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ReligionOnDemand(by Scott Corrigan) Religion seems to be one of the biggest loads of content on the web. For that reason I have limited my research here to the "Big Four" religions and to English-available sites (for obvious reasons). Religion is big business. It's been big business since the Greeks had differences with the Romans. Today there are as many ways to interpret god as there are web sites (OK, I exaggerated a little). Let's just say there are a lot of opinions on the subject out there. I consider the big four: Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity. I discovered that there is a lot of gray area in religion, since it also covers cultural identity for Islam and to some extent Judaism. The other two are very much a mash-up of politics and spirituality. ISLAM Getting quite the bad rap in the west these days is the youngest of the great religions. Muslims embrace the digital age to communicate with the flock. Most channels have what I thought was very good program-length streaming content. Islam has a few barriers to climb when approaching audiences through cable television. Cable stations, although purported to be impartial, have been known to punish channels for carrying unpopular content (read: pro-Palistinian and anti-Israel). I think this is the reason Islamic channels have focused on their web-casting abilities. If a channel gets booted from the local cable company they webcast the content.
http://www.bridgestv.com/Petition.asp).
Offers great streaming content slanted more towards Islam in the States http://www.bridges.tv/home.asp/
http://english.aljazeera.net/English/ Amazing demonstrated global cable presence, most of it is available through the website. However, previews push users to create an inexpensive "debit minutes" account (around $1 per hour of high speed streaming). http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/18CCDB0E-ACDA-49AE-92E7-359D80A900F4,frameless.htm?NRMODE=Published
Muslim identity programming from comics to news http://beta.muxlim.tv/video/f85XUsWY0xt
Provides a viewable Video Sermon Libraries http://www.real-islam.org/audio/sermons.html/
Focuses on user-generated content, Most of it from mobile phone uploads. http://naskahmobile.com/tag/muslim-video/ JUDAISM Jewish Identity spans the history of civilization. Religion and culture are typically perceived as one and the same. Much of Jewish content is news from Israel, international concerns and preservation /celebration of Jewish heritage and tradition. The content that is more religious in nature is generally not video-based. brightcove-based, streaming content, users can upload jewlarious clips, ,mostly YouTube Surprisingly, no Video great streaming video fro Israel BUDDHISM I know a tad about this system of spirituality. What I found on the web crossed the lines of self-help, spiritual awareness and values, as well as healing crystals and tarot card enthusiasts. The Buddhists are not big on broadcasting with video. But they are big on teaching, so podcasting is prevalent. Appropriate and portable for instruction, history, and spiritual guidance. http://buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=18,3300,0,0,1,0
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/buddhism-with-gere-daily-path-podcast-from-mypath-tv/1722726272 CHRISTIANITY There is a motherload of content here. These people were early adopters for broadcasting and it shows. Politics, famliy, news, sermons, entertainment, and lifestyle all find their place among the channels. Excellent cable presence. Webcasting is generally reflective of more robust cable offerings.
(Pat Robertson) LOTS of money here. Broad cable channel offering. Program-length streaming content EPG that pushes to Cable (to please the affiliates) Podcasting of archived shows (manages their own syndication) http://www.cbn.com/
Program-length streaming content, vast online video libraries http://www.tbn.org/
http://www.smileofachild.org/about/index.php/20.html
http://us.god.tv/Publisher/Article.aspx?ID=1000016928
http://www.christianmobileusa.com/
http://www.orthodox.tv/kallistos.php
http://www.lefi.org/sunday.html
THE FUTURE? BLOGS OF ALL SORTS
STANDARD CABLE PACKAGING There were local efforts to allow local cable operators to offer “a la carte” channel choices (so a family could screen out the “bad” content, choose only “good”). The prevailing opinion? “If you obligate viewers to pre-select religious service, you’ll find yourself preaching to the choir. You lose the opportunity to change the life of a channel-surfer for the better.” GODCASTING
RELIGIOUS-THEMED ENTERTAINMENT
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