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Abstract
In light of expanding epistemic resources online, the mediatization of religion poses questions about the possible changes, decline and reconstruction of clergy authority. Distinct from virtual Buddhism or cybersangha research which relies primarily on online observational data, this paper examines Buddhist clergy communication within the context of established religious organizations with an integrationist perspective on interpersonal communication and new and old media connections. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Buddhist leaders in Singapore, this paper illustrates ways in which priests are expanding their communicative competency, which we label ‘strategic arbitration’ to maintain their authority by restructuring multimodal representations and communicative influence. This study expands upon previous research by Cheong et al. (in press, Journal of Communication) and finds that constituting Buddhist religious epistemic authority in wired organizational contexts rests on coordinating online–offline communicative acts. Such concatenative coordination involves normalizing the aforementioned modality of authority through interpersonal acts that positively influences epistemic dependence. Communicative acts that privilege face-to-face mentoring and corporeal rituals are optimized in the presence of monks within perceived sacred spaces in temple grounds, thereby enabling clergy to perform ultimate arbitration. However, Buddhist leaders also increase bargaining power when heightened web presence and branding practices are enacted. The paper concludes with limitations and recommendations for future research in religious authority.
Acknowledgements
This paper is supported by the National University of Singapore, Research Grant R-109-000-069-112, and all respondents gave explicit informed consent to participate. Our humble thanks to participants and co-chairs of the online–offline religion panel, Heidi Campbell and Mia Lövheim, who shared encouraging and constructive comments on our paper at the 7th International Conference on Media, Religion and Culture.
Notes
Analysis of the organizations' websites, participant observations and in-depth interviews with leaders and webmasters were conducted from mid-2007 to mid-2010.
An honorific used in Tibetan Buddhism to address a teacher who is thought to be reincarnated over several generations.
