Religious Communication and Epistemic Authority of Leaders in Wired Faith Organizations

Abstract

The mediation of communication has raised questions of authority shifts in key social institutions. This article examines how traditional sources of epistemic power that govern social relations in religious authority are being amplified or delegitimized by Internet use, drawing from in-depth interviews with protestant pastors in Singapore. Competition from Internet access is found to delocalize epistemic authority to some extent; however, it also reembeds authority by allowing pastors to acquire new competencies as strategic arbiters of religious expertise and knowledge. Our study indicates that although religious leaders are confronted with proletarianization, deprofessionalization, and potential delegitimization as epistemic threats, there is also an enhancement of epistemic warrant as they adopt mediated communication practices that include the social networks of their congregation.

The New Scroll Digital Devices, Bible Study and Worship

“…Campbell and Golan (2011) used in-depth interviews with 19 Orthodox Israeli Web masters and Web staff members to explore variations in how the digital spaces they create may be used to reinforce ties among the community without overt challenges to authority. Cheong et al (2011a) explored the interactions of religious authority and Internet communications in Buddhist organizations and among Christian congregations (Cheong et al, 2011b), concluding that "the immunity from accountability that clergy once enjoyed may have weakened in light of a more technologically networked congregation" (p. 954). The 2013 Barna study found that digital devices are often used during sermons to "fact-check" statements made by the preacheran immediate challenge to authority.…”

Can we say anything ethical about Digital Religion? Philosophical and methodological considerations

“…Hence, by disabling or removing the ranking functions and comment fields of its YouTube channel, the Roman Catholic Church has more successfully instantiated and sustained its hierarchical structures via a top-down, "one-to-many" broadcasting model online (Campbell, 2012: 91f.). Protestant churches have been equally adept at both limiting online challenges to authority (e.g., Lomborg and Ess, 2012) as well as reasserting more traditional forms of authority in the face of such challenges (Cheong, Huang & Poon, 2011).…”

Tweet the Message? Religious Authority and Social Media Innovation

“…Volume 3, Issue 3 (December 2014) http://jrmdc.com instance, Campbell (2012) Prior research studies on Asian pastors and priests have also illustrated that many leaders view new competencies to connect interactively across a spectrum of media to reach congregational members in a generally positive manner. Clergy are proposed to be adjusting their social identity to become guides and mediators of knowledge and encounters both online and offline, an approach that Cheong, Huang & Poon (2011a) have termed "strategic arbitration." Such strategic arbitration facilitates normative regulation and the co-creation of information and expertise under conditions where laity cooperation is elicited by retaining leadership power to determine informational and interpersonal outcomes such that these outcomes do not destabilize the organization.…”