An Exploration of Alternative Ways that The Catholic Church in Kenya can Communicate Big Data to Clergy and Congregants A Study of The Catholic Diocese of Kakamega

Abstract

Big data continues to elicit excitement and anxiety in almost equal measure among organization that are religious and non-religious. This study sought to establish the alternative ways that the Catholic Church could communicate big data based on the apparent gap between the existing large sets of data vis-à-vis their utilization. Objectives were to assess awareness levels of large sets of information flows, to identify accessibility levels of big data and analyze alternative ways of communicating in the Catholic diocese of Kakamega. The Organizational Information Theory and conceptual framework provided an insight on the relationship between stakeholder communication patterns versus big data utility. A descriptive survey research design targeted 38 respondents who were drawn from stratified purposive sampling was employed. Questionnaires and KII assessed the clergy only while FGDs assessed congregants alongside participant observation as instruments of data collection. Findings revealed the Catholic diocese of Kakamega had big data in form of texts, audio, videos, graphics and symbols whose awareness and accessibility levels varied due to behavioral and literacy related noise. As such, the existing channels were subject to review in order to reduce noise. The researcher determined that the definition of big data remained a challenge to even academicians. Religious corporations have big data whose utility affected them, and the investigation of the topic proved useful and not as earlier perceived as business-oriented only. Recommendations for policy-education on information delivery and packaging, introduction of a special needs office and mainstream media. Recommendations for further studies with a larger sample size, time frame and study site. The impact of big data on social welfare and exploration of big data in bridging the generational gap in churches was also presented in this study.