"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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"Osama" als Marke: Kommunikation und Handel durch Bilder von Bin Laden in Nigeria. Schon bald nach dem 11. September überschwemmten Bin-Laden-Waren die Straßen und Märkte des überwiegend muslimischen Nordnigeria. Später brachten Sänger und Filmemacher Lieder und Filme heraus, die die Kriege in
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Afghanistan und im Irak kommentierten. Während das Aufkommen solcher Produkte durch die kommerzielle Logik der "Politsploitation" (Armbrust) erklärt werden kann, bleiben die Bedeutung, die Bin Laden zugeschrieben wird, und die kommunikative Nutzung seines Bildes durch eine solche Erklärung weitgehend im Dunkeln. Um über das Konzept der "Politicsploitation" hinauszugehen, wird in diesem Essay eine Reihe von Bin Laden-inspirierten Produkten (Poster, Filme, Aufkleber) näher betrachtet und ihre Bedeutung in Bezug auf den breiteren nigerianischen Kontext interpretiert, in dem sie entstanden sind - zwischen 2001 und 2003, einer Zeit, die durch intensive politische und religiöse Debatten gekennzeichnet war. Ich behaupte, dass die lokalen Bedeutungen und die kommunikative Funktion der Bin-Laden-Bilder auf der Übertragung globaler Konfliktlinien - vereinfacht und reduziert auf "USA gegen Bin Laden" oder "Christen gegen Muslime" - auf lokale nigerianische Konflikte beruhen, die seit 1999 aufgrund der Wiedereinführung der Scharia in zwölf der nördlichen Bundesstaaten zwischen Muslimen und Christen ausgetragen werden. Für eine Reihe nigerianischer Muslime ist Bin Laden eine Ikone einer neuen und radikalen Form des Islam und eine Art "Ersatzprophet" geworden. In gewisser Weise hat Bin Ladens Bild, insbesondere sein Gesicht, eine Lücke in den neuen visuellen öffentlichen Räumen gefüllt, die in den nigerianischen Städten während des letzten Jahrzehnts entstanden sind und die von der Werbung für politische Ideologien und religiöse Überzeugungen dominiert werden. Wie anderswo auch, greift diese Art der visuellen Kommunikation auf die anthropologische Logik der Werbung für Ideen und Produkte durch die Gesichter bekannter religiöser oder politischer Persönlichkeiten zurück. Innerhalb dieser Logik entwickelte sich Bin Ladens Gesicht zu einem Markenzeichen des radikalen Islam und zu einer Ikone der gerechten und selbstlosen islamischen Führung und wurde als solches von Mitgliedern der muslimischen Massen genutzt, um eine neue radikale Identität sowohl gegenüber ihren christlichen Landsleuten als auch gegenüber ihren eigenen politischen und wirtschaftlichen Eliten zu vermitteln.° (Zusammenfassung)
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"Outside the West, religion is an ever more prominent force in social and political movements of both reform and retrenchment. Across these contexts, no issue in religion is of as much concern as fundamentalism - or rather the fundamentalisms within various traditions - which are seen to be fomentin
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g religious, social, ethnic, and political tension and conflict. The contributions to this volume represent the first effort to look at ‘fundamentalisms’ and the ‘media’ together and address the resulting relations and interactions from critical perspectives of history, technology, geography, and practice." (Publisher description)
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"This volume breaks down disciplinary walls in numerous ways. First, it combines information about the intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, and societal levels of communication into a single resource. At the intrapersonal level, new issues are raised about communication between individuals and deity
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: Why is religious experience difficult to explain in rational terms? Why is silence more sacred than spoken prayer in some religious communities? What is the nature of “thought communication” in religious meditation? Why is the use of profanity justified in some religious circles? How does idolatry reinforce religious customs and values? Why was chanting one of the first forms of religious communication?
