {In this thesis, I will argue that BattleCry offers an accurate glimpse at major trends within evangelical culture at the beginning of the 21st century. BattleCry offers its members literature, rock concerts, and a full social networking website, not to mention mission trips and its own clothing line. Owing to this emphasis on varied multimedia experiences of Christianity, BattleCry sheds light on multiple aspects of modern-day evangelical life. BattleCry and its mini-empire encompass many of the new frontiers of evangelism {\textendash} through the use of the Internet and Christian rock and pop music, BattleCry is extremely accessible to and effective with today{\textquoteright}s Christian youth. Theirs is not simply a particularly successful marketing strategy, however; because of its depth as an organization, BattleCry serves as a microcosm of current evangelical culture, reflecting the priorities, strategies, and rhetoric of many of their compatriots.}, keywords = {army, evangelism, God}, url = {http://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1161\&context=etd_hon_theses}, author = {Lilly Matson Dagdigian} } @book {132, title = {TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information}, year = {1998}, publisher = {Random House}, organization = {Random House}, address = {New York}, abstract = {"A most informative account of a culture whose secular concerns continue to collide with their supernatural flip-side."--"Voice Literary Supplement" In this dazzling book, writer and cyber guru Erik Davis demonstrates how religious imagination, magical dreams and millennialist fervor have always permeated the story of technology. Through shamanism to Gnosticism, voodoo to alchemy, Buddhism to evangelism, "TechGnosis" peels away the rational shell of infotech to reveal the utopian dreams, alien obsessions and apocalyptic visions that populate the ongoing digital revolution. Erik Davis{\textquoteright} work has appeared in "Wired," "The Village Voice" and "Gnosis," and he has lectured internationally on technoculture and new forms of religion. He is a fifth-generation Californian who currently lives in San Francisco.}, keywords = {information, magic, myth, technology}, author = {Davis, Erik} } @article {2703, title = {New religions and the internet: Recruiting in a new public space}, journal = {Journal of Contemporary Religion}, abstract = {The mass suicide of 39 members of Heaven{\textquoteright}s Gate in March of 1997 led to public fears about the presence of {\textquoteleft}spiritual predators{\textquoteright} on the world wide web. This paper describes and examines the nature of these fears, as reported in the media. It then sets these fears against what we know about the use of the Internet by new religions, about who joins new religious movements and why, and the social profile of Internet users. It is argued that the emergence of the Internet has yet to significantly change the nature of religious recruitment in contemporary society. The Internet as a medium of communication, however, may be having other largely unanticipated effects on the form and functioning of religion, both old and new, in the future. Some of the potential perils of the Internet are discussed with reference to the impact of this new medium on questions of religious freedom, community, social pluralism, and social control.}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537909908580850}, author = {Dawson, Lorne L. and Hennebry, Jenna} } @inbook {219, title = {Researching Religion in Cyberspace: Issues and Strategies}, booktitle = {Religion on the Internet. Research Prospects and Promises. }, year = {2000}, pages = {25-54}, publisher = {JAI Press}, organization = {JAI Press}, address = {Amsterdam, London and New York}, abstract = {Religion on the Internet is the first systematic inquiry into the nature, scope and content of religion in cyberspace. Contributors to this volume include leading social scientists engaged in systematic studies of how organizations and individuals are presenting religion on the Internet. Their combined efforts provide a conceptual mapping of religion in cyberspace at this moment. The individual papers and collective insights found in this volume add up to a valuable agenda of research that will enrich understanding of this new phenomenon. Among the contributors are the founders of three of the most important scholarly religion web sites on the Internet: American Religion Data Archive, Religious Tolerance, and Religious Movements Homepage. Religion and the Internet is essential reading for all who seek to understand how religion is being presented on the Internet and how this topic is likely to unfold in the years ahead.}, url = {http://books.google.com/books/about/Religion_on_the_Internet.html?id=xXVgQgAACAAJ}, author = {Dawson, Lorne} } @book {180, title = {Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet}, year = {2004}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {New York}, abstract = {After sex, religion is one of the most popular and pervasive topics of interest online, with over three million Americans turning to the internet each day for religious information and spiritual guidance. Tens of thousands of elaborate websites are dedicated to every manner of expression.Religion Onlineprovides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to this burgeoning new religious reality, from cyberpilgrimages to neo-pagan chatroom communities. A substantial introduction by the editors presenting the main themes and issues is followed by sixteen chapters addressing core issues of concern such as youth, religion and the internet, new religious movements and recruitment, propaganda and the countercult, and religious tradition and innovation. The volume also includes thePew Internet and American Life ProjectExecutiveSummary, the most comprehensive and widely cited study on how Americans pursue religion online, and Steven O{\textquoteright}Leary{\textquoteright}s field-definingCyberspace as SacredSpace.}, keywords = {information and communication technology, methodology, social networks}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=xy0PJrrWXH4C\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Dawson, Lorne and Cowan, Douglas} } @book {1287, title = {Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet}, year = {2004}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, keywords = {Australia, cyberspace, identity, internet, Islam, religion, Spirituality, USA, virtual community, Youth}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?hl=en\&lr=\&id=wv7yBEkNy90C\&oi=fnd\&pg=PP2\&dq=religion+and+internet\&ots=CA4s_YcVP2\&sig=xdDIUwtCtkJoZbGLjswTPVLMeg4$\#$v=onepage\&q=religion\%20and\%20internet\&f=false}, author = {Lorne L. Dawson and Douglas E. Cowan} } @inbook {325, title = {The Mediation of Religious Experience in Cyberspace}, booktitle = {Religion and Cyberspace}, year = {2005}, pages = {15-37}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London}, abstract = {In the twenty-first century, religious life is increasingly moving from churches, mosques and temples onto the Internet. Today, anyone can go online and seek a new form of religious expression without ever encountering a physical place of worship, or an ordained teacher or priest. The digital age offers virtual worship, cyber-prayers and talk-boards for all of the major world faiths, as well as for pagan organisations and new religious movements. It also abounds with misinformation, religious bigotry and information terrorism. Scholars of religion need to understand the emerging forum that the web offers to religion, and the kinds of religious and social interaction that it enables. Religion and Cyberspace explores how religious individuals and groups are responding to the opportunities and challenges that cyberspace brings. It asks how religious experience is generated and enacted online, and how faith is shaped by factors such as limitless choice, lack of religious authority, and the conflict between recognised and non-recognised forms of worship. Combining case studies with the latest theory, its twelve chapters examine topics including the history of online worship, virtuality versus reality in cyberspace, religious conflict in digital contexts, and the construction of religious identity online. Focusing on key themes in this groundbreaking area, it is an ideal introduction to the fascinating questions that religion on the Internet presents.}, keywords = {cyberspace, Experience, religion}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?hl=en\&lr=\&id=KxSmkuySB28C\&oi=fnd\&pg=PA15\&dq=The+Mediation+of+Religious+Experience+in+Cyberspace\&ots=0g7zYpYFsK\&sig=nJ_zWsxPo0CCr1xnmMjA9F8ILGc$\#$v=onepage\&q=The\%20Mediation\%20of\%20Religious\%20Experience\%20in\%20Cyberspace\&f=fals}, author = {Dawson, L.} } @article {1918, title = {Information And Communication Technologies In Religious Tourism And Pilgrimage}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Special issue of the IJRTP - International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage}, keywords = {eReligion, eTourism}, url = {http://arrow.dit.ie/ijrtp/vol4/iss3/}, author = {De Ascaniis, Silvia and Cantoni, Lorenzo} } @article {1195, title = {Seeking the Sacred Online: Internet and the Individualization of Religious Life in Quebec}, journal = {Anthropologica}, volume = {54}, year = {2012}, chapter = {19}, keywords = {Access to resources, Canada, Contemporary Religious Community, digital cultures, internet, network, New Media and Society, new media engagement, New Technology and Society}, url = {http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN\&cpsidt=26049890}, author = {M Deirdre} } @book {263, title = {Halos and avatars: Playing (video) games with God}, year = {2010}, publisher = {Westminster Press.}, organization = {Westminster Press.}, address = {Louisville}, abstract = {Craig Detweiler{\textquoteright}s collection of up-to-the-minute essays on video games{\textquoteright} theological themes (and yes, they do exist!) is an engaging and provocative book for gamers, parents, pastors, media scholars, and theologians--virtually anyone who has dared to consider the ramifications of modern society{\textquoteright}s obsession with video games and online media. Together, these essays take on an exploding genre in popular culture and interpret it through a refreshing and enlightening philosophical lens.}, keywords = {avatars, God, Halo, video games}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=GomyEvcocJsC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Deitweiler, Craig} } @article {251, title = {A Better Life Through Information Technology? The posthuman person in contemporary speculative science}, journal = {Zygon}, volume = {41}, year = {2006}, pages = {267-288}, abstract = {The depiction of human identity in the pop-science futurology of engineer/inventor Ray Kurzweil, the speculative robotics of Carnegie Mellon roboticist Hans Moravec, and the physics of Tulane University mathematics professor Frank Tipler elevate technology, especially information technology, to a point of ultimate significance. For these three figures, information technology offers the potential means by which the problem of human and cosmic finitude can be rectified. Although Moravec{\textquoteright}s vision of intelligent robots, Kurzweil{\textquoteright}s hope for immanent human immorality, and Tipler{\textquoteright}s description of humanlike von Neumann machines colonizing the very material fabric of the universe all may appear to be nothing more than science fictional musings, they raise genuine questions as to the relationship between science, technology, and religion as regards issues of personal and cosmic eschatology. In an attempt to correct what I see as the cybernetic totalism inherent in these techno-theologies, I argue for a theology of technology that seeks to interpret technology hermeneutically and grounds human creativity in the broader context of divine creative activity. }, url = {https://eric.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10036/48019/Zygon\%20Paper\%20-\%20a\%20better\%20life.pdf?sequence=1}, author = {Michael Delashmutt} } @inbook {250, title = {Religionless in Seattle}, booktitle = {Exploring Religion and the Sacred in a Media Age}, year = {2009}, pages = {85-104}, publisher = {Ashgate}, organization = {Ashgate}, address = {London}, abstract = {In recent years, there has been growing awareness across a range of academic disciplines of the value of exploring issues of religion and the sacred in relation to cultures of everyday life. Exploring Religion and the Sacred in a Media Age offers inter-disciplinary perspectives drawing from theology, religious studies, media studies, cultural studies, film studies, sociology and anthropology. Combining theoretical frameworks for the analysis of religion, media and popular culture, with focused international case studies of particular texts, practices, communities and audiences, the authors examine topics such as media rituals, marketing strategies, empirical investigations of audience testimony, and the influence of religion on music, reality television and the internet.Both academically rigorous and of interest to a wider readership, this book offers a wide range of fascinating explorations at the cutting edge of many contemporary debates in sociology, religion and media, including chapters on the way evangelical groups in America have made use of The Da Vinci Code and on the influences of religion on British club culture and electronic dance music.}, keywords = {religion and internet, Seattle}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=HRmYapWETqcC\&pg=PA85\&lpg=PA85\&dq=Religionless+in+Seattle\&source=bl\&ots=Q89-xXtfO2\&sig=JU8y6qjD29n9STEiL4viFgfAJZ8\&hl=en\&ei=FFbFTqeMLMn8ggf9l8nYDg\&sa=X\&oi=book_result\&ct=result\&resnum=3\&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAg$\#$v=onepage\&q=Religionl}, author = {Michael Delashmutt} } @article {2175, title = {From Jesus to the Internet: A History of Christianity and Media}, journal = {Christian Scholar{\textquoteright}s Review}, volume = {46}, year = {2016}, pages = {102-105}, abstract = {The title, From Jesus to the Internet, summarizes the range of his study, while the subtitle, History of Christianity and Media, describes the substance. Horsfield connects key turning points in ecclesial history with the major communication shifts of each era, from oral to written, from print through digital. While church histories may focus on the dogma being debated, Horsfield suggests that those who marshaled media most effectively usually won the ideological war. This highly readable text has implications and applications to classes in religion, theology, history, and communication. Horsfield offers a clear and succinct overview of his methodology in the introduction. He adopts a broad definition of both religion and media, approaching Christianity as "a complex and expanding mediated phenomenon, a constant creative reproduction and rhetorical reworking of Jesus to match the conditions of an ever-expanding set of constantly changing circumstances"}, keywords = {Christianity, internet, Jesus, media}, url = {http://go.galegroup.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE\%7CA485538340\&sid=googleScholar\&v=2.1\&it=r\&linkaccess=abs\&issn=00172251\&p=AONE\&sw=w}, author = {Detweiler, C} } @article {1264, title = {The Forbidden Fork, the Cell Phone Holocaust, and Other Haredi Encounters with Technology}, journal = {Contemporary Jewry}, volume = {29}, year = {2009}, chapter = {3}, abstract = {Haredi Jews valorize tradition and explicitly reject the idea of progress on ideological grounds. Concomitantly, they are opposed to many innovations and are highly critical of the destructive potential of modern communication technologies such as cell phones with Internet capability that serve as pocket-sized portals between their insular communities and the wider world. In response to this perceived threat, Haredi authorities have issued bans on the use of certain technologies and have endorsed the development of acceptable alternatives, such as the so-called kosher cell phone. And yet, many Haredim, both in the United States and Israel, are highly sophisticated users and purveyors of these same technologies. This tension indicates that Haredim have a much more complicated relationship to technology and to modernity, itself, than their {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}official{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright} stance would suggest.}, keywords = {cell phone, Haredim, Hasidim, Holocaust, internet, Israel, Modernity, technology, Ultra-Orthodox Jews}, url = {http://www.nabilechchaibi.com/resources/Deutsch.pdf}, author = {Nathaniel Deutsch} } @book {133, title = {Cyberchurch, Christianity and the Internet}, year = {1997}, publisher = {Kingsway Publications}, organization = {Kingsway Publications}, address = {Eastborne}, keywords = {Christianity, Church, cyberspace, internet}, author = {Dixon, Patrik} } @inbook {408, title = {Identity and deception in the virtual community}, booktitle = {Communities in Cyberspace}, year = {1999}, pages = {29-59}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London \& New York}, abstract = {This wide-ranging introductory text looks at the virtual community of cyberspace and analyses its relationship to real communities lived out in today{\textquoteright}s societies. Issues such as race, gender, power, economics and ethics in cyberspace are grouped under four main sections and discussed by leading experts: * identity * social order and control * community structure and dynamics * collective action. This topical new book displays how the idea of community is being challenged and rewritten by the increasing power and range of cyberspace. As new societies and relationships are formed in this virtual landscape, we now have to consider the potential consequences this may have on our own community and societies. Clearly and concisely written with a wide range of international examples, this edited volume is an essential introduction to the sociology of the internet. It will appeal to students and professionals, and to those concerned about the changing relationships between information technology and a society which is fast becoming divided between those on-line and those not.}, keywords = {deception, identity, virtual community}, url = {http://harvard.academia.edu/JudithDonath/Papers/554206/Identity_and_deception_in_the_virtual_community}, author = {Donath, J. S.} } @article {2905, title = {Ethical challenges of algorithmic journalism}, journal = {Digital Journalism}, year = {2017}, abstract = {With the institutionalization of algorithms as content creators, professional journalism is facing transformation and novel ethical challenges. This article focuses on the concept of Algorithmic Journalism on the basis of natural language generation and provides a framework to identify and discuss ethical issues. The analysis builds on the moral theories of deontology, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, and contractualism, and remaps the ethical discussion for Algorithmic Journalism at the intersection of digital media ethics and cyber ethics. In order to capture the whole range of potential shifts and challenges in journalism ethics, the article combines the ethical multi-layer system of responsibility by P{\"u}rer with the classification of journalism by Weischenberg, Malik, and Scholl on an organizational, professional/individual, and social/audience sphere. This analytical framework is then complemented with attributes derived from the technical potential of Algorithmic Journalism. As a result, the analysis uncovers new ethical challenges and shifts of responsibility in news production for journalism practice and journalism research at the levels of objectivity, authority, transparency, and at the level of implicit or explicit values.}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21670811.2016.1167612?journalCode=rdij20}, author = {D{\"o}rr, K. M. and Hollnbuchner, K.} } @book {255, title = {Tweet If You Heart Jesus: Practicing Church in the Digital Reformation}, year = {2011}, publisher = {Morehouse Publishing}, organization = {Morehouse Publishing}, abstract = {Churches everywhere are scrambling to get linked with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. But are they ready for the Digital Reformation: the dramatic global shift in the nature of faith, social consciousness and relationship that these digital social media have ushered in? Tweet If You ♥ Jesus brings the wisdom of ancient and medieval Christianity into conversation with contemporary theories of cultural change and the realities of social media, all to help churches navigate a landscape where faith, leadership and community have taken on new meanings.}, keywords = {Church, Jesus, reformation, Twitter}, url = {https://www.churchpublishing.org/products/index.cfm?fuseaction=productDetail\&productID=8830}, author = {Drescher, E} } @book {466, title = {Click 2 Save: The Digital Ministry Bible}, year = {2012}, note = {https://www.churchpublishing.org/products/index.cfm?fuseaction=productDetail\&productID=9610}, month = {05/2012}, publisher = {Morehouse}, organization = {Morehouse}, type = {Book}, address = {Harrisburg, PA}, abstract = {Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube provide opportunities for congregations and religious organizations to open the doors and windows to their common life before people ever encounter them in person. In this digitally-integrated world, it{\textquoteright}s no longer all about getting your message out as if people are passively waiting for the latest news from the parish, diocese, or national church. Rather, it s about using new media to create spaces where meaningful relationships can develop.With a foreword by national radio host Hugh Hewitt-who has beenat the forefront of the new media movement among Christians-editorsRoger Overton and John Mark Reynolds (along with an impressive listof other new media experts) survey the current landscape andexplore specific areas in which God{\textquoteright}s people can creatively expandtheir reach to a lost world. By stressing the urgency for Christianinvolvement, unearthing the dangers, and advising readers on how touse this media with different audiences, this book equips believersto advance, demonstrate, and utilize the Christian worldview inthis exciting realm.}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=MnDU0TcFAvkC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Reynolds, John Mark and Overton, Roger and Hewitt, Hugh} } @book {658, title = {The Virtual Community}, year = {1993}, publisher = {Harper Perennial}, organization = {Harper Perennial}, address = {New York}, abstract = {"When you think of a title for a book, you are forced to think of something short and evocative, like, well, {\textquoteright}The Virtual Community,{\textquoteright} even though a more accurate title might be: {\textquoteright}People who use computers to communicate, form friendships that sometimes form the basis of communities, but you have to be careful to not mistake the tool for the task and think that just writing words on a screen is the same thing as real community.{\textquoteright}" - HLR }, keywords = {community, Computer, culture, internet, media, Virtual}, issn = {0262681218}, url = {http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/intro.html}, author = {Rheingold, H.} } @book {259, title = {The Church of Facebook: How the Hyperconnected Are Redefining Community}, year = {2007}, publisher = {David C. Cook}, organization = {David C. Cook}, address = {Colorado Springs, CO}, abstract = {A revolution is taking place, one profile at a time. Online social networks are connecting people like never before. And with millions of users, they{\textquoteright}re creating a virtual world that erases all boundaries. It{\textquoteright}s a movement that{\textquoteright}s changing how we form relationships, perceive others, and shape our identity. Yet at their core, these sites reflect our need for community. Our need for intimacy, connection, and a place to simply belong. Are we seeing the future of the church? Do these networks help or hurt relationships? And what can these sites teach us about God and each other? The Church of Facebook explores these ideas and much more. Author Jesse Rice offers a revealing look at the wildly popular world of online social groups. From profiles, to The Wall, to status updates, to {\textquotedblleft}poking,{\textquotedblright} Jesse shares what Facebook reveals about us, and what it may mean for the church.}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=83T5eGQ_hXAC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Rice, Jesse} } @article {1278, title = {New media/Internet research topics of the association of Internet researchers}, journal = {The Information Society: An International Journal}, volume = {21}, year = {2005}, chapter = {285}, abstract = {This study summarizes prior reviews of new media and Internet research, and the growth of the term Internet in academic publications and online newsgroups. It then uses semantic network analysis to summarize the interests and concepts of an interdisciplinary group of Internet researchers, as represented by session titles and paper titles and abstracts from the 2003 and 2004 Association of Internet Researchers conferences. In both years, the most frequent words appearing in the paper abstracts included Internet, online, community, social, technology, and research. The 2003 papers emphasized topics such as the social analysis/ research of online/Internet communication, community, and information, with particular coverage of access, individuals, groups, digital media, culture; role and process in e-organizations; and world development. The 2004 papers emphasized topics such as access; news and social issues; the role of individuals in communities; user-based studies; usage data; and blogs, women, and search policy, among others.}, keywords = {access, AoIR, communication technology, internet research, new media research, Online community, semantic network analysis}, url = {http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/4x34x1wv$\#$page-1}, author = {Rice, R} } @book {3007, title = {The Twible: All the chapters of the Bible in 140 characters Or Less . . . Now with 68\% more humor }, year = {2013}, publisher = {Jana Riess}, organization = {Jana Riess}, abstract = {You{\textquoteright}ve wanted to read the Bible, but it{\textquoteright}s uber-long and, let{\textquoteright}s face it, sometimes boring. You{\textquoteright}re a busy person with stuff to do. You want the Bible, only funnier. Enter The Twible, which brings you every chapter as tweeted in 140 characters or less, from Genesis to Revelation! Find out what the Bible says you{\textquoteright}re supposed to do if a friend starts worshiping another god, your child disrespects you in public, or you break the Sabbath. (The answers to those dilemmas are to stone your friend, stone your child, and stone yourself. In that order.) Learn where Paul swears in the New Testament, and why Jeremiah could benefit from antidepressants. Inside The Twible you{\textquoteright}ll find: A tweet for each of the 1,189 chapters of the Bible A summary of every book of the Bible in seven words or less Dozens of informative sidebars (print edition only) More than 50 original cartoons A glossary telling you who{\textquoteright}s who in the Bible Unicorns From start to finish, The Twible brings the Bible to wonderful, wicked, weird life. The Twible adapts the Old Testament to the light-hearted quipping familiar in everyday Tweets.-- The Guardian, The Twible is the most entertaining version of my dad{\textquoteright}s book I{\textquoteright}ve read in the last two millennia! -- Jesus Christ The Twible is the best example I have ever seen of the reverence of irreverence. Only those who love deeply and securely can bring this kind of humor to the telling of the family{\textquoteright}s stories. Don{\textquoteright}t read it, unless you are prepared to fall in love with them again. -- Phyllis Tickle, author of The Divine Hours and The Great Emergence I wouldn{\textquoteright}t object if Twibles were in every hotel room. If they{\textquoteright}re using this book, I look forward to the next time Christians attempt to proselytwize -- Hemant Mehta, The Friendly Atheist blogger; author of The Young Atheist{\textquoteright}s Survival Guide Forget about reading the Bible in a year. Now you can read it in an hour, thanks to the subversive, somewhat disturbed, mind of Jana Riess. -- Peter Enns, author of Genesis for Normal People The perfect (surreptitious) iPad or Tablet companion for draggy Sunday (or Saturday) morning services. Caution: Not to be used for congregational Scripture reading. -- Mark I. Pinsky, author of The Gospel According to the Simpsons Whatever you think of Twitter, there can be no speedier or funnier way to read through the Bible than with Riess{\textquoteright}s Twible providing spot-on interpretation chapter by chapter. On a jet stream of solid scholarship, it{\textquoteright}ll keep you thinking long after the hashtags have burned away. -- Kristin Swenson, author of Bible Babel: Making Sense of the Most Talked-about Book of All Time The Twible is an indelible book that reads like an oddly religious comedy but has the impact of a brilliant jingle that sticks in your brain to the point of madness. Read it and drive yourself pleasantly nuts. -- Frank Schaeffer, author of And God Said, Billy! This is brilliant stuff;hilariously accurate summaries of complex material. Riess is a very funny, charmingly masterful guide. -- Debbie Blue, pastor; author of Consider the Birds: A Provocative Guide to the Birds of the Bible This is absolutely the funniest and most fun Bible translation ever. Yet, throughout the ensuing hilarity there is a wisdom here that challenges and provokes. -- Steven L. Peck, author of A Short Stay in Hell and The Scholar of Moab}, url = {https://www.amazon.com/Twible-Chapters-Bible-Characters-Humor/dp/0989774708}, author = {Riess, J} } @inbook {1710, title = {Medios digitales y religi{\'o}n: investigar la mediatizaci{\'o}n de la fe en la era digital}, booktitle = {Crisis y cambio: propuestas desde la sociolog{\'\i}a}, volume = {2}, pages = {527-536}, publisher = {Federaci{\'o}n Espa{\~n}ola de Sociolog{\'\i}a}, organization = {Federaci{\'o}n Espa{\~n}ola de Sociolog{\'\i}a}, address = {Madrid}, keywords = {Mediatizaci{\'o}n, medios digitales, podcasting, Rezandovoy}, url = {http://fes-web.org/uploads/files/modules/congress/11/Libro\%20de\%20Actas\%20final_2.pdf}, author = {Riezu,Xabier} } @article {1709, title = {Uses and Gratifications of a Spanish Digital Prayer Project: Rezandovoy}, journal = {Tr{\'\i}podos}, year = {2014}, month = {12/2014}, chapter = {11-28}, abstract = {This article attempts to make a contribution, from a sociology and communication sciences perspective, about the knowledge of religion in digital media. The results of a case study about Rezandovoy, a digital prayer service of the Society of Jesus, are exposed here. The service was created in Valladolid (Spain) in 2011 and it is used by 40,000 Spanish-speakers from around the world daily. The theoretical framework used is the paradigm of uses and gratifications, a consolidated framework in mass media research that is also applied to new digital media. This theoretical framework helps to explain the reasons why believers from all over the world use digital media in relation to their faith. In the current case study, through a methodology consisting in focus groups, interviews and virtual ethnography, it is concluded that there are a variety of gratifications that encourage users to utilise Rezandovoy. By taking into account what the users themselves say about the satisfactions that they obtain from the service, six categories of gratifications are defined: {\textquotedblleft}Spiritual{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}Prayer School{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}Guidance{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}Social Utility{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}Diversion{\textquotedblright} and {\textquotedblleft}Emotional{\textquotedblright}.