Building the sacred community online

The dual use of the Internet by Chabad

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11268596
AutoresOren Golan (0000-0003-3203-809X, University of Haifa, autor de correspondencia), N Stadler (0000-0001-5945-7062, Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Año2016
Volumen38
Número1
Páginas71-88
Fecha de publicación2016-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaMedia Culture & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0163-4437 • E-ISSN: 1460-3675
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0163443715615415
OpenAlexW2282518267
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas32
Referencias citadas25

Religious communities have ongoing concerns about Internet use, as it intensifies the clash between tradition and modernity, a clash often found in traditionally inclined societies. Nevertheless, as websites become more useful and widely accessible, religious and communal stakeholders have continuously worked at building and promoting them. This study focuses on Chabad, a Jewish ultra-Orthodox movement, and follows webmasters of three key websites to uncover how they distribute religious knowledge over the Internet. Through an ethnographic approach that included interviews with over 30 webmasters, discussions with key informants, and observations of the websites themselves, the study uncovered webmaster’s strategies to foster solidarity within their community, on one hand, while also proselytizing their outlook on Judaism, on the other. Hence, the study sheds light on how a fundamentalist society has strengthened its association with new media, thus facilitating negotiation between modernity and religious piety

Ethnography · Judaism · Media studies · Modernity · Negotiation · Piety · Political science · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Solidarity · The Internet · Theology · Anthropology · Law · Media, Religion, Digital Communication · Religion and Society Interactions · Social Media and Politics