"Power in Brazil means family business, both traditionally and to this very day. Dynasties of landowners known as “Colonels” extend their territorial claims to the airwaves, combining economic and political interests with tight control of public opinion. Neither digital technology and the rise o
...
f the internet nor occasional regulatory efforts seem to pose a serious challenge to these oligopolies. A joint investigation by the Brazilian NGO Intervozes and Reporters Without Borders between July and October 2017 now shows who are the key players and what are their respective other interests. The investigation comprises the 50 most important media outlets in Brazil and the 26 corporate groups owning them. Transparency about ownership of media companies remains low as there is no legal obligation for companies to disclose their shareholder structure." (http://www.mom-rsf.org)
more
"Le présent article traite de pratiques virtuelles néo-pentecôtistes au Cameroun. L’analyse des changements sociaux ne prend pas suffisamment en compte la place de la communication religieuse. « Nous changeons le monde… à partir d’ici », telle est l'affirmation du pasteur Dieunedort Kamd
...
em (Kanodi), fondateur de la Cathédrale de la Foi à Yaoundé. Dans ses pratiques de cultes à distance, Temitope Balogun Joshua déclare quant à lui sur Emmanuel TV, chaîne largement suivie au Cameroun : « just touch the screen and be in accord with us here ». Nous sommes donc dans un contexte où les figures religieuses ambitionnent de « changer » la société à partir des églises. Si l’analyse des changements sociaux ne prend pas suffisamment en compte la place de la communication religieuse, nous voudrions ici analyser ce changement de fréquence sur fond de medial turn comme une «modernité» impulsée par les pentecôtismes camerounais." (Résumé)
more
"La diffusion progressive d’Internet au Burkina Faso a entraîné récemment un foisonnement de l’utilisation des réseaux sociaux, principalement Facebook, par les Églises catholique et évangéliques. Cette utilisation est toutefois fortement conditionnée par un nombre restreint de gatekeepe
...
rs qui exercent un contrôle souvent strict sur l’utilisation des réseaux sociaux. S’en dégage ainsi une diffusion fortement uniformisée par laquelle les organisations néo-pentecôtistes et charismatiques urbains tirent le plus grand profit en faisant circuler des contenus susceptibles de favoriser les conversions ou de souder virtuellement la communauté des adhérents. Les hiérarchies des Églises tendent plutôt, quant à elles, à utiliser ces médias comme relais de leur communication officielle sans investir dans le potentiel interactif des médias sociaux. Cette dynamique favorise également l’insertion des chrétiens burkinabè dans les réseaux chrétiens transnationaux, surtout pour certains pasteurs évangéliques inscrits dans les réseaux francophones internationaux." (Résumé)
more
"Social media as a new phenomenon has become a tool used by many televangelists and pastors all over the world. It is against this background that this research sought to explore the Facebook activities of some Ghanaian Pentecostal pastors from a missional perspective. The article deals with the con
...
cept of social media, Facebook and its potential for mission purposes, the Facebook phenomenon among Ghanaians and how Ghanaian Pentecostal Pastors are using Facebook for missional purposes, as well as some of concerns on the negative uses of social media. The study revealed that Ghanaian pastors are followed by people from different religious and societal backgrounds. It has also offered the pastors and their congregations the opportunity to form relationships with a wide and diverse range of people without being bound by geographical space." (Abstract)
more
"New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa casts a critical look at Africa's rapidly evolving religious media scene. Following political liberalization, media deregulation, and the proliferation of new media technologies, many African religious leaders and activists have appropriated such me
...
dia to strengthen and expand their communities and gain public recognition. Media have also been used to marginalize and restrict the activities of other groups, which has sometimes led to tension, conflict, and even violence. Showing how media are rarely neutral vehicles of expression, the contributors to this multidisciplinary volume analyze the mutual imbrications of media and religion during times of rapid technological and social change in various places throughout Africa." (Publisher description)
more
"Tracing the rise and development of the Ghanaian video film industry between 1985 and 2010, Sensational Movies examines video movies as seismographic devices recording a culture in turmoil. Birgit Meyer captures the dynamic process of popular filmmaking in Ghana as a new medium for the imagination
...
and tracks its interlacing of technological, economic, social, cultural, and religious elements. Filling the void left by the defunct state film industry, video movies negotiate the imaginaries deployed by state cinema on the one hand and Christianity on the other. Exploring the format of "film as revelation"—and the debt these films owe to religious notions of divination and revelation—Meyer elucidates the affinity between cinematic and popular Christian modes of looking and demonstrates the transgressive potential that haunts images of the occult." (Back cover)
more
"A Moving Faith captures the dynamic shift of Christianity to the South and portrays a global movement that promises prosperity, healing, empowerment, and gender equality by invoking neo-Pentecostal and Charismatic resources. It postulates that neither North America nor Europe is the current center
...
of the Christian faith. The book provides a detailed overview of how migration of Christians from the South enriches the North, for instance, Pope Francis brings newness, freshness, and the vigor characteristic of the South. While describing Christianity’s growth in the South, it suggests that, in fact, there is no center for this global faith. It explores this great move of Christianity by focusing on representative mega churches in South Korea, Brazil, Peru, Ghana, Nigeria, Australia, India, and the Philippines." (Publisher description)
more
"How religion, gender, and urban sociality are expressed in and mediated via television drama in Kinshasa is the focus of this ethnographic study. Influenced by Nigerian films and intimately related to the emergence of a charismatic Christian scene, these teleserials integrate melodrama, conversion
...
