ABSTRACT
Historically, the cultural change that new communication technology brings has provided an ‘immense’ challenge to traditional religion (Brasher 2004: 12). It is argued that ‘technical innovation has … had a profound impact upon the ways in which religions represent, safeguard and transmit their teachings’ (Beckerlegge 2001a: 3). The Internet is perhaps no different. It offers a new way of communicating that is ‘rapid’ (Beyer 1994: 1), ‘boundaryless’ (Keenan 2002: 28) and ‘truly multimedial’ (Dawson & Cowan 2004: 10). It offers new ways of representing and transmitting information; it can be used as a ‘communicative tool and/or as a sociocultural environment’ (Karaflogka 2003: 193). The web, one aspect of the Internet and the focus of this study, ‘appears to be open to mass producers as well as mass consumers’ (Ryder 1998); sites can be created easily and are largely unregulated. These are globally transmitted, a ‘one-to-the-World communication’ (Miller & Mather 1998: ¶2).
