@article {2140,
	title = {The Use of the Mobile Phone for Religious Mobilization in Niger Republic},
	journal = {Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries},
	volume = {83},
	year = {2017},
	pages = {1-19},
	abstract = {While many scholars have studied the ways in which the Internet and online social networks are shaping contemporary religious practices and how new information and communication technologies are supporting networked forms of religious activism, only a few have analyzed the relationships between religion and the use of the mobile phone in African countries. However, in Africa as elsewhere, mobile phones are influencing the everyday practices of religion in multiple ways that are not simply anecdotal but affect beliefs and behaviors and raise ethical concerns among believers. In some cases (e.g., divorce, Qur{\textquoteright}an verses, ringtones, prayer disruption), religious authorities have been obliged to draw up rules and provide guidance to the faithful. This article seeks to identify the opportunities offered and the challenges posed to religion by the introduction of mobile phones in Niamey, the capital-city of Niger Republic. It specifically examines how believers are using this device to mobilize co-religionists, to maintain religious ties and religious faith, as well as how they are coping with the challenges and seeking to resolve related issues. The article argues that the mobile phone is helping mediate in new ways and in a new context the religious norms and behaviors that have always guided Muslim communities. In other words, the advent of the mobile phone offers new opportunities but also poses new challenges to believers who strive to cope with this new phenomenon by inventing new ways to integrate the device into everyday practices. The article is based on semi-structured interviews carried out in June, July, and August 2009 in Niger{\textquoteright}s capital city, Niamey, with ordinary Nigerien Muslims. It combines qualitative data obtained through interviews and observation with demographic statistics and survey results to describe the role the mobile phone plays in the current evolution of Islam in Niger.},
	keywords = {Mobile phone, Niger Republic, religious mobilization},
	url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2017.tb00618.x},
	author = {Alzouma, G}
}
@book {2886,
	title = {Undivided. Coming out, being whole, living free of shame},
	year = {2018},
	publisher = {HarperOne},
	organization = {HarperOne},
	address = {New York},
	abstract = {Vicky Beeching, called {\textquotedblleft}arguably the most influential Christian of her generation{\textquotedblright} in The Guardian, began writing songs for the church in her teens. By the time she reached her early thirties, Vicky was a household name in churches on both sides of the pond. Recording multiple albums and singing in America{\textquoteright}s largest megachurches, her music was used weekly around the globe and translated into numerous languages.

But this poster girl for evangelical Christianity lived with a debilitating inner battle: she was gay. The tens of thousands of traditional Christians she sang in front of were unanimous in their view {\textendash} they staunchly opposed same-sex relationships and saw homosexuality as a grievous sin. Vicky knew if she ever spoke up about her identity it would cost her everything.

Faced with a major health crisis, at the age of thirty-five she decided to tell the world that she was gay. As a result, all hell broke loose. She lost her music career and livelihood, faced threats and vitriol from traditionalists, developed further health issues from the immense stress, and had to rebuild her life almost from scratch.

But despite losing so much she gained far more: she was finally able to live from a place of wholeness, vulnerability, and authenticity. She finally found peace. What{\textquoteright}s more, Vicky became a champion for others, fighting for LGBT equality in the church and in the corporate sector. Her courageous work is creating change in the US and the UK, as she urges people to celebrate diversity, live authentically, and become undivided.},
	url = {https://www.amazon.com/Undivided-Coming-Becoming-Whole-Living/dp/0062439901},
	author = {Vicky Beeching}
}
@article {2891,
	title = {Unscrewing the big leviathan: How actors macrostructure reality and how sociologists help them to do so},
	journal = {Advances in Social Theory and Methodology, Routledge and Kegan Paul},
	year = {1981},
	chapter = {pp. 227-303},
	abstract = {This social theory article explores the problem of micro and macro society without accepting an a priori scale to measure the levels; it demonstrates that by letting the actors build their own scale, the growth of science and technology becomes explainable.},
	url = {http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/388},
	author = {Michel Callon and Latour B.}
}
@article {457,
	title = {Understanding the relationship between religious practice online and offline in a networked society},
	journal = {Journal of the American Academy of Religion},
	volume = {80},
	year = {2012},
	pages = {64-93},
	abstract = {This article suggests that religious practice online, rather than simply transforming religion, highlights shifts occurring within broader Western culture. The concept of {\textquotedblleft}networked religion{\textquotedblright} is introduced as a way to encapsulate how religion functions online and suggests that online religion exemplifies several key social and cultural changes at work in religion in general society. Networked religion is defined by five key traits{\textemdash}networked community, storied identities, shifting authority, convergent practice, and a multisite reality{\textemdash}that highlight central research topics and questions explored within the study of religion and the internet. Studying religion on the internet provides insights not only into the common attributes of religious practice online, but helps explain current trends within the practice of religion and even social interactions in networked society.},
