"Has Russia abandoned its atheist past and embraced Orthodox Christianity as its new moral guide? The reality is more complex and contradictory. Digital sources provide evidence of rising domestic criticism of the Russian Orthodox Church and its leadership. This book offers a nuanced understanding o
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f contemporary Russian Orthodoxy and its changing role in the digital era. Topics covered within this book include: Mediatization theory; Church reforms under Patriarch Kirill; Church-state relations since 2009; Russian Orthodox Church's media policy; Anticlericalism vs. Church criticism; religious, secular and atheist critiques of the Church in digital media." (Publisher description)
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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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"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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"This article examines the depiction of women and gender within Coptic Orthodox video films or “hagiopics” produced between 1987 and 2010. As part of a recent religious renewal, hagiopics have expanded, altered, and reinvented traditional stories of saints and pious figures and have also generat
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ed, within this traditionally patriarchal setting, a wider space for the articulation of female voices. While their inclusion can be seen as potentially empowering for women, this paper suggests that during Pope Shenouda III's reign (1971–2012), the films became a powerful vehicle for broadcasting the church's conservative teachings on female power and authority, marriage and marital dissolution, spousal abuse, and femininity. By highlighting an array of exemplary female characters, hagiopics capture women's role as custodians of a distinctive Coptic ethos and of family and communal cohesiveness. The films’ emphasis on women's physical modesty, submissiveness, and obedience to male figureheads also hints at the modern church's anxieties about women's increasing autonomy in choosing marriage partners and their growing demands for more equal treatment within the church." (Abstract)
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"The age-old Coptic balancing act of proving that they are patriotic Egyptians while retaining a strong attachment to their religious and cultural identity has become harder in the globalization era, when specific individuals and groups based on another continent can affect the domestic political en
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vironment. While it is important not to overestimate the power of the Coptic diaspora lobby, both in the host and homeland societies, it is clear that in the twenty-first century it is one further factor to consider when addressing communal relations in Egypt. Yet this use of technology has not been one-way. The Coptic Orthodox Church has used the same aspects of globalization in its aim to maintain its predominant position in Church-State relations in Egypt. Hence, both groups are using the new media to reach out to the other constituency in a contest that has the long-term potential not only to cause divisions within the Coptic community but also to further heighten tension between the Egyptian state, Muslim public and their Christian compatriots." (Conclusion, page 97)
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"The paper analyses the relation between media and the Eastern Orthodox religion - the dominant religion in Romania. We will examine three contexts: (1) the existing sociological theories on religion and their relevance for understanding the Orthodox world today, (2) the religious media and (3) the
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secular media in Romania. The paper argues that the relationship between media and religion in the Eastern Orthodox world is difficult to explain using the nowadays theoretical framework of the sociology of religion. Therefore, we choose to use the „religious publicization" hypothesis in our attempt to explain the increasing use of religious symbols and themes, in the Romanian public sphere." (Abstract)
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"Twenty years after the fall of communism in Romania, there are two main pilgrimages that dominate the Orthodox religious environment: the pilgrimage to Saint Parascheva of Iasi and the pilgrimage to Saint Dumitru cel Nou, Basarabov in Bucharest. These two pilgrimages are practiced in old sacred cen
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tres with a long tradition and with their own unique identity. The objective of this article is focused on how the mass mass media understands and relates to the religious phenomenon and the way that journalists depict the image of the pilgrimages in the published articles. The study investigates the articles published in newspapers during the period 1990-2010 and frames the information according to the existing interest areas." (Abstract)
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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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