The Effective Use of New Media in Disseminating Evangelical Messages Among Catholic College Students

ABSTRACT Religious life of American youth has received little attention from social scientists, but this is changing as research underscores the importance of religious identity. The Catholic Church has historically employed new forms of communication to reach its followers. This article examines Catholic college students’ use of new media and the impact on their faith. To explore this, a qualitative method was used. Five major themes emerging from the study were: (a) positive effects of Christian media content, (b) everyday use of new media, (c) the Catholic Church is buried in tradition, (d) importance of credible sources, and (e) failure to program toward youth. Data collected from these qualitative interviews suggest the Catholic Church must become aggressive in utilizing new media and programming messages of faith and education about the Church to this younger generation as their values are being shaped.