}, keywords = {audio prayer, digital prayer, Jesuits, Rezandovoy, uses and gratifications theory}, issn = {1138-3305.}, url = {http://www.tripodos.com/index.php/Facultat_Comunicacio_Blanquerna/article/view/191}, author = {Riezu,Xabier} } @conference {2147, title = {Money, God, and SMS: Explorations in Supporting Social Action Through a Bangladeshi Mosque}, booktitle = {CHI Conference }, year = {2017}, address = {Denver, CO}, abstract = {Religious institutions hold a significant place in daily life for the vast majority of people in the world, especially in developing countries. Yet despite their social prominence, and despite HCI{\textquoteright}s emphasis on the social context of technology, organized religion is neglected in both the HCI and ICTD literature. This paper explores the relationship that mosques in Bangladesh have with their constituencies and with technology, with an eye toward the integration of technology with existing religious institutions as a way to achieve positive social ends. We first describe a qualitative exploration of several mosque communities in Bangladesh, where we find that skepticism and pragmatism about modern technology interact in a complex way that nevertheless leaves room for technical interventions. We then describe a randomized controlled trial to study the relative value of SMS messages infused with overtly religious or secularly altruistic frames for the purpose of mosque fundraising. We find that SMS messages increase donations overall, but that their framing is significant. Messages with secular altruistic framing increased donations by 9.5\%, while those with religious sentiment increased donations by 57.3\%. Our findings demonstrate how technologies like SMS amplify underlying religious forces and suggest the possibility of working with religious institutions in applying positive ICT interventions. }, keywords = {Bangladeshi Mosque, God, money, SMS, social action}, url = {https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316706139_Money_God_and_SMS_Explorations_in_Supporting_Social_Action_Through_a_Bangladeshi_Mosque}, author = {Rashidujjaman Rifat, M and Chen, J and Toyama, K} } @article {894, title = {The Beast Within: Anthrozoomorphic Identity and Alternative Spirituality in the Online Therianthropy Movement}, journal = {Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions}, volume = {16}, year = {2013}, pages = {7-30}, keywords = {NRMs, popular occulture, shape-shifters, Therianthropy}, url = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2013.16.3.7}, author = {Venetia Laura Delano Robertson} } @article {241, title = {Virtual Warfare: The Internet as the New Site for Global Religious Conflict}, journal = {Asian Journal of Social Science}, volume = {32}, year = {2004}, pages = {198-215}, abstract = {This paper explores the ways in which a resurgent Hindu fundamentalism (Hindutva) is redefining Hinduism and Hindu identities in a transnational, global context. The global project of Hindutva makes use of new global communication channels, including the Internet, and is apparently espoused by influential sections of the transnational Hindu middle class, especially in the United States. This paper examines a selected sample of Internet sites devoted to the spread of religious and fundamentalist beliefs and ideas particularly relevant to India and transnational Hinduism, and explores the ways in which the Internet is changing the shape of communities and the ways in which they represent one another. The paper puts forth the argument that in the context of globalization, the Net has become an important space for the creation of transnational religious identities. The Net is shaping religion, specifically Hinduism, in distinct ways and is the newest expression of religion{\textquoteright}s changing face. The battle for souls is being fought on Internet sites. The questions of this paper relate to the modes of representation of "other religions" as revealed particularly by Hindu sites, the ways in which Internet sites garner audiences, and the strategies they adopt to link themselves with both global audiences and local groups. A sociological analysis will reveal the shape of these discourses and link their popularity with the social and political context of globalization, a liberalized economy, and the organization of religious practice in post 1990s India. }, keywords = {Communication, Globalization, Hindu, religion}, url = {http://www.kamat.com/database/?CitationID=11007}, author = {Robinson, Rowena} } @article {203, title = {Enhancing the Spiritual Relationship: The Impact of Virtual Worship on the Real World Church Experience}, journal = {Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet }, volume = {3}, year = {2008}, abstract = {In her article {\textquotedblleft}Enhancing the Spiritual Relationship: The Impact of Virtual Worship on the Real World Church Experience{\textquotedblright} Andre{\'e} Robinson-Neal discusses her experiences as a virtual churchgoer in {\textquotedblleft}Second Life{\textquotedblleft} and describes the relationship between online worship and her offline faith experience. The article centres around the reality of experience in virtual worship and how can both enhance and hinder the {\textquotedblleft}real-life faith walk.}, url = {http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/volltexte/2008/8296/pdf/robinson_neal.pdf}, author = {Robinson-Neal, Andre{\'e}} } @inbook {3008, title = {Goffman on power, hierarchy, and status}, booktitle = {The View from Goffman}, year = {1980}, publisher = {Palgrave Macmillan.}, organization = {Palgrave Macmillan.}, address = {London}, abstract = {Among the most commonly overlooked set of insights offered by Erving Goffman is his commentary, comprised of both explicit and implicit elements, on the interrelationship among power, hierarchy, and status in everyday life. In fact, Goffman has been subject to criticism for his apparent failure to treat these sorts of stratification-related phenomena. To date the most detailed critique of Goffman along these lines is Alvin Gouldner{\textquoteright}s analysis.1}, url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-16268-0_5}, author = {Rogers, M. F.} } @book {242, title = {The Jewish Guide to the Internet}, year = {1996}, publisher = {Jason Aronson Publishers}, organization = {Jason Aronson Publishers}, address = {Lanham, MD}, abstract = {This is the only current and comprehensive guide to Jewish sites on the Internet. Completely rewritten, this volume contains more than 1500 sites arranged in 136 subject areas. This is a new and updated edition of the popular reference guide to the Jewish electronic universe. Included is an alphabetical listing of the Jewish sources found on the internet.}, url = {http://www.betterworldbooks.com/the-jewish-guide-to-the-internet-id-0765761874.aspx}, author = {Romm, Diane} } @book {164, title = {The Talmud and the Internet: A Journey between Worlds}, year = {2000}, publisher = {Farrar, Straus and Giroux}, organization = {Farrar, Straus and Giroux}, address = {New York}, abstract = {The Talmud and the Internet, in which Jonathan Rosen examines the contradictions of his inheritance as a modern American and a Jew, is a moving and exhilarating meditation on modern technology and ancient religious impulses. Blending memoir, religious history and literary reflection Rosen explores the remarkable parallels between a page of Talmud and the homepage of a web site, and reflects on the contrasting lives and deaths of his American and European grandmothers. Jonathan Rosen is the author of the novels Joy Comes in the Morning and Eve{\textquoteright}s Apple. His essays have appeared in The New York Times and The New Yorker, among other publications. He is the editorial director of Nextbook. The Talmud and the Internet, in which Jonathan Rosen examines the contradiction of his inheritance as an American and a Jew, is a moving and exhilarating mediation on modern technology and ancient religious impulses. Blending memoir, religious history, and literary reflection, Rosen explores the remarkable parallels between a page of Talmud and the home page of a website and reflects on the contrasting lives and deaths of his American and European grandmothers. }, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=zyT-WIZc0iwC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Rosen, Jonathan} } @mastersthesis {1248, title = {TV : Satan or Savior? : Protestant responses to television in the 1950s}, volume = {The Divinity School}, year = {1999}, school = {University of Chicago}, type = {Doctoral Thesis}, keywords = {1950, communication research, Mass media, media and religion, Protestant, Television}, url = {http://www.worldcat.org/title/tv-satan-or-savior-protestant-responses-to-television-in-the-1950s/oclc/43658625}, author = {Michele Ann Rosenthal} } @inbook {2069, title = {On Pomegranates and Etrogs: Internet Filters as Practices of Media Ambivalence among National Religious Jews in Israel}, booktitle = {Digital Judaism: Jewish Negotiations with Digital Media and Culture}, year = {2015}, pages = {145-160}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {New York}, abstract = {In the contemporary environment of media saturation, users are continually making choices about the types and kinds of media technologies to employ or avoid at different moments and places in their everyday lives. Some of these choices are based on simple technical or practical criterion (i.e., my smartphone is easy to access during my daily commute), while others are informed by a sense of decorum (i.e., one should not text during a funeral) or the idea that self-imposed limits of media use will lead to a more balanced lifestyle (i.e., no e-mail after work hours). Among such abundance, it is nearly impossible to be an early adopter or enthusiastic user of all media-users are constantly making choices (i.e., to text rather than telephone, to invest in a laptop but not in a smartphone, etc.), and through these choices they express ambivalence about certain media and enthusiasm about others. Users{\textquoteright} deliberations and discussions about these choices and practices are increasingly employed as identity markers (Hoover, Clark and Alters, 2004; Seiter, 2003). Media consumption and avoidance of specific contents or technologies are not only practical choices but also are expressions of identification with a specific class, ethnic, religious or spiritual community.}, keywords = {internet filters, Israel, Jews, religious}, issn = {978-0415736244}, url = {https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317817345/chapters/10.4324\%2F9781315818597-13}, author = {Rosenthal, M and Ribak, R} } @article {2808, title = {The Dynamics of Religion, Media, and Community}, journal = {Online - Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet}, year = {2019}, abstract = {This article introduces the special issue, {\textquotedblleft}The Dynamics of Religion, Media, and Community{\textquotedblright}. It examines the shifting faith in the concept of religious community in the social studies of religion and calls attention to the normative expectations connected to the rise of new forms of communities in the age of the Internet. Against this backdrop, it discusses strengths and weakness of selected approaches in the study of media and religion and suggests future research pathways to which the articles in the special issue provide important contributions.}, url = {https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/religions/article/view/23945}, author = {Rota, Andrea and Kruger, Oliver} } @article {2150, title = {{\textquotedblleft}Electronic Jihad{\textquotedblright}: The Internet as Al Qaeda{\textquoteright}s Catalyst for Global Terror}, journal = {Studies in Conflict \& Terrorism }, volume = {40}, year = {2016}, pages = {10-23}, abstract = {The Internet has emerged as a key technology for Al Qaeda and other jihadist movements waging their so-called electronic jihad across the Middle East and globally, with digital multiplier effects. This study will examine the evolving doctrine of {\textquotedblleft}electronic jihad{\textquotedblright} and its impact on the radicalization of Muslims in Western diaspora communities The study describes Internet-based websites that served as online libraries and repositories for jihadist literature, as platforms for extremist preachers and as forums for radical discourse. Furthermore, the study will then detail how Internet connectivity has come to play a more direct operational role for jihadi terrorist-related purposes, most notably for inciting prospective cadres to action; for recruiting jihadist operatives and fighters; for providing virtual training in tactical methods and manufacture of explosives; for terrorism financing; and for actual planning and preparations for specific terror attacks. Whereas contemporary jihadist militants may be shifting from the World Wide Web to social media, such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter for messaging and communications, nevertheless the Internet-based electronic jihad remains a significant catalyst for promoting jihadist activism and for facilitating terrorist operations.}, keywords = {Al Qaeda, electronic, internet, jihad}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1057610X.2016.1157403}, author = {Rudner, M} } @article {1243, title = {Ethnic Revival, and the Reappearance of Indigenous Religions in the ROC : the Use of the Internet in the Construction of Taiwanese Identities}, journal = {Online {\textendash} Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet}, volume = {02.1}, year = {2006}, chapter = {41}, abstract = {Michael Rudolph{\textquoteright}s article Nativism, Ethnic Revival, and the Reappearance of Indigenous Religions in the ROC: The Use of the Internet in the Construction of Taiwanese Identities deals with rituals presented on Taiwanese Websites in the context of identity construction. Since the mid-nineties, long abandoned and very un-Chinese ritual practices suddenly seemed to become popular again in China{\textquoteright}s runaway-province Taiwan: in spite of the fact that most of the island{\textquoteright}s 2\% of indigenous population had been Christianized for half a century, intellectual elites of different aboriginal groups now referred to ancestor-gods, tattooing and even headhunting again as essential parts of their own traditional repertoire, often making abundant use of the Internet in order to propagate these convictions to a broader Chinese speaking public. This contribution not only scrutinises the political context that made such a development possible, but also assesses this practice in terms of the identity construction of the specific ethnic groups.}, keywords = {aboriginal groups, Digital Religion, Ethnic, identity, Indigenous Religions, internet, online communication, religion online, Ritual, Taiwan}, url = {http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/ojs/index.php/religions/article/view/375/351}, author = {Michael Rudolph} } @mastersthesis {1305, title = {Virtual Spirituality: The Negotiation and (Re)-Presentation of Psychic-Spiritual Identity on the Internet}, year = {2012}, school = {University of York}, type = {PhD thesis}, abstract = {This research is an examination of how people engaged in psychic and spiritual interests use the internet to participate as a group through social media. Exploring how individuals take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the internet to pursue their interest in psychic spirituality reveals different ways of participating and interacting online. The ways in which individuals present their psychic-spiritual selves online, how they negotiate their online identities and make sense of their culture, is also examined. Using an eclectic methodological approach, this research used a combination of ethnographic methods and autoethnography to explore online psychic-spiritual culture. Documentary analysis of website text and images, together with participant observation, both covert and overt, were used to examine websites. Facebook interaction and psychic readings in online discussion board forums based on psychic-spiritual interests were analysed using discourse analysis. Autoethnographic self-reflections were also collected and analysed in order to capture an intrapsychic perspective of psychic reading culture. It was found that psychic practitioners use their websites to communicate the message that they are credible psychic readers whilst Facebook was found to be a site in which, through a delicate interplay of activity and performance, identity is constructed through interaction between the psychic reader and their Facebook friends. Psychic-spiritual discussion board forums meanwhile are sites of situated learning in which learner psychic readers learn to become appropriate members of the psychic-spiritual milieu. Also, although the sociological analytic mind does not easily accommodate the nature of psychic reading, the study did manage to obtain an intrapsychic perspective on psychic readings. Thus, members of the psychic-spiritual milieu have taken full advantage of the internet to pursue their interest in psychic reading culture. }, keywords = {communities of practice, Facebook, online forums, psychic practices, psychic spirituality, virtual spirituality}, url = {http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3794/}, author = {Ryan, Tamlyn} } @book {391, title = {Holy mavericks: evangelical innovators and the spiritual marketplace}, year = {2009}, publisher = {New York University Press}, organization = {New York University Press}, address = {New York}, abstract = {Joel Osteen, Paula White, T. D. Jakes, Rick Warren, and Brian McLaren pastor some the largest churches in the nation, lead vast spiritual networks, write best-selling books, and are among the most influential preachers in American Protestantism today. Spurred by the phenomenal appeal of these religious innovators, sociologist Shayne Lee and historian Phillip Luke Sinitiere investigate how they operate and how their style of religious expression fits into America{\textquoteright}s cultural landscape. Drawing from the theory of religious economy, the authors offer new perspectives on evangelical leadership and key insights into why some religious movements thrive while others decline. Holy Mavericksprovides a useful overview of contemporary evangelicalism while emphasizing the importance of "supply-side thinking" in understanding shifts in American religion. It reveals how the Christian world hosts a culture of celebrity very similar to the secular realm, particularly in terms of marketing, branding, and publicity. Holy Mavericksreaffirms that religion is always in conversation with the larger society in which it is embedded, and that it is imperative to understand how those religious suppliers who are able to change with the times will outlast those who are not.}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=OC__qJdUgeMC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Lee S.L. and Sinitiere P.L.} } @article {2702, title = {Media, Racism and Islamophobia: The Representation of Islam and Muslims in the Media}, journal = {Sociology Compass}, year = {2007}, abstract = {This article examines the representation of Islam and Muslims in the British press. It suggests that British Muslims are portrayed as an {\textquoteleft}alien other{\textquoteright} within the media. It suggests that this misrepresenatation can be linked to the development of a {\textquoteleft}racism{\textquoteright}, namely, Islamphobia that has its roots in cultural representations of the {\textquoteleft}other{\textquoteright}. In order to develop this arguement, the article provies a summary/overview of how ethnic minorities have been represented in the British press and argues that the treatment of British Muslims and Islam follows these themes of {\textquoteleft}deviance{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}un-Britishness{\textquoteright}. }, url = {https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229720560_Media_Racism_and_Islamophobia_The_Representation_of_Islam_and_Muslims_in_the_Media}, author = {Saeed, Amir} } @article {1185, title = {The Effects of Religiousity on Internet Consumption}, journal = {Information, Communication \& Society}, year = {2012}, pages = {1-21}, abstract = {The relationship between technology adoption and religion has received scant research attention. The complicated process of Internet use among contemporary religious people is affected by the tension between technological developments and religious beliefs. The current research aims to explore the effects of religiosity on Internet consumption in a newly industrialized Muslim country, Turkey. The study utilized a cross-sectional design based on data from 2,698 subjects, selected by stratified random sampling, covering all 12 regions of the country. By offering an exploratory approach, this study sheds light on how various interpretations of religion enable culture-specific observations on Internet consumption patterns, and its relation with different levels of religiosity. The findings revealed that the level of religiosity has a significant effect on the patterns of Internet consumption.}, keywords = {Internet use, religion, religiousity, social media}, doi = {10.1080/1369118X.2012.722663}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369118X.2012.722663$\#$.UijPtkoo7Mw}, author = {Ozlem Hesapci Sanaktekina and Yonca Aslanbayb and Vehbi Gorguluc} } @article {287, title = {Tweeting Prayers and Communicating Grief over Michael Jackson Online}, journal = { Bulletin of Science, Technology, \& Society}, volume = {30}, year = {2010}, pages = {328-340}, abstract = {Death and bereavement are human experiences that new media helps facilitate alongside creating new social grief practices that occur online. This study investigated how people{\textquoteright}s postings and tweets facilitated the communication of grief after pop music icon Michael Jackson died. Drawing upon past grief research, religion and new media studies, a thematic analysis of 1,046 messages was conducted on three mediated sites (Twitter, TMZ.com, and Facebook). Results suggested that social media served as grieving spaces for people to accept Jackson{\textquoteright}s death rather than denying it or expressing anger over his passing. The findings also illustrate how interactive exchanges online helped recycle news and {\textquotedblleft}resurrected{\textquotedblright} the life of Jackson. Additionally, as fans of deceased celebrities create and disseminate web-based memorials, new social media practices like {\textquotedblleft}Michael Mondays{\textquotedblright} synchronize tweets within everyday life rhythms and foster practices to hasten the grieving process. }, keywords = {blogs, celebrity, internet, microblogging, popular culture, religion, social media}, doi = {10.1177/0270467610380010}, url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com}, author = {Sanderson, James and Pauline Hope Cheong} } @article {204, title = {Tweeting Prayers and Communicating Grief over Michael Jackson Online}, journal = {Bulletin of Science Technology \& Society}, volume = {30}, year = {2010}, pages = {328-340}, abstract = {Death and bereavement are human experiences that new media helps facilitate alongside creating new social grief practices that occur online. This study investigated how people{\textquoteright}s postings and tweets facilitated the communication of grief after pop music icon Michael Jackson died. Drawing on past grief research, religion, and new media studies, a thematic analysis of 1,046 messages was conducted on three mediated sites (Twitter, TMZ.com, and Facebook). Results suggested that social media served as grieving spaces for people to accept Jackson{\textquoteright}s death rather than denying it or expressing anger over his passing. The findings also illustrate how interactive exchanges online helped recycle news and {\textquotedblleft}resurrected{\textquotedblright} the life of Jackson. Additionally, as fans of deceased celebrities create and disseminate web-based memorials, new social media practices such as {\textquotedblleft}Michael Mondays{\textquotedblright} synchronize tweets within everyday life rhythms and foster practices to hasten the grieving process.}, keywords = {Communication, Death, Grief, Social Practices}, url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com/media/DIR_21201/c5be8d3f13534b9ffff86d3ffffe417.pdf}, author = {Sanderson, Jimmy and Pauline Hope Cheong} } @article {1594, title = {La reconstrucci{\'o}n de lo {\textquotedblleft}religioso{\textquotedblright} en la circulaci{\'o}n en redes socio-digitales}, journal = {La Trama de la Comunicaci{\'o}n}, volume = {18}, year = {2014}, chapter = {151}, abstract = {En este art{\'\i}culo, se presenta una reflexi{\'o}n sobre la mediatizaci{\'o}n digital de la religi{\'o}n, fen{\'o}meno socio-comunicacional en que se sit{\'u}a la actual reconstrucci{\'o}n de lo religioso. En sitios cat{\'o}licos brasile{\~n}os, se analiza el desv{\'\i}o de la pr{\'a}ctica de la fe al ambiente online a partir de l{\'o}gicas medi{\'a}ticas, los llamados rituales online, que complejizan el fen{\'o}meno religioso y las procesualidades comunicacionales. Se describen tres modalidades de oferta y apropiaci{\'o}n de lo sagrado: la inter faz interaccional, las interacciones discursivas y las interacciones rituales. A partir de esas nuevas modalidades de percepci{\'o}n y de expresi{\'o}n de lo sagrado, se analizan las pr{\'a}cticas de instituciones sociales como la Iglesia y la sociedad en general al hablar p{\'u}blicamente sobre lo religioso en las redes digitales {\textendash} en este caso, lo {\textquotedblleft}cat{\'o}lico{\textquotedblright}, es decir, constructos simb{\'o}licos que la sociedad considera como vinculados a la doctrina y tradici{\'o}n de la Iglesia Cat{\'o}lica-. Se analizan, entonces, los conceptos de reconexi{\'o}n y dispositivos conexiales. Como conclusi{\'o}n, se afirma que, en esa reconstrucci{\'o}n de lo {\textquotedblleft}cat{\'o}lico{\textquotedblright}, surge una religiosidad en experimentaci{\'o}n marcada por e-rej{\'\i}as, o sea, nuevos sentidos simb{\'o}licos de lo religioso en red, {\textquotedblleft}bricolajes de la fe{\textquotedblright} en el ambiente digital. This article presents a reflection on the digital mediatization of religion, socio-communicational phenomenon in which stands the current reconstruction of the religious. In Brazilian Catholic sites, it analyzes the displacement of the practice of the faith to the online environment based on mediatic logics, the so-called rituals online, that turn the religious phenomena and the communication processualities more complex. It describes three forms of of fer and appropriation of the sacred: the interactional inter face, the discursive interactions and the ritual interactions. From these new modes of perception and expression of the sacred, it analyses practices of social institutions as the Church and society in general to speak publicly about religion in digital networks {\textendash} in this case, the {\textquotedblleft}Catholic{\textquotedblright}, ie symbolic constructs that society considers as linked to the doctrine and tradition of the Catholic Church. It then discusses the concepts of reconnection and connectial devices. In conclusion, it is stated that in the reconstruction of the {\textquotedblleft}Catholic{\textquotedblright} arises a religiosity in experimentation marked by e-resies, ie new symbolic meanings of the networked religious, {\textquotedblleft}bricolages of faith{\textquotedblright} in the digital environment.}, keywords = {Catholic Church, Catholicism, circulation, connectial dispositifs, mediatization, mediatization of religion, reconnections, socio-digital networks}, issn = {1668-5628}, url = {http://www.latrama.fcpolit.unr.edu.ar/index.php/trama/article/view/472}, author = {Mois{\'e}s Sbardelotto} } @article {1593, title = {The Sacred in Bits and Pixels: An Analysis of the Interactional Interface in Brazilian Catholic Online Rituals}, journal = {Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture (JRMDC)}, volume = {3}, year = {2014}, chapter = {82}, abstract = {Through digital technologies, a new form of communicational interaction between the user and the sacred occurs in an online religious experience. This phenomenon is illustrated in practice by numerous religious services present in the online Catholic environment, which manifest new modes of discourse and religious practices, beyond the scope of the traditional church {\textendash} what I term here {\textquotedblleft}online rituals{\textquotedblright} {\textendash} marked by a process of mediatization of religion. In this paper, from a corpus of four Brazilian websites, I analyze key concepts for the understanding of this phenomenon, including digital mediatization and interface. I examine, in these Brazilian Catholic websites, the communicational configurations of the religious experience from five areas of the interactional interface: the screen; peripherals; the organizational structure of content on websites; the graphic composition of the webpages; and possible interface failures. Finally, I examine a shift in the communicational dynamics of religion today, marked by new materialities present in online religious rituals.}, keywords = {Brazil, Catholic Church, Catholicism, Interaction, interface, internet, mediatization, mediatization of religion, online rituals, religion, technology}, issn = {2165-9214}, url = {http://jrmdc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Sbardelotto-Catholic-Sacred.pdf}, author = {Mois{\'e}s Sbardelotto} } @article {468, title = {{\textquoteright}E o Verbo se fez bit{\textquoteright}: Uma an{\'a}lise da experi{\^e}ncia religiosa na internet}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Com a manifesta{\c c}{\~a}o de um fen{\^o}meno de apropria{\c c}{\~a}o da Internet por parte das institui{\c c}{\~o}es religiosas cat{\'o}licas, este texto busca analisar o funcionamento das intera{\c c}{\~o}es entre fiel-Igreja-Deus para a viv{\^e}ncia, a pr{\'a}tica e a experi{\^e}ncia da f{\'e} nos rituais online do ambiente digital cat{\'o}lico brasileiro. Examina-se particularmente, por meio de uma metodologia anal{\'\i}tica qualitativa, fundamentada nas contribui{\c c}{\~o}es do pensamento sist{\^e}mico e complexo, um corpus de pesquisa de quatro sites cat{\'o}licos: CatolicaNet, Irm{\~a}s Ap{\'o}stolas do Sagrado Cora{\c c}{\~a}o de Jesus {\textendash} Prov{\'\i}ncia do Paran{\'a}, A12 e Pe. Reginaldo Manzotti. Perscruta-se, assim, que religi{\~a}o resulta dessa manifesta{\c c}{\~a}o de pr{\'a}ticas religiosas a partir do emprego e da atividade dos meios digitais, com o objetivo de colaborar com a an{\'a}lise das primeiras consequ{\^e}ncias diretas que esse fen{\^o}meno est{\'a} trazendo para a religi{\~a}o e, particularmente, para a Igreja Cat{\'o}lica como a conhecemos hoje. A partir de uma leitura de alguns estudos que abordam a interface entre comunica{\c c}{\~a}o e fen{\^o}meno religioso na Internet, reflete-se sobre alguns conceitos e perspectivas de an{\'a}lise para a investiga{\c c}{\~a}o dos sites cat{\'o}licos institucionais brasileiros, como a midiatiza{\c c}{\~a}o digital do sistema religioso; a quest{\~a}o da t{\'e}cnica transformada em meio; novas modalidades de experiencia{\c c}{\~a}o; e novas configura{\c c}{\~o}es de tempo-espa{\c c}o-materialidades na experi{\^e}ncia religiosa do fiel-internauta. Em seguida, descrevem-se tr{\^e}s modalidades de estrat{\'e}gias de oferta de sagrado por parte do sistema e de apropria{\c c}{\~a}o por parte do fiel nos sites cat{\'o}licos brasileiros, a partir de infer{\^e}ncias obtidas em nosso corpus de pesquisa: os n{\'\i}veis tecnol{\'o}gico e simb{\'o}lico da interface interacional; quatro fluxos de intera{\c c}{\~o}es discursivas; e dois fluxos, com dois subfluxos cada, de intera{\c c}{\~o}es rituais. Como pistas de conclus{\~a}o, aponta-se que, por meio dessas estrat{\'e}gias interacionais, a religi{\~a}o que nasce no ambiente online {\'e} vivenciada, praticada e experienciada por meio de novas temporalidades, novas espacialidades, novas materialidades, novas discursividades e novas ritualidades marcadas pelos protocolos e processualidades da Internet.