"This article describes and analyzes a little understood Afghan Taliban propaganda tool: chants or taranas. These melodic refrains effectively use historical narratives, symbology, and iconic portraits. The chants are engendered in emotions of sorrow, pride, desperation, hope, and complaints to mobi
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lize and convince the Afghan population of the Taliban’s worldview. The chants represent culturally relevant and simple messages that are communicated in a narrative and poetic form that is familiar to and resonates with the local people. They are virtually impossible for the United States and NATO to counter because of Western sensitivities concerning religious themes that dominate the Taliban narrative space, not to mention the lack of Western linguistic capabilities, including the understanding and mastering the poetic nature of local dialects." (Abstract)
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"This publication is a first attempt to collect data and documents on social communication in the history of the Church beginning with the bible as the first book of communication. The collection is based on the understanding of communication as 1. communication theology and 2. social communication
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[...] This book is more a listing and outline of data and considerations on communication in Church history rather than a detailed presentation of historical facts. It includes, however, additional texts which are beyond the presentation of basic documents on social communication." (Preface)
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"Much work has been done to map out the contours of Islamic intellectual production in West Africa before the twentieth century. However, we still do not understand very well the process by which ideas and texts circulated in the region. Lists of specific books imported by West Africans during the n
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ineteenth century are rare (although one such compilation helps frame this paper), and the particular books memorized and/or copied by individual students on particular subjects usually fail to tells us much about their mentors’ libraries. As a result, the reconstruction of a trans-Saharan, much less the east-west Sahelian book trade, if these existed in any formal sense, must be subject to some speculation. Clearly, there was a steady demand in West Africa for Arabic texts; libraries and literary capital have long been understood as an important component of religious authority. But our knowledge of what might have been the actual texts sought in a book trade, is limited. We can deduce something about the distribution of books in West Africa from the authors and subjects studied in particular venues, and from analyses of the citations used in particular scholarly works written by West Africans. But both the works studied and the analysis of citations tell us about books that were known to individual scholars rather than works that were actually in demand. This paper seeks to describe the books—by author and title—that were in heaviest demand by doing an inventory of the contents of a cross-section of West African libraries." (Introduction)
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"This article takes a critical look at Ghana’s rapidly evolving broadcasting scene and in particular at the expansion and popularity of religious broadcasting. Sketching the developments of the Ghanaian media landscape, it analyses the changing politics of representing religion in this field. The
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much-celebrated processes of media deregulation and democratization, and the new opportunities for ownership, production, and participation they entail, have led to a dominance of Pentecostalism in the public sphere. While this development has been analysed from the perspective of churches and pastors, this article explores the intertwinement of commercial media and Pentecostalism from the perspective of a number of private media owners and producers in Accra. Whether these media entrepreneurs are themselves Pentecostal or not, they all have to deal with, and commercially exploit, the power and attraction of Pentecostalism. Their experience that commercial success is hardly possible without Pentecostalism makes clear that the influence of Pentecostalism in the Ghanaian public sphere reaches way beyond media-active pastors and born-again media practitioners, and invites us to rethink the relationship between media, business and religion." (Abstract)
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"God's self-communication is the source of human life and human communication. The divine self-communication shows itself in the Trinity, the revelation, the Incarnation, and embodied in the Church is the grammar of communication theology. Such a theology should be a formation program in Church's th
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eological institutes, especially in the priestly formation. Further, communication theology leads to deepening the dimensions of communication in all different theological disciplines in order to fecundate the respective fields of those disciplines. It helps Christian communicators to form dispositions in communicating with other people from different social backgrounds, cultures and religions. Based on God's communication, Christians can develop a proper attitude in the process of social communication in order to contribute to the improvement and unity of human society (CeP, no. 1). It gives enlightening insights to those who concern themselves with human social communication. In turn, studying communication theology, one will be led to a commimicative exchange with other sciences like anthropology, culturology, psychology, sociology, etc. In this way, the Church can effectively face the challenges and problems of social communication in the modem world of today, especially when she will give orientation and direction to young people who are the most affected persons in living under the influence of modem communication. In Christian understanding one can say: we may miss communicate, but we cannot not commimicate because human beings are created by a communicating God, in His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26). Communication must happen for the sake of human unity among themselves and with God, their constantly communicating God." (Conclusion, page 35-36)
