Theoretical Perspectives Essay

Soc 102

David J Blake

Module 1

Theoretical Perspectives Essay

"Symbolic interactionist perspective, also known as symbolic interactionism, directs individuals to consider the symbols and details of everyday life, what these symbols mean, and how people interact with each other. "

This is the key to my essay in the area of church and the media, particularly as new media relate to church. With the increasing numbers of church's using the Internet to reach many parts of the world, this approaches online religion with a fresh perspective, to account for contemporary developments in media and spirituality, with implications for faith and other worldview organizations. To the symbolic interactionist perspective, individuals attach meanings to symbols, and then they act according to their subjective interpretation of these symbols. How does this interact with the Church and the New Media? While verbal conversations through the Internet, in which spoken services are the predominant symbols, make this subjective interpretation especially evident. Institutionalized religions and Worldview organization movements are reaching out through the Internet to improve their reach, religious communication on the Internet takes an increasingly significant role alongside more traditional venues for such discourse. Changes in the Church can also be conceived as intertwined with a range of other forms of social and political developments, such that new media act as an agent and practice to challenge and transform the influence and authority of the Church. Furthermore, as new media are a moving target, there may be past concepts that are able to explain the nature of church life which would include evangelical mission and systematic theology or new concepts that are being developed that are better able to address the diversity and complexity of contemporary social and religious life....