}, keywords = {Interaction, internet, mediatization, religion, system}, isbn = {1806-003X}, url = {http://www.ihu.unisinos.br/images/stories/cadernos/ihu/035cadernosihu.pdf}, author = {Mois{\'e}s Sbardelotto} } @article {1312, title = {Close Ties, Intercessory Prayer, and Optimism Among American Adults: Locating God in the Social Support Network}, journal = {Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion}, volume = {52}, year = {2013}, chapter = {35}, abstract = {Prayer is often an interpersonal phenomenon. It represents not only a form of social support shared between or among people, but also a means of embedding an unobservable actor (God) within a conventionally observable social network. This study considers whether the receipt of intercessory prayer from close network ties is associated with future-oriented well-being. Analyses use social network module data from the Portraits of American Life Study (PALS), a nationally representative study of American adults containing a breadth of information not available in prior studies of networks, prayer, and well-being. Despite experiencing more instances of recent adversity (mental or physical health problem, financial trouble, and unemployment), prayed-for PALS respondents report the highest levels of optimism. Furthermore, the association between network prayer and optimism is robust to inclusion of individual-level indicators of religiosity. Finally, other forms of social support that an individual receives from his or her close ties do not explain the benefits of intercessory prayer.}, keywords = {intercession, offline, optimism, Prayer, religion, social networks, social support, well-being}, url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jssr.12010/abstract}, author = {Markus H. Schafer} } @inbook {1179, title = {Hindu Worship Online and Offline}, booktitle = {Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds}, year = {2013}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, chapter = {8}, keywords = {cyberspace, Hindu, New Media and Society, New Technology and Society, Religion and the Internet, religious engagement, Sociology of religion}, author = {Heinz Scheifinger} } @article {65, title = {Internet Threats to Hindu Authority: Puja Ordering Websites and the Kalighat Temple}, journal = {Asian Journal of Social Science}, year = {2009}, abstract = {This article investigates threats to authority within Hinduism as a result of the Internet. It focuses upon websites which allow for pujas (devotional rituals) to be ordered to be carried out at the important Kalighat Temple in Kolkata. The two groups which currently exercise authority at the temple are identified, along with the specific forms of authority which they exercise. The processes which are occurring as a result of the puja ordering websites and the activities of those responsible for them are then demonstrated. The argument put forward is that, in addition to the puja ordering services being a threat to both the authority of the temple administration and the priests working there, they also have the potential to affect the relationship between these two groups. Findings from the Kalighat Temple case study further suggest that the effects at temples of online puja ordering services are dependent upon the current situation at respective temples.}, keywords = {Authority, Hinduism, internet, Kalighat Temple, Puja ordering websites, Pujas}, url = {http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/saj/2010/00000038/00000004/art00007}, author = {Heinz Scheifinger} } @inbook {2121, title = {The Significance of Non-Participatory Digital Religion}, booktitle = {Digital Hinduism: Dharma and Discourse in the Age of New Media}, year = {2017}, publisher = {Lexington Books}, organization = {Lexington Books}, chapter = {1}, abstract = {This edited volume seeks to build a scholarly discourse about how Hinduism is being defined, reformed, and rearticulated in the digital era and how these changes are impacting the way Hindus view their own religious identities. It seeks to interrogate how digital Hinduism has been shaped in response to the dominant framing of the religion, which has often relied on postcolonial narratives devoid of context and an overemphasis on the geopolitics of the Indian subcontinent post-partition. From this perspective, this volume challenges previous frameworks of how Hinduism has been studied, particularly in the West, where Marxist and Orientalist approaches are often ill-fitting paradigms to understanding Hinduism. This volume engages with and critiques some of these approaches while also enriching existing models of research within media studies, ethnography, cultural studies, and religion.}, keywords = {Digital Religion, Hinduism, non-participatory}, issn = {978-1498559171}, url = {https://books.google.com/books?hl=en\&lr=\&id=irNFDwAAQBAJ\&oi=fnd\&pg=PA3\&ots=dYssx4peYU\&sig=sbJlVpGgZujcmVRVHwctsemfhWk$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Scheifinger, H} } @mastersthesis {50, title = {Conceptualising Hinduism}, volume = {PhD}, year = {2009}, month = {March 2009}, school = {Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore}, address = {Singapore}, abstract = {There is not a homogenous religion that can be referred to as Hinduism. Instead, {\textquoteleft}Hinduism{\textquoteright} encompasses a diverse range of practices, beliefs, and groups that can be subsumed under the term {\textquoteleft}Hindu.{\textquoteright} Despite this, Hinduism is often used in both popular and academic works to refer to a religion that is comparable to, for example, Christianity or Islam. This is clearly highly problematic. In this paper I show that although there is certainly not a homogenous religion that can be referred to as Hinduism, the use of the term is still acceptable. However, use of the term demands that it is adequately conceptualized. With such a conceptualization, the term can be used with confidence. After I have shown that the term {\textquoteleft}Hinduism{\textquoteright} should be retained, I want to briefly consider aspects of Hinduism in the light of key ideas in the work of Baudrillard. The reason for this is that Baudrillard has interesting things to say regarding the nature of images and the image is of extreme importance within Hinduism. Furthermore, it is worthwhile considering Baudrillard{\textquoteright}s ideas in the light of Hindu images because in his work {\textquoteleft}Simulacra and Simulations{\textquoteright} he makes specific reference to religious images. I will argue that his conclusions regarding religious images are not universal and are highly questionable when applied to Hinduism. Finally, despite my reservations concerning the applicability of Baudrillardian ideas to Hinduism, I consider online images of Hindu deities in the light of the theory of simulacra. This is because there does not appear to be a strong link between the medium of the Internet and Baudrillard{\textquoteright}s notion of hyper-real simulacra. However, I can conclude that replicated images of Hindu deities on the WWW are no more hyper-real than their original counterparts.}, url = {http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/docs/wps/wps09_110.pdf}, author = {Heinz Scheifinger} } @inbook {166, title = {Israel: Chutzpah and Chatter in the Holy Land}, booktitle = {Perpetual Contact. Mobile Communication Private Talk, Public Performance}, year = {2002}, pages = {30-41}, publisher = {Cambridge University Press}, organization = {Cambridge University Press}, address = {Cambridge, UK}, url = {http://pennstate.academia.edu/AmitSchejter/Papers/959184/Israel_chutzpah_and_chatter_in_the_Holy_Land}, author = {Schejter, Amit and Cohen, Akiba} } @inbook {392, title = {Religion and the information society}, booktitle = {Religion and Mass Media: Audiences and Adaptations }, year = {1996}, pages = {261-289}, publisher = {Thousand Oaks, Ca}, organization = {Thousand Oaks, Ca}, address = {Sage Publications}, abstract = {How do religious audiences react to and use the media? How do institutional religious influences and expectations affect how they experience media news and entertainment? Drawing on theory and empirical research, contributors to Religion and Mass Media explore these questions from Jewish, Roman Catholic, Evangelical, Protestant, Fundamentalist and Mormon audience perspectives. The book looks at recent theoretical developments in the sociology of religion and communication theory; offers an overview of specific religious beliefs; examines audience behaviour; and describes specific case studies including the use of gospel rap and contemporary music in black religious communities.}, url = {http://eatemadifard.blogfa.com/post-1.aspx}, author = {Schement, J.R and Stephenson H.C.} } @article {393, title = {Listening Communities? Some Remarks on the Construction of Religious Authority in Islamic Podcasts}, journal = {Die Welt des Islams}, volume = {48}, year = {2008}, pages = {457-509}, abstract = {n the context of the vivid activity of Muslim individuals and groups on the Internet and the recent technological developments in the field of computer mediated communication, podcasts offering a wide range of religious information and/or advice to Muslim (and non-Muslim) listeners play an increasingly important role. Being an integral part of the Web 2.0{\textquoteright}s online landscape and presenting, at the same time, many characteristics of more {\textquotedblleft}traditional{\textquotedblright} audio media such as cassette recordings, podcasts cannot only be located at the intersection between virtual space and {\textquotedblleft}real world{\textquotedblright}, but represent, as a medium, also a direct continuation of older forms of Muslim media usage for da{\textquoteright}wa-purposes and propagandistic aims. This article attempts to analyze in how far the use of podcasts (and to a smaller extent of videocasts) by Muslim groups and individuals contributes to the emergence of a Muslim online {\textquotedblleft}counter public{\textquotedblright} sometimes challenging, sometimes reinforcing existing authority structures. Special attention is paid to the question which means and features specific to this new medium Muslim podcasters use to legitimize their religious authority, and to the question in how far established symbol systems commonly relied upon in the Muslim community are used as instruments for the construction of religious online authority and the redistribution of Definitionsmacht. Furthermore, it discusses to what extent questions of {\textquotedblleft}right belief{\textquotedblright} and {\textquotedblleft}correct religious practice{\textquotedblright} play a role in these processes. For this purpose, style and content of four selected podcasts (Zaytuna Institute Knowledge Resource Podcast, MeccaOne Media Podcast, Ahmadiyya Podcast, Alt.muslim Review) are analyzed in order to illustrate different ways in which this new medium is used by Muslim groups today. It is shown that podcasts{\textemdash}as part of the overall media spectrum{\textemdash}are used by Muslim groups for internal and external da{\textquoteright}wa-purposes, as well as for the reinforcement of existing power and authority structures (e.g. by projecting the presence of the group{\textquoteright}s leader both into time and into space) and as a means to cope with institutional and communal crisis. They might also become an important instrument not for the (re-)construction, but for the deconstruction of religious authority.}, keywords = {community, Islam, Podcast}, url = {http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/dwi/2008/00000048/F0020003/art00007?token=00561dd544be1455875dd67232d45232b4624736a4d3b2046287a743568293c6c567e504f58762f460c793}, author = {Scholz, J. and Selge, T. and Stille, M. and Zimmerman, J.} } @article {205, title = {The Sacred and the Virtual: Religion in Multi-User Virtual Reality}, journal = {Journal of Computer Mediated Communication }, volume = {4}, year = {1994}, abstract = {This paper explores the social interaction among participants in a church service in an online multi-user virtual reality (VR) environment. It examines some of the main features of prayer meetings in a religiously-oriented virtual world and also what sets this world apart from other virtual worlds. Next, it examines some of the issues of research ethics and methods that are raised in the study of online behavior in virtual worlds. The paper then analyzes the text exchanges between participants in a virtual church service and some of the ways in which these compare with the content of a conventional church service. Finally, the paper draws out some implications for our understanding of the relation between interaction in the virtual and in the {\textquotedblleft}real{\textquotedblright} world.}, keywords = {Church, Interaction, Sacred, Virtual}, url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1998.tb00092.x/full}, author = {Schroeder, Ralph and Heather, Noel and Lee, Raymond M.} } @book {1249, title = {Christianity and the mass media in America : toward a democratic accommodation}, series = {Rhetoric and public affairs series.}, year = {2003}, publisher = {East Lansing, Mich. : Michigan State University Press}, organization = {East Lansing, Mich. : Michigan State University Press}, abstract = {Demonstrates how religion and the media in America have borrowed each other{\textquoteright}s rhetoric. In the process, they have also helped to keep each other honest, pointing out respective foibles and pretensions. Christian media have offered the public as well as religious tribes some of the best media criticism - better than most of the media criticism produced by mainstream media themselves. Meanwhile, mainstream media have rightly taken particular churches to task for misdeeds as well as offered some surprisingly good depictions of religious life}, keywords = {America, Christian media, communication research, media, media criticism, religion, religious life, Religious sociology, rhetoric}, url = {http://www.worldcat.org/title/christianity-and-the-mass-media-in-america-toward-a-democratic-accommodation/oclc/53045150/editions?referer=di\&editionsView=true}, author = {Quentin J Schultze} } @book {167, title = {Habits of the High-Tech Heart. }, year = {2002}, publisher = {Baker Academic}, organization = {Baker Academic}, address = {Grand Rapids, MI}, url = {http://www.acton.org/sites/v4.acton.org/files/pdf/6.1.264-266.REVIEW.Schultze,\%20Quentin--Habits\%20of\%20the\%20High-Tech\%20Heart.pdf}, author = {Schultze, Quentin} } @book {schulz2011muslims, title = {Muslims and New Media in West Africa: Pathways to God}, year = {2011}, publisher = {Indiana University Press}, organization = {Indiana University Press}, isbn = {9780253223623}, url = {http://books.google.com.au/books?id=9mQdb6Exta4C}, author = {Schulz, D.E.} } @article {2734, title = {Algorithmic Absolution: The Case of Catholic Confessional Apps}, journal = {Online - Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet}, year = {2016}, abstract = {This article explores the Catholic ritual of confession as practiced through the use of mobile apps. Confession is a surprisingly persistent social form and in this article I begin by contextualising the relationship between society, confession and technology before presenting a case study of Catholic confessional apps that covers their design, marketing, and user feedback from review forums. This throws up a series of important questions about how we understand religious authenticity and authority in practices of faith that have a computational agent taking moral deviations as {\textquoteleft}data input{\textquoteright}. How should we conceptualise these applications when an algorithm imparts absolution, when penance is assigned by computational code? Observing that most people do not question the automation of the confessional ritual and that users feel their use of confessional apps as entirely legitimate forms of religious practice, I argue that questions of authenticity are secondary to those of authority. In the traditional Sacrament of Penance a priest, acting in persona Christi as the minister of Christ{\textquoteright}s mercy and drawing upon canonical law, recites the Rites of Penance, thereby performing the transition from the state of {\textquoteleft}penitent{\textquoteright} to {\textquoteleft}absolved{\textquoteright}. The replacement of a priest with the silent logics of algorithmic automation has profound implications for the authoritative power of confession as a transformative ritual.}, url = {https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/religions/article/view/23634}, author = {Scott, Sasha A. Q.} } @article {2088, title = {Gender, religion and new media: attitudes and behaviors related to the internet among Ultra-Orthodox women employed in computerized environments}, journal = {International Journal of Communication System~}, volume = {5}, year = {2011}, pages = {875{\textendash}895}, abstract = {This article focuses on the interface between gender, religion, and new technology, and examines the attitudes and behaviors pertaining to the Internet among ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) women working in designated {\textquotedblleft}technological hothouses.{\textquotedblright} }, keywords = {GENDER, internet, New Media, religion, ultra Orthodox, Women}, url = {https://hcommons.org/deposits/objects/hc:18004/datastreams/CONTENT/content}, author = {Shahar, RNB and Lev-On, A} } @mastersthesis {42, title = {The Bible on the Internet}, year = {2008}, month = {April 2008}, school = {Washington and Lee University}, address = {Lexington, Virginia}, abstract = {For centuries, different groups have read the Bible as a closed system or as open system. The {\textquotedblleft}closedness{\textquotedblright} or {\textquotedblleft}openness{\textquotedblright} of the Bible depends on how different religious communities treat, approach, and use the Bible. Churches that apply many of the characteristics of stable systems to the Bible promote or favor less open readings; churches with many of the characteristics of complex systems allow for more open readings. The Internet, itself a complex system, seems to favor an open reading of the Bible, offering the ability to move instantly from passage to passage or passage to commentary, an overwhelming amount of additional information and context, and a sense of interactivity all at once. In this paper, the author will discuss each of instance in the history of the Bible that gave rise to a more open perspective of on the text as well as use web sites to demonstrate how the digitalization of the Bible relates back historical movements towards open reading. It will also include exceptions to the openness the Internet invites, showing how digital technology can also be used to maintain hierarchical, stable systems and keep the Bible closed. Though the digital Bible may share characteristics with the previous versions, it ultimately marks a unique setting for biblical text and readers. Because the Bible serves as Christianity{\textquoteright}s central text, reading it online could have broader implications for Christians. The sacred experience or sacred mystery associated with the physical book of the Bible, as a holy object, may be lost in the Internet{\textquoteright}s timelessness and placelessness, which makes biblical text universally accessible. Or, this sense of sacred may be enhanced by the infiniteness the Internet, where meaning can emerge out of individual choices made within a complex system.}, url = {http://religion.wlu.edu/shellnutt/links.html}, author = {Kathryn Shellnutt} } @article {629, title = {The Technology of Religion: Mapping Religious Cyberscapes}, journal = {The Professional Geographer }, volume = {64}, year = {2012}, pages = {602-617}, abstract = {This article combines geographical studies of both the Internet and religion in an analysis of where and how a variety of religious practices are represented in geotagged Web content. This method provides needed insight into the geography of virtual expressions of religion and highlights the mutually constitutive, and at times contradictory, relationship between the virtual and material dimensions of religious expression. By using the spatialities of religious practice and contestation as an example, this article argues that mappings of virtual representations of material practices are important tools for understanding how online activities simultaneously represent and reproduce the material world.}, keywords = {cyberscapes, geography, internet, religion}, doi = {10.1080/00330124.2011.614571}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00330124.2011.614571}, author = {Shelton, Taylor}, editor = {Zook, Matthew} } @inbook {2156, title = {The People of the Nook: Jewish Use of the Internet}, booktitle = {The Changing World Religion Map}, year = {2015}, pages = {3831-3856}, publisher = {Springer}, organization = {Springer}, address = {Dordrecht}, abstract = {Considered both an ethnic group and a religious group, there are about 13{\textendash}14 million Jews worldwide (0.2 \% of the population). The 6.7 million Jews in the U.S. constitute about 2 \% of the American population. Internet usage by the American Jewish community is significant as an educational resource and a communication tool. As early as 2000, the National Jewish Population Survey found that 40 \% of Jewish adults used the internet for Jewish-related information in 1999, a remarkable figure given that the internet only really entered the public domain in a significant way in the mid-1990s. Thus, the {\textquotedblleft}People of the Book{\textquotedblright} have embraced technology to become the {\textquotedblleft}People of the Nook.{\textquotedblright} First, we examine those using the internet both for general information about Jewish-related items and their local Jewish communities. The extent to which various demographic and religious subgroups of American Jews use the internet is also explored. Second, internet uses are examined, including educational purposes, ritual obligations (z{\textquoteright}manim, counting the Omer, eruvim, electronic Yahrtzeit boards), convening a minyan, and conducting research. From the proliferation of mobile applications and web-based communication tools to the ever-growing storehouse of information, modern technology has made a significant imprint upon Jewish religious practice. The internet continues to play an important and positive role in Jewish religious life, as both an educational medium and a tool for performing religious tasks. Judaism, like other faiths, puts significant emphasis on community and physical proximity. The use of the internet to form a community by overcoming geographic space at almost no cost is an exciting opportunity allowing people to participate who might otherwise be unable because of time and cost constraints or physical limitations. But does this community downplay the physical proximity that allows one to comfort a mourner by a hug or a pat on the back?}, keywords = {internet, Jewish}, issn = {978-94-017-9375-9}, url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-9376-6_202$\#$citeas}, author = {Sheskin, I and Liben, M} } @article {3010, title = {Algorithmic culture}, journal = {European Journal of Cultural Studies}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Over the last 30 years or so, human beings have been delegating the work of culture {\textendash} the sorting, classifying and hierarchizing of people, places, objects and ideas {\textendash} increasingly to computational processes. Such a shift significantly alters how the category culture has long been practiced, experienced and understood, giving rise to what, following Alexander Galloway, I am calling {\textquoteleft}algorithmic culture{\textquoteright}. The purpose of this essay is to trace some of the conceptual conditions out of which algorithmic culture has emerged and, in doing so, to offer a preliminary treatment on what it is. In the vein of Raymond Williams{\textquoteright} Keywords, I single out three terms whose bearing on the meaning of the word culture seems to have been unusually strong during the period in question: information, crowd and algorithm. My claim is that the offloading of cultural work onto computers, databases and other types of digital technologies has prompted a reshuffling of some of the words most closely associated with culture, giving rise to new senses of the term that may be experientially available but have yet to be well named, documented or recorded. This essay, though largely historical, concludes by connecting the dots critically to the present day. What is at stake in algorithmic culture is the gradual abandonment of culture{\textquoteright}s publicness and the emergence of a strange new breed of elite culture purporting to be its opposite.}, url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1367549415577392}, author = {Shifas, T.} } @article {3009, title = {Algorithmic culture}, journal = {European Journal of Cultural Studies}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Over the last 30 years or so, human beings have been delegating the work of culture {\textendash} the sorting, classifying and hierarchizing of people, places, objects and ideas {\textendash} increasingly to computational processes. Such a shift significantly alters how the category culture has long been practiced, experienced and understood, giving rise to what, following Alexander Galloway, I am calling {\textquoteleft}algorithmic culture{\textquoteright}. The purpose of this essay is to trace some of the conceptual conditions out of which algorithmic culture has emerged and, in doing so, to offer a preliminary treatment on what it is. In the vein of Raymond Williams{\textquoteright} Keywords, I single out three terms whose bearing on the meaning of the word culture seems to have been unusually strong during the period in question: information, crowd and algorithm. My claim is that the offloading of cultural work onto computers, databases and other types of digital technologies has prompted a reshuffling of some of the words most closely associated with culture, giving rise to new senses of the term that may be experientially available but have yet to be well named, documented or recorded. This essay, though largely historical, concludes by connecting the dots critically to the present day. What is at stake in algorithmic culture is the gradual abandonment of culture{\textquoteright}s publicness and the emergence of a strange new breed of elite culture purporting to be its opposite.}, url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1367549415577392}, author = {Shifas, T.} } @article {3011, title = {Speculative post on the idea of algorithmic authority }, year = {2009}, url = {https://stoweboyd.typepad.com/message/2009/11/a-speculative-post-on-the-idea-of-algorithmic-authority-clay-shirky.html}, author = {Shirky, C. A.} } @inbook {3012, title = {Information and communication technologies and the moral economy of the household}, booktitle = {Consuming technologies: Media and information}, year = {1992}, abstract = {This paper, which draws on ongoing empirical work in the UK, considers the particular dynamics of time within domestic settings. It situates those dynamics within arguments that have drawn attention to the power of the new information and communication technologies to transform our perceptions of, and relations to, time (and space). It suggests that an understanding of the patterns of everyday life, both inside and outside the home, provides a basis for a more sensitive awareness of the complex patterns of temporality which emerge around the consumption of new media technologies.}, url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0961463X93002003001}, author = {Silverstone, R. and Hirsch, E. and Morley, D.} } @inbook {3013, title = {Design \& domestication of ICTs: Technical change and everyday life}, booktitle = {Communicating by design: The politics of information and communication technologies}, year = {1996}, publisher = {Oxford University Press. }, organization = {Oxford University Press. }, address = {Oxford}, url = {https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239065099_Design_and_the_Domestication_of_Information_and_Communication_Technologies_Technical_Change_and_Everyday_Life}, author = {Silverstone, R. H. L.} } @article {2787, title = {Lost in translation? The emergence of the digital Guru Granth Sahib}, journal = {Sikh Formations}, year = {2018}, abstract = {This article explores the impact of the digital online environment on the religious lives of Sikhs with a particular focus on the emergence of the {\textquoteleft}Digital Guru{\textquoteright}, i.e. digital versions of the Guru Granth Sahib. Using data gathered through interviews and an online survey, I examine how the {\textquoteleft}Digital Guru{\textquoteright} is impacting on the transmission of the Sikh tradition and on Sikh religious authority. I then explore some of the issues faced in engaging with the {\textquoteleft}Digital Guru{\textquoteright} and the consequences of the emergence of online translations. Given that {\textquoteleft}going online{\textquoteright} has become an everyday practice for many, this article contributes to understandings of the impact of the online environment on the religious adherents in general, and on Sikhs in particular.}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17448727.2018.1485355?journalCode=rsfo20}, author = {Singh, Jasjit} } @inbook {660, title = {Global Sikh-ers: Transnational Learning Practices of Young British Sikhs}, booktitle = {Sikhs Across Borders Transnational Practices of European Sikhs}, year = {2012}, pages = {167-192}, publisher = {Bloomsbury}, organization = {Bloomsbury}, chapter = {9}, address = {London}, issn = {9781441113870}, author = {Singh, Jasjit} } @inbook {2081, title = {Young Sikhs religious engagement online}, booktitle = {Digital methodologies in the sociology of religion~}, year = {2016}, pages = {83{\textendash}96}, publisher = {Bloomsbury Publishing}, organization = {Bloomsbury Publishing}, address = {London, England}, abstract = {This volume considers the implementation difficulties of researching religion online and reflects on the ethical dilemmas faced by sociologists of religion when using digital research methods.