Social media and online environments

Abstract

The chapter begins with an overview of key themes in the literature on religion, gender, and online communities more broadly before examining scholarship on Muslim and Mormon women online more particularly. It has examined the formation of online community, representation of gender, monetisation of content, and religious authority in the blogs of Mormon and Muslim women in the United States of America. The chapter shows, whilst there are important differences between the two groups of women that reflect differences between the Mormon and Muslim communities in the United States, there are also consistent similarities that reflect broader trends of internet use by religious women. The context of the ‘offline’ religious community is a significant influence on the ‘online’ community for the bloggers in the chapter. Indeed, all the bloggers represent themselves as in charge of their own lives and making active decisions regarding their religious practice.