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any (body) who will listen

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Date Issued:
2013
Summary:
This thesis explores how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has used media technology as part of its missionary communication strategy. Particular attention is paid to the Internet as a space for religious practice and how the LDS Church has sought to extend its media practices and missionary efforts online. By utilizing new media technology to find individuals interested in hearing its message, the LDS Church faces new challenges to its traditional face-to-face missionary program, its centralized hierarchy of control and its ongoing struggle for identity within American Christian culture. Throughout its history, the LDS Church's missionary communication strategy has used several different methods for finding people to teach but has consistently focused on ensuring that such methods ultimately lead to face-to-face lessons with missionaries, viewed as the most transformative communication exchange for both the missionary and the potential convert.
Title: To any (body) who will listen: the evolving role of media technology in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' missionary communication strategy.
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Name(s): Feller, Gavin
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
School of Communication and Multimedia Studies
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 2013
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Physical Form: electronic
Extent: vii, 196 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: This thesis explores how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has used media technology as part of its missionary communication strategy. Particular attention is paid to the Internet as a space for religious practice and how the LDS Church has sought to extend its media practices and missionary efforts online. By utilizing new media technology to find individuals interested in hearing its message, the LDS Church faces new challenges to its traditional face-to-face missionary program, its centralized hierarchy of control and its ongoing struggle for identity within American Christian culture. Throughout its history, the LDS Church's missionary communication strategy has used several different methods for finding people to teach but has consistently focused on ensuring that such methods ultimately lead to face-to-face lessons with missionaries, viewed as the most transformative communication exchange for both the missionary and the potential convert.
Identifier: 858866511 (oclc), 3362324 (digitool), FADT3362324 (IID), fau:4162 (fedora)
Note(s): by Gavin Feller.
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.
Includes bibliography.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
System requirements: Adobe Reader.
Subject(s): Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Christian sociology -- Mormon Church
Religious pluralism
Mass media in religion
Mass media -- Religious aspects
Held by: FBoU FAUER
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3362324
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU