The Media and the Church

Presented in partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the Module
Cum Laude Programme
HON 497 and HON 498

  Lecturer: Dr Carol Sutcliffe

Supervisor: Mrs Olivia Bomester

Student: Erica Mateus (03687)

 
 Date: 22 November 2017

 
 Declaration of Academic Integrity:

I hereby declare that the composition of this assignment/report is wholly my own and where other
authors have been either quoted or paraphrased, this has been precisely referenced. I understand
that any person found guilty of plagiarism will not only automatically receive a failing grade for this
paper—but possibly for the whole Module; and may face additional academic penalties that could
include dismissal from the Faculty of Arts or from Helderberg College.

Signed:
Contents
Background of the study.......................................................................................................................1
Church...................................................................................................................................................2
Media....................................................................................................................................................3
Research Problem.................................................................................................................................4
Aims and Objectives..............................................................................................................................4
Hypotheses...........................................................................................................................................4
Significance of the study.......................................................................................................................5
Definition of Terms................................................................................................................................5
Chapter Two: Literature review............................................................................................................7
History of the SDA Church Media..........................................................................................................7
Media Used Today................................................................................................................................8
How Church Members Use Social Media............................................................................................10
Impact and Effectiveness of the Media...............................................................................................10
Theory.................................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................11
Chapter Three: Research Design.........................................................................................................13
Research approach..............................................................................................................................13
Description of research population.....................................................................................................13
Sampling and Method Size..................................................................................................................14
Data Gathering and Instruments.........................................................................................................14
Method of Analysis.............................................................................................................................16
Chapter Four: Analysis and Report......................................................................................................17
Tabulation of Findings.........................................................................................................................17
Results and Discussion........................................................................................................................19
Validity and Reliability.........................................................................................................................21
Ethical Considerations.........................................................................................................................21
Chapter Five: Conclusion.....................................................................................................................23
Limitations of Study.............................................................................................................................23
Recommendations..............................................................................................................................23
Appendices..........................................................................................................................................24
References..........................................................................................................................................25
Chapter One: Introduction

Mass media has become a big part of the lives of individuals. The power of mass media has
become so strong that its undoubtedly significant role in the world today stays beyond any
questions (Bartleby, 2016). There is no doubt that social media have gained wider
acceptability and usability and are also becoming probably the most important
communication tools among people (Badmos, 2014). Churches have also invested time and
money on broadcast media such as television and radio.

Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and WhatsApp have the potential to
shape the way the world communicates. Many churches have begun utilizing social media in
their ministry efforts. They publicize, encourage, and promote events, all on social media
(McKinney, 2014). The churches in South Africa have also joined social media to keep their
members involved and alert as to what is happening in their churches.

Social media allow the church to reach a wide variety of people (McKinney, 2014). This
allows the church to reach those who cannot reach the church. Research has shown a positive
relationship between the money spent on marketing and the support given by church
members (White & Simas, 2008). In order to meet the needs of a variety of markets, churches
must remain faithful to doctrine and theology, but accept the rapid advancing society and
environment (Wrenn, Shawchuck, Kotler, & Rath, 1995).

Background of the study

As conduits of communication, the media have become the primary source of religious ideas,
in particular in the form of banal religion. As a language the media mold religious
imagination in accordance with the genres of popular culture, and cultural environments. The
media have taken over many of the social functions of the institutionalized religions,
providing both moral and spiritual guidance and sense of community (Hjarvard, 2008)

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Church

The objective of the church is to bring people to Jesus (McKinney, 2014). There are
traditional methods that the church uses to reach its members, such as, church announcements
and sending missionaries to the field. The desire of the church should be for more people to
be in a relationship with Jesus. Of course churches should want more people to attend their
services, participate in classes, and engage in cell groups, because reaching a larger audience
with ‘The Message’ is an important aspect (McKinney, 2014).

The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA church as it will be referred to from here on) was
founded in 1863 from the Millerite Movement. The prominent figures of the early church
were Hiram Edson, James Springer White, Joseph Bates, and J.N. Andrews. Over the decades
the church expanded to become an international movement. The church had many bible
societies at that time and William Miller was one of the prominent preachers. He began
speaking of the second coming and the people calculated when it would be according to what
was written in Daniel 8:14. It was expensive to purchase bibles at the time so the bible
societies did their best to make sure each person had a bible and was able to read it
themselves, as opposed to simply hearing it being preached.

About 100 000 people anticipated the second coming on October 22, 1844 but it did not
happen and this became known as The Great Disappointment. After that many believers
abandoned their faith. Some believers thought the date was correct but the event was wrong
and the latter group that remained faithful developed into the SDA church. The early
believers published their findings on paper, spread the message by word of mouth, door-to-
door and by travelling to the different areas of the world. Some bible conferences were held
and annual regional camp meetings. The first Annual Camp Meeting was held on September
1868 and the first General Conference in 1888.

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The press and publications were the first form of media used by the early SDA’s. Ellen G
White wrote her visions and letters to different people that were later compiled into books.
Adventist schools and hospitals emerged, and missionaries were sent out to different parts of
the world to spread the message. Travelling costs were high and sometimes the missionaries
would fall ill and have no medication in the area in which they were situated.

The church has grown and developed as the world has developed. The media have become an
instrument of mission and thus the church is divided into two main groups: the conservative
who defend the pre-1950 Adventist position, and the liberals who emphasize beliefs of
Evangelical Christianity. In the 20th Century the magazine Adventist Review, as it is now
known, was the form of media used to answer questions on doctrine. In the 21 st Century
members began to use YouTube and other internet media to communicate.

Media

Students today (digital natives) are all native speakers of the digital language of computers
and the internet. Those who were not born into the digital world but have become fascinated
by and adopted aspects of new technology, are considered digital immigrants (Prensky,
2001). Social media can be an influential way to announce upcoming events within the
church (McKinney, 2014).

Media Ministries of the SDA church

There are many media ministries associated with the church. These include print, radio,
television and internet based media such as YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and
Instagram. These media reach countries all around the globe. The SDA church has a long
history of media-based communication, having grown out of the Millerite Movement of the
1840s which made heavy use of the print media.

In the publishing industry the two main publishing houses are Review and Herald and Pacific
Press situated in North America. They among numerous publishing houses around the world.

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In radio there is The Voice of Prophecy which founded in 1929, Quiet Hour Ministries
founded in 1937, Your Story Hour founded in 1949, Amazing Facts (which is also a
magazine) founded in 1965, Adventist World Radio founded in 1971, and 3ABN Radio
founded in 2012. In television there is Hope Channel founded in 2003, Adventist News
Networks which is the official SDA news channel, Faith for Today founded in 1950, It Is
Written founded in 1956, Breath of Life which more directed at African Americans, Loma
Linda Broadcast Network (LLBN) founded in 1997, 3ABN founded in 1984, and South
Africa has its own television channel named Isambula TV.

Research Problem

The Media and the Church: How has the Media contributed to the Growth of the Seventh-
Day Adventist Church?

Aims and Objectives

The aim of this study is to see how the use of the media has impacted the church. To find out
how the use of media has helped the SDA church as a whole grow, how it has helped the
different participating churches grow and how it has improved member relations.

Hypotheses
1. The media have helped the church spread its gospel to a variety of people.

2. The use of media has helped the church grow tremendously.

3. Church members have become more united and know each other more intimately as a
result of using the media.

4. People use their phones while at church and sometimes they are encouraged to post
live videos.

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 5. It is easier to send a prayer request to the whole church as opposed to one person.

Significance of the study

Many churches are using media to communicate with their members, spread the gospel,
preach, reach and bring in new members. Churches do not usually get feedback from the
people they reach. Churches are unaware of the impact they have on the people they are
trying to reach or the members they communicate with. This study will help the churches
know how their use of media is impacting their environment and how they can improve its
effectiveness.

Several authors have written on various issues relating to social media and the church, but
none have really focused on the SDA church. This study will focus on the SDA church
specifically; the feedback will be given by church members representing all generations. The
SDA church differs in many ways from other Christian churches thus studies done focusing
on other churches may not always be applicable to the SDA church.

Definition of Terms

Media

Media refers to a wide range of communication outlets or tools that are used to store and
deliver information or data (Business Dictionary, n.d.). For the purpose of this study the
media will refer to radio, television, print (publications and magazines) and social media
(including internet based networks such as WhatsApp).

Growth

For the purpose of this study growth refers to the increase in membership numbers,
improvement of church member relations, and interest non-members in the SDA church.

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Seventh-Day Adventist Church

The SDA Church is a Christian religious group that keep the bible seventh day Sabbath
(Saturday). They base their beliefs on the bible and believe in the second coming of Jesus
Christ. They believe in baptism by immersion and that salvation is through grace. They serve
a living God. Their Sabbath day begins Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. For the purpose of
the study the church refers to the members and not the infrastructure (building).

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Chapter Two: Literature review

Often the media is blamed for the terrible things that happen in this world but we need to
remember that terrible things happened long before the modern media were invented and
even more terrible things happen where the media are not allowed to function. It is not easy
to adapt one’s ministry to the Information Age. The churches use of mass media
complements the more conventional (traditional) means of communication such as pulpit,
one-to-one and family visitation. Information is an essential an essential social and cultural
resource for all people, not just a commodity with commercial value. In this period of the
information revolution, people should not be surprised that many traditional methods are
abandoned (Comiskey, 1985).

History of the SDA Church Media

The mission of the SDA church is to make disciples and to share the message to everybody.
The church believes that when all have heard the message than the Lord will come. The
pioneers of the SDA church first began their work when they were teenagers. Many of the
leadership positions were held by teenagers and young adults in the early church. They had to
personally travel to the different areas of the world to do word of mouth ministries.

John Nevins Andrews (1829 – 1883) was a SDA minister, missionary, writer, editor and
scholar. He was the first SDA sent to countries outside North America. He was the most
prominent author and scholar of his time. He played a fundamental role in the establishment
of Adventist theology. Third President of the General Conference and he became an editor of
the Review and Herald (now known as Adventist Review) (Knot, 2013). Joseph Bates (1729
– 1872) was a seaman and revivalist minister. He was the founder and developer of
Sabbatarian Adventism. He was known as the ‘apostle of the Sabbath’ and wrote several
booklets on the topic. He contributed to the early publications of the church (White E. G.).
Ellen Gould White (1827 – 1915) was a prolific Christian author and one of the American
Christian pioneers whose ministry was instrumental in founding the SDA movement that led
to rise of the SDA Church. She had the spiritual gift of prophecy and her writings showcase

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the hand of God in Christian history. Her and her husband formed the SDA Church (White E.
G.). There were more pioneers that travelled the world spreading the gospel at their time.

The design of churches changed after the reformation to reflect a wider shift from a
networked, social form of religion, to one where spirituality was broadcasted to more passive
consumers (Lewis, 2016).

Media Used Today

Print Media

The bible is the oldest book ever written. In bible times it was merely scrolls handwritten by
people who were inspired by God. Later it was made into a book which is divided into two
testaments, the old and the new. It was written in three original languages namely; Greek,
Hebrew and Aramaic. Nowadays, the bible is translated into many different languages.

Along with the bible. the SDA church has many books by different authors such Ellen G
White, who were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write about God’s message. Bible
commentaries help people understand what the texts mean and how to interpret them. The
SDA has many publishing companies that publish and distribute a variety of books to all the
parts of the world they can reach. Many churches distribute books, magazines, pamphlets,
CD’s/DVD’s and other printed material to their members and visitors (ANN, 2012).

Broadcast Media

TV and radio have helped reinforce the idea that they would quietly receive information
rather than joining in the service (Lewis, 2016).

