"Through extensive fieldwork and archival research, Febe Armanios explores how Western evangelicals and indigenous Christians harnessed terrestrial and satellite technologies to promote Christian television in the Middle East. The sixteen channels analyzed in this study fall into three main categori
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es: Western-backed conservative outlets with a charismatic and apocalyptic outlook; middle-ground channels that sought to balance their international sponsors' expectations with local interests; and grassroots initiatives rooted in ancient church traditions. The histories and programming strategies of primarily Arabic, but also Turkish and Persian, Christian channels reveal how media producers forged unexpected political alliances, pursued sectarian objectives, and navigated various transnational influences. Satellite Ministries explores how modern expressions of faith, technology, and political power intersected and clashed across the Global South and beyond." (Publisher description)
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"Christian media in a highly fragile region are faced with a number of challenges: the issues of security, trust and persecution have prevented them from develping more inclusive strategies, strengthening their relationship with their audience or conducting qualitative or quantitative audience resea
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rch. The problem of funds and the competitive fundraising market have resulted in low-quality, monotonous productions with limited diversity, and limited capacity to hire professionals in the filed, as well as compromised their vision and strategies. Therefore, the challenges they face have affected their working strategy, negatively impacted their performance and limited their responses to the needs of Christian communities and the wider societies in the region." (Conclusion)
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"In a nutshell, this research reveals that indigenous Tamil Christian satellite television channels [i.e., Angel TV, Aaseervatham TV, Madha TV, Power of God TV, Salvation TV] are liked by the Christian viewers. The viewers watch those channels for the gratifications of moral, psychological, and reli
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gious benefits. Therefore, the religious television channels have multiple responsibilities of gratifying the viewers morally, socially, culturally, and psychologically. This research makes a gentle recommendation to the Christians in Tamil Nadu that they may watch Tamil Christian religious channels to fulfil their religious, moral, psychological, social, cultural, educational, and family needs." (Page 238)
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"Creating Church Online constructs a rich ethnographic account of the diverse cultures of online churches, from virtual worlds to video streams. This book also outlines the history of online churchgoing, from its origins in the 1980s to the present day, and traces the major themes of academic and Ch
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ristian debate around this topic. Applying some of the leading current theories in the study of religion, media and culture to this data, Tim Hutchings proposes a new model of religious design in contexts of mediatization and draws attention to digital networks, transformative third spaces and terrains of existential vulnerability." (Publisher description)
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"Religious channels in the MENA region are approximately 10 percent of all free-to-air (FTA) channels from 2012 to 2014. This is a relatively high share compared to many markets outside the region, such as the U.K., where religious channels only represent one percent of FTA channels. Religious chann
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els increased by 50 percent from 2012 to 2014 [...] The market structure and trends in religious content follow the region’s faith demographics. This is why Sunni Muslim channels are more numerous. At an overall market level, 88 percent of religious FTA television channels are focused on Islam content and the remaining 12 percent on Christian content. Of Muslim channels, 83 percent are Sunni and 17 percent are Shia. The region currently has no FTA TV channels dedicated to other faiths. Growth in religious channels remains driven by the Sunni Muslim sub-segment, which contributed almost half of new religious channels (12 out of 25 from 2011 to 2014). At the same time, the region is also seeing significant growth in Shia and Christian channels. Over the same period, the number of Shia channels more than doubled from five to eleven, and the number of Christian channels expanded more than four-fold from two to nine." (www.mideastmedia.org/industry/2016/religious)
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"This case study investigates SAT-7 – a Christian independent satellite-TV network – in its context – the Middle East and North Africa – with a majority of Islamic inhabitants and traditions. It examines and describes what the actual implemented strategy is in order to do the daily work of S
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AT-7. Three sub-questions, aimed to explain the strategy in further detail, look at how SAT-7 operates, how they design their programming, and how they tell the stories of themselves. These describe strategic measures. The empirical data are two sources of evidence; I) interviews with a “pool of leaders” in SAT-7, and II) formal documentation presenting the written institutional narrative of SAT-7. This study focuses on theories of media and religion, religious programming and institutional narratives. The analysis sets out to describe, interpret and explain the findings of strategic measures done by SAT-7. The key strategic measure is being present in the region. SAT-7 is for the Middle East, by the Middle East. This presence includes crossing religious borders, including Christians – even a cooperation of several Christian denominations. An enhancement of cultural authenticity and coexistence becomes the result after taking cautious steps, never attacking, denigrating, or perhaps more important, proselytizing, others. SAT-7 presents the “love of God” – bringing hope and reconciliation to the region." (Abstract)
