Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper investigates how the formal elements of religious rituals manifest themselves in cyberspace, and the potential for their efficacy when enacted in the virtual environment. Drawing on the media ecological position that media change holds profound implications for the way a society perceives, thinks about, and behaves in the world, the author examines several examples of online religious rituals to suggest that the media environment of cyberspace enables ritual in new--and potentially effective--ways.