"The rapid expansion of the Internet, marked by a storm of blogs and social networking platforms, is perceived as an enabling instrument for Muslims to be engaged globally. In this regard, the blogosphere can be a vehicle for worldwide interactions and the formation of global Muslim community, the u
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mmah. While this idea is enchanting, this article shows that such an idea needs judicious scrutiny. Using three prominent cases from Indonesia, this article tries to explore the ways in which Muslim bloggers in Indonesia use this new flexible form to be engaged in conversations that are related to Islam and to answer the following questions: How do the features of the blogosphere influence discussions on Islam related issues? Does the promise of a “global village” change the dynamics of Muslim communities in Indonesia? Does the blogosphere perpetuate a sense of ummah consciousness or does it reinforce nationalism? Does the blogosphere offer promising possibilities for new types of Muslim communities to emerge in the form of globalized community?" (Abstract)
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"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
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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)
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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 analyzes media coverage of major news stories in which religion is a major component and recounts how journalist often miss, or misunderstand, these stories because they do not take religion seriously, or misunderstand religion when they do take it seriously. Since religion is a major and
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growing factor in human affairs throughout the world and, hence in major news stories, including those stories often mislabeled “secular,” if reporters do not take it seriously or understand it, then they will be poorer reporters. To the extent that journalists do not grasp events’ religious dimensions, both global and local, they are hindered from, and sometimes incapable of, describing what is happening in the world around us. The book contains six case studies that each describe an important event, issue, trend, problem, or situation, seek to show the centrality of religion to the story, then outline how journalists actually covered it, and how they often got it wrong. The two concluding chapters focus on ways, both conceptual and practical, of improving coverage." (Publisher description)
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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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"The primary objective of this research has been to review the experiences and analyse the role of the mainline churches in advocacy in support of human rights, democracy and poverty alleviation in Africa. It has set out to identify what is the particular contribution that churches can bring to such
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advocacy, and what opportunities exist for mutual support from other organisations involved in campaigning for human rights and democratic development. In particular the relationship between church-related NGOs in Europe and the mainline churches in Africa for advocacy work is examined. The analysis is based on an examination of three issues that are considered to be critical to the effective involvement of churches in advocacy: the external linkages and relationships of the church to other groups in society; the organisational implications of engaging in advocacy; and thirdly the ideological and theological positioning of the Church. Case studies were conducted on: the role of the National Council of Churches in Kenya (NCCK) in advocating for human rights and democracy; the role of the churches in Malawi in the transition to a multi-party democracy, and the role of the churches in advocating on economic issues in Zambia." (Abstract)
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