Religious information is also exchanged between individuals at the level of interpersonal communication. This volume identifies rituals that have not been adequately analyzed in terms of communication aspects: Why do some sects require public confession? Why is body decoration an acceptable form of worship in some religious groups, but not in others? How does dance communicate the sacred through metaphoric movement? What are the multiple forms of communication with the dead? Why are feasts a form of religious worship in all major religions? How does the study of organizational communication apply to religion?
This volume also aids study of mediated communication to larger groups both inside and outside religious denominations. Throughout history, technology has simultaneously aided and impeded communication processes; this also applies to religious culture: How did religion change during the historical transition from orality to literacy? How did printing contribute to the diffusion of religious values in the world? Why have religious novels grown in popularity? Is television considered a religious medium? How has the Internet affected religious congregations and communities? What is religious media literacy?
These are only a few of the questions addressed by this encyclopedia. Articles also deal with (1) concepts such as information, communication, and censorship, (2) denominations which exhibit different communication practices, and (3) the various media used in religious worship. Entries were contributed by scholars from various disciplines, including religious studies, communication, anthropology, sociology, ancient studies, religion and modern culture, theology, and many others." (Introduction, page xiii-xiv)
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"Each of the eleven chapters in Quoting God pairs an academic and a journalist. First, the scholar holds forth, followed by a "View from the News Desk." Together, they represent many and diverse voices. Badaracco's book shows the relationship between media culture and spiritual culture, recognizing
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how news and religious values influence political life, and how science, modernity, and disbelief come together to suggest social fragmentation or consolidation. Through the media, audiences learn, often with passion, what they believe, what they resist religiously, how to respect other religious ideas, and how to construct their own religious identity in a world of both mediated and actual communities. The book's conceptual and theoretical frame addresses emerging religions as well as traditional faiths. The first four chapters focus on the legal and constitutional frames informing national identity and the ideological climates of newsrooms where journalists "construct the mediated religious public square" (Page 14). The next four chapters discuss cross-cultural reporting in which a reporter navigates between two (or more) cultures in the required roles of being fair and balanced. The next three chapters explore faith and reason, science and religion, and the complexity of religious issues. The volume concludes with Gustav Niebuhr, formerly with the New York Times and now a member of the academy at Syracuse University, summing up the care and commitment of the journalist who covers religion in American life." (https://www.h-net.org/reviews)
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"This is far more than an analysis of the way the U.S. covers the Islamic world. A penetrating study by a scholar and a humanist it goes much deeper than an examination of what he considers a biased treatment of Islamic news by the American press. Using illustrations from the media, he makes the poi
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nt that we do not - perhaps are not properly trying to - understand "the new horizons being opened up everywhere in the nonwhite, non-European world" which have roots in history and involve deep cultural differences. The first third of the book deals with "Islam as News," the middle section with "The Iran Story," and the final section with "Knowledge and Power." He contends, "Knowledge and coverage of the Islamic world are defined in the United States by geopolitics and economic interests on - for the individual - an impossibly massive scale, aided and abetted by a structure of knowledge production that is almost as vast and unmanageable." But until we somehow overcome these difficulties and acquire a knowledge in depth the American press cannot cover Islam properly." (Eleanor Blum, Frances G. Wilhoit: Mass media bibliography. 3rd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990 Nr. 376)
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"How do religious audiences react to and use the mass media? Religion and Mass Media is an audience-centered examination that reveals how a variety of Christian traditions experience media news and entertainment - in the context of institutional religious influences and expectations. Drawing on soci
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al science theories and empirical research methodologies, the contributors explore responses from Roman Catholics, Fundamentalists, Evangelicals, mainline Protestants, and Mormons and a variety of other traditions. In the first section, contributors set the framework by describing recent theoretical developments in the sociology of religion and communication theory. Section two provides an overview of the particulars of certain religious beliefs, section three looks at audience behavior, section four describes specific case studies (including one on rap music), and section five looks at the changing information environment and the future." (Publisher description)
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