narratives, Christian songs, sermons, testimonies, and deliverance rituals to produce commentaries on what it means to be an inhabitant of Kinshasa." (Publisher description)
more
"No campo de estudos de religião e mídia, a importância da comunicação de massa está bem estabelecida para as religiões globalizadas tais como o cristianismo e o islamismo, mas o mesmo não se verifica com relação às religiões nativas africanas. O presente artigo busca preencher essa lacu
...
na investigando as atividades de mídia de um movimento religioso neo-tradicional em Gana, a Missão Afrikania. Ao analisar a posição cambiante de Afrikania na esfera pública em relação a mudanças nos cenários político, religioso e midiático de Gana, demonstro como novos constrangimentos e oportunidades levaram Afrikania a adaptar suas estratégias de acesso à mídia e seus estilos de representação. A política de representação da Afrikania é complexificada pela sua posição delicada entre uma esfera pública de hegemonia cristã e as práticas dos sacerdotes e sacerdotisas que ela visa representar." (Resumo)
more
"A propósito das disputas entre a Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus e a Igreja Mundial do Poder de Deus no primeiro semestre de 2012, o artigo estuda a dimensão do espetáculo e do mercado cultural religioso nas mídias. Por meio de uma pesquisa exploratória dos principais escândalos e embates e
...
nvolvendo igrejas e líderes religiosos nas mídias nas últimas décadas, o estudo busca (1) localizar o fenômeno da espetacularização da fé como uma estratégia de marketing, como resposta à concorrência, que inclui a visibilidade também por meio de conflitos; (2) indicar caminhos que instigam a novas investigações." (Resumo)
more
"Charismatic-Pentecostal 'media ministries' have become very successful in Africa's new media fields. They shape new forms of public religiosity that spill over into various forms of popular culture and resonate with broad audiences. This article explores the emergence of new Pentecostal publics at
...
the intersection of media, religion, and entertainment in Ghana, raising critical questions concerning the relations between these domains. It analyses two different religious television broadcasts: a television ministry by a well-known celebrity pastor and a gospel reality show featuring a preaching competition for youth. It also considers the debates and concerns such programmes evoke locally. The analysis shows that Pentecostalism's employment of popular media and entertainment styles is an effective source of persuasive power, but also poses challenges with regard to binding people as committed Christians. The blurring of boundaries between religion and entertainment business causes insecurities about the authenticity of religious authority and religious subjectivity." (Abstract)
more
"For many years now, the sphere of the main Pentecostal denominations has gone way beyond their physical churches and members. To some extent, they operate like businesses, and they use the media to exert a strong influence on society. Some of them own national TV stations and publish high-circulati
...
on newspapers. Their direct influence on politics has also increased steadily. Many members of the state parliaments and the National Congress also hold positions in the Pentecostal churches. The churches have not yet succeeded in getting one of their members directly elected to the highest political positions, but they have been able to use their close ties with certain politicians to exercise significant indirect political influence for the benefit of their own clientele. The Pentecostals are particularly powerful in the favelas, which receive little assistance from the Brazilian welfare state. In many areas that are ruled by the drug gangs, the only safe way of getting out of the drug trade is to join one of the Pentecostal churches, as this is deemed acceptable by the gangs. In contrast, other churches or religions are being squeezed out – sometimes violently. The image of the Pentecostal Church is therefore something of a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it is often stressed that it provides its members with a sense of stability and direction. The strict ban on alcohol and drugs, the feeling of belonging to a strong community, and the inclusion of certain rituals from the Afro-Brazilian animist religions that can turn spiritual experiences into a state of religious ecstasy – all these elements can help the Church’s followers to feel they have the power to break out of the vicious circle of poverty and despair. On the other hand, however, Church members have to pay a high monetary price for this; money that is not only reinvested in social projects but which also goes to line the pockets of the Church’s leaders, who are often not whiter-than-white, despite expecting this of their congregations. The most extreme example of this must surely be that of the founder of the Universal, Edir Macedo." (Conclusion)
more
"In the Republic of Benin, we are currently witnessing an enormous proliferation of religious radio broadcasting in various forms, especially with regard to Pentecostal churches. Apart from already established Christian broadcasters such as Radio Immaculée Conception, Radio Alléluia or Radio Maran
...
atha, operating on a regional or even on a national scale, various smaller groups and individual pastors, mainly from evangelical and Charismatic churches, are increasingly contracting broadcasting hours with public, private or community radio stations. Furthermore, many pastors have started to record CDs with prayers and gospel sounds to broadcast, or hire professional media production companies to ensure a large media coverage of their appearances in various media. On the one hand, these strategies represent a particular form of media appropriation, an attempt to obtain a greater share in the changing public sphere, and are part of the growing competition between various religious media actors, especially with regard to their ambitions of moral guidance. On the other hand, these programmes could be seen as stages for creative individual religious actors, among them also laymen, offering moments of self-assertion and granting social prestige." (Abstract)
more
"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
...
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)
more
"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;
...
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)
more