"Contributors consider the ways Buddhism plays a role and is present in digital media through a variety of methods including concrete case studies, ethnographic research, and content analysis, as well as interviews with practitioners and cyber-communities. In addition to considering Buddhism in the
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context of technologies such as virtual worlds, social media, and mobile devices, authors ask how the Internet affects identity, authority and community, and what effect this might have on the development, proliferation, and perception of Buddhism in an online environment." (Publisher description)
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"Tout au long de l’analyse sou - tendue par la théorie des usages et gratifications, nous nous sommes rendus compte que le site présente bien des avantages, mais à des potentialités qu’il n’exploite pas et a donc encore du chemin à faire. Les Nouvelles Technologies de Communication et de
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l’Information offrent de nombreuses possibilités que le site doit exploiter. Le public est, aujourd’hui à la recherche du changement, de la nouveauté. Donc il doit mettre à profit toute cette richesse et améliorer sa qualité de production. En effet, nous avons mis l’accent sur le contenu qui est la clé du dynamisme et de la qualité d’un site. Les articles qui sont publiés, les thèmes développés sont intéressants, mais de nombreux aspects manquent pour les rendre plus intéressants encore. Au vue de tout cela, nous avons fait quelques suggestions pour une amélioration. En seulement une année d’expérience, l’on peut dire, au regard des résultats, que le site a atteint un niveau acceptable de notoriété et l’on espère que dans quelques années, il atteindra une notoriété planétaire et qu’il sera représenté dans tous les pays africains et comblera les besoins des visiteurs. Cela va donc sans dire que le besoin en informations en ligne est croissant. L’Eglise africaine doit se rendre compte de cette réalité et s’ouvrir à la nouveauté. Le temps n’est plus à l’hésitation encore moins au rejet de ces nouveaux moyens, mais à l’action. La Croix Africa fait ce qu’elle peut faire, mais ce n’est pas suffisant. Et, comme nous l’avons signalé dans la présentation du site, ce site est un site créé par le groupe Bayard qui n’est pas un groupe africain. Cela influence le choix et le traitement de l’information. Même si la création de sites demande de grands moyens, l’Eglise africaine ne doit pas se décourager devant ces difficultés." (Conclsuion, page 60-61)
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"Christianity as the predominant religion in Zimbabwe consists of several faith groupings, each of which responds to public events through the mass media. Mainline churches uphold a conventional human rights approach to faith-based political criticism, while Mapostori or Apostolic churches follow an
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Africanist form of faith and appear to condone some alignment with the authoritarian ruling party. In the sampled media coverage of three online newspapers, the political use of religious strategies or practices from various faith groups by the president and high-ranking party functionaries is reported from either the former government-sanctioned view or an oppositional stance. Moralist reprimand is levied at various politicians from a religious rationale, assuming good and evil, church and state, Christianity and African spirituality, which, however, remain abstract since there is no overall faith-based guidance for political behaviour beyond a secular constitution that still appears utopian. The critical discourse analysis suggests that complex relationships exist among the various faiths, causing diverse religious interpretations of political events. This suspension of Cartesian thinking results in a continuing circular logic of blame and prayer, disaster and prophesy instead of the use of constitutional democratic institutions to hold politicians accountable. Such logic seems sustained by politicized interpretations of spiritual entities, spiritual interpretations of political events and by the perceptions of the Zimbabwean public, who, as believers of one or other faith, is equally at the mercy of opportunistic ‘prophets’ from many denominations as it is targeted by the political powers of the day." (Abstract)
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"In this sweeping and ambitious intellectual history, Daniel Veidlinger traces the affinity between Buddhist ideas and communications media back to the efflorescence of Buddhism in the Axial Age of the mid-first millennium BCE. He uses both communications theory and the idea of convergent evolution
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to show how Buddhism arose in the largely urban milieu of Axial Age northeastern India and spread rapidly along the transportation and trading nodes of the Silk Road, where it appealed to merchants and traders from a variety of backgrounds. Throughout, he compares early phases of Buddhism with contemporary developments in which rapid changes in patterns of social interaction were also experienced and brought about by large-scale urbanization and growth in communication and transportation. In both cases, such changes supported the expansive consciousness needed to allow Buddhism to germinate. Veidlinger argues that Buddhist ideas tend to fare well in certain media environments; through a careful analysis of communications used in these contexts, he finds persuasive parallels with modern advances in communications technology that amplify the conditions and effects found along ancient trade routes. From Indra’s Net to Internet incorporates historical research as well as data collected using computer-based analysis of user-generated web content to demonstrate that robust communication networks, which allow for relatively easy contact among a variety of people, support a de-centered understanding of the self, greater compassion for others, an appreciation of interdependence, a universal outlook, and a reduction in emphasis on the efficacy of ritual—all of which lie at the heart of the Buddha’s teachings." (Publisher description)
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"Evangelización efectiva en el nuevo panorama religioso, por lotanto, requiere una reorientación de los programas de Iglesia y mensajes con el status quo de la gente para obtener respuesta positiva. Ello precisa un sistemático estudio de las necesidades, deseos, percepciones, preferencias asi cor
