Award Date

2009

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies

Department

Journalism and Media Studies

Advisor 1

Daniel A. Stout, Committee Chair

First Committee Member

Gary W. Larson

Second Committee Member

Stephen Bates

Graduate Faculty Representative

Ted Jelen

Number of Pages

60

Abstract

Churches today are expanding beyond the physical walls of a church building. They are now online and interactive. This study explores the differences and similarities of communities of online churches and their physical church locations. It incorporates Stanley Fish's interpretive community theory by looking at Thomas Lindlof's common elements of a community and characteristics of an interpretive community. Using an ethnographic approach, survey and interviews were conducted to collect the data. Conclusions include determining that Central's online and physical church communities are in fact interpretive communities and that the online church is not replacing the physical church, but supplementing it.

Keywords

Central Christian Church; Churches; Communities; Henderson; Interpretive communities; Las Vegas; Online churches; Religion; Southern Nevada; Thomas R. Lindlof

Disciplines

Religion

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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