Studying Religion And The Internet

Studying Religion and the Internet Challenges and Opportunities: Theoretical, Practical and Ethical Katharine Sarah Moody Lancaster University k.moody1@lancaster.ac.uk opensourceresearch.blogspot.com

Studying Religion and the Internet  The Internet Today: Web 2.0  Opportunities: Religions Online/Online Religions  The Internet as a Research Tool  The Internet as a Research Site  Challenges: Theoretical, Practical and Ethical Considerations

The Internet Today: Web 2.0 Written Blogging Text File Digital sharing Text Hypertext Open Source HTML sites Web 2.0 Social XML networking Michael Wesch, Kansas State University, “The Machine is Us/ing Us,” Youtube.com

Religions Online/Online Religions  Helland (2000): Different types of webpages  religion online: users receive information  online religion: users participate in religious practices  Young (2004): webpages = information and participation  Different manifestations of religion/spirituality on Internet  Religions Online:  the (informative and participatory) online presence of primarily offline religions  Online Religions:  those religions whose existence depends wholly on the Internet (at least as they initially emerged)

The Internet as Research Tool  Tool for researching; Internet-mediated research (IMR)  Used as a means to  access information  advertise research  identify and select possible participants  recruit and communicate with participants  Used as platform for  e-questionnaires or survey-pages  e-interviews or “focus chats”  IMR advantages: time, costs  IMR disadvantages: unrepresentative samples  The bottom line of Internet-mediated research: RELEVANCY

The Internet as Research Site  Site of research  e.g. blogs  open source sites (e.g. wikis)  social networking sites  file sharing sites  virtual spaces, etc.

Theoretical Considerations  Identity  Community  Text Peter Steiner, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog,” The New Yorker, 5 July 1993:61.

Practical Considerations (Blogs)  Ascribing authorship in the blogosphere  interactivity and authorship  authorship and authority (Moody 2008)  Circumscribing text in the blogosphere  the nature of online text  hyperlinks as conversational and textual glue (Efimova & deMoor 2005)  Measuring blog validity  content analysis > audience reception theory  comments section acts as ‘peer-review system’ (Mark Brady 2005:10)  Measuring blog influence  on other “produsers”  on other readers (1% users heavy contributors, 9% intermittent, 90% lurkers)  on research participants in multi-methodological research

Ethical Considerations  Is the Internet a public domain?  What do we think about covert research on the Internet, such as researchers lurking in chatrooms?  What might we need to consider in moving between on- and offline research relationships in multi- methodological research? Other Discussion Questions  Are you using the Internet as a research tool and/or as a research site in your current project?  Have you had to reflect theoretically or ethically, as well as methodologically, about how you are using the Internet?

Brady 2005 “Blogging: Personal Participation in Public Knowledge-Building on the Web” Dawson & Cowan 2004 Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet Efimova & De Moor 2005 “Beyond personal webpublishing: An exploratory study of conversational blogging practices” Gumbrecht 2004 “Blogs as ‘Protected Spaces’” Hadden & Cowan 2000 Religion on the Internet: Research Prospects and Promises Helland 2000 “Online Religion/Religion Online and Virtual Communitas,” in Hadden & Cowan 2000 Hewson et al 2003 Internet Research Methods: A Practical Guide Hine 2005 Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet Højsgaard & Warburg 2005 Religion and Cyberspace Lövheim & Linderman 2005 “Constructing Religious Identity on the Internet,” in Højsgaard & Warburg 2005 Moody 2008 “The Desire for Interactivity and the Emerging Texts of the Blogosphere,” in Llewellyn & Sawyer 2008 Reading Spiritualities Online – Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet http://online.uni-hd.de Young 2004 “Reading and Praying Online: The Continuity of Religion Online and Online Religion in Internet Christianity,” in Dawson & Cowan 2004

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Studying Religion And The Internet

by Katharine Moody on May 22, 2009

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