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no la satisfacción de las necesidades de la gente siendo apuntado para la evangelización y alimento espiritual. La naturaleza dinámica de la vida humana y el ambiente hace necesario que la Iglesia personalice sus productos especificos o servicios a las tendencias actuales, patrones de pensamiento y necesidades "empaquetando" el mensaje en un lenguaje modemo-global de los medios digitales mientras permanece fiel a su doctrina." (Conclusión)
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"In the past two decades or so, Botswana has witnessed a spectacular growth of prophetic Christianity and experienced a media revolution through the emerging use of new media. While studies have generally focused on either the growth of Pentecostal Charismatic Christianity or the new media revolutio
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n, little attention has been paid to the characteristics of emerging prophetic ministries, entailing the appropriation of new media and how this has accelerated the development of religious practices in Botswana. In light of positioning and mediatisation theories, this paper examines the ways in which prophetic ministries position themselves and shape the religious landscape of Botswana and how prophetic ministries have adopted and appropriated the use of new media technologies. It argues that the synergy between prophetic ministries and technological developments of new media opens a new space for cultural production of religious practices and experiences as well as religious imagination, experience and identity." (Abstract)
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"Contemporary mobile phone technology has brought millions of apps into the pockets of users, including a wide variety oriented towards religious concerns. Such apps appear to be creating new forms of religious engagement, a process that is particularly visible within Indonesia. This paper will exam
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ine the so-called ‘Aa Gym’ app, one of the Islamic apps launched by the Indonesian popular preacher, Abdullah Gymnastiar, an early adopter of mobile technology for religious purposes. The paper argues that the Aa Gym app illustrates how the mediatization of religion inherent in mobile technologies is reshaping the way that Indonesians engage with Islamic teachings. First, ‘Aa Gym’ app has created new forms of religious engagement through an extension of religious interaction and communication in a media landscape. Second, ‘Aa Gym’ app has described that media has become a new site for the discovery of religious meanings as a result of the spread of religious authority. Thirdly, ‘Aa Gym’ app is a kind of embodiment of accommodation of media logic performed by the religious figure in order to remain accessible to the public which is increasingly media-saturated." (Abstract)
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"The study examines the case of a Shia online news agency, Shafaqna, to argue that Internet news production by different Muslim organizations has not been limited to propagation nor circulation of religiously sanctioned news but has also been utilized as a way of building interactive identity with r
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eligion as a public practice of digital significance. The case of Shafaqna demonstrates an increasingly participatory culture within religious institutions. This inlusion, however, is not so much about radically changing the oragnization of the hazwa, with its long transnational history of seminary education and public services. Rather, it is about integrating network strategies with the employment of new technologies so as to consolidate transnational associational ties within a long tradition of religious networks revolving aorund clerical authority. Such new strategies demand a new perspective and practicing authority that is both participatory and hierarchical." (Summary)
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"The arrival of digital media has brought new challenges to the Roman Catholic Church. While the Church coped mostly successfully with the web 1.0, it has experienced greater difficulty in encountering the world of social media and web 2.0. Examining the role of Twitter in the 2015 Synod of Bishops
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- a general discussion on the family in the Church and in the contemporary world - the chapter found that the debate on the Internet, particularly through instantaneous micro-blogging, as well as the mainstream media, polarized discussion in the Synod. It is argued that digital media simplifies the debate and introduces a secularized approach to intra-religious events." (Summary)
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"Esta investigación aborda el papel de la comunicación digital en la configuración de la fe religiosa, en un contexto cultural predominantemente mediático que, a través de las nuevas tecnologías de la información y de la comunicación, podría estar acelerando el apogeo de La sociedad del esp
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ectáculo profetizada por Guy Debord (1967). Indagar de qué modo la sociedad del espectáculo interfiere o no en la comunicación digital de la fe religiosa, tomando como referencia el estudio comparativo de cuatro sitios web en dos países de América Latina (Brasil y Colombia) y de diferentes denominaciones religiosas (católico y neopentecostal), constituye el propósito de esta tesis doctoral, enmarcada en los estudios cualitativos sobre media y religión, con el recurso de la etnografía virtual y del análisis de contenido. Los resultados de esta pesquisa sitúan el espectáculo de la fe religiosa a través de cinco categorías analítico-interpretativas: Religión y sociedad; Iglesia y poder; Iglesia y marketing; Religión y mediatización; y Fe y espectáculo." (Resumen)
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"Social media have become part of the private and public lifestyles of youth globally. Drawing on both online and offline research in Indonesia, this article focuses on the use of Instagram by Indonesian Muslim youth. It analyzes how religious messages uploaded on Instagram through posts and caption
