@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}
}
@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}
}