}, keywords = {Online, religious, Sikhs}, issn = {9781472571182}, url = {https://books.google.com/books?id=O_5kCgAAQBAJ\&pg=PA83\&lpg=PA83\&dq=Young+Sikhs+religious+engagement+online\&source=bl\&ots=HRCrNq_OUx\&sig=kNvWujFL9DXVg0ikGZLYFQcCIwY\&hl=en\&sa=X\&ved=0ahUKEwjNzoaxldzbAhUDSa0KHc0fCokQ6AEIQDAD$\#$v=onepage\&q=Young\%20Sikhs\%20religi}, author = {Singh, J} } @mastersthesis {43, title = {Identity and Community in the Weblogs of Muslim Women of Middle Easter n and North African Descent Living in the United States}, volume = {xxxx}, year = {2006}, month = {2006}, pages = {xxxx}, school = {University of Florida}, address = {Gainesville, Florida}, abstract = {In recent years, media attention in the United States increasingly has turned to Arabs and Muslims. But few of the voices speaking are those of the people in question. Muslim women, especially, are seldom heard in the mainstream. However, many of them are speaking, telling their stories to audiences large and small through new technology on the Internet. Weblogs, online personal journals, allow anyone with access to the Internet to become a published author. These sites of dialogue and intimate revelation offer unique insights into their authors{\textquoteright} lives. In this thesis, in-depth qualitative textual analysis was used to examine the weblogs of six Muslim women of Middle Eastern or North African descent (MMENA) living in the United States and writing in English to understand how they use their blogs to negotiate identity and create community. Intercultural communication theories (specifically Ting-Toomey{\textquoteright}s identity negotiation theory, Hofstede{\textquoteright}s cultural dimensions, and Tajfel{\textquoteright}s social identity theory), computer-mediated communication theories, and existing literature on Muslim women were all incorporated. The women addressed identity within several different areas, in each one displaying a {\textquotedblleft}paradox of identity{\textquotedblright}: what Edward Said also called {\textquotedblleft}plurality of vision{\textquotedblright} or {\textquotedblleft}a constant contest between cultures.{\textquotedblright} They were aware of more than one culture (that of mainstream United States and the culture of their heritage), were fully part of neither of them, and fully felt the dissonances between them. This conflict was strengthened by their membership in a culture currently faced with prejudice from United States culture as a whole. Their blogs seemed to be a kind of identity workshop, a fluid space between the different aspects of who they are. Within them, they negotiated personal identity, gender identity, and cultural/ethnic identity. They built two kinds of community through their blogs: that which was based on face-to-face relationships and was an extension of everyday interactions, and that which was based primarily on computer-mediated interactions. The blogs all displayed, to some extent, a "sense of community" involving feelings of membership, the fulfillment of needs, and a shared emotional connection. This is the first study to address MMENA women in relation to their use of blogs. The paradox of identity the women experienced is important to understand in the context of today{\textquoteright}s society in the US. It appears that outsiders{\textquoteright} perceptions of MMENA Americans have a great impact on these women, perhaps greater than they would have on women of different backgrounds, because of their high level of communalism and their status as female members of a non-dominant group within the US.}, url = {http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0014380/sink_a.pdf}, author = {Ashley Dyess Sink} } @article {2129, title = {Creating a Place of Prayer for the {\textquoteright}Other{\textquoteright}: A Comparative Case Study in Wales Exploring the Effects of Re-shaping Congregational Space in an Anglican Cathedral}, journal = {Journal of Empirical Theology}, volume = {30}, year = {2017}, pages = {218-235}, abstract = {Provision of spaces for personal prayer and reflection has become a common phenomenon within historic churches and cathedrals in England and Wales, offering an example of devotional activity that operates largely outside that of traditional gathered congregations, but also in relationship with them. Over the past decade, the apSAFIP (the ap Si{\^o}n Analytic Framework for Intercessory Prayer) has been employed to examine the content of personal prayer requests left in various church-related locations, mapping similarities and differences in pray-ers{\textquoteright} concerns. Building on this research tradition, the present study examines whether changes to physical environment in an Anglican cathedral in Wales has an effect on the personal prayer activity occurring within it, with a particular focus on intercessory prayer requests.}, keywords = {Anglican Cathedral, Prayer, theology, World Christianity}, url = {http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15709256-12341356}, author = {ap Si{\^o}n, T} } @inbook {268, title = {Representation and Self-Representation: Arabs and Muslims in Digital Games}, booktitle = {Gaming Realities: A Challenge for Digital Culture}, year = {2006}, pages = {85 - 92}, abstract = {This paper presents the ways in which Muslims and Arabs are represented in mainstream European and American digital games. It analyzes how games {\textemdash} particularly of the action genre {\textemdash} construct the Arab or Muslim {\textquoteleft}Other.{\textquoteright} Within these games, one finds the diverse ethnic and religious identities of the Islamic world reconstructed into a series of flat social typologies, often presented within the framework of hostility and terrorism. The second part of the paper deals with selected digital games created in the Middle East, whose authors are knowingly working with the topic of self-representation. Recent digital games originating in the Middle East can be perceived as examples of an ongoing digital emancipation taking place through the distribution of media images and their corresponding meanings. A key part of this ongoing digital emancipation involves the construction of Arab and Islamic heroes, a process accomplished by exploiting distinctive narrative structures and references to Islamic cultural heritage.}, url = {http://www.digitalislam.eu/article.do?articleId=1423}, author = {Sisler, Vit} } @article {267, title = {Digital Arabs: Representation in Video Games}, journal = {European Journal of Cultural Studies}, volume = {11}, year = {2008}, pages = {203-220}, abstract = {This article presents the ways in which Muslims and Arabs are represented and represent themselves in video games. First, it analyses how various genres of European and American video games have constructed the Arab or Muslim Other. Within these games, it demonstrates how the diverse ethnic and religious identities of the Islamic world have been flattened out and reconstructed into a series of social typologies operating within a broader framework of terrorism and hostility. It then contrasts these broader trends in western digital representation with selected video games produced in the Arab world, whose authors have knowingly subverted and refashioned these stereotypes in two unique and quite different fashions. In conclusion, it considers the significance of western attempts to transcend simplified patterns of representation that have dominated the video game industry by offering what are known as {\textquoteright}serious{\textquoteright} games.}, url = {http://ecs.sagepub.com/content/11/2/203.abstract}, author = {Sisler, Vit} } @article {2750, title = {Procedural religion: Methodological reflections on studying religion in video games}, journal = {New Media \& Society}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The article discusses the methodological aspects of studying religion in video games. It examines the concept of {\textquotedblleft}procedural religion,{\textquotedblright} that is, the representations of religion via rule-systems in games, and investigates how we can formally analyze these representations. The article uses Petri Nets, a mathematical and a graphical tool for modeling, analyzing, and designing discrete event systems, in order to analyze how religion is represented in the rule-systems of two different mainstream video games{\textemdash}Age of Empires II, developed in the United States, and Quraish, developed in Syria. By comparing the rule-systems of both games, the article provides empirical evidence on how game rule-systems migrate between cultures and influence local game production by providing local game developers with pre-defined formulas for expressing their ideas while simultaneously limiting the scope of such expression with schematized patterns. On a more general level, the article discusses what rule-system analysis can tell us about video games as cultural and religious artifacts.}, url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444816649923?journalCode=nmsa}, author = {Sisler, Vit} } @article {266, title = {Palestine in Pixels: The Holy Land, Arab-Israeli Conflict, and Reality Construction in Video Games}, journal = {Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication}, volume = {2}, year = {2009}, pages = {275{\textendash}292}, abstract = {This article explores the ways in which Palestine is envisioned, and its representation constructed, in contemporary video games. At the same time, capitalizing on Bogost{\textquoteright}s notion of "procedurality", this article discusses the potential and limitations of various game genres for modeling complex historical, social, and political realities. It focuses particularly on the ways in which the Arab-Israeli conflict is mediated and its perception and evaluation subsequently shaped by these games. By doing so, this article analyzes how the (re)constructions of reality as provided by the video games{\textquoteright} graphical, textual, and procedural logic, serve parallel - albeit contradictory - political and ideological interpretations of real-world events. Essentially, this article argues that the procedural forms, i.e. the common models of user interaction as utilized by particular video game genres, fundamentally shape and limit the ways in which reality is communicated to the players. Therefore, on a more general level, this article aims to further develop the game genres{\textquoteright} critique by focusing on two contrasting, but equally significant and simultaneous, aspects of video games - the persuasive power of procedurality and the inherent limitations thereof.}, url = {http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/mjcc/2009/00000002/00000002/art00007?token=00471231d7275c277b42576b462176743b702c492b5f592f653b672c57582a72752d703}, author = {Sisler, Vit} } @inbook {265, title = {Video Games, Video Clips, and Islam: New Media and the Communication of Values}, booktitle = {Muslim Societies in the Age of Mass Consumption}, year = {2009}, publisher = {Cambridge Scholars Publishing}, organization = {Cambridge Scholars Publishing}, address = {Newcastle}, abstract = {In the course of the 20th century, hardly a region in the world has escaped the triumph of global consumerism. Muslim societies are no exception. Globalized brands are pervasive, and the landscapes of consumption are changing at a breathtaking pace. Yet Muslim consumers are not passive victims of the homogenizing forces of globalization. They actively appropriate and adapt the new commodities and spaces of consumption to their own needs and integrate them into their culture. Simultaneously, this culture is reshaped and reinvented to comply with the mechanisms of conspicuous consumption. It is these processes that this volume seeks to address from an interdisciplinary perspective. The papers in this anthology present innovative approaches to a wide range of issues that have, so far, barely received scholarly attention. The topics range from the changing spaces of consumption to Islamic branding, from the marketing of religious music to the consumption patterns of Muslim minority groups. This anthology uses consumption as a prism through which to view, and better understand, the enormous transformations that Muslim societies Middle Eastern, South-East Asian, as well as diasporic ones have undergone in the past few decades.}, url = {http://books.google.com/books/about/Muslim_societies_in_the_age_of_mass_cons.html?id=2XIOQgAACAAJ}, author = {Sisler, Vit} } @article {2666, title = {The Internet Movie Database and Online Discussions of Religion}, journal = {Journal of Religion in Europe}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Religion and film scholars have long used the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) as a source for material on audience responses, but not much thought has been given to what the material found on the site constitutes. This article highlights possibilities and problems with researching sites such as the IMDb, discussing how studies of Internet communication, community, and fan culture can help contextualize the material and provide a better comprehension of the discussions of religion on the site. The potential of the IMDb to offer noteworthy voices on religion is exemplified with an analysis of reviews of three religiously themed Nordic films. The views on religion expressed are theorized as a form of {\textquoteleft}playable religion{\textquoteright} reflecting contemporary attitudes to religion.}, url = {https://brill.com/view/journals/jre/6/3/article-p358_5.xml}, author = {Sj{\"o}, Sofia} } @inbook {2145, title = {Social media and Islamic practice: Indonesian ways of being digitally pious}, booktitle = {Digital Indonesia: Connectivity and Divergence}, year = {2017}, pages = {146-162}, publisher = {ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute}, organization = {ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute}, abstract = {This book places Indonesia at the forefront of the global debate about the impact of {\textquoteright}disruptive{\textquoteright} digital technologies. Digital technology is fast becoming the core of life, work, culture and identity. Yet, while the number of Indonesians using the Internet has followed the upward global trend, some groups -- the poor, the elderly, women, the less well-educated, people living in remote communities -- are disadvantaged. This interdisciplinary collection of essays by leading researchers and scholars, as well as e-governance and e-commerce insiders, examines the impact of digitalisation on the media industry, governance, commerce, informal sector employment, education, cybercrime, terrorism, religion, artistic and cultural expression, and much more. It presents groundbreaking analysis of the impact of digitalisation in one of the world{\textquoteright}s most diverse, geographically vast nations. In weighing arguments about the opportunities and challenges presented by digitalisation, it puts the very idea of a technological {\textquoteright}revolution{\textquoteright} into critical perspective.}, keywords = {Digital, Indonesian, Islamic, social media}, issn = {9789814762991}, url = {https://books.google.com/books?id=rpsnDwAAQBAJ\&dq=9+Social+media+and+Islamic+practice:+Indonesian+ways+of+being+digitally+pious\&source=gbs_navlinks_s}, author = {Slama, M} } @book {421, title = {The Internet and Society}, year = {2000}, publisher = { Polity Press}, organization = { Polity Press}, address = {Cambridge, UK}, abstract = {The Internet and Society explores the impact of the internet on modern culture beyond the fashionable celebration of {\textquoteright}anything goes{\textquoteright} online culture or the overly pessimistic conceptions tainted by the logic of domination.}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=RFhlV8DcksgC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Slevin, J.} } @article {459, title = {Atheisms Unbound: The Role Of The New Media In The Formation Of A Secularist Identity}, journal = {Secularism and Non-Religion}, volume = {1}, year = {2012}, abstract = {In this article we examine the Internet{\textquoteright}s role in facilitating a more visible and active secular identity. Seeking to situate this more visible and active secularist presence{\textemdash}which we consider a form of activism in terms of promoting the importance of secularist concerns and issues in public discourse{\textemdash}we conclude by looking briefly at the relationship between secularist cyber-activism and secular organizations, on one hand, and the relationship between secularist activism and American politics on the other. This allows us to further underscore the importance of the Internet for contemporary secularists as it helps develop a group consciousness based around broadly similar agendas and ideas and secularists{\textquoteright} recognition of their commonality and their expression in collective action, online as well as off. }, keywords = {Atheism, identity, New Media, Secular}, url = {http://www.ryananddebi.com/secularismjournal/index.php/snr/article/view/3}, author = {Christopher Smith and Richard Cimino} } @mastersthesis {45, title = {The Christian potential of cyberspace: An appraisal}, year = {2002}, month = {13 May 2002}, school = {Gustavus Adolphus College}, address = {St. Peter, Minnesota}, abstract = {Today the Internet is increasingly permeating industrial societies. Affluent people in these cultures are e-mailing their friends and family, browsing the Web, and participating in online discussions through newsgroups and "chat rooms." Churches are sprouting Web sites; online "communities," such as beliefnet.com, offer prayer groups and religion news and information; and some amateur theologians are using the Internet to publish their own theologies. But some believe that the Internet{\textquoteright}s contributions to religion may be far greater. For example, some people see the Internet leading to a greater and greater connectivity among all people, culminating in what Catholic theologian Teilhard de Chardin called the "Omega Point," a type of global consciousness. Others believe that it will be possible for individuals one day to transfer (upload) their consciousnesses into a computer and communicate electronically with other such people through a network. Some have suggested that the Internet might be a metaphor for God. People might easily dismiss these predictions, such as mind uploads, since the technology is not here yet or because they sound ridiculous. But the fact that some have conceptualized a computerized eschatology (such as the Omega Point) or a network god invites examination. Do these claims have any theological value, that is, do they contribute anything new to the discussion about God, or are they simply new manifestations of the dreams of immortality and omniscience that Western civilization has long sought to realize? This thesis assesses whether the Internet can contribute anything "new" to Christian theology, that is, whether the hopes of seeing in the Internet a metaphor for God or using it as a mechanism for searching for God are possible. Or does the Internet instead make possible for worldwide religious communities and an image for contemplating process theology? In other words, can religion speak theologically about the Internet?}, url = {http://gustavus.edu/academics/religion/theses/}, author = {Alec Sonsteby} } @book {2100, title = {Cybertheology. Thinking Christianity in the Era of the Internet}, year = {2014}, publisher = {Fordham Press}, organization = {Fordham Press}, address = {New York}, abstract = {we think Christianity and its theology. Cybertheology is the first book to explore this process from a Catholic point of view. Drawing on the theoretical work of authors such as Marshall McLuhan, Peter Levy, and Teilhard de Chardin, it questions how technologies redefine not only the ways in which we do things but also our being and therefore the way we perceive reality, the world, others, and God. "Does the digital revolution affect faith in any sense?" Spadaro asks. His answer is an emphatic Yes. But how, then, are we to live well in the age of the Internet?}, keywords = {Christianity, Cybertheology, internet}, issn = {9780823256990}, url = {https://books.google.com/books/about/Cybertheology.html?id=mUhGCgAAQBAJ}, author = {Spadaro, A and Maria Way} } @article {2822, title = {Between Secrecy and Transparency: Conversions to Protestantism Among Iranian Refugees in Germany}, journal = {Entangled Religions}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Present-day scholarship on religious conversions diverts from classic Protestant paradigms of sudden conversions and instant transformations of the self. Instead, it stresses that converts make active choices that are influenced by specific contexts and historical changes. This becomes evident in an ethnographic study of one controversial aspect of the recent refugee influx in Germany: the so-called mass conversions of Iranian refugees from Shia Islam to Christianity, which have been highly publicized and criticized since the height of immigration in 2015. The analysis draws on interview data with Iranian refugee converts and their pastors in Protestant churches in North Rhine-Westphalia between October 2017 and January 2018. The study reveals the need to theorize the symbiotic connection between religious contacts, forced migration, and conversion to Christianity. It applies Rambo{\textquoteright}s (1993) stage model of conversion and the analytical concept of secrecy (Jones 2014, Manderson et al. 2015, Simmel 1906) to demonstrate that the Iranian refugees{\textquoteright} conversions are shaped by contexts, crises, encounters, quests, interactions, commitments, and consequences (Rambo 1993) as they negotiate the forces of secrecy, risk, transparency, and the benefits of being a Christian. The goal of this paper is to find thematic patterns in their narratives that can be systematized and can build a foundation for further study.}, url = {https://er.ceres.rub.de/index.php/ER/article/view/8322}, author = {Stadlbauer, Susanne} } @article {2737, title = {Seeking new language: Patriarch Kirill{\textquoteright}s media strategy}, journal = {Religion, State and Society}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Media have become important arenas where religious institutions, alongside other players, articulate moral values and seek to shape societal norms and identities. Patriarch Kirill recognised early on the potential of using the media in spreading the Russian Orthodox Church{\textquoteright}s mission and reaching out to wider audiences. From the very first days of his enthronement on 1 February 2009 he has taken the lead in developing a comprehensive media strategy aimed at increasing the Church{\textquoteright}s presence in the public sphere. Both his words and deeds provide evidence of a momentous turnaround in the Church{\textquoteright}s information and communication policy. His pursuit to endorse a revisited media strategy is determined by attempts to influence and control the way Russian Orthodoxy is portrayed in the public sphere. Moreover, the development of a large-scale media policy is motivated by the rising criticism towards the Church, voiced most notably on the internet. Based on the analysis of original and previously unexplored sources, this article illustrates the impact of media on a traditional religious organisation such as the Russian Orthodox Church and the response of the Church{\textquoteright}s leadership to emerging challenges in a radically changing media environment.}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09637494.2018.1510213?journalCode=crss20}, author = {Staehle, Hanna} } @book {168, title = {God and the Chip. Religion and the Culture of Technology}, year = {1999}, publisher = {Wilfred Laurier University Press.}, organization = {Wilfred Laurier University Press.}, address = {Waterloo, Ontario}, abstract = {Our ancestors saw the material world as alive, and they often personified nature. Today we claim to be realists. But in reality we are not paying attention to the symbols and myths hidden in technology. Beneath much of our talk about computers and the Internet, claims William A. Stahl, is an unacknowledged mysticism, an implicit religion. By not acknowledging this mysticism, we have become critically short of ethical and intellectual resources with which to understand and confront changes brought on by technology.}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=g7L27aJS7WcC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Stah, William} } @inbook {1315, title = {Religion from Scholarly Worlds to Digital Games: The Case of Risen}, booktitle = {Religions in Play. Games, Rituals, and Virtual Worlds}, series = {CULTuREL}, number = {CULTuREL, Vol. 2}, year = {2012}, pages = {262-273}, publisher = {Pano}, organization = {Pano}, address = {Zurich}, abstract = {A content analysis of the fantasy role-playing game Risen is conducted. Methodically, the case study shows that the ludological concept of hit points may be taken as a starting point for the investigation of the religious repertoire. In addition, the comparison with the original German work of Dutch phenomenologist Gerardus van der Leeuw suggests that Risen{\textquoteright}s ludological-narrative complex of hit points ({\textquotedblleft}life energy{\textquotedblright}) enacts a 20th century essentialistic and phenomenological conception of religion that has made its way into, and was specifically framed by, the new medium of digital games.}, keywords = {Computer games, digital games, religion}, issn = {978-3-290-22010-5}, author = {Steffen, Oliver}, editor = {Bornet, Philippe and Burger, Maya} } @inbook {1314, title = {Introduction: Approaches to Digital Games in the Study of Religions}, booktitle = {Religions in Play. Games, Rituals, and Virtual Worlds}, series = {CULTuREL}, number = {2}, year = {2012}, pages = {249-259}, publisher = {Pano}, organization = {Pano}, address = {Zurich}, abstract = {The content and structure of entertaining digital games often refer to the imaginary worlds of historical religion. However, the religious dimensions of this new medium have hardly been addressed by scholars of both, game studies and religious studies. In this introductory article, initial thoughts on areas of study and approaches are given to scholars of religion who investigate computer games.}, keywords = {Computer games, digital games, religion}, issn = {978-3-290-22010-5}, author = {Steffen, Oliver}, editor = {Bornet, Philippe and Burger, Maya} } @article {269, title = {Gaming at The End of the World: Coercion, Conversion and the Apocalyptic Self in Left Behind: Eternal Forces Digital Play}, journal = {Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture}, volume = {10}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Left Behind: Eternal Forces is a real-time strategy game based on Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins{\textquoteright} best-selling eschatological novels, an immensely popular series featuring embattled Christians fighting evil at the world{\textquoteright}s end. The spin-off game allows players to "wage a war of apocalyptic proportions" against the Antichrist{\textquoteright}s minions. The players defend themselves with prayer and hymn-singing; if spiritual means fail, however, more violent tactics are invoked as Christian alliances evolve into the military units of the "Tribulation Force." This merging of what the game{\textquoteright}s website calls "physical and spiritual warfare" has generated among critics the label "kill or convert"; the conflation of the two lies at the center of an ideological controversy that intensified when ABC News announced an evangelical group{\textquoteright}s plans to send the game to US troops in Iraq. This article explores eschatological representations like Eternal Forces as a way to instill, consolidate, and hierarchicalize identity by creating an apocalyptic self that is figured in violently contestatory terms. It addresses conservative evangelical leaders{\textquoteright} mobilization of that apocalyptic self in order to re-invest twenty-first century evangelicals in a renewed "combat myth" tradition that sees those of differing beliefs as fodder either for conversion or for annihilation in an ultimate battle between God and Satan. Left Behind: Eternal Forces is explored as a contemporary pop-culture expression and a new form of soteriological play in which that two-pronged choice is embodied and enacted, situating its players as divine co-strategists in an either/or world of forced and often punitive affiliation.}, url = {http://reconstruction.eserver.org/101/recon_101_steuter_wills.shtml}, author = {Steuter, Erin and Wills, Deborah} } @article {1190, title = {A Study of Church/Ministry Internet Usage}, journal = {Journal of Ministry Marketing \& Management}, volume = {7}, year = {2002}, chapter = {23}, abstract = {This manuscript reports the results of a national survey of Internet use by churches and ministries. The mail survey to a random sample of 500 churches and ministries sought to determine the proportion of churches/ministries with Internet access, how the Internet was being used by their organization, and organizational characteristics. A total of 448 questionnaires were delivered and 113 were returned resulting in a response rate of 25.2\%. About 93 percent of the respondents surveyed reported using a computer. Of that 93 percent, about 70 percent reported they had Internet access. When asked about how the Internet has helped their church, respondents reported communications with others as the most important benefit, followed by staying better informed on products and services, and as a research tool for sermons and Bible studies. Among respondent churches who had Internet access, about 37 percent had a webpage. Of those who did not have a webpage, 58 percent plan on having one within a year. The most common ways churches use their website were found to be (1) describing features of the church such as service times or scheduled events, (2) creating a way to communicate with others about the church, (3) providing a way for people to contact the church by e-mail, and (4) image creation. Respondents cited several benefits of having a website: (1) improved communication, (2) increased member knowledge about church programs and (3) increased attendance at church services or activities.