Slides from a presentation for Campus Ministry, titled: "Social Media Sites and Interreligious Understanding." In this presentation I discuss the challenges sparked by misrepresentation of religions in social media and methods for civil discourse and dialogue.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
& Interreligious Understanding

2. 2006 TIME MAGAZINE
Person of the Year

4. The Social Media “Revolution”
Source Public

5. The Social Media “Revolution”
Source Public
Media as Gatekeeper

6. The Social Media “Revolution”
Source Public
No more Gatekeepers

7. “Everyone has a voice now”

8. “Everyone has a voice now”

9. A VOICE FOR EVERYONE
The drawbacks

10. A VOICE FOR EVERYONE
The drawbacks

12. "Why do they not respect us?" asked Jamal. "We do not burn
their Christian books, so they need to understand that the
Qur'an is our most holy book." - The Guardian

13. One extremist with 50 followers & a voice shapes their view of
Christianity. We see these pics & they in turn shape our view
of Islam.

14. More drawbacks:

15. More drawbacks: Birds of a feather flock together

16. More drawbacks: Birds of a feather tweet together
“narrowcasting”, “echo chamber”

17. 3
SITES Dialogue
Interreligious
FOR

18. Purpose-Specific Sites:
General Sites: News Sites:

19. Purpose-Specific Sites:
Echo-chamber?
General Sites: News Sites:

20. Purpose-Specific Sites:
Echo-chamber?
General Sites: News Sites:
Echo-chamber?

21. Purpose-Specific Sites:
Echo-chamber?
General Sites: News Sites:
Echo-chamber?
Personal branding pressures

22. Purpose-Specific Sites:
Echo-chamber?
General Sites: News Sites:
Echo-chamber? Greater intolerance in
Personal branding pressures comments section

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31. Comments disabled each time

32. WHY DOES INTOLERANCE
seem to thrive on news site forums

33. “ When people can be territorially
separated, the question of
hatred becomes lessened.
- Clay Shirky “

34. Greater levels of religious and cultural intolerance
because we are forced to share the same virtual space?

35. “ Generally speaking, the tribalism
we see in the physical church,
and even in Christian events and
festivals, is less pronounced in the
twitterverse.
“ - Martin Saunders

36. “ Generally speaking, the tribalism
we see in the physical church,
and even in Christian events and
festivals, is less pronounced in the
twitterverse.
“ - Martin Saunders
Physical borders: Shared Virtual Space:
Tribalism Greater Unity

37. “ Generally speaking, the tribalism
we see in the physical church,
and even in Christian events and
festivals, is less pronounced in the
twitterverse.
“ - Martin Saunders
Physical borders: Shared Virtual Space: Only in intrareligious
Tribalism Greater Unity discourse?

38. Encouraging Civil Dialogue
TIPS FOR ORGANIZATIONS

39. Encouraging Civil Dialogue
TIPS FOR ORGANIZATIONS
• Set tone with a code-of-conduct
• Moderate comments
• Direct the conversation
• Use questions/prompts
• Add commentary to links

40. Example Code-of-Conduct

41. Example Code-of-Conduct

42. Using Civil Dialogue
IN YOUR INTERACTIONS

43. Using Civil Dialogue
IN YOUR INTERACTIONS
• Use the social web to educate yourself
• Listen before you speak
• Check accuracy of perceptions
• Recognize differences
• Confront stereotypes
• We rely on them more online

44. CREDITS
Dr. Corinne Weisgerber
St. Edward’s University
Blog: http://socialmediaprclass.blogspot.com
Email: corinnew@stedwards.edu
Twitter: @corinnew