	keywords = {network, offline, Online, religion, society},
	url = {http://jaar.oxfordjournals.org/content/80/1/64.short},
	author = {Heidi Campbell}
}
@article {1188,
	title = {The Use of Internet Communication by Catholic Congregations: A Quantitative Study},
	journal = {Journal of Media and Religion},
	volume = {6},
	year = {2007},
	pages = {291-309},
	abstract = {This article presents a first attempt to measure the use of the internet by all 5,812 Catholic religious congregations and autonomous institutes worldwide (with 858,988 members). The research was conducted through a questionnaire sent by e-mail, hence first selecting those institutions which at least have an access to internet communication through an e-mail account (2,285: 39.3\% of the total), receiving 437 responses (19.1\% of the e-mail owners). The study shows great differences between centralized institutes and autonomous ones: the former ones make a higher use of the Internet than the latter ones; moreover, differences are also found among centralized institutes, namely between male and female ones. Two explanatory elements have been found, both depending on the own mission (charisma) of institutes: (1) first, the different approach to the external world: the institutes more devoted to contemplation and less active in the outside world make limited and basic use of the Internet, if any; (2) second, institutes whose aim is to assist poor and sick persons tend to use the internet less than the others, due to their different prioritization of resources.},
	keywords = {Catholic, Catholic religious congregations, Computer, congregations, Contemporary Religious Community, cyberspace, email, internet, internet communication through an e-mail account, Mass media, network, New Media and Society, new media engagement, New Technology and Society, online communication, Online community, religion, religion and internet, Religion and the Internet, religiosity, religious engagement, religious identity, Religious Internet Communication, Religious Internet Communities, sociability unbound, Sociology of religion, users{\textquoteright} participation, virtual community, virtual public sphere, {\textquotedblleft}media research{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}religion online{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}religious media research{\textquotedblright}},
	url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15348420701626797$\#$.Uinxtsasim5},
	author = {Cantoni, L and Zyga, S}
}
@article {124,
	title = {The Use of Internet Communication by Catholic Congregations: A Quantitative Study},
	journal = {Journal of Media and Religion},
	volume = {6},
	year = {2007},
	pages = {291-309},
	abstract = {This article presents a first attempt to measure the use of the internet by all 5,812 Catholic religious congregations and autonomous institutes worldwide (with 858,988 members). The research was conducted through a questionnaire sent by e-mail, hence first selecting those institutions which at least have an access to internet communication through an e-mail account (2,285: 39.3\% of the total), receiving 437 responses (19.1\% of the e-mail owners). The study shows great differences between centralized institutes and autonomous ones: the former ones make a higher use of the Internet than the latter ones; moreover, differences are also found among centralized institutes, namely between male and female ones. Two explanatory elements have been found, both depending on the own mission (charisma) of institutes: (1) first, the different approach to the external world: the institutes more devoted to contemplation and less active in the outside world make limited and basic use of the Internet, if any; (2) second, institutes whose aim is to assist poor and sick persons tend to use the internet less than the others, due to their different prioritization of resources. },
	keywords = {Catholic, Communication, religion},
	author = {Cantoni, Lorenzo and Zyga, Slawomir}
}
@article {2146,
	title = {Ultra-Orthodox Jewish interiority, the Internet, and the crisis of faith},
	journal = {Journal of Ethnographic Theory },
	volume = {7},
	year = {2017},
	abstract = {This article argues for a recuperation of interiority. Rather than conflate interiority with belief, as immaterial and individualized, research with ultra-Orthodox Jews in New York reveals interiority to be as public and political as is the material. Over the past fifteen years, ultra-Orthodox Jews have been increasingly concerned with religious doubt. Many communal leaders have called the current moment {\textquotedblleft}a crisis of faith,{\textquotedblright} with the perception that there are new challenges to ultra-Orthodoxy, especially from the Internet. In response, leaders have turned to explicit communal talk about interiority in their attempts to strengthen faith and therapeutically treat those with religious doubts. Public talk, where certain forms and locations of interiority are cultivated and others disciplined, shows efforts by ultra-Orthodox leadership to defuse the power of secular epistemologies, such as psychology and technologies, while harnessing their potentialities for religious authenticity},
	keywords = {digital media, interiority, Judaism, language, religion, technology, Ultra-Orthodox Jewish},
	url = {https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.14318/hau7.1.016},
	author = {Fader, A}
}
@inbook {1252,
	title = {Ultima IV: Simulating the Religious Quest},
	booktitle = {Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games With God},