}, keywords = {Church, Computer, Contemporary Religious Community, cyberspace, internet, Internet access, Internet use by churches and ministries, Mass media, national survey, network, New Media and Society, new media engagement, New Technology and Society, online activities, online communication, Online community, religion, religion and internet, Religion and the Internet, religiosity, religious engagement, religious identity, Religious Internet Communication, Religious Internet Communities, religious organizations, sociability unbound, Sociology of religion, users{\textquoteright} participation, virtual community, virtual public sphere, {\textquotedblleft}digital religion{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}media and religion{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}media research{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}online identity{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}religion online{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}religious congregations{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}religious media research{\textquotedblright}}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J093v07n01_03$\#$.Uin3-Masim5}, author = {Robert E. Stevens and Paul Dunn and David L. Loudon and Henry S. Cole} } @inbook {2170, title = {The {\textquotedblleft}Almost{\textquotedblright} Territories of the Charismatic Christian Internet}, booktitle = {The Changing World Religion Map}, year = {2015}, pages = {3899-3912}, publisher = {Springer }, organization = {Springer }, address = {Dordrecht}, abstract = {The constantly emerging technologies of the internet are frequently described in terms that evoke space. As online technologies continue to grow in their global ubiquity, it is appropriate to consider how the virtual geographies that are conjured in online engagement extend beyond the web browser. This chapter builds upon anthropological approaches studying religious communication to consider how internet engagement with some religious Believers creates and provides a sense of presence in an inspirited world. I first discuss how anthropologists approached the relationship between religious communication and space before considering Charismatic Christians in the UK. Following 12 months of fieldwork in their churches in the South of England, I describe a range of everyday internet practices and the spiritual implications held by my informants. The key finding is that the technologies of the internet provide for Believers contexts in which they are able to perceive and directly experience the dimensions of their spiritual battles. While British Christianity continues to suffer steady decline, web-based resources allow Christians opportunities to experience connections with others as part of an unstoppable, global, wave of revival. This sense of sanctified online community is tempered by knowledge that words transmitted in some online contexts may be witnessed by non-Believers. While this knowledge is mostly welcomed by members, shared spaces such as Facebook or Youtube can become sites for spiritually hazardous confrontations. In their engagement with online media these Christians experience online comments lists, blog entries, and social networking platforms as sites in which struggles for global, national, and personal salvation are staged and restaged. For these Christians, the spaces of the internet come to be experienced as territories in constant transition.}, keywords = {Christianity, Communication, internet, social media}, issn = {978-94-017-9375-9}, url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-9376-6_206$\#$citeas}, author = {Stewart, A} } @mastersthesis {1197, title = {Gender, Faith, and Storytelling: An Ethnography of the Charismatic Internet}, volume = {Ph.D.}, year = {2012}, school = {University of Sussex}, type = {Doctoral Thesis}, abstract = {Although early predictions that an emerging {\textquoteleft}cyberspace{\textquoteright} could exist in separation from offline life have been largely discarded, anthropological studies of the internet have continued to find notions of {\textquoteleft}virtual reality{\textquoteright} relevant as individuals use these technologies to fulfil the {\textquotedblleft}pledges they have already made{\textquotedblright} (Boellstorff, 2008; Miller \& Slater, 2001: 19) about their own selfhood and their place in the world. There are parallels between this concept of {\textquoteleft}virtual reality{\textquoteright} and the on-going spiritual labour of Charismatic Christians in the UK, who seek in the context of a secularising nation to maintain a sense of presence in the {\textquotedblleft}coming Kingdom{\textquotedblright} of God. The everyday production of this expanded spiritual context depends to a large extend on verbal genres that are highly gendered. For women, declarations of faith are often tied to domestic settings, personal narratives, and the unspoken testimony of daily life (e.g. Lawless, 1988; Griffith, 1997). The technologies of the internet, whose emerging genres challenge boundaries between personal and social, public and private, can cast a greater illumination on this inward-focused labour. This doctoral thesis is based on ethnographic research in four Charismatic Evangelical congregations and examination of the online practices of churchgoers. I have found that the use of the internet by Charismatic Christian women fits with wider religious preoccupations and patterns of ritual practice. Words posted through Facebook, blogs, Twitter, and other online platforms come to resemble in their form as well as their content Christian narratives of a life with meaning.}, keywords = {anthropological studies, Computer, Contemporary Religious Community, cyberspace, declarations of faith, digital cultures, domestic settings, Evangelic, Faith, GENDER}, url = {http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/45226/1/Stewart,_Anna_Rose.pdf}, author = {Stewart, Anna} } @article {371, title = {Who watches the watchers? Towards an ethic of surveillance in a digital age}, journal = {Studies in Christian Ethics}, volume = {21}, year = {2008}, pages = {362-381}, abstract = {The essay considers contemporary surveillance strategies from a Christian ethical perspective. It discusses first surveillance as a form of speech in the light of biblical themes of truthfulness, then draws on principles of subsidiarity and solidarity. Surveillance is dignified as human work whilst its dehumanizing outcomes are challenged. It is concluded that surveillance must contribute to human dignity and that accountability for data must follow a revised model of subsidiarity, appropriate to network rather than linear socio-political relationships. Mutual responsibility for one another{\textquoteright}s data-image is derived from solidarity which, further, offers a response to the angst of a culture of suspicion.}, keywords = {Digital, Privacy, Surveillance}, url = {http://sce.sagepub.com/content/21/3/362.abstract}, author = {Stoddart, E.} } @book {1283, title = {Deus in Machina:Religion, Technology, and the Things in Betwee}, year = {2013}, publisher = {Fordham University Press}, organization = {Fordham University Press}, address = {New York}, abstract = {The essays in this volume explore how two domains of human experience and action--religion and technology--are implicated in each other. Contrary to commonsense understandings of both religion (as an "otherworldly" orientation) and technology (as the name for tools, techniques, and expert knowledges oriented to "this" world), the contributors to this volume challenge the grounds on which this division has been erected in the first place. What sorts of things come to light when one allows religion and technology to mingle freely? In an effort to answer that question, Deus in Machina embarks upon an interdisciplinary voyage across diverse traditions and contexts where religion and technology meet: from the design of clocks in medieval Christian Europe, to the healing power of prayer in premodern Buddhist Japan, to 19th-century Spiritualist devices for communicating with the dead, to Islamic debates about kidney dialysis in contemporary Egypt, to the work of disability activists using documentary film to reimagine Jewish kinship, to the representation of Haitian Vodou on the Internet, among other case studies. Combining rich historical and ethnographic detail with extended theoretical reflection, Deus in Machina outlines new directions for the study of religion and/as technology that will resonate across the human sciences, including religious studies, science and technology studies, communication studies, history, anthropology, and philosophy.}, keywords = {Buddhist, Christian, Egypt, Haitian, Islamic, Japan, medieval, religion and technology, religious studies, Spiritualist movement, Vodou}, url = {http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780823250240}, author = {Jeremy Stolow} } @book {465, title = {Media and Religion: Foundations of an Emerging Field }, year = {2012}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, abstract = {This is the first text to examine the history, theory, cultural context, and professional aspects of media and religion. While religion has been explored more fully in psychology, sociology, anthropology, and the humanities, there is no clear bridge of understanding to the communication discipline. Daniel A. Stout tackles this issue by providing a roadmap for examining this understudied area so that discussions about media and religion can more easily proceed. Offering great breadth, this text covers key concepts and historical highlights; world religions, denominations, and cultural religion; and religion and specific media genres. The text also includes key terms and questions to ponder for every chapter, and concludes with an in-class learning activity that can be used to encourage students to explore the media{\textendash}religion interface and review the essential ideas presented in the book. }, url = {http://books.google.com/books/about/Media_and_Religion.html?id=p5dVywAACAAJ}, author = {Daniel A. Stout} } @article {2796, title = {Mediated Muslim martyrdom: Rethinking digital solidarity in the {\textquotedblleft}Arab Spring{\textquotedblright}}, journal = {New Media \& Society}, year = {2017}, abstract = {In today{\textquoteright}s world of networked, mobile, and global digital communication, Muslim martyrdom as a multi-layered communicative practice has experienced a new type of media saturation, thereby posing a challenge for the study of media, religion, and culture in a digital age. In this article, the analysis focuses on two cases of high symbolic relevance for the events later referred to as the {\textquotedblleft}Arab Spring{\textquotedblright}{\textemdash}the deaths of a Tunisian fruit seller Mohammed Bouazizi and a young Egyptian man Khaled Saeed. Special focus is given to the discussion of digital solidarities and their construction in circulation and remediation of martyr narratives of Bouazizi and Saeed in diverse media contexts. In this global development of digital solidarities, we identify two categories of martyr images of particular relevance{\textemdash}a {\textquotedblleft}living martyr{\textquotedblright} and a {\textquotedblleft}tortured martyr{\textquotedblright}{\textemdash}and discuss their resonance with different historical, religious, cultural, and political frames of interpretation. In conclusion, we reflect on the question of the ethics of global mediation of Muslim martyrdom and its implications for the study field of media, religion, and culture in its digital state.}, url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444816649918}, author = {Sumiala, Johanna and Korpiola, Lilly} } @article {2811, title = {{\textquotedblleft}No More Apologies{\textquotedblright}: Violence as a Trigger for Public Controversy over Islam in the Digital Public Sphere}, journal = {Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture}, year = {2019}, abstract = {This article investigates how violence associated with religion, here namely Islam, functions as a trigger for public controversy in the Turku stabbings that took place in Finland in 2017. We begin by outlining the Lyotard-Habermas debate on controversy and compound this with current research on the digital public sphere. We combine cartography of controversy with digital media ethnography as methods of collecting data and discourse analysis for analysing the material. We investigate how the controversy triggered by violence is constructed around Islam in the public sphere of Twitter. We identify three discursive strategies connecting violence and Islam in the debates around the Turku stabbings: scapegoating, essentialisation, and racialisation. These respectively illustrate debates regarding blame for terrorism, the nature of Islam, and racialisation of terrorist violence and the Muslim Other. To conclude, we reflect on the ways in which the digital public sphere impacts Habermasian consensus- and Lyotardian dissensus-oriented argumentation.}, url = {https://brill.com/view/journals/rmdc/8/1/article-p132_132.xml?language=en}, author = {Sumiala, Johanna and Harju, Anu A.} } @book {2791, title = {Hybrid Media Events: The Charlie Hebdo Attacks and the Global Circulation of Terrorist Violence}, year = {2018}, publisher = {Emerald Publishing Limited}, organization = {Emerald Publishing Limited}, abstract = {What are hybrid media events? Who creates them and what kind of purpose do they serve in contemporary societies? This book addresses these questions by re-thinking media events in the contemporary digital media environment saturated by intensified circulation of radical violence. The empirical analyses draw on the investigation of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, in 2015 and the global responses those attacks stirred in the media audience. This book provides a new way of thinking about the idea of the hybrid in global media events. The authors give special emphasis to the hybrid dynamics between the different actors, platforms and messages in such events, explaining how global news media, terrorists and political elites interact with ordinary media users in social media. It demonstrates how tweets such as "Je suis Charlie" circulate from one digital media platform to another and what kind of belongings are created in those circulations during the times of distraction. In addition, the book examines how emotions, speed of communication and fight for attention become hybridized in the digital media. All these aspects, the authors argue, shape the ways in which we make sense of global media events in the present digital age. The authors invite readers to critically reflect the technological, economical, political and socio-cultural challenges connected with today{\textquoteright}s global media events and the ethical encounters they may entail.}, isbn = {978-1-78714-852-9}, doi = {10.1108/9781787148512}, url = {https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324922193_Hybrid_Media_Events_The_Charlie_Hebdo_Attacks_and_the_Global_Circulation_of_Terrorist_Violence}, author = {Sumiala, Johanna and Valaskivi, Katja and Tikka, Minttu and Huhtam{\"a}ki, Jukka} } @book {2876, title = {Media and Ritual: Death, Community and Everyday Life }, year = {2012}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, abstract = {This wide-ranging and accessible book offers a stimulating introduction to the field of media anthropology and the study of religious ritual. Johanna Sumiala explores the interweaving of rituals, communication and community. She uses the tools of anthropological enquiry to examine a variety of media events, including the death of Michael Jackson, a royal wedding and the transgressive actions which took place in Abu Ghraib, and to understand the inner significance of the media coverage of such events. The book deals with theories of ritual, media as ritual including reception, production and representation, and rituals of death in the media. It will be invaluable to students and scholars alike across media, religion and anthropology.}, url = {https://www.amazon.com/Media-Ritual-Community-Everyday-Religion/dp/0415684323}, author = {Johanna Sumiala} } @article {2724, title = {Introduction: Mediatization in Post-Secular Society{\textemdash}New Perspectives in the Study of Media, Religion and Politics}, journal = {Journal of Religion in Europe}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The way the media handle religion is deeply embedded in a set of historical, cultural, and political perceptions about religion{\textquoteright}s natural, proper, or desirable place in democratic public life.}, url = {https://brill.com/view/journals/jre/10/4/article-p361_361.xml?language=en\&body=previewPdf-39133}, author = {Sumiala, Johanna} } @book {518, title = {Implications of the Sacred in (Post)Modern Media}, year = {2006}, publisher = {Nordicom}, organization = {Nordicom}, address = {Gothenburgh}, keywords = {Modern, Sacred}, url = {http://books.google.com/books/about/Implications_of_the_sacred_in_post_moder.html?id=wzccAQAAIAAJ}, author = {Sumiala-Sepp{\"a}nen, Johanna and Lundby, Knut and Salokangas, R.} } @article {456, title = {The influence of religion on Islamic mobile phone banking services adoption}, journal = {Journal of Islamic Marketing}, volume = {3}, year = {2012}, pages = {81 {\textendash} 98}, abstract = {The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects religious affiliation and commitment have on Southeast Asian young adults{\textquoteright} intention to adopt Islamic mobile phone banking. An online self-administered survey was distributed to Southeast Asian young adults through convenience and snowball sampling and a total of 135 responses obtained. The study found Islamic mobile phone banking to be a novelty service, with little consumer awareness and experience, especially among non-Muslims. Religious affiliation and commitment were both effective segmentation strategies, as differences in adoption intention were found between Muslims and non-Muslims, as well as devout and casually religious Muslims. Overall, devout Muslims were socially-oriented with their adoption criteria whereas casually religious and non-Muslims relied upon the utilitarian attributes. The paper contributes to the existing mobile banking adoption literature by providing evidence of consumers{\textquoteright} adoption intentions toward Islamic mobile phone banking. It also uses religious commitment in addition to affiliation as segmentation tools, an approach which has not been used in previous Islamic mobile banking research.}, keywords = {banks, Islam, Mobile phone}, url = {http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=17017285\&show=abstract}, author = {Susan Sun and Tiong Goh and Kim-Shyan Fam and Yang Xue} } @article {56, title = {Digitally Enhanced or Dumbed Down? Evangelists{\textquoteright} Use of the Internet}, journal = {Moebius}, volume = {6}, year = {2008}, month = {2008}, pages = {33-43}, abstract = {Since renewalists{\textquoteright} prosperity theology is embraced by growing numbers of Christians, and since evangelical Christians are among the most active Internet users, it seemed appropriate to investigate renewalists{\textquoteright} use of the World Wide Web to reach followers. In the summer of 2007, I conducted a detailed content analysis of Web sites and podcasts produced by leading renewalist ministries. My theoretical grounding was in framing theory; I used constant comparative analysis to help organize themes that were prevalent in the media content. I identified ten areas of concern that relate to technology use, message issues, and listener responses called for by evangelists. What follows is a summary of my findings, and the obvious questions they raise as we consider whether digital media {\textquoteleft}dumbs down{\textquoteright} the Christian experience.}, url = {http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1199\&context=moebius}, author = {Douglas Swanson} } @article {2110, title = {New Media, New Players: The Use of Social Media with Religious Contents among Muslim Scholars in West Sumatra, Indonesia}, journal = {Jurnal Komunikasi: Malaysian Journal of Communication}, volume = {34}, year = {2018}, pages = {153-169}, abstract = {This article explains how Muslim scholars in West Sumatra utilized social media as one of the new media containing religious contents. The relationship between Muslim scholars, religious teachings, and their followers undergoes constant changes. The era of new media introduced participative, open, interactive characteristics encouraging development of virtual communities, and interconnectedness, consequently positioning Muslim scholars as new determining players in the relationship. There are two main patterns they employ in posting religious contents on social media. Firstly, it is a pattern characterized by the systematic use of religious texts originating from the Holy Koran and Hadith or ulamas{\textquoteright} opinions contained in various classical Islamic manuscripts. Secondly, it is conducted by using reflective sentences containing universal values. Both patterns have different social implications, and due to the aforementioned new media characteristics, these West Sumatra Muslim scholars who actively post religious contents on social media had come to experience cyber-stalking. Despite being harassed and threatened, they continued posting religious contents as they consider social media to have numerous positive values beneficial to spreading good values and religious teachings to the wider community. The research findings show that social media as a form of new media has led to the emergence of new players entirely unlike previous traditional media. The research data were collected through in-depth interviews with three Muslim scholars of West Sumatra who are active on social media.}, keywords = {Indonesia, Muslim, New Media, social media}, url = {http://ejournal.ukm.my/mjc/article/view/20864/7539}, author = {Syahputra, I} } @article {2106, title = { New Media, New Relations: Cyberstalking on Social Media in the Interaction of Muslim Scholars and the Public in West Sumatra, Indonesia}, journal = {Jurnal Komunikasi: Malaysian Journal of Communication}, volume = {34}, year = {2018}, pages = {153-169}, abstract = {This article explains how the presence of social media as one of the forms of new media has prompted changes in the relations and communications between ulama and the public. The relationship between ulama, religious teachings, and the ummah (Muslim community/the public) undoubtedly undergoes constant changes. In the current era of new media, this relationship experiences mediatization of differing features compared to past era of traditional media. The era of new media ushered in participative, open, interactive characteristics encouraging development of virtual communities, and interconnectedness, consequently positioning ulama in two particular positions. Firstly, ulama have full control over the contents they intend to post and the choice of whom they wish to communicate with on social media. Secondly, due to the aforementioned characteristics of social media, ulama who actively post religious contents on social media had come to experience cyberstalking. Despite having to endure and suffer from cyberstalking, the ulama remained active on social media and continued posting religious contents as they consider social media to have numerous positive values beneficial to spreading good values and religious teachings to the wider public. The research findings show that social media as a form of new media has led to the emergence of new relations that are entirely unlike previous traditional media. The research data were collected through in-depth interviews with three Muslim scholars of West Sumatra who are active on social media and have extensive social influences. }, keywords = {Cyberstalking, Indonesia, Muslim, New Media, social media}, url = {http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11734/1/20864-71671-1-PB.pdf}, author = {Syahputra, I} } @inbook {985, title = {Malaysian Christians Online: Online/Offline Interactions and Integration}, booktitle = {Cyberculture Now: Social and Communication Behaviour on the Web}, year = {2013}, pages = {115-125}, publisher = {Inter-Disciplinary Press}, organization = {Inter-Disciplinary Press}, chapter = {9}, address = {Oxfordshire}, abstract = {There has been a vibrant discussion in recent years since Christopher Helland{\textquoteright}s novel definitions and differentiation of online-religion/religion-online came to the fore of cyber-religious research. Much of the discussion since then has dealt primarily with certain features of particular religious websites, such as its level of user interactivity. My chapter is an attempt to side-step what a {\textquoteleft}religious{\textquoteright} website is or is not, and to locate specific Christian individuals in Malaysia and their online habits within the larger context of what they consider to be their Christian life - be it online/offline. In short, this chapter explores the ways in which online Christianity, in its varied forms, as practiced by its users, play a part in engaging an individual{\textquoteright}s faith. Drawing two case studies from my ethnographic fieldwork, this paper constructs and establishes the multiple contexts and environments that shape some Malaysian Christians{\textquoteright} online expressions of their faith, as well as how their current practice of blogging contributes back to their personal spirituality, contexts, and environments. Rather than dwelling on whether a website allows for physical or practical interactivity, this chapter explores the possibility that the Internet is yet another incorporated extension to the already diverse repertoire of Christian expression of spirituality.}, keywords = {everyday, helland, malaysia, offline, Online, religion}, issn = {978-1-84888-178-5}, author = {Meng Yoe Tan} } @inbook {899, title = {Negotiating the Liberties and Boundaries of Malaysian Online Christian Expression: Case Studies}, booktitle = {Thinking Through Malaysia: Culture and Identity in the 21st Century}, year = {2012}, publisher = {Strategic Information and Research Development Center (SIRD)}, organization = {Strategic Information and Research Development Center (SIRD)}, address = {Puchong}, abstract = {How do Malaysian Christians express their personal Christianity online? Compared to other communication technologies, the Internet allows more non-institutional individual expression to come to the fore. This is mainly due to the nature of the Internet which allows greater flexibility in authorship of expression and content. Using case studies from my interviews with Christian bloggers in Malaysia who actively post Christian content online, we can see how the Internet has provided these bloggers with new tools to express their unique personal spirituality {\textendash} but at the same time, how they recreate and maintain existing offline social boundaries in the context of their personal Christianity in this {\textquoteleft}liberating{\textquoteright} platform. These case studies also provide some insight into the many ways individuals interact with cyberspace {\textendash} that individuals do, in fact, do new things on the Internet, do old things in new ways, and very importantly, do old things in old ways.}, keywords = {Blog, boundaries, liberties, malaysia, Online, religion}, issn = {9789675832567}, author = {Meng Yoe Tan} } @inbook {1540, title = {Malaysian Christians Online: Online/Offline Networks of Everyday Religion}, booktitle = {Post-Privacy Culture: Gaining Social Power in Cyber-Democracy}, year = {2013}, pages = {177-202}, publisher = {Inter-Disciplinary Press}, organization = {Inter-Disciplinary Press}, chapter = {8}, address = {United Kingdom}, abstract = {Religion has already found its footing in cyberspace. Countless websites promoting particular religious organisations and ideals are easily found within a click or two online. Blogs are now an outlet for religious and spiritual discussion for different groups and individuals. Due to the relatively unfiltered nature of the Internet, it is more possible for new types of religious expressions to surface for public consumption, even if some of these expressions might not conform to conventional notions of spiritual expression. All of these new forms of online religion then, serve as a gateway to study different models and contexts of religious expression. A website, however, is in many ways only the expressed product. What about the dynamics behind these expressions? Because the online and the offline are inseparable entities, both simultaneously interact with and influence the individual{\textquoteright}s identity and expression. This means that in order to further develop an understanding of {\textquoteleft}online religion{\textquoteright}, the {\textquoteleft}offline{\textquoteright} must also be described extensively. Using two case studies of Malaysian Christian bloggers, this chapter demonstrates how with the use of Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) methods, it is possible to seamlessly describe everyday cyber-activity and everyday Christianity in relation to one another, thus providing a snapshot of how the larger context and framework in which Christianity in today{\textquoteright}s day and age can be better understood.}, keywords = {Actor, Christian, malaysian, network, Online, theory}, issn = {978-1-84888-154-9}, url = {https://www.interdisciplinarypress.net/online-store/digital-humanities/post-privacy-culture-gaining-social-power-in-cyber-democracy}, author = {Meng Yoe Tan} } @article {2712, title = {Hijab Online: The Fashioning of Cyber Islamic Commerce}, journal = {Interventions}, year = {2010}, abstract = {This essay looks at the world of cyber Islamic commerce and the marketing of new forms of hijab through tracing the connections between the British Muslim entrepreneur Wahid Rahman who runs a website called HijabShop.com and the Dutch designer Cindy van den Bremen, designer of a new form of sports head covering known as Capsters. It considers the lifestyles of these two individuals, their diverse philosophies and their personal involvement in the promotion of Islamic fashion for women and how cyberspace has provided them with an opportunity for a business partnership. The essay explores some of the representational challenges inherent in the reframing of hijab as fashion, showing how those involved in this niche market navigate complex tensions between different Muslim interpretations of the relationship between beauty and modesty, fashion and faith.}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369801X.2010.489695}, author = {Tarlo, Emma} } @article {207, title = {Cyber-Buddhism and the Changing Urban Space in Thailand}, journal = {Space and Culture}, volume = {6}, year = {2003}, pages = {292-308}, abstract = {Buddhism in Thailand has long been seen as a holistic cultural system, with an all-embracing normative cosmology that provides everyday meaning. However, it is also a diverse cultural system that produces alternative or Other counterstatist practices that have at times contested the power of the politico-administrative center. In this changing milieu, cyber-Buddhism has emerged as a response to the needs of an increasingly mobile, simulated, and fragmented transnational urban social order. Here, multiple sites essentially constitute the new (post-) metropolis and where material spatial practices and social arrangements have been recoded. This has affected the social practices of everyday life. The monasteries, the spiritual heart/center of the community, once the prime loci (and place) of much social activities and civic interests, now stand in the new middleclass imagination as icons of the past as a consequence of unfettered urban capitalism and the space of flows since the postwar years. Nevertheless, arising from the Thai experience with modernity are new spatial possibilities engendered in large part by hypertechnologies, especially the Internet; digitalized electronics potentially and markedly transforming religious space. In the privileging of space over many temporal (place-made) coordinates, human communities are left only with nostalgia and a simulated more real than real world where original, first-order things cease to exist. Perhaps now we are just beginning to realize the transformative possibilities in urban religion brought about by electronic space.}, url = {http://sac.sagepub.com/content/6/3/292.abstract}, author = {Taylor, Jin} } @article {404, title = {{\textquoteright}Imaging Religious Identity: Intertextual Play among Postmodern Christian Bloggers{\textquoteright}}, journal = {Special Issue on Aesthetics and the Dimensions of the Senses}, year = {2010}, pages = {111-130}, abstract = {Recent years have seen a growing interest in the research of religious content in online social media, including web logs, file sharing networks such as YouTube, and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. While much attention has been paid to the creation of media texts for the Web, their audiences and usage, little has been given to the aesthetic dimension. For the Internet is a medium for the communication of not just literal text, but also aural and visual text. All information found on computer screens is framed by visual design, according to the affordances give to users by the technology. Drawing from my PhD study of Australian bloggers involved in the {\textquoteleft}emerging church{\textquoteright} movement,1 I intend to show how the blogosphere has become more than an alternative space for religious discourse. In the design of personal web pages, use of colour schemes, templates and captioned images, these bloggers find a vehicle for the ongoing construction of religious identity in the formation of an aesthetic style.