"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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"Megachurches have a reputation for savvy use of digital media; however, little is known about their advertising strategy or which strategies elicit engagement. By assessing megachurches’ promotional content on social media, this study draws on the devotional campaign framework to examine audience
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-centric engagement strategies: God–Congregant, Church–Congregant, and Intra-Congregational. The quantitative content analysis of Facebook and Instagram posts from 15 megachurches in five countries [Australia; New Zealand; United Kingdom; United States; Canada] revealed that megachurches used the combination God–Congregant & Church–Congregant engagement strategies, as well as the singular Church–Congregant engagement strategy, the most often. Yet, audiences engaged significantly more with posts using the God–Congregant engagement strategy when compared to all other strategies. The use of engagement strategies and engagement received on posts varied according to geographical location and cultural differences, suggesting there may be a cultural aspect to what earns engagement from followers. Advertisers looking to increase online engagement should focus their efforts on persuasive messages that include the object-audience engagement strategy. This study advances advertising theory on engagement by suggesting that engagement is contingent upon the engagement strategy utilized as well as the specific region’s norms around the brand and community." (Abstract)
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"With this report we explore how different religious minorities in Iran use the internet to engage with their communities in Iran and around the world. To build a representative picture, we drew on diverse sources, piecing together historical accounts, content analysis, legal frameworks, and the voi
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ces of people within the communities themselves. This approach helped us to understand the communities from several perspectives - of religious minorities inside Iran, of community leaders, and of diaspora content producers." (Page 6)
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"It has not been uncommon in the history of Jesus in film for commercial movies of Jesus' life to be conscripted for Christian evangelism around the world. Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings (1927), John Krish and Peter Sykes' Jesus (1979), better known today as The Jesus Film, and Mel Gibson's Th
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e Passion of the Christ (2004) are but three notable examples. Each of those movies, however, was first produced in America for American audiences. In the case of Karunamayudu (1978), a Telugu commercial movie of Jesus' life, the target audience was South Indian viewers raised on a steady diet of mythological and social films and immersed in a pluralistic religious environment unlike any Western society at the time. In this essay I explain how and why this film, with its unique production history, was co-opted by evangelicals for Christian witness in India." (Abstract)
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"The case study of Station ELWA [ = Eternal Love Wins Africa] from 1954 to 1970 exemplifies how conservative evangelical radio missions operated worldwide during the postwar period. Radio missionaries with Station ELWA demonstrated a capacity for creativity in communication, forming part of an histo
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ric pattern among American evangelicals that dates back to the Great Awakening." (Conclusion)
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"Apresentamos uma história cultural da mídia evangélica infantil produzida no Brasil entre os anos 1950 e 2000. Defendemos que o uso da mídia foi um importante fator para a constituição de uma cultura evangélica brasileira, voltada para o consumo individual e questões do cotidiano. A mídia
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para o público infantil fomentou intensa circulação de produtos culturais evangélicos, permitindo a construção de uma religiosidade transdenominacional. Analisamos produtos de mídia evangélica brasileira, como a revista adventista “Nosso Amiguinho”, em circulação desde 1953, e o personagem “Smilinguido”, campeão de vendas no mercado brasileiro desde os anos 1980. Focalizamos a recepção dos produtos Smilinguido para identificar os usos e os sentidos de sua cultura material e visual no cotidiano de crianças e jovens mulheres de diferentes filiações denominacionais do Brasil. Com o seu sucesso, um amplo mercado de bens cristãos abriu-se no Brasil durante os anos 1990 e 2000." (Resumo)
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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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