When Religion Meets New Media

by Campbell; Heidi

• ISBN13: 9780415349567
• ISBN10: 0415349567
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-20
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This lively book focuses on how different Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities engage with new media. Rather than simply reject or accept new media, religious communities negotiate complex relationships with these technologies in light of their history and beliefs. Heidi Campbell suggests a method for studying these processes she calls the "religious-social shaping of technology" and students are asked to consider four key areas: religious tradition and history; contemporary community values and priorities; negotiation and innovating technology in light of the community; communal discourses applied to justify use. A wealth of examples such as the Christian e-vangelism movement, Modern Islamic discourses about computers and the rise of the Jewish kosher cell phone, demonstrate the dominant strategies which emerge for religious media users, as well as the unique motivations that guide specific groups.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Understanding Religious Communities Responses to Media

Religious Communities and the Internet

Considering How Religious Communities Construct Technology

History & Tradition: How History and Tradition Shape Religious Communities Approach to New Media

Core Values: How Community Values Construct a Basis for Responding to Technology

Negotiating with New Media: To Accept, Reject or Reconfigure?

Communal Discourse: How Religious Communities Talk about new Media

Studying the Religious Culturing of New Media: The Case of the Kosher Cell Phone

Conclusion

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