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Radio

Radio is the most inexpensive form of media distribution and one that reaches many people.
People can listen to the radio at home, in their car, on their phones, etc. It has advantages over
the other mass media such as television and magazines in terms of being handy, portable,
easily accessible and cheap. Many poor communities can only afford a radio. To have the
church on the radio is a way to reach these people. About 97 percent of the population is
reached by the radio. Radio being a convenient form of entertainment caters to a large
audience (Kamat, 2012).

The SDA church has many radio stations that cater for different people. The Adventist World
Radio reaches 80 percent of the world’s populations and it is broadcast in 77 major languages
of the world. 3ABN. which is also a television channel, has different branches to cater for
different groups such as, Latinos, Australians and they have a station dedicated to music
alone (ANN, 2012).

Television

Many people today are feeling the effects of an ever-intensifying society. The television
ministry reaches millions of people. They broadcast in different languages so that everyone
can hear and receive the gospel in their own language. Hope Channel in Africa broadcasts
Hope Channel International in English and Hope Channel Novo Tempo in Portuguese for
Angola and Mozambique. Hope Channel is planning to expand their channel to accommodate
indigenous languages because there are many people who do not speak English or Portuguese
in Africa (ANN, 2012).

Digital Media

Bible believing churches can effectively use social media to communicate to their members
by announcing upcoming events, sharing audience specific information, and knowing the best
time to post on these sites (McKinney, 2014). It is not strange for large organizations to
interact with its members and promote their message via digital media. However, the

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democratic nature of digital media is allowing the church to play a much more unusual role in
such a traditional hierarchal body (Lewis, 2016).

The SDA church has several websites such as https://www.adventistmission.org/,

https://www.adventist.org/en/world-church/general-conference/, Helderberg Church and
Pretoria Eastern Suburbs Church have a Facebook page, and many churches have WhatsApp
groups.

How Church Members Use Social Media

1. Communicating with members and to encourage others in their church.

2. To point others to interesting articles related to Christianity and church life.

3. To share the gospel.

4. To share prayer requests.

5. To share activities and ministries in the church.

6. Growing membership

7. Fundraising.

(Rainer, 2015)

Some church leaders are noticing the opportunity social media creates to change their
relationship with members (Lewis, 2016).

Impact and Effectiveness of the Media

Buzz Plant is a Christian-based digital advertising agency that conducted a survey in 250
churches. Less than half of the churches surveyed reported that they think that social media is
the most effective method of communication, and 25% preferred the more traditional
methods. The reason behind these findings may be the lack of knowledge of the effectiveness

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of social media in the church. There is a clear divide in a generation that fully understand
social media, and one that speaks an entirely different digital language (Pittman, 2012).

The relationship between the churches and the media is one of uneasiness, fear and suspicion.
The current church leaders did not grow up in the information society. The media has given
man the idea that they are powerful and thus led them to believe that they no longer need to
look to God and the churches to supply for his powerlessness (Comiskey, 1985). In contrast
to the conventional top-down model of preaching Christianity via trained priests, digital
media is enabling many ordinary Christians to have one-to-one conversations about their faith
with non-believers (Lewis, 2016).

Churches have moved from relying heavily on audience participation in their services over
the last few hundred years, to a passive model where the congregation receives a
presentation. Many people in the church have bought into the idea that what happens online is
virtual, rather than an embedded part of our everyday lives (Lewis, 2016).

Theory

Uses and Gratification Theory (UGT)

The Uses and Gratification Theory is an approach to understand why and how people actively
seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. It is an audience-centered approach to
understand mass communication. Diverging from other media effect theories that question
“what does media do to people?”, UGT focusses on “what do people do with media?” (Katz,
1959).

Conclusion

The SDA church uses an integrated marketing communication approach to spread the gospel.
The work can be, and has been done by one form of media alone but the use of all the media

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complement each other. One single and clear message is being sent out by all the media.
Digital media have made the bible and other print media provided by the church more
accessible.

