@article {1189,
	title = {The Divine Online: Civic Organizing, Identity Building, and Internet Fluency Among Different Religious Groups},
	journal = {Journal of Media and Religion},
	volume = {10},
	year = {2011},
	chapter = {73},
	abstract = {The number of religious congregations with Web sites nearly tripled from 1998{\textendash}2006, and each year another 10,000 congregations launch a Web site (Chaves \& Anderson, 2008). Couple this with the fact that 79\% of attendees are now in a congregation with a Web site. Scholars of media and religion know very little, however, about the content of these Web sites or what they tell us about the culture of different religious groups. The aim of this article, therefore, is to examine how congregations are constructing Web sites to advertise their identity, organize their followers to get involved in civic and political issues, and provide an interactive space for online participation in actual ministries. Extensive qualitative data were gathered from 600 individual congregation Web sites from nine denominations in 53 different cities across the United States. The results of the descriptive analysis of these data suggest that there is a strong correlation between the {\textquotedblleft}off-line{\textquotedblright} characteristics of a particular congregation and the {\textquotedblleft}on-line{\textquotedblright} characteristics of the same congregation. Evangelical congregations tend to have more complex, attractive, and interactive Web sites and fall into the {\textquotedblleft}online religion{\textquotedblright} camp. Liberal-Protestant and Catholic congregations tend to create static {\textquotedblleft}brochure{\textquotedblright} style Web sites that emphasize their denominational identity and thus fall into Hadden and Cowan{\textquoteright}s (2000) {\textquotedblleft}religion online{\textquotedblright} camp. This study expands our theoretical knowledge about the proliferation of media into, and out of, religious congregations, and offers a broader understanding about how institutions negotiate their online identity in the digital age.
[Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher{\textquoteright}s online edition of the Journal of Media and Religion for the following free supplemental resource: Appendix II: Web Site Screen Shots.]},
	keywords = {Catholic, Catholic congregations, Catholics, Computer, Contemporary Religious Community, cyberspace, internet, Mass media, media and religion, 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, religious media research, sociability unbound, Sociology of religion, users{\textquoteright} participation, virtual community, virtual public sphere, {\textquotedblleft}media research{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}online identity, {\textquotedblleft}religion online{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}religious congregations{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}religious media research{\textquotedblright}},
	url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15348423.2011.572438$\#$.Uin0bMasim4},
	author = {Justin Farrell}
}
@article {1194,
	title = {Finding Religion in the Media: Work in Progress on the Third Spaces of Digital Religion},
	year = {2012},
	keywords = {Digital Religion, Internet Studies, media and religion, networked society, online identity, religion online, Third Spaces, users{\textquoteright} participation, virtual community, virtual public sphere},
	url = {http://cmrc.colorado.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Hoover-Echchaibi-paper.pdf},
	author = {Stewart M. Hoover and Nabil Echchaibi}
}
@article {1223,
	title = {Going on Pilgrimage Online : the Representation of Shia Rituals on the Internet},
	journal = {Online {\textendash} Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet},
	volume = {02.1},
	year = {2006},
	chapter = {6},
	abstract = {In her article Going on Pilgrimage Online. The Representation of Shia Rituals on the Internet, Sabine Kalinock gives an overview of the representation of Shia ritual in the Internet and discusses the relation between innovations and traditional discourses. Emphasis is laid on the possibilities that the Internet offers and which are especially important in the Muslim and Iranian context: the mixing of the sexes, exchange with believers in other parts of the world and the free expression of critical ideas. Kalinock thereby concentrates on case studies from Iranian religious websites set up by various Shiite communities, official institutions as well as private persons. These Websites are usually presented in at least three languages: Arab, Persian, and English, and deal with religious regulations and rituals, hagiographies and recent miracle stories that are recorded with modern technology and confirmed by physicians. Pictures, video films and audio records supplement the texts. Via email believers can seek the guidance of a leading clergyman of their choice (marja at-taqlid) while various books and online resources provide further advice. In chat rooms men and women discuss, affirm or question the meaning and validity of certain religious rules and rituals.
},
	keywords = {analyzing rituals, communication within the Internet, media and religion, New Technology and Society, Online community, Pilgrimage Online, Practicing Faith in Cyberspace, religion, religious practice, Shia},
	url = {http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/ojs/index.php/religions/article/view/373},
	author = {Sabine Kalinock}
}
@article {1222,
	title = {Ritual is becoming digitalised". Introduction to the Special Issue on Rituals on the Internet},
	journal = {Online {\textendash} Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet},
	volume = {02.1 },
	year = {2006},
	chapter = {1},
	keywords = {analysing rituals, communication within the Internet, media and religion, New Technology and Society, Online community, Practicing Faith in Cyberspace, religion, religious practice, RITUALS ON THE INTERNET, Techno-Ritualization},
	url = {http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/ojs/index.php/religions/article/view/372},
	author = {Kerstin Radde-Antweiler}
}
@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}
}
@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}
}