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"The aim of this article is to introduce and examine the work of Christian media, mainly the satellite television channels, in the Middle East. The reason for focussing only on the satellite channels is because the television channels are still the main players and have attracted more attention, esp
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ecially since television programs have adapted multi-layered media platforms. As a result their audience can choose when and how to view their preferred programs. Therefore, in this paper, firstly, I will briefly describe the general understanding of the function of media technology in the Middle East. Secondly, the Arabic and Farsi Christian channels will be introduced together with their functions. Thirdly, the importance of Christian media will be discussed in three segments: Christian manifestation in the region; a voice for peace, hope and healing; an alternative belief system for the disillusioned and seekers. This section will also give a critique of the work of Christian channels. I will conclude that Christians, as well as the region, are in need of hearing the voice of Christ who speaks of hope, faith and love in order to bring peace into the devastated Middle East. It follows that Christian media have a great opportunity and responsibility to present voices of hope and courage, to restore the forgotten history of Christ within the cultures of the Middle East, and to disciple the seekers of the truth." (Abstract)
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"Seit August 2015 ist der Fernsehsender Spas des Moskauer Patriarchats in fast allen Haushalten Russlands zu empfangen. Seine bewegte Vorgeschichte, Gerüchte über Verbindungen zu US-amerikanischen konservativen Kreisen sowie ein neues Nachrichtenprogramm legen enge Verbindungen mit dem "orthodoxen
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Oligarch" Konstantin Malofeev und seinem Internet-Fernsehkanal Zargrad-TV nahe, den eine tendenziöse Berichterstattung über die Ostukraine und eine neoimperiale eurasische Ideologie auszeichnen." (Seite 11)
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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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"Since the mid-1990s, the influence of satellite television broadcasting in the Middle East has become central to the shaping of public attitudes in the region and beyond. While many of the main influential mainstream satellite channels are news-focused, entertainment and religious broadcasting are
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also significant. Religious Broadcasting in the Middle East offers a synopsis of a conference held at Cambridge in January 2010. It focuses on the discourses of a selection of Islamic, Christian and Jewish religious broadcasting channels, as well as the wider factors and structures that sustain them." (Back cover)
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"This book is a critical study of the political economy of communications in India. It explores the ways in which contexts, policies, and processes at national and international levels shape media structures and studies how a political economy-inspired approach can be used to understand both media d
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ominance and resistance. The author explores aspects of colonial political economy and how it has shaped the structure of media in India and in many other countries. It also discusses liberalization, privatization, and media politics in contemporary India. Divided into three sections—structures, means, and resistance—the chapters focus on both the electronic and the print media." (Publisher description)
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"Às vésperas de completar 100 anos em 2010, o pentecostalismo no Brasil se mostra como um fenômeno complexo, multifacetado, desafiando comunicadores, empresários da mídia, sociólogos, pastores, crentes, ateus e também pesquisadores da comunicação social, já que na contemporaneidade as expe
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riências religiosas são impulsionadas pela adoção da cultura mediática. Essas experiências fermentam em programas como o Show da Fé comandado pelo líder da Igreja Internacional da Graça de Deus (IIGD), R.R. Soares, instituição religiosa objeto deste estudo. Visto acreditar que os fenômenos sociais não são uniformes e tampouco que os produtos religiosos sejam livres de contradições, a pesquisa busca compreender a visibilidade mediática religiosa no tecido das relações sociais dos adeptos que assistem o Show da Fé. Ou seja, a pesquisa analisa a comunicação religiosa sob um outro ângulo, distinto da visão linear da transmissão da mensagem, entendendo aquela comunicação como processo mediado pelas práticas sociais e culturais que se constroem no cotidiano, onde a constituição da subjetividade é resultado das maneiras pelas quais os sujeitos interagem entre si perante a mensagem. Assim, a pesquisa - um estudo de recepção na linha das mediações socioculturais - permitiu, entre outros aspectos, observar nos usos e hábitos de consumo televisivo a dialética denominada por Martín-Barbero consumo objetivação de desejos/lugar de diferenciação social e processo ritual, evidenciando que o grupo de pertença exerce influência para a ressignificação do desejo do adepto. Foi possível identificar que a chave do gênero do programa Show da Fé é o poder de acionar ou despertar no imaginário dos adeptos um outro mundo, cujo senso de ordem interna, integração e direção faz com que o homem se sinta mais forte para suportar as dificuldades da existência." (Resumo)
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"This article discusses discourses on development in the social space of Kinshasa’s post-Mobutu teleserials. The producers (dramatic artists and born-again Christian leaders; some are both) contend that their work will transform society, counter the social and political crisis and improve the nati
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on in various ways. Pentecostalist Christianity meets the genre of the melodrama in the way the teleserials focus on the individual’s spiritual development. This article argues that the fictive representation of witchcraft relates to a Pentecostalist diagnosis of the crisis and that the narrative unfolding of the teleserials points towards the cultural key scenario asserted by Pentecostal-charismatic churches." (Abstract)
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