}, url = {http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/volltexte/2010/11300/pdf/06.pdf}, author = {Teusner, P.E.} } @booklet {78, title = {Religious language: Towards a framework for religious language theory}, year = {2008}, month = {Unknown}, abstract = {George Lindbeck (1984: 39) writes that from a cultural-linguistic point of view, religious change is not understood as emerging from new religious experiences. It is rather seen as coming out of changing situations within a cultural-linguistic system. When a certain way of ordering or explaining the religious character of a cultural group creates anomalies in its application to new contexts (eg. new media, new places and times of reception), new concepts, symbols and ideas are discovered that solve the anomalies. I want to see how well this theory fits when we examine the differences in the language employed to communicate religious ideas in different contexts, and how this may impact on the way audiences receive and interpret the information to form a religious identity. The contexts I want to identify are: 1. Traditional mainstream Protestant communities 2. Evangelical Protestant communities (I know, I know: we could go to town trying to delineate between the two. I don{\textquoteright}t want to dwell on it, but will acknowledge that the definitions of such words, and the line drawn between them, are not clear, and both "mainstream" and "evangelical" streams exist in the same denomination) 3. Secular popular media (eg. film, TV shows - I{\textquoteright}ll just use a couple of examples) 4. Religious television, and 5. Religious web sites and accompanying discussion outlets Basically, I want to know what the conditions are that create new ways of talking about, interpreting and experiencing religion in these media spheres.}, url = {http://hypertextbible.org/virtual/blog/Religious\%20Language.pdf}, author = {Paul Teusner} } @conference {51, title = {Crossing Over or Crossing Out? Mass Media, Young People, and Religious Language}, booktitle = {Papers from Trans-Tasman Research Symposium}, volume = {xx}, year = {2005}, month = {2005}, pages = {95-99}, publisher = {RMIT Publishing}, organization = {RMIT Publishing}, address = {Melbourne, Australia}, abstract = {This article offers readers some background and preliminary findings of what will be a research paper into the interplay between mass media, religious identity and young people living in Australia. The working title of the research is {\textquotedblleft}Crossing Over or Crossing Out? The Media{\textquoteright}s Influence in Young People{\textquoteright}s Religious Language and Imaginings.{\textquotedblright} This project seeks to answer the following questions: 1. How does the interplay between media, culture and religion set the {\textquotedblleft}rules of play{\textquotedblright} for religious language to form and communicate a religious identity? 2. How are individuals freed by, and constrained by, media and culture to seek a religious identity outside the confines of religious institutions? The task involved in this research is two-fold. The first is to provide a theoretical framework that seeks to explain how religious language responds to cultural change. This framework should take into account the role of mass media in cultural shifts within contemporary society, provide an overview of the changing religious landscape in recent history, and seek to identify the relationship between them. The second part of the project is to set the framework against human research. It is hoped that some qualitative research may offer clear insight into the ways in which young people use mass media to inform their opinions about organised religion, as well as their own religious beliefs and values. It is also expected that interviews with young people will throw light on how mass media have influenced the ways in which they understand and use religious language to shape and communicate these opinions and ideas. This article will offer some background findings into the development of a theoretical framework for religious language, and some initial discoveries into young people{\textquoteright}s attitudes towards traditional religion and the bases behind them.}, url = {http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=038923684171545;res=IELHSS}, author = {Paul Teusner} } @inbook {824, title = {Formation of a Religious Technorati: Negotiations of Authority Among Austrailian Emerging Church Blogs}, booktitle = {Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds }, year = {2012}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London}, keywords = {Authority, Blogging, Church, religion}, issn = {0415676118}, author = {Teusner, P. and Campbell, H.} } @article {383, title = {Resident evil: Horror film and the construction of religious identity in contemporary media culture}, journal = {Colloquium}, volume = {37}, year = {2005}, keywords = {media, popular culture, religion}, author = {Teusner, P.} } @article {825, title = {The End of Cyberspace and Other Surprises}, journal = {Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Worlds}, volume = {12}, year = {2006}, chapter = {383}, abstract = {This article reports on Web 2.0, the end of cyberspace, and the internet of things. It proposes that these concepts have synergies both with the current fashion for modifying physical objects with the features of virtual objects, as evidenced in O{\textquoteright}Reilly{\textquoteright}s MAKE magazine and similar projects, and with the potential technologies for collective intelligence described by Bruce Sterling, Adam Greenfield, Julian Bleecker and others. It considers Alex Pang{\textquoteright}s research on the end of cyberspace and asks whether the {\textquoteleft}new{\textquoteright} of new media writing will have any meaning in a world that is updated by the microsecond every time there is fresh activity in the system. }, keywords = {cyberspace, media, Technologies}, url = {http://www.google.com/url?sa=t\&rct=j\&q=\&esrc=s\&source=web\&cd=1\&ved=0CDIQFjAA\&url=http\%3A\%2F\%2Finstruct.uwo.ca\%2Fmit\%2F3771-001\%2FThe_End_Of_Cyberspace_and_Other_Surprises__Sue_Thomas.pdf\&ei=y_gCUY-sFcOy2wWv6YHYAw\&usg=AFQjCNERh2NDOFVfdMfiM73ReWSaj7aaEg\&bvm}, author = {Thomas, S} } @article {243, title = {Religion and the Internet}, year = {2000}, url = {http://hirr.hartsem.edu/bookshelf/thumma_article6.html}, author = {Thumma, Scott} } @inbook {2160, title = {Cyber Sisters: Buddhist Women{\textquoteright}s Online Activism and Practice}, booktitle = {Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion: Religion and Internet}, volume = {6}, year = {2015}, publisher = {BRILL}, organization = {BRILL}, abstract = {The interest of the book lies in the diversity of the geographical areas, religions, and online religious presence which nevertheless have a lot of points in common. Non-interactive websites, social networks, chat lines, and so on come together to provide a good panorama of the online opportunities to religions nowadays.}, keywords = {Buddhist, cyber, online activism, Women}, issn = {9789004297951}, url = {https://books.google.com/books?hl=en\&lr=\&id=G6KXCgAAQBAJ\&oi=fnd\&pg=PA11\&dq=Internet+and+Buddhism/+Internet+and+Buddhists\&ots=gybgYVWdEA\&sig=MSwiMO5eGBQ8yXo5xzKwyknpcUE$\#$v=onepage\&q=Internet\%20and\%20Buddhism\%2F\%20Internet\%20and\%20Buddhists\&f=false}, author = {Tomalin, E and Starkey, C and Halafoff, A} } @article {2437, title = { Gamevironments Special Issue: "Nation(alism), Identity and Video Gaming"}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Video games are a prime example of globalized media cultures, hence, questions of nation and identity have been increasingly addressed in scientific and public discourses in recent years.For this special issue, we were especially interested in dissecting the specific relationship between national socio-political contexts and game development, the influence of the notion of the nation and nationalism as well as (national) identity building processes and religious systems and their various forms of representation in video games and in the gaming community.}, keywords = {identity, nationalism, video games}, url = {https://www.gamevironments.uni-bremen.de/current-papers-and-archive/}, author = {Trattner, Kathrin and Kienzl, Lisa} } @article {169, title = {Between {\textquotedblleft}cultural enclave{\textquotedblright} and {\textquotedblleft}virtual enclave{\textquotedblright}: Ultra-Orthodox society and the digital media}, journal = {Kesher}, volume = {32}, year = {2002}, pages = {47-55}, author = {Tsarfaty, Orly and Blais, Dotan} } @article {2039, title = {Approaches to Digital Methods in Studies of Digital Religion}, journal = {The Communication Review}, volume = {20}, year = {2017}, pages = {73-97}, abstract = {This article reviews digital methodologies in the context of digital religion. We offer a tripod model for approaching digital methods: (a) defining research within digital environments, (b) the utilization of digital tools, and (c) applying unique digital frames. Through a critical review of multiple research projects, we explore three dominant research methods employed within the study of digital religion, namely, the use of textual analysis, interviews, and ethnography. Thus, we highlight the opportunities and challenges of using digital methods.}, keywords = {Digital Religion}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10714421.2017.1304137}, author = {Tsuria, R and Yadlin-Segal, A and Virtillo, A and Campbell, H} } @inbook {2071, title = {Israel }, booktitle = {Online around the World: A Geographic Encyclopedia of the Internet, Social Media, and Mobile Apps}, year = {2017}, pages = {144-148}, publisher = {ABC-CLIO}, organization = {ABC-CLIO}, address = {Santa Barbara, CA}, keywords = {internet, Israel, mobile apps, social media}, issn = {9781610697750}, url = {https://books.google.com/books/about/Online_Around_the_World.html?id=sof6MAAACAAJ}, author = {Tsuria, R and Yadlin-Segal, A} } @article {1893, title = {Multi-mediatization and religious event: the case of the evangelical campaign "Horizon of Hope" on Hope Channel Romania (Speranta TV)/Multim{\'e}diatisation et {\'e}v{\'e}nement religieux : le cas de la campagne d{\textquoteright}{\'e}vang{\'e}lisation l{\textquoteright}{\guillemotleft} Horizon de l{\textquoteright}esp{\'e}rance {\guillemotright} de Hope }, journal = {tic\&soci{\'e}t{\'e}}, volume = {9}, year = {2015}, month = {12/2015}, abstract = {Multi-mediatization and religious event: the case of the evangelical campaign "Horizon of Hope" on Hope Channel Romania (Speranta TV) {\textendash} In this article we will question how the religious media engages with the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for evangelization by reconstructing neo-protestant Hope Channel Romania{\textquoteright}s (Speranta TV) work to implement the evangelical "Horizon of Hope" campaign. Considering that ICTs cannot be regarded yet as stabilized, we suggest that the product of media evangelization created by this religious media is rooted in the logic of cross media convergence between old and new media rather than in a logic of transfer of authority toward the new media. *** Dans cet article nous questionnons les formes d{\textquoteright}engagement des m{\'e}dias religieux avec les nouvelles technologies de l{\textquoteright}information et de la communication (NTIC) pour {\guillemotleft} {\'e}vang{\'e}liser {\guillemotright} en reconstituant le chemin fait par la cha{\^\i}ne de t{\'e}l{\'e}vision n{\'e}o-protestante Hope Channel Romania (Speranta TV) pour la mise en {\oe}uvre de la campagne d{\textquoteright}{\'e}vang{\'e}lisation l{\textquoteright} {\guillemotleft} Horizon de l{\textquoteright}esp{\'e}rance {\guillemotright}. Si l{\textquoteright}on consid{\`e}re que les NTIC ne sont pas encore stabilis{\'e}es, l{\textquoteright}hypoth{\`e}se mise {\`a} l{\textquoteright}{\'e}preuve ici consiste {\`a} montrer que le produit d{\textquoteright}{\'e}vang{\'e}lisation multim{\'e}dia cr{\'e}{\'e} par Speranta TV s{\textquoteright}inscrit davantage dans la logique de la convergence cross-media des m{\'e}dias traditionnels et des nouveaux m{\'e}dias que dans la logique du {\guillemotleft} transfert d{\textquoteright}autorit{\'e} {\guillemotright} vers les nouveaux m{\'e}dias.}, keywords = {convergence cross media, evangelization, neo-Protestant media, New Media}, doi = {10.4000/ticetsociete.1840}, url = {https://ticetsociete.revues.org/1840$\#$quotation}, author = {Tudor, Mihaela-Alexandra} } @conference {1895, title = {Representations de la diversit{\'e} religieuse {\`a} la t{\'e}l{\'e}vision publique}, booktitle = {4th Workshop international Essachess: M{\'e}dia, spiritualit{\'e} et la{\"\i}cit{\'e} : Regards crois{\'e}s franco-roumains}, year = {2015}, month = {12/2015}, publisher = {Iarsic}, organization = {Iarsic}, address = {Bucarest-Villa Noel}, abstract = {Le probl{\`e}me que je pose dans ce cadre consiste {\`a} voir quel sont les pratiques des m{\'e}dias de service public {\`a} l{\textquoteright}{\'e}gard des repr{\'e}sentations de la diversit{\'e} religieuse et, plus pr{\'e}cis{\'e}ment, {\`a} l{\textquoteright}{\'e}gard des repr{\'e}sentations de transmission et communication de la foi dans deux pays europ{\'e}ens dont l{\textquoteright}un fort religieux et l{\textquoteright}autre fort la{\"\i}c, la Roumanie et la France. Il est question de voir en quoi le discours des m{\'e}dias publics sur la diversit{\'e} n{\textquoteright}alt{\`e}re pas le principe de la la{\"\i}cit{\'e}, la neutralit{\'e}, le respect du pluralisme et l{\textquoteright}int{\'e}gralit{\'e} des consciences. Pour ce faire, je vais retenir deux cas de figure, deux {\'e}missions t{\'e}l{\'e}vis{\'e}es diffus{\'e}es sur les cha{\^\i}nes publiques de t{\'e}l{\'e}vision en France et en Roumanie : l{\textquoteright}{\'e}mission {\guillemotleft} Le jour du Seigneur {\guillemotright}, avec ses d{\'e}clinaisons d{\textquoteright}intitul{\'e} au fil du temps {\guillemotleft} Programme du dimanche {\guillemotright} et {\guillemotleft} Les chemins de la foi {\guillemotright}, diffus{\'e}e sur France 2 et {\guillemotleft} Universul credintei {\guillemotright} ({\guillemotleft} l{\textquoteright}Univers de la foi {\guillemotright}) diffus{\'e}e sur TVR1. En consid{\'e}rant ces deux programmes de t{\'e}l{\'e}vision, je vais tenter de r{\'e}pondre globalement aux questionnements suivants : est-ce que tous les mouvements religieux sont-ils pr{\'e}sents dans les m{\'e}dias audiovisuels publics autant que les acteurs des confessions religieuses traditionnellement implant{\'e}es ? Oui, c{\textquoteright}est une r{\'e}alit{\'e}, certains mouvements disposent de leurs propres cha{\^\i}nes, mais leur pr{\'e}sence sur leurs cha{\^\i}nes priv{\'e}es ne remplace pas un droit par un autre. S{\textquoteright}agit-t-il alors d{\textquoteright}une situation de monopole et de visibilit{\'e} maximale des courants religieux dominants dans l{\textquoteright}espace public au travers des m{\'e}dias publics ? Plus de normalisation garantit plus d{\textquoteright}acc{\`e}s compte tenu que le principe de la{\"\i}cit{\'e} pr{\'e}voit l{\textquoteright}{\'e}galit{\'e} et l{\textquoteright}absence de hi{\'e}rarchie entre les diff{\'e}rentes croyances et cultes ?}, keywords = {cultural diversity, Faith, freedom of opinion, laicism, pluralism, public institution, religion, religious community representation, Television}, isbn = {978-2-9532450-6-6}, url = {http://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/45739/ssoar-2015-tudor-Representations_de_la_diversite_religieuse.pdf?sequence=3}, author = {Tudor, Mihaela-Alexandra} } @book {422, title = {Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet}, year = {1995}, publisher = {Touchstone}, organization = {Touchstone}, address = {New York}, abstract = {{\textquoteright}Life on the Screen{\textquoteright} is a fascinating and wide-ranging investigation of the impact of computers and networking on society, peoples{\textquoteright} perceptions of themselves, and the individual{\textquoteright}s relationship to machines. Sherry Turkle, a Professor of the Sociology of Science at MIT and a licensed psychologist, uses Internet MUDs (multi-user domains, or in older gaming parlance multi-user dungeons) as a launching pad for explorations of software design, user interfaces, simulation, artificial intelligence, artificial life, agents, {\textquoteright}bots,{\textquoteright} virtual reality, and {\textquoteright}the on-line way of life.{\textquoteright} Turkle{\textquoteright}s discussion of postmodernism is particularly enlightening. She shows how postmodern concepts in art, architecture, and ethics are related to concrete topics much closer to home, for example AI research (Minsky{\textquoteright}s {\textquoteright}Society of Mind{\textquoteright}) and even MUDs (exemplified by students with X-window terminals who are doing homework in one window and simultaneously playing out several different roles in the same MUD in other windows). Those of you who have (like me) been turned off by the shallow, pretentious, meaningless paintings and sculptures that litter our museums of modern art may have a different perspective after hearing what Turkle has to say}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=auXlqr6b2ZUC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Turkle, S.} } @article {208, title = {Religious Authority and the New Media}, journal = {Theory, Culture \& Society }, volume = {24}, year = {2007}, pages = {117-134}, abstract = {In traditional societies, knowledge is organized in hierarchical chains through which authority is legitimated by custom. Because the majority of the population is illiterate, sacred knowledge is conveyed orally and ritualistically, but the ultimate source of religious authority is typically invested in the Book. The hadith (sayings and customs of the Prophet) are a good example of traditional practice. These chains of Islamic knowledge were also characteristically local, consensual and lay, unlike in Christianity, with its emergent ecclesiastical bureaucracies, episcopal structures and ordained priests. In one sense, Islam has no church. While there are important institutional differences between the world religions, network society opens up significant challenges to traditional authority, rapidly increasing the flow of religious knowledge and commodities. With global flows of knowledge on the Internet, power is no longer embodied and the person is simply a switchpoint in the information flow. The logic of networking is that control cannot be concentrated for long at any single point in the system; knowledge, which is by definition only temporary, is democratically produced at an infinite number of sites. In this Andy Warhol world, every human can, in principle, have their own site. While the Chinese Communist Party and several Middle Eastern states attempt to control this flow, their efforts are only partially successful. The result is that traditional forms of religious authority are constantly disrupted and challenged, but at the same time the Internet creates new opportunities for evangelism, religious instruction and piety. The outcome of these processes is, however, unknown and unknowable. There is a need, therefore, to invent a new theory of authority that is post-Weberian in reconstructing the conventional format of charisma, tradition and legal rationalism.}, keywords = {Authority, Bureaucracy, Knowledge, New Media, Tradition}, url = {http://tcs.sagepub.com/content/24/2/117}, author = {Turner, Bryan S} } @article {3014, title = {A relational model of authority in groups}, journal = {Advances in Experimental Social Psychology}, year = {1992}, abstract = {This chapter focuses on one particular aspect of authoritativeness: voluntary compliance with the decisions of authorities. Social psychologists have long distinguished between obedience that is the result of coercion, and obedience that is the result of internal attitudes. Opinions describe {\textquotedblleft}reward power{\textquotedblright} and {\textquotedblleft}coercive power{\textquotedblright}, in which obedience is contingent on positive and negative outcomes, and distinguish both of these types of power from legitimate power, in which obedience flows from judgments about the legitimacy of the authority. Legitimate power depends on people taking the obligation on themselves to obey and voluntarily follow the decisions made by authorities. The chapter also focuses on legitimacy because it is important to recognize, that legitimacy is not the only attitudinal factor influencing effectiveness. It is also influenced by other cognitions about the authority, most notably judgments of his or her expertise with respect to the problem at hand. The willingness of group members to accept a leader{\textquoteright}s directives is only helpful when the leader knows what directives to issue.}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S006526010860283X}, author = {Tyler, T. and Lind, A.} } @book {2076, title = {The Amish and the media}, year = {2008}, publisher = {JHU Press}, organization = {JHU Press}, abstract = {This collection is the first scholarly treatment of the relationship between the Amish and the media in contemporary American life. The essays not only focus on the Amish as subjects in mainstream media{\textemdash}news, movies, TV{\textemdash}but also view them as producers and consumers of media themselves. Of all the religious groups in contemporary America, few demonstrate as many reservations toward the media as do the Old Order Amish. Yet these attention-wary citizens have become a media phenomenon, featured in films, novels, magazines, newspapers, and television{\textemdash}from Witness, Amish in the City, and Devil{\textquoteright}s Playground to the intense news coverage of the 2006 Nickel Mines School shooting. But the Old Order Amish are more than media subjects. Despite their separatist tendencies, they use their own media networks to sustain Amish culture. Chapters in the collection examine the influence of Amish-produced newspapers and books, along with the role of informal spokespeople in Old Order communities. With essays from experts in the fields of film and media studies, poetry, American studies, anthropology, and history, this groundbreaking study shows how the relationship between the Amish and the media provides valuable insights into the perception of minority religion in North American culture.}, keywords = {Amish, media}, issn = {9780801887895}, url = {https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/amish-and-media}, author = {Umble, D.Z and Weaver-Zercher, D.L} } @mastersthesis {1199, title = {Manifestation of Religious Authority on the Internet: Presentation of Twelver Shiite Authority in the Persian Blogosphere}, volume = {Master of Arts}, year = {2012}, month = {23-May-2012}, school = {University of Waterloo}, type = {Master Thesis}, abstract = {Cyberspace has diversified and pluralized people{\textquoteright}s daily experiences of religion in unprecedented ways. By studying several websites and weblogs that have a religious orientation, different layers of religious authority including {\textquotedblleft}religious hierarchy, structures, ideology, and sources{\textquotedblright} (Campbell, 2009) can be identified. Also, using Weber{\textquoteright}s definition of the three types of authority, {\textquotedblleft}rational-legal, traditional, and charismatic{\textquotedblright} (1968), the specific type of authority that is being presented on blogosphere can be recognized. The Internet presents a level of liberty for the discussion of sensitive topics in any kind of religious cyberspace, specifically the Islamic one. In this way, the Internet is expanding the number and range of Muslim voices, which may pose problems for traditional forms of religious authority or may suggest new forms of authority in the Islamic world. The interaction between the Internet and religion is often perceived as contradictory, especially when it is religion at its most conservative practice. While the international and national applications of the Internet have increased vastly, local religious communities, especially fundamentalists, perceived this new technology as a threat to their local cultures and practices. If we look at the Internet as a central phenomenon of contemporary modernity that interacts with practiced fundamentalist religious traditions, we can ask how broad the interactions are between religious fundamentalism and the Internet and whether these relations can be reconciled. More specifically, this thesis presents a study of the junction of the Internet and religious fundamentalism reviewing the presentation of Shiite religious authority on the Persian blogosphere. As a case study, Persian weblogs are studied for content analysis for this thesis. Weblogs{\textquoteright} texts are analyzed to find evidences for Shiite beliefs and shared identity, usages and interpretations of the main Shiite religious texts, references to the role of recognized Shiite leaders, and descriptions of Shiite structural patterns of practices and organizations. This research will demonstrate how the Internet has been culturally constructed, modified, and adapted to the Iranian community{\textquoteright}s needs and how the Shiite fundamentalist community of Iran has been affected by it. Based on one of the most structured research in this area, the study by Baezilai-Nahon and Barzilai (2005), in this article I identify four principal dimensions of religious fundamentalism as they interact with the Internet: hierarchy, patriarchy, discipline, and seclusion.}, keywords = {Authority, Biosphere, Digital Religion, Iran, media and religion, new media engagement, New media praticipation, Persian, Religious Internet Communities, Shiite Muslim, sociability unbound}, url = { http://hdl.handle.net/10012/6774}, author = {Valibeigi, Narges} } @article {312, title = {Web 2.0: technology for the postmodern sensibility and its implications for the church}, journal = {Journal Of Theology For Southern Africa }, year = {2008}, month = {11/2008}, pages = {86-107}, chapter = {86}, abstract = {Web 2.0 is a new technology approach that in essence builds on the Internet{\textquoteright}s existing culture of collaboration and individual freedom. This article argues that Web 2.0 is both creator and creation of the postmodern Zeitgeist, with technology and social development existing in a mutually reinforcing spiral. To minister effectively to the postmodern world, the Church needs to understand how to use these new technologies and, more importantly, respond to the new world they simultaneously reflect and create. The article outlines the main characteristics of postmodernism, the context of Web 2.0, before examining in some detail the nature of Web 2.0. This discussion is followed by an outline of the main technologies that enable Web 2.0. It then moves onto a consideration of what all this means for the Church. Tactical uses of some of the technologies are suggested before the article moves on to examine the main implications of the combination of Web 2.0 and postmodernism. It concludes with a summary of the opportunities and challenges this combination presents for the Church.}, author = {Van den Heever, James} } @inbook {1254, title = {When {\textquoteright}Friend{\textquoteright} Becomes a Verb: Religion on the Social Web}, booktitle = {God in the Details: American Religion in Popular Culture}, year = {2010}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, chapter = {11}, address = {God in the Details: American Religion in Popular Culture}, keywords = {Digital Religion, integration, Interaction, interpretation, social media, social networks}, url = {http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415485364/}, author = {Daniel Veidlinger} } @book {244, title = {Christians in a.com World: Getting Connected without Being Consumed}, year = {2000}, publisher = {Crossway Books}, organization = {Crossway Books}, address = {Wheaton, IL}, abstract = {In the Internet we are facing the biggest information revolution since the printing press. This technology presents new challenges to our culture as a whole, making it essential that we as Christians be "plugged in." And while millions are online, you, like many, may be simultaneously uneasy about where this new medium is leading us. Noted culture critic Gene Veith and Chris Stamper, a leading voice in modern technology, want to help you understand the significance cyberculture has for us as Christians. The authors tackle the current controversies, including censorship, the possible demise of print, and how it all ties into postmodernism. As they challenge the myths, probe the weaknesses, and reveal the possibilities of this new and continually developing medium, you will become an informed and discerning traveler on the information highway. One who understands the cultural and worldview implications of the Internet and who knows how to be wired to it but not entangled by it.}, url = {http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?printsec=frontcover\&output=reader\&retailer_id=android_market_live\&id=F1acUthK4GUC\&pg=GBS.PA10}, author = {Veith, Gene Edward and Stamper, Christopher} } @article {1200, title = {Women responding to the anti-Islam film Fitna: voices and acts of citizenship on YouTube}, journal = {Feminist Review}, volume = {97}, year = {2011}, pages = {110-129}, abstract = {How feminists view the alternative videos uploaded to YouTube in response to the anti-Islam film {\textquoteright}Fitna{\textquoteright} is discussed. The gender portrayal and narratives in {\textquoteright}Fitna{\textquoteright} are contrasted with those in the alternative video. The videos were considered as acts of citizenship through which women constitutes themselves as global citizen by engaging in deliberation or by taking a voice.}, keywords = {anti-Islam, citizenship, Digital Religion, Feminists, Fitna, gender studies, Islam, Religious Internet Communities, Research Political participation, YouTube}, url = {http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/159420348?q\&versionId=173776629}, author = {Vis, F and van Zoonen, L and Mihelj, S} } @inbook {2101, title = {Religioni e Internet: Evangelizzazione o Reincantamento del Mondo?}, booktitle = {Rapporto sull{\textquoteright}Analfabetismo Religioso in Italia}, year = {2014}, pages = {355{\textendash}367}, publisher = {Il Mulino}, organization = {Il Mulino}, address = {Bologna}, abstract = {Il rapporto sull{\textquoteright}analfabetismo religioso in Italia intende porre domande, tracciare percorsi e contestualizzare il tema dell{\textquoteright}assenza del religioso nei processi educativi su scala internazionale. Il volume offre una riflessione organica su ci{\`o} che viene ignorato dal sistema scolastico e sui perch{\'e} storico-teologici, oltrech{\'e} storico-politici, di queste omissioni e lacune. A un{\textquoteright}ampia analisi delle premesse teorico-critiche e dello scenario storico italiano da cui il fenomeno trae la propria natura si affiancano rassegne di studi, analisi delle esperienze riuscite e fallite e alcuni primi strumenti di cura che ambiscono a generare un dibattito pubblico sul tema e a costruire una riflessione capace di coinvolgere tutti gli attori sociali impegnati nel settore educativo e della formazione. Correda il volume una sezione info-grafica e di mappe che rende la lettura pi{\`u} intuitiva, trasferendo su immagini e simboli la complessit{\`a} delle informazioni e dei dati raccolti.