{"title":"Teaching Journalism in the Age of Trump","authors":"Diane H. Winston","doi":"10.1163/21659214-BJA10023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-BJA10023","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000How can we teach journalism in the age of Trump, and what does public theology have to do with it?","PeriodicalId":142820,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130167072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Hajj Apps: Managing the Operations and Piety of the Hajj","authors":"A. Stanton","doi":"10.1163/21659214-BJA10020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-BJA10020","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Since the early 2010s, apps have helped Muslim pilgrims manage nearly every aspect of the hajj. This article uses the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah’s hajj apps as a case study of influential hajj apps, offering a descriptive and analytic review of their functioning, impact, and reception. This case study helps point to the importance of hajj management as a state-level political and religious enterprise, helping widen the focus on religious app research from user-oriented, ritual or scriptural apps to include those that serve the management of religion and believers. This widened focus in turn highlights the need to recognize the internal variety within the category of religious apps: these apps have different target users, do different kinds of work, have diverse impacts, and enjoy differing receptions. While the Ministry’s operations-focused hajj apps garner less attention, they may be more critical to its successful management of the hajj. As research interest in Islam-focused apps continues to grow, it will be important to pay careful attention to apps that address the business of religion, and not just the ritual practices.","PeriodicalId":142820,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture","volume":"2064 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127466859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Congregation(s) in Digital Culture","authors":"Jeffrey H. Mahan","doi":"10.1163/21659214-BJA10022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-BJA10022","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This essay draws on a particular example of Christian community in the urban American West to ask how digital culture is shifting the way religious identity, community, and leadership are being performed in cultures shaped by digital communication. It suggests more attention is needed to the complexity of organized religion and to the ways religious communities respond to media change. Further, that scholars of media, religion, and culture can help practitioners better understand their media-context and strategize within it.","PeriodicalId":142820,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117177877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stephen Pihlaja, Religious Talk Online: The Evangelical Discourse of Muslims, Christians, and Atheists","authors":"Frederik Elwert","doi":"10.1163/21659214-BJA10025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-BJA10025","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":142820,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132390581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Minecrafting Bar Mitzvah: Two Rabbis Negotiating and Cultivating Learner-Driven Inclusion through New Media","authors":"O. Gottlieb","doi":"10.1163/21659214-BJA10019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-BJA10019","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In 2013, a boy with special needs used the video game Minecraft to deliver the sermon at his bar mitzvah at a Reform synagogue, an apparently unique ritual phenomenon to this day. Using a narrative inquiry approach, this article examines two rabbis’ negotiations with new media, leading up to, during, and upon reflection after the event. The article explores acceptance, innovation, and validation of new media in religious practice, drawing on Campbell’s (2010) framework for negotiation of new media in religious communities. Clergy biography, philosophy, and institutional context all impact the negotiations with new media. By providing context of a set of factors influencing a particular negotiation and validation of a ritual and educational innovation using new media, the article intends to demonstrate the importance of clergy narrative for understanding new media negotiations in religious settings, and in particular in progressive religious communities","PeriodicalId":142820,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131792497","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Anthony Hatcher, Religion and Media in America Lanham","authors":"D. Campbell","doi":"10.1163/21659214-BJA10024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-BJA10024","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":142820,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115511457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital Technology and Pilgrimage: Shiʿi Rituals of Arbaʿin in Iraq","authors":"Babak Rahimi, M. Amin","doi":"10.1163/21659214-bja10006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-bja10006","url":null,"abstract":"Since the collapse of the Baʿathist regime after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Shiʿi Muslim rituals, in particular the annual commemorations of Arbaʿin, have seen a revival in popularity. Based on two fieldwork studies conducted during Arbaʿin in 2016 and 2017, the present study attempts to examine the changing characteristics of the rituals. It does so by studying the increasing digitization of Arbaʿin as a commemorative pilgrimage to Karbala, Iraq, to the shrine of the Prophet’s grandson, Imam Husayn. This ethnographic study argues for a mediated conception of Arbaʿin pilgrimage in that digital technologies serve as an embodied site of interaction in shaping shared experiences based on networked sociability. Examining the intimate connections between “physical” and “virtual” spaces, as in the case of Mawakib or gatherings shaped in the form of temporary lodgings in the course of walking processions, the study argues that various uses of digital technologies for pilgrimage are less about means of devotional expression than a series of experiences of digital significance. The paper makes the final argument that the digital practices embedded in ritual processions are acted upon to enhance experience, which increasingly fuses technology with ritual action.","PeriodicalId":142820,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131754705","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reader Responses to Religion News: Discussions about Ark Encounter on Reddit","authors":"W. S. Sanders, J. Ferré","doi":"10.1163/21659214-bja10008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-bja10008","url":null,"abstract":"This study compares news reports about Ark Encounter, the young earth creationist theme park that opened in Kentucky in 2016, with contemporaneous posts on three Reddit communities to determine the strength of agenda setting by the news media for public discussions of controversial religious issues. Using topic modeling, this study compared the subjects covered in 139 discrete news articles with 2,926 comments in the subreddits of atheism, Christianity, and politics. The comparison found that many Reddit posts initially responded to news reports about controversies involving economics, politics, and beliefs. But online discussions proceeded to reflect diverse community interests more than the narrower focus of news reports. The atheism subreddit focused on issues of scientific evidence, the Christianity subreddit focused on hermeneutics of belief, and the politics subreddit focused on the separation of church and state. In short, the news media did not seem to exert a strong agenda-setting effect on discussions about Ark Encounter.","PeriodicalId":142820,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117072353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Media and Power in International Contexts: Perspectives on Agency and Identity, edited by Apryl Williams, Ruth Tsuria, and Laura Robinson","authors":"Aya Yadlin‐Segal","doi":"10.1163/21659214-bja10004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-bja10004","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":142820,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121401458","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Relationship between Online Dating and Islamic Identity among British Muslims","authors":"L. Rooij","doi":"10.1163/21659214-bja10010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-bja10010","url":null,"abstract":"In Europe and the US, young Muslims are using online matchmaking in growing numbers. Online dating has increasingly become a mainstream activity, in Europe and North America at least. Western Muslims have adapted the idea to suit their needs. For many, online dating offers a low-stress solution to the daunting challenge of finding a partner for marriage in countries where few share their faith and in communities where matchmaking is considered a family affair. This paper will discuss the relationship between Muslim online matchmaking for British Muslims and their Islamic identities with regards to marriage and romantic relationships.","PeriodicalId":142820,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124971960","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}