%0 Journal Article %J Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication %D 2010 %T Bloggers and religious authority online %A Heidi Campbell %K Authority %K blogs %K religion %K religious authority %X 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. %B Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication %V 15 %P 251-266 %U http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2010.01519.x/full %N 2 %& 251 %0 Journal Article %J New Media and Society %D 2010 %T How the iPhone became divine: Blogging, religion and intertextuality %A Heidi Campbell %A Antonio LaPastina %K blogs %K cell phone %K fandom %K intertexuality %K iPhone %K Jesus phone %K religion %K religious discourse %K technology %X This article explores the labeling of the iPhone as the ‘Jesus phone’ 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 ‘Jesus phone’ 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. %B New Media and Society %V 12 %P 1191-127 %U http://nms.sagepub.com/content/12/7/1191 %N 7 %0 Book Section %B Digital Religion, Social Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices, Futures %D 2012 %T Twitter of Faith: Understanding social media networking and microblogging rituals as religious practices %A Pauline Hope Cheong %K blogs %K internet %K microblogging %K social media %B Digital Religion, Social Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices, Futures %I Peter Lang %C New York %P 191-206 %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Media and Religion %D 2008 %T The Chronicles of Me: Understanding Blogging as a Religious Practice %A Cheong, Pauline %A Halavais, Alex %A Kwon, Kyounghee %K blogs %K hyperlinks %K internet %K religion %X 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. %B Journal of Media and Religion %V 7 %P 101-131 %G English %U http://drexel.academia.edu/KyoungheeKwon/Papers/78691/The_chronicles_of_me_Understanding_blogging_as_a_religious_practice %N 1 %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Media and Religion %D 2009 %T Cultivating the Self in Cyberspace: The Use of Personal Blogs among Buddhist Priests %A Lee, J. %K blogs %K cyberspace %K Self %X This research attempts to understand the Internet religious practices from the immanent perspective. Since previous research on this subject has been mainly transcendental, this study offers a challenging view using a different perspective. The exploration of cultivating the self in cyberspace revealed that the degree of self-cultivation varies contingent upon the given conditions and the technologies that the priests practice to interact with them. This research has a potential to further the exploration of the interaction of cyberspace and the inner self, expanding the boundary of the study beyond online religious practices. When cyberspace and the self are understood in the plane of consistency, the range of the study about the engagement of the self in the new media can be opened out. Understanding the notions of the process of territorializing intensities and technologies of the self, the engagement of the self in cyberspace can be more specifically developed. %B Journal of Media and Religion %V 8 %P 97-114 %G English %U http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15348420902881027#preview %N 2 %0 Book Section %B Mediatization and Religion: Nordic Perspectives %D 2012 %T A Voice of Their Own. Young Muslim Women, Blogs and Religion %A Lövheim, M %K blogs %K Internet Mediatization of Religion %K Islam %K Media studies %K mediatization of religion %K Muslim Women and media %K New Media and Society %K new media research %K Nordic perspective %K religion and culture %B Mediatization and Religion: Nordic Perspectives %I Nordicom, Göteborgs universitet, Göteborg %G eng %U http://www.nordicom.gu.se/?portal=mr&main=info_publ2.php&ex=357 %1 Stig Hjarvard, Mia Lövheim %& 7 %0 Journal Article %J Bulletin of Science, Technology, & Society %D 2010 %T Tweeting Prayers and Communicating Grief over Michael Jackson Online %A Sanderson, James %A Pauline Hope Cheong %K blogs %K celebrity %K internet %K microblogging %K popular culture %K religion %K social media %X 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’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’s death rather than denying it or expressing anger over his passing. The findings also illustrate how interactive exchanges online helped recycle news and “resurrected” the life of Jackson. Additionally, as fans of deceased celebrities create and disseminate web-based memorials, new social media practices like “Michael Mondays” synchronize tweets within everyday life rhythms and foster practices to hasten the grieving process. %B Bulletin of Science, Technology, & Society %V 30 %P 328-340 %U http://www.paulinehopecheong.com %N 5 %R 10.1177/0270467610380010