Date
10-14-2026
Department
School of Communication and the Arts
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Communication (PhD)
Chair
Carol Hepburn
Keywords
Mediatization, pandemic-driven mediatization, agency, information communication technology, Seventh-day Adventist Church
Disciplines
Communication
Recommended Citation
Marsh, Gervon Garcia, "Pandemic-Driven Mediatization of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church In Jamaica" (2026). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 8993.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/8993
Abstract
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica experienced a radical shift in its relationship with information and communication technology (ICT) due to the COVID-19 mandatory lockdowns imposed by the Government of Jamaica. Prior to the pandemic, ICT use was less pronounced in the life and ministry of the Church, suggesting limited susceptibility to mediatization. This shift accelerated the mediatization of the Church, leading to a heavy reliance on ICT that has become entrenched in its life and ministry post-pandemic. This qualitative exploratory case study examined how pandemic-driven mediatization shaped the collective agency of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica through ICT, and how the Church, in turn, has shaped ICT in a digitally mediated post-pandemic environment. Data were collected through semi-structured and naturalistic observations at two online-church production sites. Findings indicated that the Church’s collective agency was positively affected by a growing embrace of ICT a flattening of communication hierarchies. The Church also functioned as an active media settler, colonizing new digital platforms to advance evangelistic reach rather than merely adapting to them. Regarding sacred space, findings suggested that digital ministry was most sustainable when treated as a complement to, rather than a replacement for, offline worship, This study contributes to scholarship on mediatization theory and digital religion by illustrating how a hierarchical, doctrinally centralized faith organization outside the Global North and Global West both adapted to and actively shaped its digital communication environment during and after a global health crisis.
