@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.}
}
@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.}
}
@article {388,
	title = {Internet use among religious followers: Religious postmodernism in Japanese Buddhism},
	journal = {Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication},
	volume = {12},
	year = {2007},
	abstract = {Strong sect organizations are a feature of traditional Buddhist denominations in Japan. Having long benefited from the protection of Japan{\textquoteright}s feudal society, these once strong organizations have been buttressed by factors of social change in the modern and post-modern eras, including modernization and the evolution of the media. The Internet is a rich source of information about innovations of religions adapting to social change. To examine these changes, I undertook a survey from 2002 to 2004 of 2,007 followers and religious specialists. The results highlight a critical attitude among followers: Sending and receiving messages in the interaction between a religious group and its followers results in followers expanding the scope of allowable subjects of criticism, and they have begun to entertain doubts regarding their faith systems. We may infer that in postmodern faith, horizontal interaction among religious followers will take on an increasingly important role in comparison with the vertical (top-down) structure of traditional doctrines.},
	keywords = {Buddhism, internet, Japanese, religion},
	url = {http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue3/fukamizu.html},
	author = {Fukamizu, K.}
}
@book {297,
	title = {Digital Zen: Buddhism, Virtual Worlds and Online Meditation},
	series = {Religion, Media and Culture },
	year = {2013},
	publisher = {Routledge},
	organization = {Routledge},
	address = {new York},
	abstract = {Because it makes its practitioners mindful of desire, _Digital Zen_ argues that the primarily Western converts who practice Anglo-Buddhist digital religion offer a form of religion that allows them to flourish in a late capitalistic society.  Much contemporary popular religion is a protest against, and also a product of, the suffering produced by the desires of living in late capitalism.  Being mindful of desire is crucial for human flourishing in late capitalism, because while {\textquotedblleft}solid{\textquotedblright} modernity was driven by need and production, the current {\textquotedblleft}liquid{\textquotedblright} system is driven by desire and consumption.  Digital Buddhism is an apt place to locate such desires because freed from the physical, digital media display the unhindered imagination of its users, and Buddhism, throughout its historical phases, has seen desire as the cause of suffering.},
	keywords = {Buddhism, Digital, Ethnography, Meditation, Second Life, Virtual World, Zen},
	author = {Grieve, Gregory}
}
@book {2158,
	title = {Buddhism, the Internet, and Digital Media: The Pixel in the Lotus},
	series = {Routledge Studies in Religion and Digital Culture},
	year = {2014},
	publisher = {Routledge },
	organization = {Routledge },
	abstract = {Buddhism, the Internet and Digital Media: The Pixel in the Lotus explores Buddhist practice and teachings in an increasingly networked and digital era. Contributors consider the ways Buddhism plays a role and is present in digital media through a variety of methods including concrete case studies, ethnographic research, and content analysis, as well as interviews with practitioners and cyber-communities. In addition to considering Buddhism in the context of technologies such as virtual worlds, social media, and mobile devices, authors ask how the Internet affects identity, authority and community, and what effect this might have on the development, proliferation, and perception of Buddhism in an online environment. Together, these essays make the case that studying contemporary online Buddhist practice can provide valuable insights into the shifting role religion plays in our constantly changing, mediated, hurried, and uncertain culture.},
	keywords = {Buddhism, digital media, internet},
	issn = {9781317950349},
	url = {https://books.google.com/books?id=-6uQBAAAQBAJ\&dq=Internet+and+Buddhism/+Internet+and+Buddhists\&lr=\&source=gbs_navlinks_s},
	author = {Grieve, G.P and Veidlinger, D}
}
@article {298,
	title = {Virtually Embodying The Field: Silent Online Buddhist Meditation, Immersion, and The Cardean Ethnographic Method},
	year = {2010},
	publisher = {Online - Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet },
	abstract = {This article sketches the Cardean Ethnographic research method that emerged from two years of study in Second Life{\textquoteright}s Zen Buddhist cloud communities. Second Life is a 3D graphic virtual world housed in cyberspace that can be accessed via the Internet from any networked computer on the globe. Cloud communitiesare groups that are temporary, flexible, elastic and inexpensive in the social capital required to join or to leave. In our research, we found ourselves facing a two-sided methodological problem. We had to theorize the virtual and its relation to the actual, while simultaneously creating practices for an effective ethnographic method. Our solution, named after the Roman Goddess of the hinge, Cardea, was a method that uses the model of a hinge to theorize the virtual as desubtantialized and the worlds opened up by cyberspace as nondualistic. This understanding of the virtual worldscalled for a classic ethnographic methodbased on participant observation and thick description.},
	keywords = {Buddhism, Ethnography, Immersion, Meditation},
	url = {http://www.online.uni-hd.de/},
	author = {Grieve, Gregory}
}
@article {1192,
	title = {Media, religion and the marketplace in the information  economy: evidence from Singapore},
	journal = {Environment and Planning},
	volume = {44},
	year = {2012},
	chapter = {1969},
	abstract = {In this paper we suggest that the exchange of communication in a mediatized 
environment is transforming the nature of transactions in the religious marketplace. 
In~this economy of religious informational exchanges, digitalization facilitates a process of 
mediatization that converts religious performance into forms suitable for commodifi cation 
and commoditization. The intersection of digital media, religion, and the marketplace is 
demonstrated in the context of mega Protestant and Buddhist organizations in Singapore. 
We show how these large organizations embed media relations in their sacred spaces 
through a process of hybridization. In turn, hybrid spaces are converted into material 
outputs that may be readily transacted in real and virtual spaces. Hybridization attends to 
a postmodern audience and consumers who value experience and sensorial stimulations. 
It integrates retail, entertainment, and the aesthetics into a space of ascetic performance 
that is digitally transportable. Digital transactional spaces thrive on the abundance of 
information, and information multiplies when communication is unfettered by the absence 
of proprietary safeguards. The religious marketplace may therefore be understood as a 
medially driven performance space where points of interaction are digitally},
	keywords = {Buddhism, Computer, Contemporary Religious Community, cyberspace, digital media, hybridization, information economy, internet, Mass media, network, New Media and Society, new media engagement, New Technology and Society, online communication, Online community, Protestantism, religion, religion and internet, Religion and the Internet, religiosity, religious engagement, religious identity, Religious Internet Communication, Religious Internet Communities, Singapore, 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}},
	doi = {10.1068/a44272},
	url = {http://paulinehopecheong.com/media/8eb82a57db78bb75ffff839dffffe41e.pdf},
	author = {Jessie Poon and Shirlena Huang and Pauline Hope Cheong}
}
@inbook {612,
	title = {The Cybersangha: Buddhism on the Internet},
	booktitle = {Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet },
	year = {2004},
	publisher = {Routledge},
	organization = {Routledge},
	chapter = {10 (pg. 135-147)},
	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 = {Buddhism, Cybersangha, cyberspace, internet, Online, religion},
	url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=xy0PJrrWXH4C\&pg=PA123\&lpg=PA123\&dq=The+Cyber+Sangha:+Buddhism+on+the+Internet+by+Prebish\&source=bl\&ots=ahTmLWH6rM\&sig=X9S_FlncZAcHkpdQKYBhigIdegU\&hl=en\&sa=X\&ei=lmVvUOnmOeGg2AXF24GYBw\&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAw$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false},
	author = {Prebish, C.D.},
	editor = {Dawson, L. and Cowan, D.}
}
@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 {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}
}
