@article {88,
	title = {Bloggers and religious authority online},
	journal = {Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication},
	volume = {15},
	year = {2010},
	pages = {251-266},
	chapter = {251},
	abstract = {It is often argued that the internet poses a threat to traditional forms of authority. Within studies of religion online claims have also been made that the internet is affecting religious authority online, but little substantive work has backed up these claims. This paper argues for an approach to authority within online studies which looks separately at authority: roles, structures, beliefs/ideologies and texts. This approach is applied to a thematic analysis of 100 religious blogs and demonstrates that religious bloggers use their blogs to frame authority in ways that may more often affirm than challenge traditional sources of authority.},
	keywords = {Authority, blogs, religion, religious authority},
	url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2010.01519.x/full},
	author = {Heidi Campbell}
}
@article {1926,
	title = {Cheong, P. H. (2014). Tweet the Message? Religious Authority and Social Media Innovation. Journal of Religion, Media \& Digital Culture, 3(3), 2{\textendash}19.},
	journal = {Religion, Media, and Digital Culture},
	volume = {3},
	year = {2014},
	pages = {1-19},
	abstract = {Religious believers have historically adapted Scripture into brief texts for wider
dissemination through relatively inexpensive publications. The emergence of Twitter and other microblogging tools today afford clerics a platform for real time information sharing with its interface for short written texts, which includes providing links to graphics and sound recordings that can be forwarded and responded to by others. This paper discusses emergent practices in tweet authorship which embed and are inspired by sacred Scripture, in order to deepen understanding of the changing nature of sacred texts and of the constitution of religious authority as pastors engage microblogging and social media networks. Drawing upon a Twitter feed by a prominent Christian megachurch leader with global influence, this paper identifies multiple ways in which tweets have been encoded to quote, remix and interpret Scripture, and to serve as choice aphorisms that reflect or are inspired by Scripture. Implications for the changing nature of sacred digital texts and the reconstruction of religious authority are also discussed.},
	keywords = {Bible, pastors, religious authority, Singapore, social media, Twitter},
	url = {http://jrmdc.com/papers-archive/volume-3-issue-3-december-2014/},
	author = {Cheong, Pauline Hope}
}
@article {1993,
	title = {Facebooking Religion and the Technologization of the Religious Discourse: A Case Study of a Botswana-based Prophetic Church},
	journal = {Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet},
	volume = {11},
	year = {2016},
	month = {12/2016},
	pages = {26},
	type = {Research},
	chapter = {66},
	abstract = {Technologization of discourse is generally conceptualized as a process of influencing people{\textquoteright}s way of thinking through the use of certain linguistic strategies. In this process, power is exercised through the use of linguistic strategies that shape the construction of identity as well as socio-religious vision. This study analyzes the ways in which certain linguistic strategies and religious discourses used in Facebook posts, reviews and comments on a religion-based Facebook page create and shape the narratives of religious authority, religious identity and religious community. Using the Facebook page of a popular prophetic Christian church in Botswana, Gospel of God{\textquoteright}s Grace (3G Ministries), as a case study, this study examines the following questions: in what ways can an active religion-based Facebook page reconfigure and provide a platform for religious practice? To what extent does the use of various linguistic strategies inform and shape religious discourses found in various Facebook postings and comments? And how does a religious Facebook page provide a venue for the discursive interpretation of religious authority, the negotiation of religious identity and the development of socio-religious vision?},
	keywords = {Facebook, identity construction, religious authority, technologization},
	doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.17885/heiup.rel.2016.0.23628	},
	author = {Faimau, Gabriel},
	editor = {Behrens, Camden}
}
@book {2165,
	title = {Online Catholic Communities: Community, Authority, and Religious Individualization},
	series = {Routledge Studies in Religion and Digital Culture},
	year = {2018},
	pages = {142},
	publisher = {Routledge},
	organization = {Routledge},
	edition = {1st},
	address = {New York, London},
	abstract = {The Catholic Church has been moving into a new phase, one where its congregation can choose to meet and practice elements of their own version of their faith on online forums. This new form of congregating allows for an individualised faith to manifest itself outside of the usual church authority structures. Online Catholic Communities provides insight into how religious and non-religious internet forum users interact and form groups during interactions; it also discusses the transformation of religious authority and its emanations in these digital contexts.

Using the top three online forums used by Polish Catholics as a case study, this project explores the formation of these online communities. It then looks at the alternative authority structures that emerge online and how these lead to an individualised form of religious engagement that can develop independently of mainstream doctrine. Through highlighting how religious discourse in Poland is appropriated and creatively modified by users in fulfilling their own spiritual needs, this work reveals the constant interplay between online and offline religious contexts.

This monograph includes cutting edge research on online expressions of religious community, authority and individualisation and as such will be of keen interest to scholars of religious studies and the sociology of religion, as well as communication studies.},
	keywords = {Catholic Church, digital environments, individualization, religious authority},
	issn = {9781138059757},
	url = {https://www.routledge.com/Online-Catholic-Communities-Community-authority-and-religious-individualization/Kolodziejska/p/book/9781138059757},
	author = {Marta Kolodziejska}
}