	year = {2010},
	publisher = {Westminster John Knox Press},
	organization = {Westminster John Knox Press},
	chapter = {2},
	keywords = {Britannia, messianic figure, quest, religion, religious games, religious video games, Spirituality, Ultima, video games},
	url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=GomyEvcocJsC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q=wagner\&f=false},
	author = {Mark Hayse}
}
@article {500,
	title = {Une retraite de Car{\^e}me sur Internet},
	journal = {Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions},
	volume = {139},
	year = {2007},
	month = {09/2007},
	pages = {19},
	chapter = {157},
	isbn = {978-2-7132-2144-6},
	url = {http://assr.revues.org/9533},
	author = {Jonveaux, isabelle}
}
@article {2810,
	title = {Unorganized atheism and the secular movement: reddit as a site for studying {\textquoteleft}lived atheism{\textquoteright}},
	journal = {Social Compass},
	year = {2019},
	abstract = {This article examines discussions on the reddit.com forum r/atheism in comparison with rhetoric found in contemporary atheist organizations and among leading figures within the atheist movement. We demonstrate how the culture of r/atheism converges with that of formal atheist cultures, most importantly regarding understandings of rationality and how religious people deviate from it, while highlighting areas of tension regarding how to relate to religion and religious people. We conclude that the social experience of community and belonging appears to be as important as other more instrumental goals commonly adopted by secular activists, and that tensions regarding the practice of atheism and the purpose of the forum correspond to tensions found in formal institutional contexts. We thus argue that while r/atheism is not directly or explicitly affiliated with atheist activism, overlap in the nature of discussion and debates is sufficient to consider the forum another window into the development of a general atheist culture practiced in institutional contexts and at the everyday level of {\textquoteleft}lived{\textquoteright} atheism.},
	url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0037768618816096},
	author = {Lundmark, Evelina and LeDrew, Stephen}
}
@article {2105,
	title = {User need and experience of Hajj mobile and ubiquitous systems: Designing for the largest religious annual gathering},
	journal = {Cogent Engineering },
	volume = {5},
	year = {2018},
	pages = {1-26},
	abstract = {The Hajj pilgrimage is one of the largest annual events in the world. Each year, millions of Muslims visit the holy sites in Makkah. While Hajj mobile applications that help pilgrims perform Hajj activities efficiently are gaining popularity, little has been done to investigate pilgrims{\textquoteright} needs and their experiences of these applications. During the 2017 Hajj season, we conducted a study to investigate the needs and experiences of Hajj mobile service users. We used a questionnaire to investigate the need for 20 Hajj mobile features and found that maps (particularly offline maps) were the most needed feature. We also interviewed 16 pilgrims to investigate user experience (UX) of Hajj mobile applications. Three major themes emerged from our qualitative analysis of the perceptions reported by our participants: UX problems with the current mobile applications, the importance level of application features, and opportunities for improving the UX of applications. We relate these themes to specific implications for designing a better UX of mobile applications used for Hajj and its related domain (religion) and to applications for use in similar contexts (e.g., crowd and movement situations).},
	keywords = {crowd, hajj, HCI, mobile applications, mobility, religion, ubiquity, usability, user experience},
	url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23311916.2018.1480303},
	author = {Majrashi, K and Borsci, S}
}
@book {2989,
	title = {Understanding media},
	year = {2964},
	publisher = {Signet Books},
	organization = {Signet Books},
	address = {New York},
	abstract = {You{\textquoteright}ve heard the expression, {\textquotedblleft}The medium is the message.{\textquotedblright} But what does that really mean? {\textquotedblleft}The medium is the message{\textquotedblright} is a term coined by Marshall McLuhan in his book, Understanding Media: Extensions of Man. More than fifty years after it was published {\textendash} in 1964 {\textendash} Understanding Media reads as if it{\textquoteright}s from the future. In this Understanding Media summary, I{\textquoteright}ll break down {\textendash} in my own words {\textendash} why {\textquotedblleft}The medium is the message,{\textquotedblright} as well as other key ideas within this media theory classic.},
	url = {https://kadavy.net/blog/posts/understanding-media-summary-marshall-mcluhan/},
	author = {McLuhan, M.}
}
@inbook {329,
	title = {Utopian and Dystopian Possibilities of Networked Religion in the New Millennium},
	booktitle = {Religion and Cyberspace},
	year = {2005},
	publisher = {Routledge},
	organization = {Routledge},
	address = {London},
	abstract = {In the twenty-first century, religious life is increasingly moving from churches, mosques and temples onto the Internet. Today, anyone can go online and seek a new form of religious expression without ever encountering a physical place of worship, or an ordained teacher or priest. The digital age offers virtual worship, cyber-prayers and talk-boards for all of the major world faiths, as well as for pagan organisations and new religious movements. It also abounds with misinformation, religious bigotry and information terrorism. Scholars of religion need to understand the emerging forum that the web offers to religion, and the kinds of religious and social interaction that it enables. 
