@article {176,
	title = {Weaving Webs of Faith: Examining Internet Use and Religious Communication Among Chinese Protestant Transmigrants},
	journal = {Journal of International and Intercultural Communication},
	volume = {2},
	year = {2009},
	pages = {189-207},
	abstract = {This paper examines the relationship between new media use and international communication that addresses religiosity and affirms users{\textquoteright} standpoints occupied by transmigrants that are marginalized in dominant societal structures. Drawing from focus group interviews among recent Chinese Protestant immigrants in Toronto, we argue that new media {\textquotedblleft}use{\textquotedblright} is broadened by users{\textquoteright} cultural appropriation in situational contexts to include proxy internet access as accommodative communication given the political and legal constraints in their home country. Chinese transmigrants not only reinterpret and alter semantic associations that spiritualize the internet, they also engage in innovative strategies that involve the intertwining of offline and online communicative modes. These include deploying complementary media forms or communicating in codes that are mutually understood among participating members to facilitate intragroup networking among Chinese religious communities. Implications are discussed with regard to the importance of cultural norms and situational context in shaping mediated international communication. },
	keywords = {Chinese, Communication, Immigrants, Media use},
	doi = {10.1080/17513050902985349},
	url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com},
	author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Poon, Jessie}
}
@article {1302,
	title = {Transnational immanence: the autopoietic co-constitution of a Chinese spiritual organization through mediated communication},
	journal = {Information, Communication \& Society},
	volume = {Online},
	year = {2013},
	abstract = {Information and communication technologies are often cited as one major source, if not the causal vector, for the rising intensity of transnational practices. Yet, extant literature has not examined critically how digital media appropriation affects the constitution of transnational organizations, particularly Chinese spiritual ones. To address the lack of theoretically grounded, empirical research on this question, this study investigates how the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation (Tzu Chi), one of the largest Taiwan-based civil and spiritual nonprofit organizations among the Chinese diaspora, is co-constituted by various social actors as an operationally closed system through their mediated communication. Based on an innovative theoretical framework that combines Maturana and Varela{\textquoteright}s notion of {\textquoteleft}autopoiesis{\textquoteright} with Cooren{\textquoteright}s ideas of {\textquoteleft}incarnation{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}presentification{\textquoteright}, we provide a rich analysis of Tzu Chi{\textquoteright}s co-constitution through organizational leaders{\textquoteright} appropriation of digital and social media, as well as through mediated interactions between Tzu Chi{\textquoteright}s internal and external stakeholders. In so doing, our research expands upon the catalogue of common economic and relational behaviors by overseas Chinese, advances our understanding of Chinese spiritual organizing, and reveals the contingent role of digital and social media in engendering transnational spiritual ties to accomplish global humanitarian work.},
	keywords = {Asia, Authority, autopoiesis, Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, communicative constitution of organizations, information and communication technologies, nonprofit, social media, Taiwan, transnationalism},
	url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369118X.2013.833277$\#$.Ulm51VCsim5},
	author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Jennie M. Hwang and Boris H.J.M. Brummansb}
}
@article {282,
	title = {The Internet Highway and Religious Communities: Mapping and Contesting Spaces in Religion-Online},
	journal = {The Information Society},
	volume = {25},
	year = {2009},
	pages = {291-302},
	abstract = {We examine {\textquoteleft}religion-online{\textquoteright}, an underrepresented area of research in new media, communication, and geography, with a multi-level study of the online representation and (re)-presentation of Protestant Christian organizations in Singapore, which has one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the world and also believers affiliated with all the major world religions. We first critically discuss and empirically examine how online technologies are employed for religious community building in novel and diverse ways. Then we investigate the role religious leaders play through their mental representations of the spatial practices and scales through which their religious communities are imagined and practiced online. We show how churches use the multimodality of the Internet to assemble multiple forms of visible data and maps to extend geographic sensibilities of sacred space and create new social practices of communication.},
	keywords = {Authority, community, geography, internet, theory of religion online},
	doi = {10.1080/01972240903212466},
	url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com},
	author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Huang, Shirlena and Poon, Jessie and Casas, Irene}
}
@article {58,
	title = {Faith Tweets: Ambient Religious Communication and Microblogging Rituals},
	journal = {Journal of Media and Culture},
	volume = {13},
	year = {2010},
	month = {May 2010},
	abstract = {The notion of ambient strikes a particularly resonant chord for religious communication: many faith traditions advocate the practice of sacred mindfulness, and a consistent piety in light of holy devotion to an omnipresent and omniscient Divine being. This paper examines how faith believers appropriate the emergent microblogging practices to create an encompassing cultural surround to include microblogging rituals which promote regular, heightened prayer awareness. Faith tweets help constitute epiphany and a persistent sense of sacred connected presence, which in turn rouses an identification of a higher moral purpose and solidarity with other local and global believers. Amidst ongoing tensions about microblogging, religious organisations and their leadership have also begun to incorporate Twitter into their communication practices and outreach, to encourage the extension of presence beyond the church walls.},
	keywords = {ambient, Blogging, Communication, religion, Twitter},
	url = {http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/viewArticle/223},
	author = {Pauline Hope Cheong}
}
@book {286,
	title = {Digital Religion, Social Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices, Futures},
	year = {2012},
	publisher = {Peter Lang},
	organization = {Peter Lang},
	address = {New York},
	keywords = {Authority, avatars, community, history, identity, internet, online church, social media, theology, theory of religion online},
	url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com},
	author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Fischer-Nielsen, Peter and Gelfgren, Stefan and Ess, Charles}
}
@article {281,
	title = {Religious Communication and Epistemic Authority of Leaders in Wired Faith Organizations.},
