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