Religion and Cyberspace explores how religious individuals and groups are responding to the opportunities and challenges that cyberspace brings. It asks how religious experience is generated and enacted online, and how faith is shaped by factors such as limitless choice, lack of religious authority, and the conflict between recognised and non-recognised forms of worship. Combining case studies with the latest theory, its twelve chapters examine topics including the history of online worship, virtuality versus reality in cyberspace, religious conflict in digital contexts, and the construction of religious identity online. Focusing on key themes in this groundbreaking area, it is an ideal introduction to the fascinating questions that religion on the Internet presents.},
	url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=KxSmkuySB28C\&pg=PA38\&lpg=PA38\&dq=Utopian+and+Dystopian+Possibilities+of+Networked+Religion+in+the+New+Millennium\&source=bl\&ots=0g7zXrZxlO\&sig=SuX0DgKTL_ZpkHsi9d-LKtdnTrM\&hl=en\&sa=X\&ei=YP8hT5juF-jq2AXqybnfDg\&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAQ},
	author = {O{\textquoteright}Leary, S}
}
@inbook {201,
	title = {The Unknown God of the Internet},
	booktitle = {Philosophical Perspectives on Computer-Mediated Communication},
	year = {1996},
	pages = {233-269},
	publisher = {State University of New York Press},
	organization = {State University of New York Press},
	address = {Albany, New York},
	url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=5Wvz4H5b9ZwC\&pg=PA233\&lpg=PA233\&dq=Philosophical+Perspectives+on+Computer-Mediated+Communication+The+Unknown+God+of+the+Internet\&source=bl\&ots=SYrSfjXL9N\&sig=4htM5XAgHkiqQ_Fdofsx0pDZr5U\&hl=en\&ei=Wou4Tpz7GfOasgLV473-Aw\&sa=X},
	author = {O{\textquoteright}Leary, Stephen and Brasher, Brenda}
}
@article {2837,
	title = {The Unruly, Loud, and Intersectional Muslim Woman: Interrupting the Aesthetic Styles of Islamic Fashion Images on Instagram},
	year = {2020},
	abstract = {This article explores the concept of a social media interrupter, one who engages with the visual style and discourse of social media influencers while incorporating a subversive critique of the ways that social media spaces perpetuate injustices and marginalize voices. This concept of social media interrupter is discussed through an analysis of Islamic fashion iconoclast Leah Vernon, a self-identified fat, Black Muslim woman who uses her position as a fashionista on Instagram to insert her biting critique of both Islamic fashion and social media influencers. Instead of standing outside, she interrupts and disrupts Islamic fashion on Instagram by constantly bringing up concerns of body image, fatphobia, colorism, racism, economic inequality, and mental health. Leah{\textquoteright}s intersectional feminist critique, I argue, gains power and visibility because of how she effectively interrupts the aesthetic style of Instagram by inserting her unruly body and her concern for social injustices.
},
	keywords = {body image, influencers, Instagram, intersectional feminism, Islamic fashion},
	url = {https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/12715},
	author = {Peterson, Kristin M}
}
@article {1709,
	title = {Uses and Gratifications of a Spanish Digital Prayer Project: Rezandovoy},
	journal = {Tr{\'\i}podos},
	year = {2014},
	month = {12/2014},
	chapter = {11-28},
	abstract = {This article attempts to make a contribution, from a sociology and communication sciences perspective, about the knowledge of religion in digital media. The results of a case study about Rezandovoy, a digital prayer service of the Society of Jesus, are exposed here. The service was created in Valladolid (Spain) in 2011 and it is used by 40,000 Spanish-speakers from around the world daily. The theoretical framework used is the paradigm of uses and gratifications, a consolidated framework in mass media research that is also applied to new digital media. This theoretical framework helps to explain the reasons why believers from all over the world use digital media in relation to their faith. In the current case study, through a methodology consisting in focus groups, interviews and virtual ethnography, it is concluded that there are a variety of gratifications that encourage users to utilise Rezandovoy. By taking into account what the users themselves say about the satisfactions that they obtain from the service, six categories of gratifications are defined: {\textquotedblleft}Spiritual{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}Prayer School{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}Guidance{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}Social Utility{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}Diversion{\textquotedblright} and {\textquotedblleft}Emotional{\textquotedblright}.},
	keywords = {audio prayer, digital prayer, Jesuits, Rezandovoy, uses and gratifications theory},
	issn = {1138-3305.},
	url = {http://www.tripodos.com/index.php/Facultat_Comunicacio_Blanquerna/article/view/191},
	author = {Riezu,Xabier}
}