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s have a significant effect on the way in which Indonesian Muslim youth understand their religion and accentuate their (pious) identities and life goals. This article argues that Instagram has recently become the ultimate platform for Indonesian female Muslim youth to educate each other in becoming virtuous Muslims. The creativity and zeal of the creators of Instagram da'wa (proselytization), and their firm belief that 'a picture is worth a thousand words', has positioned them as social media influencers, which in turn has enabled them to conduct both soft da'wa and lucrative da'wa through business." (Abstract)
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"This chapter attempts to assess the information discussed on digital social media such as Twitter, Internet, and Instagram related to the Dhammakaya Temple and its abbot. Content and contextual analyses will be conducted. The research findings will be discussed against the background of modernizati
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on, Thai Buddhist culture, and digital communication in Thailand." (Abstract)
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"Für Priester und Diakone, die in sozialen Netzwerken dienstlich als auch privat präsent sind oder sich mit dem Gedanken tragen, Social Media für die Seelsorge zu nutzen, soll dieser „Social-Media-Codex“ verbindliche Regelungen vorgeben. Der nachstehende Codex gilt dienstrechtlich verbindlich
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im Besonderen für pastorale Mitarbeiter/-innen, für Mitarbeiter/-innen in der Bildungs- oder Verbandsarbeit sowie auch für alle Mitarbeiter/-innen im Verwaltungsdienst, die in dienstlichem Kontext Social Media nutzen." (Seite 1)
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"With 13 religions, 8061 religious centers, 2 million of young people, Catalonia accommodates a wide range of religions. Almost 90% of people own digital devices. In this framework, we aim to study the consumption of digital media by Catalan millennials from all over the region, with only young peop
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le from the city of Barcelona being excluded for the purpose of analysis in future projects. Religious apps, games, websites, online communities and participation in forums are some of the main issues we want to explore. We also aim to establish whether or not these devices contribute to consolidate online religious communities and to achieve inter-religious dialogue. For fulfilling this goal, we surveyed more than 1800 young people aged 12–18 years. Methodology also included in-depth interviews with coordinators from youth organizations and netnography. This research is based on previous investigations into communication, digital media, sociology and religion by authors such as Campbell, Elzo, Leurs and Hemming." (Abstract)
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"The Yezidis' re-appropriation of their religion in recent years reveals their beliefs more clearly than ever: especially through media. The community uses Facebook as a tool to show its identity in a way that was unimaginable throughout its prior history. Today, cyberspace provides them an environm
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ent in which they can build their previously-ignored identity. The online material religion and the Virtual Temple have made a bold attempt at creating a cyber-facility with the aim of guiding people to virtual places and online individuals to a ritual encounter. However, it is unclear whether these projects demonstrate a transformation of religious practices, as has been suggested (Brasher 2004, O'Leary 2005). It is also unclear whether this is simply a case of "old wine in new bottles." In other words, there is an attempt to recreate online, as much as possible, the experience of being in the "real world Temple" found in a genuine geographical space." (Discussion and conclusion)
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"Cette série de six articles, tous focalisés sur l’Afrique francophone, traite chacun à leur manière du thème principal de l’usage de l’Internet par des groupes religieux sur le continent africain. Cinq de ces contributions explorent l’usage religieux des médias numériques en Afrique
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de l’Ouest alors que la dernière se concentre sur l’Afrique centrale. Nous en tirons une vue d’ensemble équilibrée sur diverses communautés religieuses telles le Hibut-Tarqiyyah du Sénégal, des églises chrétiennes de Ouagadougou, des chrétiens de la République démocratique du Congo, des fidèles camerounais du pasteur nigérian T. B. Joshua ou encore des musulmans ivoiriens hors ligne comme en ligne ainsi qu’une communauté mixte regroupant des chrétiens et des musulmans au Burkina Faso. Les thématiques dominantes abordées sont : la représentation en ligne; le numérique en tant qu’espace étendu d’apprentissage et de conversion religieuse; la religion et la sphère publique; et, pour terminer, les formes de religiosité en Afrique subsaharienne. Cette compilation d’articles constitue un complément utile à l’abondante littérature anglophone sur les mondes médiatiques africains et leurs enchevêtrements religieux (voir entre autres de Witte, 2011; Hackett et Soares, 2014; Graetz, 2014; Meyer, 2015; Pype, 2012; Schulz, 2011). Parmi les analyses fournies, voici les trois thèmes qui m’ont frappée par leur pertinence et leur forte connexion avec les recherches actuelles sur les communautés religieuses en ligne sur le continent africain et au-delà : (a) l’importance de « réseaux » religieux; (b) l’interaction entre le religieux et la politique; (c) les pratiques de foi en ligne et leur dialectique avec la politique de la religion (particulièrement en termes d’autorité, de distribution et de transmission de la connaissance religieuse)." (Page 135)
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"En République démocratique du Congo (RDC), le Web constitue, depuis le dernier mandat constitutionnel du président Joseph Kabila au pouvoir depuis 2001, un espace d’affrontements politiques par le biais des discours religieux, ou par leaders religieux interposés. Alors que le président Kabil
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a a épuisé son dernier mandat constitutionnel, les discours religieux sur Internet sont devenus un outil de mobilisation, si bien qu’ils permettent de distinguer les partisans de l’alternance ou du maintien du gouvernement en place. Les médias numériques ont démontré leur capacité à mobiliser la rue lors des manifestations contre le maintien au pouvoir du président Joseph Kabila entre 2015 et 2017. Les discours religieux sur le Web peuvent jouer, quant à eux, une fonction d’atténuation de la contestation." (Résumé)
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