A General Framework For Determining the Temporal and Evolutionary Dynamics of Religion-Based Website Popularity on the Internet

Michael R. Golinski, Connie Petersen

Department of Sociology,New Mexico State University Las Cruces, NM, USA.
Energy Research Laboratory, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/ojs.2012.24052                

Abstract

Religion-based websites are fast becoming a major pipeline for disseminating religious information to broad populations of individuals in the United States.Both mainstream religions and fringe religions are easily accessible to a large population of internet users. The purpose of this review is to develop and examine a general framework that uses simple mathematical and statistical models to interpret and measure temporal ‘snap shots’ in the popularity of religious websites. We extend this framework to include an evolutionary model that has the potential to predict long-term shifts or changes in the popularity of religious websites over time. Ultimately, the goal of this review is to introduce a new modeling framework for research into how the internet is changing the accessibility and views of populations of individuals who follow various religions on the internet and how this may in-turn affect the distribution of religion in the ‘real world’.

Keywords

Communities; Drift; Evolution; Fringe Religion; Internet; Mainstream Religion; Powerlaw; Selection; Website

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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