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- Title
Organizational Power and Religious Individuals' Media Use.
- Authors
Armfield, Greg G.; Dixon, Maria A.; Dougherty, Debbie S.
- Abstract
Recent findings indicate that religious individuals use the Internet less (see Armfield & Holbert, 2003) than their secular counterparts. The concept of religiosity posits that in addition to the key attributes of behavior and beliefs, the organizational impact of the church must be discerned. Our two-phase research endeavor seeks to understand the discursive power of the Church in shaping its member's behavior and attitudes regarding the use of media. Furthermore, we argue that in order to understand the organizational power of the Church in the life of its congregants, we must first gain a greater understanding of the needs and desires met through Internet use. This study, which represents our first research phase, examined the Internet use of a large Midwestern Protestant congregation. Survey results indicate that four factors: entertainment, companionship, escape, and interaction were identified as the needs met by congregational Internet use. Two explanations are put forward to frame the findings of this study.
- Subjects
RELIGION; RESEARCH on Internet users; RELIGIOUS adherents; ELECTRONIC information resources use studies; COMPUTER users; CHURCH &; mass media; PSYCHOLOGY; COMPUTER network resources
- Publication
Journal of Communication & Religion, 2006, Vol 29, Issue 2, p421
- ISSN
0894-2838
- Publication type
Article