The New Town Square

Photos courtesy of NationalGeographic .com AnimalPlanet.Discovery.com

Central principle Everyone has an opinion and they express those in different ways. 1. Impression-making 2. Argument 3. Dramatic 4. Relaxed 5. Friendly 6. Dominant Norton (1986)

How do Christian bloggers create that environment to enable their message to be received?

Beyond introductions
Someone hogs the floor, never allowing anyone else to talk. Someone sits silently in the corner, never offering a comment. No blogger truly knows who is being impacted and how by what is being said. This is why Christian bloggers cling to Gods authority.

Authority
The essential component of secular blogging is opinion, be that political, pundit, or agenda related, however Christian bloggers have a grip on factual truth and bow to Gods authority (Campbell, 2010).

The Internet has been able to traverse boundaries and level hierarchies; and to furnish voices to those without voices (Pullen, 2000).

Authority
Christian bloggers used references to scripture with God being the most common referred to authority followed by many Christian authors such as John Piper.

Social presence theory lends a strong explanation for why Christians blog.

Need for affiliation and to influence.

Chen (2011) discovered women bloggers (about 52% of all bloggers are women with 2 out of 3 being moms) have a need to self-disclose, and to influence others.
Human needs do not operate separately but work in concert. God created us with voices to use for His good pleasure

Creative expressions breaks new ground into imagination

Provisional definition
The sense of being with

another. Christians have this with God through the Holy Spirit. Strong relationship between online communication and personal perceptions (Walther, 2002)

No blogger really knows who is listening

Prima facie values

according to situations Never and Always values Other based values

Christian bloggers are more concerned with a mission that is other oriented

Making the realities of the kingdom of God visible -- Mark

Procedures
Used Kuhns (2007)

Participants
24 responses were from

questions in his study Sent the questionnaire to 300 LinkedIn contacts. Received back 33 responses.

Christian bloggers. 8 men and 16 women Median age was 36 Youngest was 24 and the oldest was 68

RQ1: What drives a Christian to blog?

Focus on Bible-based beliefsto

promote good press and Good News Help others to better understand God. Reflect the personal work of the Holy Spirit Warn against disobedience Affirm Gods authority The Great Commission

RQ2: Are Christian bloggers values biblically based?

15 placed Factual Truth in #1-2 10 placed Transparency in #1-2 13 placed Minimizing Harm #1-3 9 placed Accountability #1-3 7 placed Free Expression #1-3 2 placed Etiquette in #1 & 3

Always
Fact check Employ Fruit of the Spirt Honor God, true to Him

Never
Plagiarize or lie Compromise the Word Assume

Respect others
Are other-concerned Are consistent Apply the Word honestly Invest in their readers Edify the body of Christ

Use offensive language

Blog war Gossip Rant, defame or debase

others

Christian bloggers are taking Gods Great Commission seriously, using blogging as a way to seek out disciples, teaching them Jesus commands, and also using their words to lift up the weary and disheartened with the consolation of Gods word. Ethical concerns no matter the religious affiliation are the same in the blogosphere. These values are Biblically based, and that is what is so interesting. Kuhns results highlight basic principles which drive people who are writing publically are based on the values truth,

The blogosphere is a New Town Square, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

 Biocca, F., Harms, C., & Burgoon, J. K. (2003). Towards a more robust theory and

measure of social presence: Review and suggested criteria. Presence Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 12(5) 456-480. doi:10.1162/105474603322761270 Campbell, H. A. (2010). Religious authority and the blogosphere. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 15 251-276. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2010.01519.x Chen, G. M. (2011). Why do women write personal blogs? Satisfying needs for selfdisclosure and affiliation tell part of the story. Computers in Human Behavior, 28 171-180. Cheong, P., Halavais, A., & Kwon, K. (2008). The Chronicles of Me: Understanding Blogging as a Religious Practice. Journal of Media & Religion, 7(3), 107-131. doi:10.1080/15348420802223015 Kuhn, M. (2007). Interactivity and prioritizing the human: A code of blogging ethics. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 22(1), 18-36. NeilsonWire (2012, March 8). Buzz in the blogosphere: Millions more bloggers and blog readers. [Web site]. Retrieved from http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/buzz-in-the-blogospheremillions-more-bloggers-and-blog-readers/ Norton, R.W. (1986). Communicator style in teaching: Giving good form to content. In J. M. Civikly (Ed.), Communicating in college classrooms. 33-40. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Pullen, K. (2000). I-love-Xena.com: creating online fan communities. In D. Gauntlett (Ed.)Web studies: Rewiring media studies for the digital age, (pp. 5261). London: Arnold. Walther, J.B. (1992). Interpersonal effects in computer-mediated interaction: A relational perspective. Communication Research, 19(1), 52-90.