Week 12: “I believe...” New Media, Beliefs and Politics

Religion 2.0: Updating our Beliefs
By Shaun Buzza

There is a place in New Media for all beliefs... well technically that isn’t entirely correct. New Media being fundamentally reliant on technology, limits certain religions into its threshold. As Charles Ess identifies in his online article, Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Religion and Computer-Mediated Communication; “suspicion regarding online environments that was not uncommon in the 1990s, especially on the part of more conservative traditions”. The Amish community, for instance, separate themselves from the use of modern technology.

Though apart from the perfectly acceptable minority of religious groups, there are a lot who have embraced the use of Internet technologies, using them as another outlet of information and communication. Today most religious beliefs can be found on authenticated sites on the net. A lot of large community Christian and Catholic churches, for example, have their own website where information on their beliefs can be accessed, church times, FAQ’s, as well as forums, news and events etc.

The Ess article goes on to state; “Also highlighted in the studies in this issue are important characteristics and features of religious traditions that make them better suited—albeit in varying degrees—to migration online.” Every religion has their own values and traditions, making others (as mentioned above) more suitable for online environments. Either way you look at it, New Media has made some mark in the way we value these beliefs and traditions, wether we choose to accept or reject the transition.

References
Ess, C. (2007). Cross-cultural perspectives on religion and computer-mediated communication. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(3), article 9.