@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 {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} } @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} } @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 {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 {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 {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.} } @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 {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 {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 {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 {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 {330, title = {Exploring the religious frameworks of the digital realm: Offline-Online-Offline transfers of ritual performance}, journal = {Masaryk University Journal of Law and Technology}, volume = {1}, year = {2007}, abstract = {Looking at the constantly growing field of religion online, the shifts in and the new definition of religious frameworks become an increasingly important topic. In the field of religious rituals, it is not only the participant, location and conduction of the ritual that is affected by this shift; also the researchers have to overthrow their former theologically resp. systemic based definition of religiousness and spirituality due to the fact that on the Internet, religion is defined and realized in a completely different way by its participants. This is true even in the field of Christianity as the example of a ritual created by some British {\quotedblbase}Emerging Church{\textquotedblleft} groups shows. These loosely defined groups which span all denominational borders of the Christian spectrum have been established since the late 1980s mainly in the UK in order to organize church services they refer to as {\quotedblbase}Alternative Worship{\textquotedblleft}. The Internet plays an important role as a platform of communication and (self-)organization of the members and as technically and aesthetically challenging means of (re)presentation. Some events that were conducted in real life, like the multimedia labyrinth installation in St Paul{\textquoteleft}s cathedral in 2000, have even been {\quotedblbase}reconstructed{\textquotedblleft} in virtual space , generating a new form of worship. Interestingly but not unexpectedly, these transfer processes entail consequences for spirituality in real life. What exactly happens during the transfer into the digital realm? What are the interdependencies between offline and online and how do they affect worship and worshippers? These questions will be followed, employing the results and ideas of modern Ritual and Religious Studies, sheding light on a new field of (post)modern Christianity. }, keywords = {Communication, information, methodology, Ritual, study of religion, technology}, url = {http://www.digitalislam.eu/article.do?articleId=1703}, author = {Heidbrink , S} } @inbook {2136, title = {Rethinking Transforming Communications: An Introduction}, booktitle = {Communicative Figurations}, number = { Transforming Communications {\textendash} Studies in Cross-Media Research}, year = {2018}, pages = {3-13}, publisher = {Palgrave Macmillan, Cham}, organization = {Palgrave Macmillan, Cham}, abstract = {This chapter introduces the contributions to this volume in three stages. First, it is argued that when considering the present stage of deep mediatization, it is insufficient to concentrate solely on the media as such: one also has to consider how communication transforms with changing media. It is by virtue of the change in human communicative practices together with other social practices that processes of social construction change. This is what is called transforming communications. Second, the chapter outlines why it is helpful to take a figurational approach for researching such transforming communications. The term figuration goes back to Norbert Elias, who used it to describe structured interrelations between humans. However, for the analysis in question, it is extended to reflect questions of communication. Finally, this introduction provides an overview of the arguments presented in the following chapters.}, keywords = {Communication, mediatization}, issn = {978-3-319-65583-3}, url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-65584-0_1$\#$citeas}, author = {Hepp, A and Breiter, A and Hasebrink, U} } @article {460, title = {Communicating Hinduism in a Changing Media Context}, journal = {Religion Compass}, volume = {6}, year = {2012}, pages = {136{\textendash}151}, abstract = {New media forms have a range of implications for the way in which the Hindu community is conceived and Hinduism is practiced. Oral modes of communication continue to have a significant role in the communication of Hinduism, however, Hindus have also made effective, and often innovative, use of all media forms. The use of print made by Hindu reformers, such as Rammohun Roy, was an important feature in the conceptualization of Hinduism as a {\textquoteleft}world religion{\textquoteright}. Print technology also made possible the proliferation of visual images, which have now become incorporated into the devotional practices of many Hindus. Hindus have also developed unique genres in film and television, drawing on the rich narrative traditions of Hindu mythology. Hinduism can also be found in cyberspace. Online dar{\'s}an, online puj{\={a}} services and other uses of the Internet have enabled Hindus, both in India and in diaspora, to maintain a connection with gurus, sacred places and other aspects of tradition. These developments in communication technologies are important in understanding Hinduism today, and the way in which it has evolved in a global context.}, keywords = {Communication, Hindu, media}, url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2011.00333.x/abstract}, author = {Jacobs, Stephen} } @inbook {517, title = {Contested Communication. Mediating the Sacred}, booktitle = {Implications of the Sacred in (Post)Modern Media}, year = {2006}, pages = {43-62}, publisher = {Nordicom}, organization = {Nordicom}, address = {Gothenburgh}, 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 = {Communication, media, Sacred}, url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=HRmYapWETqcC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false}, author = {Lundby, Knut.} } @article {514, title = {Cyberspace as Sacred Space. Communicating Religion on Computer Networks}, journal = {Journal of the American Academy of Religion}, volume = {64}, year = {1996}, keywords = {Communication, Computer, cyberspace, networks}, url = {http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1465622?uid=3739536\&uid=2129\&uid=2\&uid=70\&uid=4\&uid=3739256\&sid=56265187143}, author = {O{\textquoteright}Leary, Stephen.D.} } @article {401, title = { Miracles or Love? How Religious Leaders Communicate Trustworthiness through the Web}, journal = {Journal of Religion and Popular Culture }, year = {2004}, abstract = {A religious organization should communicate trustworthiness by attempting correctly to interpret its message and by recruiting new members. Modern communication involves new means of communication like the Internet, which has become an important medium capable of spreading a complex message to a large audience. Religious movements are a growing social and organizational force that employ modern communication methods and criteria. This paper addresses the convergence of religious communication and the Internet, by focusing on trust, a fundamental element of any type of communication, especially of a religious kind. Two main drivers can elicit trust: capabilities (the skill to realize what is promised) and benevolence (the lack of any opportunistic or egoistic goal). This paper employs the content analysis method to analyze the biographies of religious leaders posted on the their official web-sites, in order to verify the existence of these two trust drivers, i.e., leader{\textquoteright}s capabilities and benevolence. The results demonstrate the different stress placed on each.}, keywords = {Communication, Love, religion}, url = {http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/art7-miraclesorlove.html}, author = {Pace, Stefano} } @article {423, title = {Divergent Attitudes within Orthodox Jewry Toward Mass Communication}, journal = {Review of Communication}, volume = {11}, year = {2011}, pages = {20-38}, abstract = {This paper examines the divergent attitudes toward mass media among the streams of Orthodox Jewry. According to most Ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders, media spread blasphemy, provoke gossip and slander, and steal time from religious studies, but Rabbi M. Schneerson, late leader of the Chabad movement, believed that the media should be exploited to spread the tenets of Judaism. Modern Orthodox rabbis generally favor limited access to media*filtering out its negative aspects, embracing its positive features, and using it to impart religious knowledge. Understanding these various attitudes may help media professionals deal with religion-based criticism and encourage media-borne moderate religious dialogue.}, keywords = {Communication, Jewish, Jews, Orthodox}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15358593.2010.504883$\#$preview}, author = {Rashi, T} } @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 {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} } @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} }