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"Medien und Religionen: ein brisantes Thema, das bisher nur unzureichend bearbeitet ist. Dabei ist spätestens seit dem 11. September 2001, seit den heftigen Auseinandersetzungen um die Mohammed-Karikaturen und dem Streit um das provokante Buch von Thilo Sarrazin deutlich, wie sehr Bilder und Videos
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in Fernsehen und Internet, Zeitungsnachrichten und nicht zuletzt sensationell aufgemachte Bücher die Vorstellungen der Religionen und Kulturen voneinander mitbestimmen. Es ist häufig ein sehr problematisches und einseitiges Bild, das da medial vermittelt wird. Zum anderen haben die Religionen von jeher mit Medien, mit Bildern, Klängen, Schriften und Symbolen zu tun. Sie haben lange und reiche Traditionen im Ringen um einen menschenfreundlichen, lebensförderlichen Umgang mit Medien in einem weiten Sinn. Insofern lassen sich von den Religionen auch Impulse für die Humanisierung unserer Medienkultur erwarten. Beide Perspektiven wurden auf dem X. Nürnberger Forum verfolgt und in ihren Konsequenzen für religiöse und kulturelle Bildung bedacht. Expertinnen und Experten aus Theologie und Religionswissenschaft, Human- und Sozialwissenschaften, allgemeiner Pädagogik, Medienpädagogik und Religionspädagogik, aus Politik und öffentlichen Medien, aus Europa, Amerika, Afrika und Asien und aus allen großen Religionstraditionen referierten und diskutierten zu den vier Themenbereichen - Die Darstellung der Religionen in den öffentlichen Medien - Bilderverbot/Bilderkult: Das Bild und andere Medien in ihrer Bedeutung für die Religionen - Medienethik im Kontext religiöser Pluralität - Medien und interreligiöses / interkulturelles Lernen. In einem ergänzenden Symposium wurden – basierend auf dem Nürnberg-Rostocker Forschungsprojekt „Die Darstellung des Christentums in Schulbüchern islamisch geprägter Länder“ – Standards für interreligiöse Schulbuchforschung und -entwicklung erarbeitet, die Autorenteams, Verlagen und Kultusbehörden weitergegeben werden." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"How does religious fundamentalism operate in modern global society? This two-volume series analyses the dynamics of fundamentalism and its relationship to the modern state, the public sphere and globalisation. This second volume explores the links between fundamentalism and communication: the rise
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of fundamentalism as a mass media phenomenon, fundamentalist communication in the public sphere, national cultural identities and the rise of a 'global society'. Expert scholars in the field address specific contemporary and past fundamentalist movements that have emerged from within mainstream Islam, Christianity, Baha'ism, Hinduism, Judaism and Buddhism." (Publisher description)
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"This issue of Australian Religion Studies Review examines the intersection of religion and celebrity, both major discourses in the modern world. The six articles examine the imbrication of celebrity with: three traditional religions, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism; the new religion of Candomblé;
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and contemporary spiritual trends such as spiritual tourism, secular equivalents of religion like the Olympic Games, and the veneration of sports stars by fans. The study of the impact of celebrity on religion is still in its infancy, and the contributions to this special issue of Australian Religion Studies Review demonstrate both the rich results that such studies can yield, and the range and diversity of subjects that would repay future research." (Page 227)
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"In insgesamt zehn Stationen unternimmt die Ausstellung eine mentalitätsgeschichtliche Reise in unsere heimischen Wohnzimmer und zeichnet dabei filmische Strategien bei der fiktiven Darstellung "jüdischer" Themen und Figuren nach. Populären Persönlichkeiten der Medienöffentlichkeit, wie etwa de
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m über Jahrzehnte omnipräsenten Hans Rosenthal, nähert sich die Ausstellung aus einer lebensgeschichtlichen Perspektive an. Die gesellschaftlichen Diskurse und Fragestellungen rund um die öffentliche Verhandlung des "Jüdischen" auf dem Fernsehbildschirm bleiben dabei wahrnehmbar und bewusst unbeantwortet im (Ausstellungs-)Raum stehen. Der Begleitband zur Ausstellung nimmt in weiterführenden Essays das Fernsehprogramm noch einmal ganz genau unter die Lupe. Dabei werden unter anderem die Handlungsstränge einzelner Fernsehfilme und Serienformate, etwa Tatort und Lindenstraße, verfolgt und "jüdische Figuren und Themen" auf ihre ambivalente Bildsprache hin untersucht. Auch die Verhandlung des "Jüdischen" im DDR-Fernsehen und in der österreichischen Fernsehunterhaltung findet in dieser Publikation Beachtung. Nicht zuletzt wird Hans Rosenthal, der Titelgeber dieser Ausstellung, näher vorgestellt und das Spannungsfeld aufgezeigt, in dem er sich als Alltagsbegleiter, Fernsehikone, jüdischer Überlebender und Zeitzeuge bewegte." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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