wfn.org | Heidi Campbell workshop announced "When Religion Meets New Media"

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Heidi Campbell workshop announced "When Religion Meets New Media"

Assistant Professor of Communication, Texas A&M University

> RCCongress 2010 Workshop:

> When Religion Meets New Media

Heidi Campbell is Assistant Professor of Communication at Texas A&M 
University where she teaches in the areas of New Media, Popular 
Culture and Religion. She has a Ph.D. from the University of 
Edinburgh in Computer-Mediated Communication and Practical Theology. 
Since 1997 she has studied religion online and the influence of new 
media on religious communities and has written on a variety of topics 
from new media ethics to religion and cell phones.

Her work has appeared in New Media and Society, Journal of Media and 
Religion, Journal of Contemporary Religion and the book Religion 
Online (Dawson & Cowan, Routledge 2004). She is author of Exploring 
Religious Community Online: We are one in the network (Peter Lang, 
2005), co-editor of A Science and Religion Primer (Baker Academic, 
2009) and a forthcoming book on how Jewish, Muslim and Christian 
communities negotiate their use of new media. She has been quoted as 
an expert on religion and the internet in the LA Times, Miami Herald, 
Houston Chronicle, PBS's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly and on the 
BBC Radio World Service.

> When Religion Meets New Media

We live in an increasingly networked society where information and 
communication technologies have become embedded in the fabric of 
everyday life, impacting not only our social, but spiritual and 
religious lives. This workshop will explore the challenges faced by 
religious groups when they encounter new forms of media.

What factors play a key role in decision making and negotiation with 
new media? Examples will be drawn from a five-year study comparing 
and contrasting the different strategies used by different Jewish, 
Muslim and Christian communities around the world in their approach 
to new forms of media.

A four-part strategy identified through this research will be 
discussed, which outlines factors informing how religious groups make 
choices about new media informed by the ethos and beliefs of their communities.

This workshop will combine theoretical discussion with times for 
shared interaction and personal reflection on issues to consider when 
developing organizational strategies or community specific policy 
related to new media use.

> http://www.rccongress2010.net