"Digital Media Strategies in a 21st Century Church"

Celina M. Yebba

I am a graduate student at the University of Central Florida, working towards a Master of Arts in Rhetoric and Composition. Prior to graduate school, I was assigned to a civil engineering squadron in the United States Air Force, and was deployed to Afghanistan as a member of the 560^th RED HORSE. My research interests include digital evangelization and social media composition.

Contents

Abstract

Introduction

History of Christian Media Use

History of Christian Media Use Cont.

Religious Use of Digital Media

Religious Use of Digital Media Cont.

Conclusion

Works Cited

History of Christian Media Use, Cont. 

Data from the General Social Surveys (GSS) confirmed the Pew Survey findings. According to their survey, young adults are simply not just more religiously unaffiliated than members of previous generations, they are also significantly more apathetic towards religion than young adults have been in recent (to include the members of Generation X) decades. In GSS surveys that have been conducted this past decade, notably since the evolution of social media, nearly 25% of millennials have begun to classify their religious group as “none.” When you compare these numbers to the young adults of the 1970s and 1980s, you see that statistically it has nearly doubled. However, this same GSS survey continued to express that, while overall affiliation has decreased, the millennials that are already associated with a faith organization display a determined passion and devotion for their religion. In fact, their enthusiasm for their faith is equally as strong as church members from previous generations (Pond, 2010).

So, how do we explain this phenomenon? What aspects of youth faith fosterage has the church been neglecting to result in such a steady withdraw from associations with religious organizations in the United States? It seems apparent that it is not the religion itself that is turning off the young adult population, since those young adults who have affiliated themselves with religious groups statistically are as passionate about their faith community as those from previous generations. Instead, it seems as though the church has been inattentive to their needs as a generation. The church groups are not finding a way to effectively engage young adults, much less draw them into faith communities.

To answer these questions we must consider the world in which we live. We are a culture that has jubilantly embraced and adopted new technologies and digital media. Each and every year we see an emergence of new social media platforms. With that increased range of opportunities to communicate and build meaningful relationships through the World Wide Web, we also see a steady growth in the amount of people signing on daily.

A survey conducted by the NYU department of psychology in 2005 showed that two-thirds of all American adults that had access to Internet services had engaged in some form of online faith activity (McKenna, 2005, p.942). "There is a wealth of religious information to be found online: a Google search on the word 'religion' turns up more than 32 million websites, and searched on 'Christianity' and 'Judaism' 6 million and 2 million respectively" (McKenna, 2005, p.943). But is there not a difference between a "wealth of religious information" and actually contributing to a dialectical process? Living life in a world of "many-to-many" communications online, should we not expect the religious Internet presence to engage users rather than just inform them?

In his article “Online Religion as Lived Religion,” Dr. Christopher Helland expresses his belief that recent technological advancements, mainly the emergence of social media platforms, have made it quite simple for religious-based organizations to add communicative elements to their websites. These enhancements in their web presence would bring forth a sense of community for the users as they interact with each other, and with church leaders. In essence, this technology encourages the establishment of an online community that users could wholly engage themselves in. Yet, many religious leaders are not taking advantage of this opportunity. It is not due to technological or financial limitations, since most social media programs are both user friendly and free to use. Instead, it is that not all religious organizations are choosing to participate in this kind of discourse. Most religious institutions observed strictly adopted technology as a tool for information transmission, disregarding the social aspects that are now available. Organizations that did provide social features usually monitored and limited the content. This seems to be the most likely reason that religious groups are failing in approaching a younger generation. Helland explains that administering controls on digital communication can often be more destructive than helpful. By definition, "many-to-many" online dialogue does not necessitate any management, control, or guidance in order to function as intended. In fact, quite the opposite is true. In order for true discourse and interaction to occur on a web site, there needs to be a sense of unrestricted contribution for any user that chooses to participate. Only when all elements of the conversation are accessible to every user participating can there be community rather than simply information transmission (Helland, 2005, Online..., p.4-6).

In “Building Dialogic Relationships Through the World Wide Web,” Michael Kent and Maureen Taylor employ the dialogic theory to express that it is not the actual technology itself that has contributed to the destruction of relationships between the organization and the participant. Instead, it is a lack of open dialogue opportunities that makes followers lose interest. “The important point is that using technology does not have to create distance between an organization and its publics. Instead Internet communication can include the ‘personal touch’ that makes public relations effective” (Kent & Taylor, 1998, p. 324). Kent and Taylor briefly describe dialogic communication as a form of dialogue that can only be shared between those who perceive the communication to be authentic. If users perceive that religious groups are closely monitoring and controlling aspects of web based communication, then they will not experience that authentic dialogic communication. However, if religious groups use their digital media presence to strategically incorporate these genuine opportunities for discourse, they could actually establish a strong foundation with the followers of their sites.