}, keywords = {evangelism, internet, religion}, issn = {9788815251299}, url = {https://books.google.com/books?id=V1bYngEACAAJ\&dq=Rapporto+sull\%E2\%80\%99Analfabetismo+Religioso+in+Italia\&hl=en\&sa=X\&ved=0ahUKEwjNs_2y1uDbAhVmxlQKHeAXDaQQ6AEIJzAA}, author = {Vitullo, A} } @inbook {1251, title = {The Play Is the Thing: From Bible Fights to Passions of the Christ}, booktitle = {Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games With God}, year = {2010}, publisher = {Westminster John Knox Press}, organization = {Westminster John Knox Press}, chapter = {3}, keywords = {Christianity, Immersion, interactivity, Jesus, narrativity, Parody, player-viewer, video games}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=GomyEvcocJsC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Wagner, R} } @inbook {671, title = {You Are What You Install: Religious Authenticity and Identity in Mobile Apps}, booktitle = {Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds}, year = {2012}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London}, abstract = {Digital Religion offers a critical and systematic survey of the study of religion and new media. It covers religious engagement with a wide range of new media forms and highlights examples of new media engagement in all five of the major world religions. From cell phones and video games to blogs and Second Life, the book: provides a detailed review of major topics includes a series of case studies to illustrate and elucidate the thematic explorations considers the theoretical, ethical and theological issues raised. Drawing together the work of experts from key disciplinary perspectives, Digital Religion is invaluable for students wanting to develop a deeper understanding of the field.}, keywords = {Apps, identity, iPhone, religion, technology}, issn = {9780415676113 }, author = {Wagner, R}, editor = {Campbell, H.} } @book {2082, title = {Godwired: Religion, ritual and virtual reality}, year = {2012}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {New York}, abstract = {Godwired offers an engaging exploration of religious practice in the digital age. It considers how virtual experiences, like stories, games and rituals, are forms of world-building or "cosmos construction" that serve as a means of making sense of our own world. Such creative and interactive activity is, arguably, patently religious.}, keywords = {Godwired, religion, Ritual, virtual reality}, issn = {9780203148075}, url = {https://books.google.com/books/about/Godwired.html?id=aHOHZwEACAAJ}, author = {Wagner, R} } @inbook {826, title = {You Are What You Install: Religious Authenticity and Identity in Mobile Apps}, booktitle = {Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds}, year = {2012}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London}, keywords = {Apps, identity, mobile, religious}, issn = {0415676118}, author = {Wagner, R} } @book {271, title = {Godwired: Religion, Ritual and Virtual Reality}, year = {2011}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {London}, abstract = {Godwired offers an engaging exploration of religious practice in the digital age. It considers how virtual experiences, like stories, games and rituals, are forms of world-building or "cosmos construction" that serve as a means of making sense of our own world. Such creative and interactive activity is, arguably, patently religious. This book examines: the nature of sacred space in virtual contexts technology as a vehicle for sacred texts who we are when we go online what rituals have in common with games and how they work online what happens to community when people worship online how religious "worlds" and virtual "worlds" nurture similar desires. Rachel Wagner suggests that whilst our engagement with virtual reality can be viewed as a form of religious activity, today{\textquoteright}s virtual religion marks a radical departure from traditional religious practice -- it is ephemeral, transient, rapid, disposable, hyper-individualized, hybrid, and in an ongoing state of flux.}, url = {http://www.amazon.com/Godwired-Religion-Virtual-Reality-Culture/dp/0415781450}, author = {Wagner, Rachel} } @book {2746, title = {Video Games and Religion}, year = {2015}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, organization = {Oxford University Press}, abstract = {This article identifies key features of the comparison between video games and religion, focusing on contemporary video games based on specific ancient apocalypses including {\textquotedblleft}The Book of the Watchers{\textquotedblright} in the Enoch corpus and the Book of Revelation in the Bible. Many contemporary video games function as rituals of order-making, creating spaces of play in which violence is a performative mode of metaphysical sorting, allowing for new negotiations between {\textquotedblleft}good{\textquotedblright} and {\textquotedblleft}evil.{\textquotedblright} Through a consideration of popular gaming elements (fragging, fiero, firepower, and fun), this article proposes that the strong relationship between video games and apocalyptic literature invites a closer examination of how eschatological tensions infuse contemporary times, too often inviting an overly simplistic apocalyptic response to contemporary global challenges.}, url = {https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935420.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199935420-e-8}, author = {Wagner, Rachel} } @article {898, title = {God in the Game: Cosmopolitanism and Religious Conflict in Videogames}, journal = {Journal of the American Academy of Religion}, year = {2013}, keywords = {Cosmopolitanism, religion, video games}, doi = {10.1093/jaarel/lfs102}, url = {http://jaar.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/01/22/jaarel.lfs102.extract}, author = {Wagner, Rachel} } @inbook {270, title = {Our Lady of Persistent Liminality: Virtual Church, Cyberspace, and Second Life}, booktitle = {God in the Details Routledge Press}, year = {2010}, pages = {271-290.}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=Fw8B6U2QLo4C\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Wagner, Rachel} } @article {2840, title = {The Buddhist Dharma for Sale: Who Owns the Past? The Internet and Objects of Worship}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Is it possible to claim ownership of the Buddhist dharma; the teachings of the Buddha? Does a group{\textquoteright}s relationship to its cultural productions constitute a form of ownership? Can a religious image be copyrighted? This article will focus on the emergence and transformation of the Moji-Mandala or Gohonzon (御本尊), created by the Japanese monk Nichiren (1222-1282). Nichiren{\textquoteright}s followers were persecuted, and some were executed when the scroll was found in their possession. Nichiren{\textquoteright}s hanging mandala was previously available only to individuals seriously practicing Nichiren{\textquoteright}s Buddhism. Currently, Nichiren{\textquoteright}s mandala is reproduced electronically over the internet by websites claiming to represent various Buddhist lay organizations. The digital revolution has increased the ability of individuals to appropriate and profit from the cultural knowledge of religious groups that are largely unprotected by existing intellectual property law. }, url = {http://www.globalbuddhism.org/jgb/index.php/jgb/article/view/238}, author = {Wallinder-Pierini, Linda S E} } @book {2863, title = {Why Muslim Women and Smartphones: Mirror Images}, year = {2020}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, abstract = {Using an assemblage approach to study how Muslim women in Norrebro, Denmark use their phones, Karen Waltorp examines how social media complicates the divide between public and private in relation to a group of people who find this distinction of utmost significance. Building on years of ethnographic fieldwork, Waltorp{\textquoteright}s ethnography reflects the trust and creativity of her relationships with these women which in turn open up nuanced discussions about both the subject at hand and best practice in conducting anthropological research. Combining rich ethnography with theoretical contextualization, Waltorp{\textquoteright}s book alternates between ethnography and analysis to illuminate a thoroughly modern community, and reveals the capacity of image-making technology to function as an infrastructure for seeing, thinking and engaging in fieldwork as an anthropologists. Waltorp identifies a series of important issues around anthropological approaches to new media, contributing to new debates around the anthropology of automation, data and self-tracking. }, isbn = {9781350127357}, url = {https://www.routledge.com/Why-Muslim-Women-and-Smartphones-Mirror-Images/Waltorp/p/book/9781350127357}, author = {Waltorp, Karen} } @article {2839, title = {Keeping cool, staying virtuous: Social media and the composite habitus of young Muslim women in Copenhagen}, journal = {MedieKultur: Journal of media and communication research}, year = {2015}, abstract = {This article builds on long-term anthropological fieldwork among young Muslim women in a social housing area in Copenhagen. It explores how morality, modesty, and gender- and generational relations become reconfigured in the ways in which young women use the Smartphone and social media to navigate their everyday lives. I focus on love and marriage, the imperatives of appearing cool among peers, and keeping the family{\textquoteright}s honour intact through the display of virtuous behaviour. Building on Bourdieu{\textquoteright}s writings on the split habitus, I introduce the term composite habitus, as it underscores the aspect of a habitus that is split between (sometimes contradictory) composite parts. The composite habitus of the young women is more than a hysteresis effect (where disposition and field are in mismatch and the habitus misfires), as the composite habitus also opens up to a range of possible strategies. I present examples of how intimate and secret uses of Smartphones have played out and show how social media have allowed for multiple versions of the self through managing public and secret relationships locally and across long distances. }, url = {https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298428678_Keeping_cool_staying_virtuous_Social_media_and_the_composite_habitus_of_young_Muslim_women_in_Copenhagen}, author = {Waltorp, Karen} } @article {57, title = {Soul-Searching on Facebook}, year = {2009}, month = {August 30, 2009}, abstract = {Such public proclamations of beliefs used to require a baptism in water, or a circumcision, or learning the five pillars of Islam. Now Facebook users announce their spiritual identity with the stroke of a few keys. And what they are typing into the open-ended box offers a revealing peek into modern faith and what happens to that faith as it migrates online.}, url = {http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/29/AR2009082902400.html?sid=ST2009082902522}, author = {William Wan} } @article {1300, title = {Investigating religious information searching through analysis of a search engine log}, journal = {Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology}, year = {2013}, abstract = {In this paper we present results from an investigation of religious information searching based on analyzing log files from a large general-purpose search engine. From approximately 15 million queries, we identified 124,422 that were part of 60,759 user sessions. We present a method for categorizing queries based on related terms and show differences in search patterns between religious searches and web searching more generally. We also investigate the search patterns found in queries related to 5 religions: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism. Different search patterns are found to emerge. Results from this study complement existing studies of religious information searching and provide a level of detailed analysis not reported to date. We show, for example, that sessions involving religion-related queries tend to last longer, that the lengths of religion-related queries are greater, and that the number of unique URLs clicked is higher when compared to all queries. The results of the study can serve to provide information on what this large population of users is actually searching for.}, keywords = {Buddhism, Christianity, Digital, Hinduism, information, Islam, Judaism, queries, religion, search behavior, search engine}, url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.22945/abstract?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=\&userIsAuthenticated=false}, author = {Rita Wan-Chik and Paul Clough and Mark Sanderson} } @article {2851, title = {Digital Religion and Media Economics: Concentration and Convergence in the Electronic Church}, journal = {Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The economics that push every medium toward market concentration have historically done likewise to every religious medium. {\textquotedblleft}Online religion{\textquotedblright} is now, in its turn, colonized by an {\textquotedblleft}electronic church{\textquotedblright} industry that, due to media deregulation, is dominated by religious media conglomerates{\textemdash}through whom North Americans are most likely to engage in digital religion. The largest conglomerate alone generates 110 million computer sessions and 79 million mobile sessions per month. This study reviews the economics of media concentration and applications to religious media, surveys the digital footprint of the institutional electronic church, and advocates integration of media practices into Digital Religion Studies.}, url = {https://brill.com/view/journals/rmdc/7/1/article-p90_90.xml?language=en}, author = {Ward, Mark} } @book {2879, title = {Celebrity Worship }, year = {2019}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, abstract = {Celebrity Worship provides an introduction to the fascinating study of celebrity culture and religion. The book argues for celebrity as a foundational component for any consideration of the relationship between religion, media and culture. Celebrity worship is seen as a vibrant and interactive discourse of the sacred self in contemporary society. Topics discussed include: Celebrity culture. Celebrity worship and project of the self as the new sacred. Social media and the democratisation of celebrity. Reactions to celebrity death. Celebrities as theologians of the self. Christian celebrity. Using contemporary case studies, such as lifestyle television, the religious vision of Oprah Winfrey and the death of David Bowie, this book is a gripping read for those with an interest in celebrity culture, cultural studies, media studies, religion in the media and the role of religion in society.}, url = {https://www.amazon.com/Celebrity-Worship-Media-Religion-Culture/dp/1138587095}, author = {Peter Ward} } @article {896, title = {Hope and Sorrow: Uncivil Religion, Tibetan Music Videos, and YouTube}, journal = {Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology }, year = {2013}, abstract = {Tibetan activists and their supporters are interpreting the lyrical and visual symbolism of contemporary Tibetan music videos from China as a call for Tibetans to return to a shared Tibetan identity, centered around religious piety and implied civil disobedience, in order to counter fears of cultural assimilation. As the popularity of some videos on social-networking sites dovetailed with the 2008 protests in Tibet, viewers employed a progressive hermeneutical strategy which demanded a sectarian political interpretation of the lyrics and imagery of the most popular videos out of Tibet. Within China, Tibetans have begun to add these videos to the growing canon of an emerging uncivil religion, which emphasizes Tibetan cultural, linguistic, and religious autonomy within China. Through comparing online and offline ethnography, this article explores the relationship between offline and online worlds and the connections between Tibetans in China and their supporters.}, keywords = {China, media, Music, religion, Tibet, YouTube}, doi = {10.1080/00141844.2012.724433}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00141844.2012.724433}, author = {Cameron David Warner} } @article {3019, title = {Theory of social and economic organization}, journal = {Oxford University Press}, year = {1947}, url = {https://www.britannica.com/topic/Theory-of-Social-and-Economic-Organization}, author = {Weber, M.} } @inbook {2341, title = {Religious discourse in the archived web: Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury, and the sharia law controversy of 2008}, booktitle = {The Web as History: the first two decades}, year = {2017}, pages = {190-203}, publisher = {UCL Press}, organization = {UCL Press}, address = {London}, url = {https://www.ucldigitalpress.co.uk/Book/Article/45/70/3464/}, author = {Webster, Peter} } @article {2340, title = {Technology, ethics and religious language: early Anglophone Christian reactions to {\textquotedblleft}cyberspace{\textquotedblright}}, journal = {Internet Histories}, volume = {2}, year = {2018}, pages = {299-314}, chapter = {299}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2018.1468976}, author = {Webster, Peter} } @inbook {2339, title = {Religion and Web history}, booktitle = {The SAGE Handbook of Web History}, year = {2019}, pages = {479-90}, publisher = {Sage}, organization = {Sage}, issn = {9781473980051}, author = {Webster, Peter} } @inbook {2338, title = {Lessons from cross-border religion in the Northern Irish web sphere: understanding the limitations of the ccTLD as a proxy for the national web}, booktitle = {The Historical Web and Digital Humanities: the Case of National Web domains}, year = {2019}, pages = {110-23}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, author = {Webster, Peter} } @article {827, title = {Networks, Neighborhoods, and Communities: Approaches to the Study of the Community Question }, journal = {Urban Affairs Review}, volume = {14}, year = {1979}, chapter = {363}, abstract = {We propose a network analytic approach to the community question in order to separate the study of communities from the study of neighborhoods. Three arguments about the community question-that "community" has been "lost," "saved," or "liberated"-are reviewed for their development, network depictions, imagery, policy implications, and current status. The lost argument contends that communal ties have become attenuated in industrial bureaucratic societies; the saved argument contends that neighborhood communities remain as important sources of sociability, support and mediation with formal institutions; the liberated argument maintains that while communal ties still flourish, they have dispersed beyond the neighborhood and are no longer clustered in solidary communities. Our review finds that both the saved and liberated arguments proposed viable network patterns under appropriate conditions, for social systems as well as individuals. }, keywords = {community, media, Neighborhoods, networks, social network}, url = {http://www.google.com/url?sa=t\&rct=j\&q=\&esrc=s\&source=web\&cd=1\&ved=0CDIQFjAA\&url=http\%3A\%2F\%2Fcourseweb.lis.illinois.edu\%2F~katewill\%2Ffall2009-lis590col\%2Fwellman\%2520leighton\%25201979\%2520networks\%2520neighborhoods.pdf\&ei=0_0CUfHWFqb22AW68YG4Bw\&usg=AFQj}, author = {Wellman, B. and Leighton, B} } @inbook {394, title = {Studying the Internet through the Ages}, booktitle = {Handbook of Internet Studies}, year = {2011}, pages = {17-23}, publisher = {Blackwell}, organization = {Blackwell}, address = {Oxford}, abstract = {The Handbook of Internet Studies brings together scholars from a variety of fields to explore the profound shift that has occurred in how we communicate and experience our world as we have moved from the industrial era into the age of digital media. }, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=3CakiQW_GVAC\&pg=PA17\&lpg=PA17\&dq=Studying+the+Internet+through+the+Ages\&source=bl\&ots=7jItTrTTkF\&sig=nJOUdr-vI5dRfuLYlayzhWhlVIk\&hl=en\&sa=X\&ei=wlcsT4LzLujm2gXVjL3GCg\&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAg$\#$v=onepage\&q=Studying\%20the\%20Internet\%20}, author = {Wellman, B.} } @inbook {1178, title = {An Electronic Group is Virtually a Social Network}, booktitle = {Culture of the Internet}, year = {1997}, publisher = {Psychology Press}, organization = {Psychology Press}, chapter = {9}, abstract = {When a computer network connects people, it is a social network. Just as a computer network is a set of machines connected by a set of cables, a social network is a set of people (or organizations or other social entities) connected by a set of socially meaningful relationships. I show how social network analysis might be useful for understanding how people relate to each other through computer-mediated communication (see also Wellman \& Gulia, in press; Wellman et al., 1996).}, keywords = {computer-mediated communication, social network}, url = {http://pdf.aminer.org/000/247/445/learning_in_the_network_form_implications_for_electronic_group_support.pdf}, author = {Barry Wellman} } @book {1273, title = {The Internet in Everyday Life}, series = {Information Age Series}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, organization = {Wiley-Blackwell}, abstract = {The Internet in Everyday Life is the first book to systematically investigate how being online fits into people{\textquoteright}s everyday lives. Opens up a new line of inquiry into the social effects of the Internet. Focuses on how the Internet fits into everyday lives, rather than considering it as an alternate world. Chapters are contributed by leading researchers in the area. Studies are based on empirical data. Talks about the reality of being online now, not hopes or fears about the future effects of the Internet.}, keywords = {internet, Internet Studies, methodologies, social effects}, url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/book/10.1002/9780470774298}, author = {Barry Wellman and Caroline Haythornthwaite} } @book {2850, title = {Media Perceptions of Religious Changes in Australia: Of Dominance and Diversity}, year = {2019}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, abstract = {This volume explores the contradiction between the news coverage given to issues of religion, particularly since 2001 in relation to issues such as terrorism, politics, security and gender, and the fact of its apparent decline according to Census data. Based on media research in Australia, and offering comparisons with the UK, the author demonstrates that media discussions overlook the diversity that exists within religions, particularly the country{\textquoteright}s main religion, Christianity, and presents religion according to specific interpretations shaped by race, class and gender, which in turn result in very limited understandings of religion itself. Drawing on understandings of the sacred as a non-negotiable value present in religious and secular form, Media Perceptions of Religious Changes in Australia calls for a broader sociological perspective on religion and will appeal to scholars of sociology and media studies with interests in religion and public life. }, isbn = {9780367192570}, url = {https://www.routledge.com/Media-Perceptions-of-Religious-Changes-in-Australia-Of-Dominance-and-Diversity/Weng/p/book/9780367192570}, author = {Weng, Enqi} } @book {245, title = {The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace}, year = {1999}, publisher = {Virago}, organization = {Virago}, address = {London}, abstract = {Cyberspace may seem an unlikely gateway for the soul. But as science commentator Margaret Wertheim argues in this "marvelously provocative" (Kirkus Reviews) book, cyberspace has in recent years become a repository for immense spiritual yearning. Wertheim explores the mapping of spiritual desire onto digitized space and suggests that the modem today has become a metaphysical escape-hatch from a materialism that many people find increasingly dissatisfying. Cyberspace opens up a collective space beyond the laws of physics-a space where mind rather than matter reigns. This strange refuge returns us to an almost medieval dualism between a physical space of body and an immaterial space of mind and psyche.}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=H7nH08cGvbcC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Wertheim, Maragret} } @article {3020, title = {The digital advantage: How digital leaders outperform their peers in every industry}, journal = {MIT Sloan Management and Capgemini Consulting}, year = {2012}, url = {https://www.capgemini.com/us-en/resources/the-digital-advantage-how-digital-leaders-outperform-their-peers-in-every-industry/}, author = {Westerman, G. and Tannou, M. and Bonnet, D. and Ferraris, P. and McAfee, A.} } @article {2789, title = {Remixing Images of Islam. The Creation of New Muslim Women Subjectivities on YouTube}, journal = {Online - Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet}, year = {2014}, abstract = {This study provides a textual analysis of YouTube videos produced by two popular Western English-speaking vloggers, Amenakin and Nye Armstrong using Guo and Lee{\textquoteright}s hybrid vernacular discourse framework. Vernacular discourse is defined as speech and culture that includes music, art, and fashion, which resonates within a local community.The framework focuses on three components: content, agency, and subjectivity. I extend this framework by examining audience response to the new images through analyzing comments and response videos. Recognizing that the boundaries between vernacular and mainstream discourse are blurred, my research is guided by the following question: How are Muslim women rearticulating and renegotiating mainstream and vernacular discourses to introduce new and complex images of Muslim womanhood that challenge mainstream Western representations of Muslim women?}, url = {https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/religions/article/view/17364}, author = {Wheeler, Kayla Ren{\'e}e} } @article {170, title = {Islam, Community and the Internet: New possibilities in the digital age}, year = {2002}, abstract = {This essay uses three examples of Muslim cyberpractices as a means for understanding how the Internet enables the formation, maintenance, and management of certain kinds of Islamic communities. First is the case of the al-Qaeda movement and its critics. Case two is an Ask the Imam web site, where postings on cyberdating are analyzed as a means to define proper Muslim behavior in cyberspace. The third case is the gayegypt.com web site and the controversies surrounding it. It has been said that the Internet is producing a kind of Muslim Renaissance similar in scope and effect to the flowering of Islamic science, learning, and community values during the Abbassid period many centuries earlier. As this analysis illustrates, the kinds of changes in Muslim community enabled by the Internet are fundamentally altering the values and practices defined by Muslims in the Medieval period, especially in terms of the construction of authority.}, url = {http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2002/02/islam.php}, author = {Wheeler, Deborah} } @book {372, title = {Christian Worship and Technological Change}, year = {1994}, publisher = {Abingdon Press}, organization = {Abingdon Press}, address = {Nashville}, abstract = {Arguing that a primary influence on the social context of Christian worship is the pervasive presence of technology and technological processes, White traces the interplay between technological processes and Christian worship, and gives suggestions as to how the church might approach scientific advances in a rapidly changing society.}, url = {http://books.google.com/books/about/Christian_worship_and_technological_chan.html?id=J3thQgAACAAJ}, author = {White, S.} } @article {2752, title = {{\textquotedblleft}The story God is weaving us into{\textquotedblright}: narrativizing grief, faith, and infant loss in US evangelical women{\textquoteright}s blog communities}, journal = {New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia}, year = {2015}, abstract = {This case study explores how US evangelical Christian "mommy blog" communities constitute spaces for the collective memorialization of infant loss. Personal religious blogs feature a rich combination of esthetics, narrative structure, description of religious practices and beliefs, reader interaction, and linked networks. Using a textual approach, I illustrate distinctive features in how pregnancy and infant loss and grief are experienced, shared and memorialized in US women{\textquoteright}s evangelical blogging communities. I argue that the blog format allows for a (re)narrativization of the devastating experience of infant loss as grieving mothers situate their traumatic personal experiences within the context of an ongoing religious narrative in which blog readers also come to participate. As the blogger tells the story of her own loss to a listening public, it becomes a larger shared story, so that it is not just the child{\textquoteright}s story but also the author{\textquoteright}s story, their family{\textquoteright}s story, and "our story" inclusive of the blog community of readers, "the story God is weaving us into," post by post, day by day. Personal religious blogs and their reading publics, therefore, can provide a medium for the ongoing creation of meaning, faith and community in the context of infant loss. }, url = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015NRvHM..21...42W/abstract}, author = {Whitehead, Deborah} } @article {2086, title = {When religious {\textquoteleft}mommy bloggers{\textquoteright} met {\textquoteleft}mommy porn{\textquoteright}: evangelical Christian and Mormon women{\textquoteright}s responses to fifty shades}, journal = {Sexualities}, volume = {16}, year = {2013}, pages = {915{\textendash}931}, abstract = {While some conservative religious women have rejected Fifty Shades of Grey as contrary to their values and beliefs, others have embraced it. This article analyzes commentaries and reflections on the book series in US evangelical Christian and Mormon women{\textquoteright}s blog communities, and shows how many of these women find value in the books because of their personal, cultural, and religious significance. I argue that attention to the reading strategies employed by evangelical and Mormon women in relation to Fifty Shades demonstrates a complex set of responses to {\textquoteleft}secular{\textquoteright} culture as well as ongoing negotiations of gender, sexuality, and authority within these conservative religious traditions.}, keywords = {Evangelical Christian, Fifty Shades, Mormon, religious}, url = {http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1363460713508904?journalCode=sexa}, author = {Whitehead, D} } @article {2753, title = {The Evidence of Things Unseen: Authenticity and Fraud in the Christian Mommy Blogosphere}, journal = {Journal of the American Academy of Religion}, year = {2015}, abstract = {This article analyzes allegations of fraud and deception in two popular evangelical Christian {\textquotedblleft}mommy blogs{\textquotedblright} in order to demonstrate how the rhetoric of authenticity in social media plays a central role in the formation of online communities. I argue that a personal religious blogger together with her readers constitutes an ongoing public conversation and community, one that is held together by a kind of belief or trust in the truthful representation of the blogger and her story. When a blog claims to be a story about the power of faith, hope, and miracles, it can be read and understood by its devoted readers as {\textquotedblleft}evidence of things unseen,{\textquotedblright} that is, as a representation of the evidence of authentic religious faith and practice shared by the community. On the other hand, if credibility is doubted, the blog may become the focus of allegations of deception, leading to the creation of new forms of online community. These cases highlight the importance of attending to claims of credibility and authenticity as constitutive of religious practice and community formation in social media and in the academic study of religion more broadly.