Studying User Generated Religion

In weeks 3-9 students in COMM 480 will be conducting research online regarding how religion gets performed and/or constructed within various social media platforms.  The aim of this research and its related writing assignment is to teach students to conduct and report on  first-hand online.  Students will focus on a specific social media platform and expression of religion to study the ways digital media can be used to create, express, practice and spread what can be described as "lived religion" online.   Studying lived religion in this assignment means paying special attention to how religion is experienced and practiced online by particular individuals or a specific group.

This week students are asked to create their own research blog and make their first post.  This initial post is a "case study proposal" that outline what topic and context you hope to study.

This post should state:
- what social media platform you will investigate
- what religious context you will study
- why you have selected this particular case (both religious context and platform)
- and propose an initial research focus, discussing how to study the way religion is lived out in this example.

Students should also provide a hyperlink to their chosen case study. Posts should be at least 300 words and appear online by 10am Friday of the corresponding week to receive full credit.

Reflecting on tension between Religion & Media

In this course we will be looking critically at the relationship between religious communities and the media. This includes identifying the assumptions different parties carry and promote both about the role media plays in society,  and how religion is conceived and understood. It is important that we when studying the relationship between media, religion and culture we carefully reflect on how media outlets promotes certain view about religion, as well as how religious groups may frame media with certain assumptions.

Potential conflicts between religion and media were exemplified in early August when Fox news aired an interview with Religious Studies Scholar Reza Aslan. While the interview was slated to be a review of his controversial new book "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth" the encounter between Aslan and the Fox Anchor highlighted a number of tension and stereotypes about how religion is understood and should be communicated about in media culture.  Please review the article "Video: U.S. scholar Reza Aslan’s book no.1 after botched Fox interview" and its featured interview. 

Please watch the Fox interview and reflect on the following questions:

What assumptions does the Fox reporter have about religion and the field of religious studies?
What assumptions does Aslan stress about the role of religious scholarship in society?
What does this clip illustrated about the relationship and possible tensions between religion and media in popular culture?

Come prepared to discuss your observations in class on Wednesday.

Welcome to Comm 480!

Welcome! This is the class blog for Comm 480: Religious Communication being taught at Texas A&M University in Fall 2013. In this class we will explore the relationship between religious communities and the media, and how media contribute to our understanding of lived religion. This will involve studying how religious communities and institutions respond to and utilize different forms of media, as well as how various media may shape ideas about popular religion. The blog will be used as a space to share general information about course assignments as well as to discuss issues raised in class.  I look forward to a great semester learning together about  how religious communities negotiate their use of media and how user-generated religion  is performed online. -Dr Heidi Campbell

Challenges and Possiblities to Religious Authority Online

This week we are exploring how religious authority has been framed in relation to the Internet, and the debates regarding the extent to which the Internet facilitates new forms of religious authority or changes the relationship between traditional religious leaders and their community members. In class on Tuesday we discussed the complexities related to how authority is approached, understood and constituted in digital culture. It was noted that it is important to carefully consider what specific form of authority (i.e. role, structure, ideology or text) is being challenge or empowered in any given online context.
In considering the reading by Cheong we were introduced to two key assumptions about the nature of authority online. The first is that religious authority is being eroded by online religious activities and this is highly problematic for religious communities. The second assumption is that offline religious authority is be being sustained and reframed by online practice, in ways that support traditional views and outcomes of authority. In our discussion we also considered a third reality, the extent to which both assumptions are true and how one can evaluate this dialectic, in which mediated religious authority is affirmed and undermined simultaneously through online religious practice.

In this week's blogging assignment you are asked to describe a particular online context or medium in which issues of religious authority are raised. Which of these assumptions seems to ring true or best related to this particular context and why? Draw from the Cheong's reading to back up your claims.

Reflecting on the Implications of Constructing Religious Identity Online

This week  (March 19-23) we scheduled to explore issues related to how religious identity is perceived and performed online. This week's chapter by Mia Lovheim discusses identity in how it relates to the processes by which individuals develops the ability to grasp meaning about the situations of everyday life and their relationship to those events. The chapter also discussed how perceptions regarding how identity is constitute have changed over time from identity being seeing as an in-born or static construct to something we are socialized into to the post-modern notion of identity being fluid and fragmented.When discussing how identity is perceived and enacted online it is important to carefully consider a number of issues including how issues of anonymity and disembodiment online can lead to both opportunities for deception as well as increased freedom of experimentation with the presentation of one's identity. Lovheim also discusses how the nature of online participatory culture creates new complexities for identifying and living out the "authentic self" on the Internet.

After reading this chapter you will note that  two core questions are raised by the author:

- Does digital media strengthen or weaken individual's ability to construct or perform their religious identity?

-Does one's online religious identity have to be connected to a specific offline religious tradition or group to be seen as truly "authentic"?

For this week's blogging you should select one of these question to respond to in their blogs and reflect on a concrete example on religious engagement online (as demonstrated in a specific online forum, website or  discussion platform) to help illustrated your argument and supports your claims.

Approaching Community Online

This week we are exploring the question of what constitutes community online. The argument was made in this week's chapter that in the last century we have seen a change in the way community is understood an practiced. This has been a movement from people living in tightly bounded social structures, to interacting in loose social networks with varying levels of affiliation and commitment from its participants. This is exemplified in how many online communities form and function in various new media platforms.

This new understanding of community often challenges traditional religious communities, which frequently have rigid boundaries or strong hierarchical structures. Therefore there is much debate about whether an email community, social media network or a church which exists in Second Life and truly be seen as religious community. Key concerns include whether a disembodied community is problematic within certain theological context or is online gathering are disconnected from offline religion?

In this week's blog post you should explore a specific example of a religious online community and address the following questions.

- How does this group define itself as a community?
- How do they structure or live out their form of online community?
- What might be the offline impact of this online community on their particular religious tradition?

Happy blogging!

Considering the Implications of Doing Religious Ritual Online

This week in class we are exploring how religious individuals and groups translate and adapt their rituals online. What constitutes a ritual and how ritual is conceived is notions debated by sociologists and religious studies scholars. In class we discussed two different approaches, investigating "what ritual is" or focusing on "what ritual does". In the Helland reading, he offers us the following base definition as "ritual is the purposeful engagement with the sacred, whatever the sacred may be for those involved". We also discussed the tensions and debates regarding online verse offline rituals including questions of :

How do ritual work online?
Can they have supernatural efficacy?
Are there any benefits to online ritual activities?
What are the limits of online rituals? and
What needs do these rituals fulfill for individuals and communities?

This week's blog post should draw on insights from the assigned readings and highlight a concrete example of an online religious ritual that relates to your chosen blog topic. Please select two questions listed above that related to your chosen example and provide a thoughtful response on your personal blog.