completion seminar presentation
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Presentation of findings from 3 years of research into emerging church bloggers in Australia, for a PhD in Applied Communications at RMIT UniversityTRANSCRIPT
EMERGING CHURCH BLOGGERS IN AUSTRALIA:
Prophets, priests and rulers in God’s virtual world
Paul Emerson TeusnerRMIT :: School of Applied Communication
Completion Seminar :: 4 June 2009
Presentation
QuestionsConceptual framework & current debatesMethodologyDataReflections
Why ask?
YouTube disgrace of Melbourne priestWeb 2.0 promises:
Parliament on religious symbols, practices and structuresReconstruction of religious community and participationShift in the boundary between public and privateReshaping patterns of production, distribution and
consumption of religious text (information, cultural goods, shared knowledge
Ask what?
How do those involved in the emerging church conversation use blogging technology to construct individual and communal online religious identities?
How do religious attitudes towards blogging and the Internet contribute to the way people interact online?
What contributions and constraints do blogging software, and people’s use of it, offer the construction of online identity?
How are bloggers working together to construct an emerging church theology, ecclesiology and missiology?
How is authority distributed among emerging church bloggers, in relation to other systems of authority both online and offline?
What can be said about the place of the emerging church blogosphere in the current tensions of 21st century Australian religious sociology?
Conceptual framework
SecularisationDeprivatisationDeath of denominationalismReligious marketplace
Postmodern spirituality
Post-structuralismPostmodernismRole of technologySearch for meaning
Patterns of sociability
Me-centred networksDiscursive constructions of community and participation
Social construction of the Internet
Identity playDemocratisationPublic/privateUGC
Online discursive patterns
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Religious identity
• Emerging church
• Christian cyborg
Researching online religion
•What does online religion look like?•What can people do online and why would they do it?•What kind of people for online for religion and why?•Quantitative, and based on preconceptions
First wave
•Focus on ethnographic study•Establishing trust, asserting authorities, ritual practices•Online practice as distinct, and going online
Second and third waves
•Going online no longer a discrete step•I am cyborg because the world looks at the Internet and sees me•What is religious about the Internet being created•Internet as a place to consider place of religion in all parts of contemporary life
New wave
Contributions
What can this investigation say about:the continuity or fragmentation of online and offline
identities?shape and meaning of online networks and the discursive
construction of an emerging church blogosphere?rhetoric and realities of Web 2.0?what constraints and relations of power exist, how are
they uncovered, who uncovers them, how bloggers negotiate them?
Method
Informed byScollon and Wong ScollonBucholtz & Hall
Scollon & Wong Scollon
Bucholtz & HallAdequation
Distinction
Speaker
Authentication
Denaturalisation
Value
Authorisation
Illegitimation
Source
Discourse analysis
Blog posts• Scripture• Theology• Church structure
and authority• Mission and
evangelism• Social
commentary• Faith practices
Comment discussion• Use of text,
emoticons and simple formatting
• Presentations of rules of interaction
• Consequences of misconduct
• Debate• Redundancies
Cross-blog discussion• Hyperlinked
references• Tagging• Engagement in EC
discourses• Promotion• Allocation of
authority
Network analysis and interviews
CommentsLinksBlogrolls
Blogging practices and aims
Choice of softwarePerceptions of
audienceOwn connectionsOpinions about
emerging church
Identifying the sample
TechnoratiSmall number of Australian blogsMostly men
Looked to blogrolls and commentsTwo more bloggers added at beginning of researchTwo more added half-way through
Sample
33 blogs2 blogs have 2 or 3 authors: 36 bloggers in total5 are women3 Americans in the sample, living in Australia at or
close to the sample period1 Australian living overseas4 blogs empty during one sample period1 blogger returned to USA before second sample
period2 blogs changed name
Collecting data
Posts and comments collected during:1 July – 31 October 20061 February – 31 May 2007
Front pages at end of each period1500 posts5900 comments from 740 readers, plus each other3350 retained for study
Religious data
ScriptureHistorical and political reductionist interpretationDraw on stories for present ministry models
TheologyPolitical evaluations of doctrineCall for orthodoxy in pluralist environmentEmbrace doubt
Church structureEndeavours to build leadership modelsRole of clergyCritique business models of churches (Hill$ong)
Religious data
Mission and evangelismPolitical evaluations of evangelism practicesJust relationships with outsidersEmbrace pluralism
Faith practicesEmbrace new technologiesCreation of sacred spacesCritique of popular religious music
Social commentaryAustralian politicsEnvironment
Conversation data
Emoticons popularly used to add tone to wordsSome blogs have comment policies, aimed to
reflect how people would behave offlineSome bloggers encourage blogger behaviourOpen response to flaming and spamming
Cross-blog discussion
Little conversations occur across blogs. Many bloggers encourage readers to join in discussions in original blog
Blogs contain “filter” posts, mostly by men who blog regularly
Bloggers promote the sites of friends and colleagues, also mostly by men who blog regularly
Yet some bloggers actively support less known bloggers in attempts to undermine Technorati’s authority algorithm
Concerns about being perceived as similar to American versions of emerging church, especially when these versions are critiqued
Network data
5 bloggers have weak connections with majority of bloggers
More connections between bloggers of same denomination, except for CoC & Baptist
More connections between “Forge” membersMore connections between topic-heavy bloggersReferences tend to favour posts that are:
Male-authoredOn public issuesSupported by references to published works
Interview data
Reasons for bloggingJournalPractice writingNetworkingContinue conversationsAlternative congregation
AudienceKnown through face-to-face interactionKnown through emailsBloggers unlikely to say they write for specific people
Interview data
ConnectionsInterviewees more likely to read blogs of people they've
met offlineThese connections appear to be also topic-based
Opinions about emerging churchInterviewees reticent to label themselves “emerging
church”Some prefer “missional” or “alternative”
Findings
Discursive construction of identity
Emerging church blogger
Semiotic cycles
• Blogger speaks to autotelic audience• Commenters create connection
Interaction order
Social trust
EtiquetteDown-playIrreverenceHat-tip
Social capitalCommenting on others’ blogsReferencing bloggersInvolvement in offline networksComment on public issues
In context of wider debates
Bloggers seek continuity of offline identity, in their desire to create an authentic space, and a place to explore religion as a whole
Network that is more strongly connected to offline networks and communities of practice, than to idea of an emerging church blogosphere as a whole
“More of the same” when it comes to promises of Web 2.0
Bloggers are aware of constraints to equal voices, but are themselves constrained by the medium
Conclusion
Blogosphere seen as a place of safety, risk and authenticity, but an incomplete connection
Blogosphere offers this through the development of online symbolic/discursive practices
While old authority structures are called into question, the medium favours writing. Therefore the technorati are the literati.
Emerging church bloggers represent:Debates about the culture wars of secularisation and
deprivatisationThe place of orthodoxy in pluralismThe “left-right” dichotomy of public religion