Heidi Campbell explores new media's impact on religion

When the Internet opened up to the general public in 1996, it soon became a form of social communication that most people cannot live without today. In the past few years, the Internet has launched numerous forms of social media such as seen in the uprising of blogs about anything from weddings to gardening, personal lives and advice columns, even religious blogs. Heidi Campbell, assistant professor of communication in the College of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University, explores how religious communities utilized and respond to new media.

The blogosphere

“As the diversity of breadth of Internet users has increased, more people have been given access to a global audience for their ideas,” says Campbell in her article “Religious Authority and the Blogosphere.”

Campbell said that she was interested in the role the Internet would play in challenging traditional religious authority, specifically in monotheistic faiths such as Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

One example of new media’s effect on religion is providing alternative or new spaces for religious people to speak their mind, which has led to the increase in religious blogging.

The thought surrounding online religious blogging was that traditional religious authorities would be challenged by religious activity online, specifically by opponents of religious groups. This would lead to the rise of alternative religious voices as opposed to traditional religious authority. However her research demonstrates that this is not always the case.

“Many Christian bloggers use their blogs to affirm traditional religious authorities that are in line with the religious beliefs and identities they seek to present online authority rather than simply using it to challenge,” said Campbell.

According to Campbell, participation in the blogosphere often validates religious authority because it helps users create or maintain the boundaries between the sacred and the secular. In some cases, the Internet can allow religious leaders to solidify their voices or provide tools to monitor or control.

“Bounded religious organizations … may infiltrate online groups in order to try and control information shared online or creates alternative forums which reinforce their established structure,” says Campbell.

Case Study: Kosher cell phone

In her new book, When Religion Meets New Media (Routledge, 2010), Campbell explores the idea of how offline religious communities are negotiating or responding to new media culture; considering how their values, beliefs and theologies influence their responses to new forms of media.

“A lot of religious groups are adapting and innovating technology,” said Campbell. She adds that many religious groups are using it in ways that compliment and support their value system.

For example, the book contains a case study involving ultra orthodox Jews in Israel and the “Kosher cell phone.” Campbell states that conservative religious Jews were concerned about the social implications of mobile technology for their community. Since they didn’t feel they could ban the technology, they decided to adapt it to their lifestyle, creating the Kosher cell phone. Essentially the leaders of the community disabled the Internet access and didn’t allow text messaging capabilities. They also created a calling plan in which it was very cheap to call within the community, and very expensive to call outside of the community.

Campbell states that many journalists and people outside these communities are very surprised to learn that religious users readily embrace technology. Her work aim is to reverse the assumption that religious communities are anti-technology or anti-new media.

“I hope to provide researchers with a framework for studying where religious communities will go in the future with their use of technology, and what their responses to it will be,” says Campbell.

Campbell earned her B.A. in communications from Spring Arbor University in Michigan, and her Master of Theology and Ph.D. of Philosophy from University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Campbell has published two previous books: The Science and Religion Primer, and Exploring Religious Community Online. Her articles have appeared in numerous publications including Journal of Contemporary Religion and Journal of Computer-mediated Communication.