%0 Book Section %B Religion and Cyberspace %D 2005 %T Constructing Religious Identity on the Internet %A Lövheim, Mia %A Linderman, Alf G %X 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. %B Religion and Cyberspace %I Routledge %C New York %P 121-137 %G English %U http://books.google.com/books?id=KxSmkuySB28C&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=Constructing+Religious+Identity+on+the+Internet+Lövheim,+Mia+and+Alf+G+Linderman&source=bl&ots=0g7sXyYEoJ&sig=9_FLpZkhLatlN22RltlpIN4uA5s&hl=en&ei=_D-4TtyQHoqzsAKi8cntAw&sa=X&oi=book_resu %1 Morten Hojsgaard and Margit Warburg %0 Book Section %B In Implications of the Sacred in (Post)Modern Media %D 2006 %T A Space Set Apart? Young People Exploring The Sacred On The Internet %A Lövheim, Mia %B In Implications of the Sacred in (Post)Modern Media %I Nordicom %C Göteborg %P 252-272 %G English %1 Johanna Sumiala-Seppänen, Knut Lundby, and Raimo Salokangas %0 Thesis %D 2004 %T Intersecting Identities: Young People, Religion and Interaction on the Internet %A Lövheim, Mia %X The growth of the Internet gave rise to many anticipations and apprehensions of how the new medium would affect the construction of meaning, individual identities, and social interaction. As humanity’s oldest expression of existential meaning, religion provides a challenging case for such studies. This study approaches these issues through an analysis of how 15 young Swedish men and women experience and use a particular web community, the Site, in constructing religious identities. The study took place during the year 2000, through a combination of online observations, offline interviews and text analysis. Starting from Ammerman’s concept of religious “autobiographies” - the individual self as constructed in interactions with religious discourses throughout life - the study argues that the Internet can become a significant resource in this process, but that this possibility is structured by certain conditions. An analysis of the ”repertoire of possibilities” of the Site – formed by the range of discourses, social relations, rules of interaction, and mode of communication – shows that these conditions contribute to polarized interactions and stereotyped identities, which restrict possibilities to further explore, question or reassess convictions and boundaries. The analysis of individual strategies for negotiating these conditions shows that intentions, dilemmas and competences in the individual’s repertoire of experiences affect when, how and for whom the Internet can become this resource. Finally, the study points to some significant conditions in the offline context which affect the process. The study outlines a framework, based on Linderman’s model of social semeiology, Slevin’s theory of the Internet and cultural transmission, and Fairclough’s discourse analysis, for the analysis of particular cases of meaning construction on the Internet. Furthermore, this framework suggests ways in which a case of religious identity construction on the Internet can be related to theories about transformation of religion and identities in late modern society. %I Uppsala University %C Uppsala %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture %D 2019 %T The Mediatized Conditions of Contemporary Religion: Critical Status and Future Directions %A Lövheim, Mia %A Hjarvard, Stig %X During the last decade the framework of mediatization theory has been introduced in the field of media, religion and culture as a parallel perspective to the “mediation of religion” approach, allowing new questions to be posed that align with religious change within Europe. This article provides a critical review of existing research applying mediatization of religion theory, focusing on key issues raised by its critics as well as how the theory have moved the research field forward. These issues concern the concept of religion, institution and social change, religious authority, and the application of mediatization theory outside the North-Western European context where it originated. The article argues that an institutional approach to mediatization is a relevant tool for analyzing change as a dynamic process in which the logics of particular forms of media influence practices, values and relations within particular manifestations of religion across various levels of analysis. %B Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture %G eng %U https://brill.com/view/journals/rmdc/8/2/article-p206_206.xml?language=en %0 Book Section %B Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet %D 2004 %T Young People, Religious Identity and the Internet %A Lövheim, Mia %X 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'Leary's field-defining Cyberspace as SacredSpace. %B Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet %I Routledge %C New York %P 59-74 %G English %U http://books.google.com/books?id=xy0PJrrWXH4C&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=Young+People,+Religious+Identity+and+the+Internet+mia&source=bl&ots=ahRdIXJ2nJ&sig=zaywukrxddjH_1aANdHGap3io0I&hl=en&ei=m32wToyaM6zEsQLr2JXQAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CC %0 Book %D 2013 %T Media, Religion and Gender: Key Issues and New Challenges %A Lövheim, Mia %X Media, Religion and Gender presents a selection of eminent current scholarship that explores the role gender plays when religion, media use and values in contemporary society interact. The book: surveys the development of research on media, religion and culture through the lens of key theoretical and methodological issues and debates within gender studies. includes case studies drawn from a variety of countries and contexts to illustrate the range of issues, theoretical perspectives and empirical material involved in current work outlines new areas and reflects on challenges for the future. Students of media, religion and gender at advanced level will find this a valuable resource, as will scholars and researchers working in this important and growing field. %I Routledge %G eng %U https://www.routledge.com/Media-Religion-and-Gender-Key-Issues-and-New-Challenges/Lovheim/p/book/9780415504737