People are captivated and ministered to in different ways. One may gain interest because of a
sermon they heard, while someone else can come to Christ through the music ministry. It is
good to captivate different people through different ministries. There are advantages and
disadvantages of using the various medium. The impact and effectiveness depends highly on
how the media are being used. While many churches are finally starting to understand that
engaging their members online is important, they still need convincing that the way to do this
involves more than just setting up a website (Lewis, 2016).

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Chapter Three: Research Design

Research approach

Quantitative methods will be used because the researcher is studying the relationship between
two variables. It will be a cross sectional study will be used because the researcher is
interested on how the media has affected the SDA church growth to date. Simple descriptive
research (correlational research) because it will determine the extent of a relationship
between the media and the church. In this kind of study no data I manipulated, variables are
studied as they occur in their natural setting [ CITATION htt \l 1033 ].

Description of research population

The population the researcher will be studying will be SDA church members from four
different SDA churches in South Africa. Three churches being on campus and one in
Pretoria. The ages of the members vary from 14 to 65+ years of age. All races are
represented. The eligibility criteria in this study were that participants had to:

· Attend one of the four churches being studied (Helderberg SDA Church, Silverleaf
SDA Church, All Nations Campus Church and Pretoria Eastern Suburbs Church.

· Be SDA members (not necessarily baptized members)

· Be between the ages of 14 and 65+

· Be a media user

· Be willing to participate in the study

· Have an email address or any other form of media by which the researcher can make
contact.

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Sampling and Method Size

Non probability random sampling will be used for the purpose of this study because it gives
all individuals (church members) an equal chance to be chosen, thus eliminating researcher
bias. The researcher is studying the ‘The contribution of the media to growth in the SDA
church’ and studying the church members will give the researcher better results. Non
probability sampling was adopted because it is less vigorous and tends to produce less
accurate and less representative samples than probability or random sampling (Mbokani,
2004). Non probability sampling supports the idea that particular traits exist in a population
[ CITATION Exp17 \l 1033 ].

A general rule of thumb is to always use the largest sample possible (Mbokani, 2004). The
larger the sample the more representative it is going to be, smaller samples produce less
accurate results because they are likely to be less representative of the population
(LoBiondo-wood & Haber, 1998). The sample size will comprise of 50 church members. For
the purpose of this study ‘member’ refers to anybody that attends the church, it is not
exclusive to baptized members. The sample used is a representative of the SDA population
and it can be generalizable because the study was sent out to about 500 people and each had
an equal chance to be selected. Time and money will be saved by selecting a specific sample
rather than attempting to study the entire SDA population.

Data Gathering and Instruments

The data will be collected using web-based questionnaires. Given the many advantages of
Web-based over paper-based questionnaires, researchers should strongly consider using Web-
based questionnaires, although possible response bias when using these types of
questionnaires should be taken into account [ CITATION Eys11 \l 1033 ].

Procedure for data collection:

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 1. Request for permission from church pastors and elders for their church members to
participate.

2. The questionnaires will be created using google forms and it will be emailed to each
participating member.

3. The form will have a brief explanation of the purpose of the study.

4. Participants will give consent by filling in the google form.

5. Journals of previously conducted studies will be used for guidance.

6. Google forms will collect all data and put it into graphs and pie charts.

The researcher chose web-based questionnaires because it will give time for members to
respond during the week. Doing a paper based or more traditional questionnaire would entail
collecting data from members on Saturday at church. Since this is not a spiritually enriching
activity, it would not be appropriate for the data to be collected in that manner. A written
questionnaire is not appropriate for people on the move [ CITATION Dav \l 1033 ]

Advantages of web-based questionnaires include; ease of data gathering, minimal or no costs,

increase in response rate, flexibility of design, reach people who prefer to be online rather
than face-to-face, and reach people who are not geographically accessible. Some
disadvantages include; absence of interviewer, inability to reach challenging population, and
survey fraud (people responding more than once).