	journal = {Journal of Applied Communication Research},
	volume = {39},
	year = {2011},
	pages = {452-454},
	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.},
	keywords = {Authority, internet},
	doi = {10.1080/00909882.2011.577085},
	url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01579.x/abstract},
	author = {Pauline Hope Cheong}
}
@inbook {285,
	title = {Twitter of Faith: Understanding social media networking and microblogging rituals as religious practices},
	booktitle = {Digital Religion, Social Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices, Futures},
	year = {2012},
	pages = {191-206},
	publisher = {Peter Lang},
	organization = {Peter Lang},
	address = {New York},
	keywords = {blogs, internet, microblogging, social media},
	author = {Pauline Hope Cheong}
}
@article {280,
	title = {Religious Communication and Epistemic Authority of Leaders in Wired Faith Organizations},
	journal = {Journal of Communication},
	volume = {61},
	year = {2011},
	pages = {938-958},
	abstract = {The mediation of communication has raised questions of authority shifts in key social institutions. This paper 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 re-embeds authority by allowing pastors to acquire new competencies as strategic arbiters of religious expertise and knowledge. Our study indicates that while religious leaders are confronted with proletarianization, deprofessionalization and potential de-legitimization 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. },
	keywords = {Authority, internet, theory of religion online},
	doi = {10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01579.x},
	url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com},
	author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Huang, Shirlena and Poon, Jessie}
}
@inbook {284,
	title = {Religion 2.0? Relational and hybridizing pathways in religion, social media and culture},
	booktitle = {Digital Religion, Social Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices, Futures},
	year = {2012},
	pages = {1-24},
	publisher = {Peter Lang},
	organization = {Peter Lang},
	chapter = {Religion 2.0? Relational and hybridizing pathways in religion, social media and culture.},
	address = {New York},
	keywords = {Authority, community, identity, internet, religion, social media},
	url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com},
	author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Ess, Charles}
}
@article {279,
	title = {Cultivating online and offline pathways to enlightenment: Religious authority in wired Buddhist organizations},
	journal = {Information, Communication \& Society},
	volume = {14},
	year = {2011},
	pages = {1160-1180},
	abstract = {In light of expanding epistemic resources online, the mediatization of religion poses questions about the possible changes, decline and reconstruction of clergy authority. Distinct from virtual Buddhism or cybersangha research which relies primarily on online observational data, this paper examines Buddhist clergy communication within the context of established religious organizations with an integrationist perspective on interpersonal communication and new and old media connections. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Buddhist leaders in Singapore, this paper illustrates ways in which priests are expanding their communicative competency, which we label {\textquotedblleft}strategic arbitration{\textquotedblright} to maintain their authority by restructuring multimodal representations and communicative influence. This study expands upon previous research by Cheong, Huang \& Poon (in press) and finds that constituting Buddhist religious epistemic authority in wired organizational contexts rests on coordinating online-offline communicative acts. Such concatenative coordination involves normalizing the aforementioned modality of authority through interpersonal acts that positively influences epistemic dependence. Communicative acts that privilege face-to-face mentoring and corporeal rituals are optimized in the presence of monks within perceived sacred spaces in temple grounds, thereby enabling clergy to perform ultimate arbitration. However, Buddhist leaders also increase bargaining power when heightened web presence and branding practices are enacted. The paper concludes with limitations and recommendations for future research in religious authority. },
	keywords = {Authority, community, internet, religion, theory of religion online},
	doi = {10.1080/1369118X.2011.579139},
	url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com},
	author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Huang, Shirlena and Poon, Jessie}
}
@article {283,
	title = {{\textquoteleft}WWW.Faith.Org{\textquoteright}: (Re)structuring communication and social capital building among religious organizations.},
	journal = {Information, Communication and Society},
	volume = {11},
	year = {2008},
	pages = {89-110},
	abstract = {This paper examines the relationships between Internet and social capital building within religious organizations, a relatively understudied foci. Building upon theoretical insights provided by new institutionalism and recent research on the Internet, social capital and religion, this article explores the ways in which religious organizations, have (re)structured their norms, values, and practices of religious community in light of the incorporation of the Internet into their congregational life. Drawing from interviews conducted with Christian and Buddhist religious leaders in Toronto, this article discusses three major relationships in which the effects of the Internet on social capital may be understood, that is, complementary, transformative, and perverse relationships. Religious organizations are traditionally associated with relatively high stocks of social capital, yet findings here suggest that their communicative norms, values, and practices are changing to varying extent. The results also indicate that the relationship between the Internet and social capital building is largely complementary; however the Internet is perceived by some to be a {\textquoteleft}mixed blessing{\textquoteright}, facilitating the potential transformation of organizational practices that affect community norms while leading to the dispersion of religious ties that could undermine community solidarity. Thus, contrary to earlier studies that have documented no evidence of innovations involving the reconfiguration of organizational practices and the adjustment of mission or services, findings here illustrate how some religious organizations have expanded the scope of their calling and restructured their communicative practices to spur administrative and operational effectiveness. Like other organizations, religious organizations are not insulated from technological changes including those associated with the Internet{\textquoteright}s. This study clarifies and identifies key ways in which the distinct spirituality, cultural values, and institutional practices and norms of religious organizations influence communication processes that constitute bridging and bonding forms of social capital in this dot.org. era of faith. },
	keywords = {community, internet, social capital, theory of religion online},
	url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com},
	author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Poon, Jessie}
}