}, url = {https://academic.oup.com/jaar/article/83/1/120/691490}, author = {Whitehead, Deborah} } @book {1279, title = {Islamic Activism: A Social Movement Theory Approach }, series = {Indiana Series in Middle East Studies}, publisher = {Indiana University Press}, organization = {Indiana University Press}, abstract = {This volume represents the first comprehensive attempt to incorporate the study of Islamic activism into social movement theory. It argues that the dynamics, processes, and organization of Islamic activism can be understood as important elements of contention that transcend the specificity of "Islam" as a system of meaning and identity and a basis for collective action. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, the contributors show how social movement theory can be utilized to address a wide range of questions about the mobilization of contention in support of Muslim causes. The book covers myriad examples of Islamic activism (Sunni and Shi{\textquoteleft}a) in eight countries (Arab and non-Arab), including case studies of violence and contention, networks and alliances, and culture and framing.}, keywords = {activism, Egypt, Iran, Islam, Islamic, Muslims, Shi{\textquoteleft}a, social movement, Sunni, Yeman}, url = {http://books.google.com/books/about/Islamic_Activism.html?id=UoONJqsjYjcC}, author = {Quintan Wiktorowicz} } @article {3021, title = {Religious authority and divine action}, journal = {Religious Studies}, year = {1971}, url = {https://www.jstor.org/stable/20004855?seq=1}, author = {Wiles, M. F.} } @article {3023, title = {Vatican rules out online confessions}, year = {2001}, publisher = {PC World Online}, url = {https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/44601/vatican_rule_online_confessions/}, author = {Wilian, P.} } @article {39, title = {Authentic Identities: Straightedge Subculture, Music, and the Internet}, journal = {Journal of Contemporary Ethnography}, volume = {35}, year = {2006}, month = {April 2006}, pages = {173-200}, abstract = {In this article, the author examines the relative roles of music and the internet for self-identifying members of the straightedge youth subculture. For nearly 30 years, subcultures have been conceptualized primarily in terms of music and style. Participation has therefore typically been characterized by the consumption of specific types of music and clothing and participation in local, face-to-face music scenes. However, with the recent growth of information and communication technologies like the internet, opportunities have emerged that enable individuals to participate in subcultures in which they otherwise might not participate. The author shows that a new type of subculturalist is emerging{\textemdash}one whose subcultural participation is limited to the internet.Using the concepts of authenticity and scene, the author explores how participants in a straightedge internet forum negotiate their affiliations with the subculture and how some members attempt to halt others{\textquoteright} claims to a straightedge identity. The study suggests that the internet is emerging as a new, but highly contested, subcultural scene.}, keywords = {authenticity, identity, internet, scene, straightedge, subculture}, url = {http://jce.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/2/173}, author = {Williams, Patrick J.} } @article {3022, title = {The social shaping of technology}, journal = {Research Policy}, year = {2996}, abstract = {This paper reviews the growing body of research that explores {\textquoteleft}the social shaping of technology{\textquoteright} (SST) {\textemdash} how the design and implementation of technology are patterned by a range of {\textquoteleft}social{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}economic{\textquoteright} factors as well as narrowly {\textquoteleft}technical{\textquoteright} considerations. It shows how researchers from a range of disciplinary backgrounds were brought together by a critique of traditional conceptions of technology (for example, {\textquoteleft}linear models{\textquoteright} of innovation that privileged technological supply or restricted the scope of social inquiry into technology to assessing its {\textquoteleft}impacts{\textquoteright}). Though their analytical frameworks differ to a greater or lesser extent in terminology and approach, some explanatory concepts have emerged, and constitute an effective model of the innovation process. Here, it is suggested, SST offers a deeper understanding and also potentially broadens the technology policy agenda. These claims are assessed through a review of recent research into specific instances of social shaping, particularly in relation to information technology. Finally the article discusses some of the intellectual dilemmas in the field. Though the intellectual cross-fertilisation has been creative, points of tension and divergence between its constituent strands have resulted in some sharp controversies, which reflect upon the theoretical and policy claims of SST.}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0048733396008852}, author = {Williams, R. and Edge, D.} } @article {2699, title = {Humor and Identity on Twitter: $\#$muslimcandyheartrejects as a Digital Space for Identity Construction}, journal = {Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Through examining the hashtag $\#$muslimcandyheartrejects, a one-time, short-term, joke hashtag used on Twitter among a group of Muslim tweeters in 2012, we argue that members of Muslim digital diaspora communities use social media to construct and reinforce a Muslim diaspora identity. The architecture of Twitter provides the structure for these engagements, while humor serves meaning-making, cohesion building, and tension-relief functions within the conversation. The conversation itself combines a variety of topics to both describe Muslim identity in diaspora and to critique both Muslim community practices and conditions for Muslims in non-Muslim countries.}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13602004.2016.1153825}, author = {Wills, Emily Regan and Fecteau, Andr{\'E}} } @book {171, title = {The Internet Church}, year = {2000}, publisher = {Word Publishing}, organization = {Word Publishing}, address = {Nashville}, abstract = {With rapid technological advances and the increasing impact of the internet, the world is literally at our fingertips. Yet many churches have yet to discover how to tap into this powerful resource. The Internet Church shows church leaders how to start from square one in creating an interactive website that can greatly expand the ministry potential of a church. Walter Wilson, an internet expert and committed Christian, describes how technology can enhance evangelism outreach, and challenges leaders to take advantage of unprecedented opportunities in the new digital age.}, author = {Wilson, Walter} } @article {3024, title = {How algorithmic cultural recommendations influence the marketing of cultural collections}, journal = {Consumption Markets \& Culture}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Museums make their collections available online to keep pace with developments in how people access and share information. While museums have traditionally understood the notion of public access as part of their institutional remit, in this paper I draw on policy documents and qualitative interviews with Australasian cultural professionals, to examine how the discourse of access might account for the museum{\textquoteright}s transformation from a community space to a resource that is beneficial to marketers. I use Google Arts \& Culture as a case study, to suggest the terms of public access have altered to adapt to the needs of commercial {\textquotedblleft}digital enclosures.{\textquotedblright} When people engage with the museum in virtual spaces data are collected. Algorithms work as a set of instructions that make it possible to search, sort and organise the data, linking together people and their online practices in order to enact a form of algorithmic cultural recommendation.}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10253866.2017.1331910?journalCode=gcmc20}, author = {Wilson-Barnao, C.} } @book {1782, title = {The Bishop, the Mullah, and the Smartphone}, pages = {312}, publisher = {Wipf \& Stock}, organization = {Wipf \& Stock}, address = {Eugene, Oregon}, abstract = {Not so long ago the world resisted change, often using religious-reasoning. Small wonder--the printing press, a sixteenth century disruptive device, split Christianity. Now the globe welcomes digital disruption, even praising it as a solution for faltering economies. Religions don{\textquoteright}t have much choice but to follow, because information is a prime asset of faith. Believers treasure and reframe their past, and present. However, both old and current data is now available in huge quantities, visually and instantly. Movies provide more spiritual guidance than holy texts, and terror merchants use the uncontrollable Internet to gain hearts and minds. Nevertheless a turbulent re-mythologization of adherents towards peaceful versions of their belief can be tracked. There are positive things we can all do to help, which is just as well in a world that suggests only political acts count.}, keywords = {bishop, Christianity, Digital, history, Islam, mullah, smartphone}, isbn = {1498217923}, issn = {978-1498217927}, url = {http://www.amazon.com/Bishop-Mullah-Smartphone-Journey-Religions/dp/1498217923}, author = {Bryan Winters} } @book {246, title = {Virtual Morality: Morals, Ethics and New Media}, year = {2003}, publisher = {Peter Lang Publishing}, organization = {Peter Lang Publishing}, address = {London}, abstract = {New technologies continue to shape communication and how we think about and relate to the world around us. What is rarely examined is how these new media relate to morals and ethics in society and culture. In a series of twelve essays, written from a variety of viewpoints including philosophy, communication, media and art, and situating its arguments around the three poles of technology, community, and religion, this collection examines the relationship between morals and ethics and new media, ranging from the ways in which new communication technologies are employed to their effects on the messages communicated and those who use them.}, url = {http://www.nextag.com/Virtual-Morality-Morals-Ethics-1229926092/specs-html}, author = {Wolf, Mark} } @mastersthesis {47, title = {Church share: Investigating technology use and adoption among culturally different religious groups}, year = {2008}, month = {2008}, school = {Georgia Institute of Technology}, address = {Atlanta, Georgia}, abstract = {Outside the workplace, technologies support a new range of activities such as exploring, wondering, loving, and worshipping. Yet, we know little about how individuals appropriate technology to support these activities. Understanding this becomes more pressing as computing{\textquoteright}s presence increases in daily life. For my dissertation, I am investigating use of ICTs to support a subset of these activities, those related to religious aspects of life, or techno-spiritual practices. I focus on techno-spiritual practices within a specific faith and their worship settings {\textemdash} Protestant Christianity and megachurches. I conducted formative studies investigating how megachurches, their pastors, and their laity use ICTs for religious purposes in Atlanta, Ga., U.S., Nairobi, Kenya, and S{\~a}o Paulo, Brazil. Findings from these studies motivated an ICT intervention called ChurchShare, a photo-sharing site that allows laity to take digital photographs and share them with others during church worship services. I hypothesize that this technology will increase laity involvement in worship services and create new socialization styles among megachurch laity. I am exploring this technology through real world deployments. Research conducted in the U.S. primarily informed ChurchShare{\textquoteright}s development; however, I draw from knowledge gained during fieldwork conducted abroad when evaluating ChurchShare. Specifically, I will ask individuals from three culturally distinct churches to use the site. One church will be comprised of U.S. born laity and the others will have predominately immigrant Kenyan and Brazilian worshippers. This will allow me to investigate how culturally different groups appropriate technology for religious purposes. In turn, this will lead to a broader understanding ICT adoption among individuals typically targeted by HCI researchers and ones who are not. This research is expected to yield empirical and theoretical finding that will contribute to human-centered computing research.}, url = {http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~spwyche/headlinesred/research_index.html}, author = {Susan P. Wyche} } @article {2760, title = {Surveying digital religion in China: Characteristics of religion on the Internet in Mainland China}, journal = {The Communication Review}, year = {2018}, abstract = {China{\textquoteright}s distinct development of the Internet has provided religious populations within its mainland access, allowing them to create practices and resources related to the development of religion online. Yet this phenomenon has been understudied both within the current Chinese research on the Internet and international studies of digital religion online. This article provides an overview of digital religion in the Chinese context by identifying and exploring the main characteristics of Buddhism, Islam, and Protestantism manifest online. This is done by providing an overview of current research and profiling the development of different forms of digital religious expression found in China. Through this we show how the concept of digital religion is manifest in China and how this compares to Western understandings of such practices, and we highlight the unique characteristics defining the Chinese religious digital landscape.}, url = {https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328535284_Surveying_digital_religion_in_China_Characteristics_of_religion_on_the_Internet_in_Mainland_China}, author = {Xu, Shengju and Campbell, Heidi A.} } @article {2995, title = {New technologies, new relationships. Promoting a culture of respect, dialogue and friendship}, year = {2009}, url = {http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/communications/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20090124_43rd-world-communications-day_en.html}, author = {Pope Benedict XVI} } @article {162, title = {Erbi et orbi message of his holiness Pope Benedict XVI}, year = {2006}, url = {http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/urbi/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20061225_urbi_en.html}, author = {Pope Benedict XYI} } @article {1225, title = {Connecting the Actual with the Virtual: The Internet and Social Movement Theory in the Muslim World{\textemdash}The Cases of Iran and Egypt}, journal = {Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs}, volume = {30}, year = {2010}, chapter = {555}, abstract = {The rapid expansion of Internet use in the Muslim world has called into question what role{\textemdash}if any{\textemdash}this medium can play in political action in these countries. This paper seeks to analyze the extent to which the Internet offers space for an expansion of social movement theory in the Muslim world. It relies on a number of case studies from two Muslim countries, the One Million Signatures Campaign and {\textquotedblleft}Weblogistan{\textquotedblright} in Iran, and the Kefaya Movement and Muslim Brotherhood blogging in Egypt. When placing Internet use in the context of political scientist and historian Charles Tilly{\textquoteright}s {\textquotedblleft}repertoire{\textquotedblright} of social movement characteristics (worthiness, unity, numbers, and commitment) and political scientist Robert Putnam{\textquoteright}s theory that the Internet can isolate individual users, it appears that the key to the successful collaboration of the web and social movements is an adaptive dynamic, through which groups function in both the cyber-world and the real world. This paper presents a potential vision for the future of the Internet and Islamic activism based on the assumption that an online element will help generate some of the elements of Tilly{\textquoteright}s social movement repertoire, particularly if the Internet is used to inspire sympathetic individuals to real world political action.}, keywords = {Blogging, Egypt, Internet use, Iran, Islam, Kefaya Movement, Muslim Brotherhood, Muslim minorities, New Media, Weblogistan}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13602004.2010.533453}, author = {Lernerת Melissa Y} } @inbook {2070, title = {Communicating Identity through Religious Internet Memes on the {\textquoteleft}Tweeting Orthodoxies{\textquoteright} Facebook Page}, booktitle = {Digital Judaism: Jewish Negotiations with Digital Media and Culture}, year = {2015}, pages = {110-123}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {New York}, abstract = {It is the well-known {\textquotedblleft}bulletproof{\textquotedblright} scene from The Matrix movie. We see Keanu Reeves in a green hallway, wearing a black trench coat, dark sunglasses, and a Kippah. His hand is stretched out, holding back a stream of hovering candies, instead of machine-gun bullets. The caption above the photo states {\textquotedblleft}Neo{\textquoteright}s Bar-Mitzvah.{\textquotedblright} This is not a Jewish remake of The Matrix, it is an internet meme shared on the religious Facebook page {\textquotedblleft}Tweeting Orthodoxies,{\textquotedblright} that playfully presents the custom of throwing candies at the Bar-Mitzvah boy after reading the Haphtarah on his Aliyah La-Thorah. This meme, and many others like it, demonstrates how digital culture provides a group of National Religious Jews with unique opportunities to communicate about and engage in the reconstruction of their religious identity. This engagement is studied in the current chapter by investigation of the ways a specific National Religious Facebook group employs internet memes.}, keywords = {internet meme, Orthodox, religious}, issn = {978-0415736244}, url = {https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317817345/chapters/10.4324\%2F9781315818597-11}, author = {Yadlin-Segal, A} } @article {1306, title = {Internet Accessibility of the Mizuko Kuyo (Water-Child Ritual) in Modern Japan: A Case Study in Weberian Rationality}, journal = {Sociological Focus}, volume = {46}, year = {2013}, chapter = {229}, abstract = {The mizuko kuyo is a Japanese (Buddhist, Shinto, New Religious, other) memorial service for infants or young children who have died through some misfortune, including disease, miscarriage, and, increasingly, elective abortion. Indeed, abortion is the predominant form of contraception for many Japanese families. Here we consider, in Weberian terms of the rationalization of institutions, how Internet accessibility and its created virtual reality of the mizuko kuyo has driven its popularity along the dimensions of privatization, bureaucratization, and commodification in decisions to perform the ritual by Internet. We utilize a sample of Tokyo mizuko kuyo Web sites and the contexts of their advertisements and available services for mizuko kuyo, including fee structures and other advertising {\textquotedblleft}lures,{\textquotedblright} to analyze this merging of traditional and modern technological paths of spirituality along Weberian theoretical lines.}, keywords = {Buddhist, children, infants, Japan, memorial service, mizuko kuyo, New Religious, religion, Ritual, Shinto, Spirituality, websites}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00380237.2013.796833$\#$.Ul1LyVCsim5}, author = {Mieko Yamadaa and Anson Shupea} } @article {1308, title = {Extrapolating Psychological Insights from Facebook Profiles: A Study of Religion and Relationship Status}, journal = {CyberPsychology \& Behavior}, volume = {12}, year = {2009}, chapter = {347}, abstract = {Online social network users may leave creative, subtle cues on their public profiles to communicate their motivations and interests to other network participants. This paper explores whether psychological predictions can be made about the motivations of social network users by identifying and analyzing these cues. Focusing on the domain of relationship seeking, we predicted that people using social networks for dating would reveal that they have a single relationship status as a method of eliciting contact from potential romantic others. Based on results from a pilot study (n = 20) supporting this hypothesis, we predicted that people attempting to attract users of the same religious background would report a religious affiliation along with a single relationship status. Using observational data from 150 Facebook profiles, results from a multivariate logistic regression suggest that people providing a religious affiliation were more likely to list themselves as single (a proxy for their interest in using the network to find romantic partners) than people who do not provide religious information. We discuss the implications for extracting psychological information from Facebook profiles. To our knowledge, this is the first study to suggest that information from publicly available online social networking profiles can be used to predict people{\textquoteright}s motivations for using social networks.}, keywords = {dating, Facebook, online profiles, participants, relationship, religion, religious information, social network}, url = {http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cpb.2008.0165}, author = {Sean Young and Debo Dutta and Gopal Dommety} } @inbook {172, title = {Reading and praying Online: The Continuity in Religion Online and Online Religion in Internet Christianity}, booktitle = {Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet}, year = {2004}, pages = {93-106}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, address = {New York}, abstract = {After sex, religion is one of the most popular and pervasive topics of interest online, with over three million Americans turning to the internet each day for religious information and spiritual guidance. Tens of thousands of elaborate websites are dedicated to every manner of expression.Religion Onlineprovides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to this burgeoning new religious reality, from cyberpilgrimages to neo-pagan chatroom communities. A substantial introduction by the editors presenting the main themes and issues is followed by sixteen chapters addressing core issues of concern such as youth, religion and the internet, new religious movements and recruitment, propaganda and the countercult, and religious tradition and innovation. The volume also includes thePew Internet and American Life ProjectExecutiveSummary, the most comprehensive and widely cited study on how Americans pursue religion online, and Steven O{\textquoteright}Leary{\textquoteright}s field-definingCyberspace as SacredSpace.}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=iS80IHp0cDwC\&pg=PA93\&lpg=PA93\&dq=Reading+and+praying+Online:+The+Continuity+in+Religion+Online+and+Online+Religion+in+Internet+Christianity\&source=bl\&ots=gwOo6jbtWZ\&sig=pvuLD0owBLZkWNawTX0RJUmHFKU\&hl=en\&ei=0QS2TqXZPLP2sQKD}, author = {Young, Glenn} } @book {173, title = {The Soul of Cyberspace}, year = {1997}, publisher = {HarperEdge}, organization = {HarperEdge}, address = {New York}, abstract = {In a pioneering journey to faith{\textquoteright}s new frontier--cyberspace, where traditional religions are reinvented and new ones are created--the acclaimed coauthor of "Transformations: Awakening to the Sacred in Ourselves" charts technology{\textquoteright}s radical impact on the ways in which the world prays, worships, preaches, and believes.}, author = {Zaleski, Jeff} } @inbook {345, title = {Silicon Valley New Age: The Co-Constitution of the Digital and the Sacred}, booktitle = {Religions of Modernity: Relocating the Sacred to the Self and the Digital}, year = {2010}, pages = {161-185}, publisher = {Brill}, organization = {Brill}, address = {Leiden}, keywords = {New Age, religon and technology}, author = {Zandbergen, Dorien and Aupers, Stef and Houtman, Dick} } @article {2832, title = {New Producers of Patriarchal Ideology: Matushki in Digital Media of Russian Orthodox Church}, journal = {Journal for Communication Studies}, year = {2019}, abstract = {The recent research on patriarchal ideology has mainly considered it in relation to politics, society, economics and religion while the studies of actors in mediatization of patriarchal ideas remain fragmented. This study addresses the roles of matushki, the wives of Orthodox Christian priests, as (un)aware producers of extra-institutional forms of patriarchal ideology in social media. Matushki, highly respected women within Orthodox communities, increase the patriarchal power of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) through the promotion of Orthodox women{\textquoteright}s identity as a basis of social and ethnic identities in post-Soviet societies. The latter reveals in the standardization of views on Orthodox women{\textquoteright}s behavior, family life, upbringing children and ritual practices within the fixed patriarchal categories of {\textquoteleft}man{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}woman{\textquoteright}.}, keywords = {patriarchal ideology, religious blogger, religious identity, Russian Orthodox Church}, url = {https://www.essachess.com/index.php/jcs/article/view/466}, author = {Zasanska, Nadia D} } @article {2141, title = {Digital Religion in China: A Comparative Perspective on Buddhism and Christianity{\textquoteright}s Online Publics in Sina Weibo}, journal = {Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture}, volume = {6}, year = {2017}, pages = {44-67}, abstract = {The proliferation of social media in China has provided traditional religious authorities with multifarious digital features to revitalise and reinforce their practices and beliefs. However, under the authoritative political system different religions pick up the new media to varying degrees, thereby showing different characteristic and style in their social media use. This paper examines the public discourse about Buddhism and Christianity (two of the great official religions in China) on China{\textquoteright}s largest microblogging platform-Sina Weibo, and seeks to reveal a distinct landscape of religious online public in China. Through a close look at the social media posts aided by a text analytics software, Leximancer, this paper comparatively investigates several issues related to the Buddhism and Christianity online publics, such as religious networks, interactions between involved actors, the economics and politics of religion, and the role of religious charitable organizations. The result supports Campbell{\textquoteright}s proposition on digital religion that religious groups typically do not reject new technologies, but rather undergo a sophisticated negotiation process in accord with their communal norms and beliefs. It also reveals that in China a secular Buddhism directly contributes to a prosperous {\textquoteleft}temple economy{\textquoteright} while tension still exists between Christianity and the Chinese state due to ideological discrepancy. The paper further points out the possible direction for this nascent research field.}, keywords = {Buddhism, China, Christianity, Digital Religion, Online}, url = {http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/21659214-90000095}, author = {Zhang, Y} } @article {630, title = {Younger Americans{\textquoteright} Reading and Library Habits}, year = {2012}, month = {10/2012}, pages = {1-54}, institution = {Pew Research Center}, address = {Washington, D.C.}, abstract = {More than eight in ten Americans ages 16-29 read a book in the past year, and six in ten used their local public library. Many say they are reading more in the era of digital content, especially on their mobile phones and on computers.}, keywords = {e-books, internet, Mobile phone, Reading habits}, url = {http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2012/10/23/younger-americans-reading-and-library-habits/}, author = {Zickuhr, Katheryn and Rainie, Lee and Purcell, Kristen and Mary Madden and Brenner, Joanna} } @mastersthesis {72, title = {Re-engaging Avery Dulles{\textquoteright} theology of revelation in the context of using internet-mediated communication in religious education}, year = {2009}, month = {November 2009}, address = {Dallas, TX}, abstract = {Re-engaging Dulles{\textquoteright} theology of revelation as symbolic communication, where revelatory symbols engage the community in this fourfold way of participation, transformation, new commitment and behavior, and new understandings opens a profound way to dialogue with the internet, itself entirely a symbolic medium. Can we claim then, that because of this commonality of symbol, that the internet therefore is an appropriate medium for the transmission of revelation in the context of religious education? This is the guiding question of the present paper. This essay first constructs the theological foundation for pursuing this question, by revisiting Avery Dulles{\textquoteright} theology of revelation as symbolic communication, and his fourfold schema of participation, transformation, new behavior and commitments, and new awareness and understanding. Bringing the internet into the discussion, this essay next investigates how the category of symbolic communication fits with the internet as the specific communicative medium. Finally, this essay explores specific points of convergence and divergence between Dulles{\textquoteright} fourfold schema and internet-mediated communication.}, url = {http://www.religiouseducation.net/proceedings/2009_Proceedings/12Zsupan_Jerome.pdf}, author = {Daniella Zsupan-Jerome} } @article {1951, title = {Do Digital Decisions Disciple?}, year = {2015}, month = {03/2015}, abstract = {Online evangelists report the equivalent success of one Billy Graham crusade per day. Three years ago, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) shifted its focus to online evangelism. It laid off about 50 people{\textemdash}10 percent of its staff{\textemdash}and {\textquotedblleft}redeployed resources to focus on areas of greater impact.{\textquotedblright} The change seems to be paying off. In 2014, the BGEA shared the gospel with almost 9.5 million people around the world. Of those, only about 180,000 were in a live audience at a crusade, while 7.5 million were reached through BGEA websites. Of the 1.6 million people who told the BGEA they prayed {\textquotedblleft}to accept Jesus Christ as [their] Savior{\textquotedblright} in 2014, less than 15,000 did so in person, while more than 1.5 million did so with the click of a mouse.}, url = {http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/march/do-digital-decisions-disciple.html}, author = {Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra} }