– Source:Many churches have been holding worship services online via live-streaming platforms in recent times. This is unsurprising since many congregants use digital technologies. The COVID-19 pandemic also pushed churches to swiftly embrace digital platforms. This allowed them to continue with religious activities when physical and mobility restrictions were in place.
Some churches invest heavily in audio-visual equipment, lighting systems and other gadgets to provide the right conditions for media production and to enhance the worship experience for congregants, online and in person.
Digital technologies and platforms have become core components of the outreach and evangelistic activities of churches. Some contemporary pastors have a strong online presence with a huge following, mostly in the millions. They actively engage their followers and share different forms of messages with them.
As the amount of online content generated by churches grows, questions of safety, security and privacy have come to the fore. It is important to look at how churches address these concerns as they rapidly deploy digital platforms to reach and maintain virtual church membership.
I am a media and communication studies academic and researcher. In a recent paper I worked with my student to examined the concerns of congregants of a church in Ghana over the security dangers that digital church engagement poses.
Christianity is the religion with the largest following in Ghana. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many churches turned to online services and have continued with them.
The research revealed that there were no established policies guiding the church’s virtual engagements. The media team relied primarily on their subjective judgement to address any potential ethical dilemmas.
Beside enhanced privacy measures and access control, we recommend ethical frameworks and guidelines to govern the management of congregants’ personal information in both physical and virtual environments. This must include the inputs of congregants and experts.
The research also found that word of mouth was still the primary means by which congregants came to learn about the church. This suggests churches cannot abandon the old ways of reaching out to people.
Digital technology and the church
Radio, TV and social media are all used to extend invitations to the public, promote and advertise churches, and generally facilitate church activities. The importance of having an online presence has compelled a significant number of churches to have dedicated media teams. They create and distribute content meant for digital platforms. The content includes photos and audiovisual testimonies of church members.
To ensure that members of online churches have a positive experience during live streaming, most media departments also invest creativity into their videography. On live streams, followers (virtual congregants) react to songs being sung and respond to what the preacher says with comments and the use of emojis and GIFs. This is synonymous with how they might react in the physical church environment.
But during the streaming of worship services, information about church members is not just shared in the physical church environment but also with a broader online audience. By the nature of live-streaming, there is no control over who has access to the content, how widely it is distributed, and for what and how the content is used by third parties.
The study and some of its key findings
Data collection for our study involved 170 survey respondents (congregants) and eight interview participants (videographers, video editors and social media managers from the church media department).
We asked the congregants how they had first learned about the church; factors influencing their participation in virtual church services; and what safety and security concerns they had around their virtual church engagements.
The interview participants were asked about the ethical considerations directing their work.
Our study found that congregants had a range of concerns. Based on the sense of safety, confidence and trust they have in the church, congregants participating in physical church services may divulge personal information. These include prayer requests, personal hardships, or testimonials about their accomplishments. They sometimes do this with the understanding that the information will remain inside the church’s walls.
Chief among the concerns were:
the risk of identity theft
the potential misuse of personal data for targeted advertising
potential privacy invasion because of their interactions with the church’s digital platforms.
Some members of the media team admitted that congregants might have privacy and security concerns. However, in the absence of formal guidelines, any attempt to ensure the privacy and security of congregants might be an ad hoc measure. This was demonstrated in the study’s finding that the media team’s privacy and security adherence was largely based on their judgement and sometimes on prodding from congregants.
What can be done
Based on concerns raised by congregants, we argue that churches must ensure the privacy of those participating in services by instituting confidentiality and anonymity measures, particularly when sharing their personal or sensitive information.
In addition, participants in our research held the view that some sensitisation could be useful to cater to those concerns. This could take the form of regular sensitisation of congregants on how they can enhance their online safety and security.
We believe that because churches sometimes rely on photos, videos and testimonies of members to build their social media profiles, a rule-based system must be put in place. This could involve delayed broadcasting techniques to prevent the airing of sensitive information.
We suggest that steps be taken to protect sensitive information and content about members that is shared online. An example of how this can be done is being set by a non-denominational prayer movement that has taken over Ghana’s online sphere. To secure the privacy of members who share testimonies, their identities are kept anonymous and certain details, such as names and places, are also protected.
Finally, the right technology must be put in place to allow for delayed broadcasts. This means live-streamed content can be reviewed and, where necessary, edited so that sensitive content can be removed before the broadcast reaches a wide online audience.
Theodora Dame Adjin-Tettey received funding from the National Research Foundation of South Africa for her post doctoral fellowship.
By Theodora Dame Adjin-Tettey, Senior Lecturer, Durban University of Technology/Research Associate, School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University, South Africa, Rhodes University