Questionnaires require considerable time and care in construction. They must be pretested to
be certain that the items will be understood by respondents. If a question can be misread, it
will be. This is less of a problem when a questionnaire is administered by an interviewer. The
interviewer can rephrase or explain the question, as needed. However, a self-administered

questionnaire (paper-and-pencil, or online) must be self-explanatory [ CITATION Dav \l 1033 ].

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Method of Analysis

Simple Descriptive Statistics will be used to analyze the data because a simple descriptive
survey was used. Descriptive statistics give simple summaries of the sample and the
measures. The data will be organized according to the hypotheses, the researcher will simply
use answers given by respondents and put them in graphs using google forms. Descriptive
Statistics are numbers that are used to summarize and describe data.

Analysis procedure:

1. Google forms will receive the data and do the statistics itself.

2. It will put all the collected information into pie charts and histograms.

3. The researcher will then look at the data and report the statistics.

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Chapter Four: Analysis and Report

Profile of respondents

For this study 46% of the respondents were 14-24 years old, 16% were 25-34 years old, 14%
were 35-44 years old, 12% were 45-54 years old, 4% were 55-64 years old and 8% were 65+
years old. 50% of the respondents were female and 50% were males. 34% of the respondents
were Black, 28% were Colored, 20% were White, 12% were Indian and 6% were Asian. 42%
of the respondents were students, 42% the respondents were full time workers, 10% were
unemployed, 4% were retired and 2% were interns.

51% of the respondents use/read church magazines, 53,1% also use television, only 2% use
the radio, 46,9% use websites, 61,2% use social media, and 46,9% use digital chatrooms
when it comes to church affairs. 72% of respondents use WhatsApp as a mode of
communication for church affairs, 42% use Facebook, 64% use emails, 18% use SMS’s and
80% use church bulletins. 71,4% of the respondents were born into the SDA family, 16.3%
were invited by friends, 2% were brought in by missionaries, 4,1% were brought by
broadcast media, and 6,1% came through social media.

Tabulation of Findings

Codes:

Strongly Agree (1) Agree (2) Neutral (3) Disagree (4) Strongly Disagree (5)

Look at the table in combination with questions in appendices.

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Table of findings

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Results and Discussion

Impact of the media on the church

People turn to the media for personal, social and religious information (Bolu, 2012). The
study showed that people turn to the media for information. The primary role of media is to
inform. Positive impacts of the media on the church:

• It has united the church members.

• It has brought more people into the church.

• It has facilitated knowledge about out our church to non-believers.

• More people are being reached and converted.

• Anybody can spread the gospel, we don’t have to wait for the pastors, elders or
missionaries to do the work that was initially meant to be done by all.

Negative impact of the media on the church:

• People use their phones in church.

• People lose their focus from God and spend more time worrying about posting what is
happening at church on social media.

• It is expensive to maintain and produce content for the media, distribution costs keep rising
and this cripples the church budget.

• A crippled church budget does not allow for community outreach.

• The church loses control of who says what and when.

• Church gets associated with negative propaganda.

• Churches need to spend more time doing damage control rather than spreading the gospel.

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Church Growth (increase in member number)

There are myths that tend to prevent the church from using the media for growth (Christian A
Bolu, 17 January 2012). Myths such as: Churches are unable to reach people through media
and churches don’t have funds or human resources for media based evangelism. The results
of the study show that many people have joined the church through the media because the
media has made the church more accessible. Many members responded saying that they use
the media to share their faith, thus people do not depend solely on the pastor to spread the
gospel and bring in the people.

In the study many people weren’t sure if the media has increased the membership number of
their churches. But those that knew agreed that the media has done a great job in increasing
the membership number.

Church growth (member relations)

Respondents reported that the media has improved inter member and pastor relations. What
used to be a once a week interaction has become an everyday interaction. Digital media has
allowed members to share testimonies, prayer requests, events and other important church
information. What people once had to wait to share on Sabbath they can easily share with
their brethren over chatrooms.

Conclusion

The study showed the use of media has both negative and positive impact on the church. The media
have helped the church grow both in numbers and inter member relations. “There is no limit other
than our imaginations in how we might use these new communication opportunities to reach
people” [ CITATION Smi16 \l 1033 ]. The media can be good and bad to any organization, it is the
responsibility of the organization to know why they are using the media and how they should use it.
The church is satisfied with the results the use of the media is giving them.

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 From the study we can see that there is a big gap between the young people who use the
media every day and the older generation. There was such a poor response from the older
generations that the research deduced that these participants are either still adapting to the new
forms of media, or they are part of the strict SDA population that find it difficult to adapt to change.
There was a greater response from the younger generations who a media savvy.

Validity and Reliability

Validity is defined as a measure of truth or falsity of the data obtained through using the
research instrument (Mbokani, 2004). Reliability refers to the extent to which assessments are
consistent. The study is valid because it tested what it was set out to test. It answered the sub
problems. The study can be replicated in another comparable group as is, therefore; it is
reliable. The sample used was completely representative of the SDA population, thus the
study can be generalizable.

Ethical Considerations

Ethical behavior helps protect individuals, communities and environments, and offers the
potential to increase the sum of good in the world. As social scientists 'trying to make the
world a better place' we should avoid (or at least minimize) doing long-term, systematic harm
to those individuals, communities and environments...' [ CITATION Ira06 \l 1033 ].

The study will be confidential and the responses collected will be used solely for the
purpose of the study. This is a voluntary participation study and the participants are free to
alert the researcher if they would like to be excluded from the study. Consent will be given by
each participant and including participants under the age of 16. The study is not harmful to
the participants and the researcher will not be giving any incentives to participants.

The data collected will be kept in secure conditions at all times. Deception will not be part of
this study because there is no need. This will be a straight forward study and the participants

21
will have access to all necessary information. When analyzing the data, the researcher will
not change any information because doing so can invalidate the study and the results. All
information will be analyzed as it was given.

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Chapter Five: Conclusion

Limitations of Study

These were the limitations the researcher encountered:

1. Obtaining data from the entire SDA population as well as analyzing and interpreting
vast amounts of data would have been impossible to accomplish within the time
constraints and with no financial resources which were available for conducting this
research.

2. Most of the studies collected focused mostly on social media thus making it difficult
for the researcher to compare the results of this study to results of previous studies.

3. The researcher did not collect emails (the study was anonymous) therefore feedback
could not be given.

4. When analyzing the data there was subjective bias.

5. People have their own opinions about what growth mean to them and the quality of a
relationship.

Recommendations

The following recommendations are offered for related research:

1. Given the changing nature of technology, and the focus shifting from traditional
media to digital media, the study may be focused to a specific medium.

2. Consider increasing the sample size to a larger and more inclusive population.

3. Consider another form of data collection, web-based works but a better response may
be given if another form of data collection s used.

4. Consider focusing on either growth (size), the impact and inter member relations
separately.

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5. Consider doing a longitudinal study with the same group and maybe do an
experiment, ask them the questions before they are exposed to a certain medium and
then ask them the questions after they have used the medium.

6. Create some follow up question, to help the researcher better understand the responses
and why they are responding in that matter.

7. Improve the questionnaire and have a group of people to it and give you feedback on
how to improve.

8. Consider doing statistical analysis for better and more accurate results.

24
Appendices

1A
Consent

I am Erica Mateus, a final year BA Communication student at Helderberg College. I am

currently conducting a study on The Media and The Church. The purpose of the study is to
find out how the use of media has contributed to the growth of the SDA church. This study is
voluntary and confidential. Your responses will be used solely for the purpose of the study.
By completing this questionnaire, you give consent for your responses to be used as a
contribution to the study.

2A
Questionnaire

25
26
27
28
29
30
3A
Results (Graphs)

31
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33