"Conspiracy theories are a ubiquitous feature of our times. The Handbook of Conspiracy Theories and Contemporary Religion is the first reference work to offer a comprehensive, transnational overview of this phenomenon along with in-depth discussions of how conspiracy theories relate to religion(s).
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Bringing together experts from a wide range of disciplines, from psychology and philosophy to political science and the history of religions, the book sets the standard for the interdisciplinary study of religion and conspiracy theories." (Publisher description)
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"In focusing on the twin processes of marketization and mediatization, the intention is by no means to argue that markets and media constitute the only factors shaping religion today. Nor is the intention to argue that a focus on marketization and mediatization would provide the “best” way to st
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udy contemporary processes of institutional religious change. Having said that, the approach of this book is nevertheless grounded in the firm contention that a serious and systematic consideration of the impact of processes of marketization and mediatization as key vectors of social and cultural change in the post–World War II era has great potential to nuance and enrich already existing theoretical thinking on contemporary institutional religious change. This potential is, however, crucially dependent on the capacity of researchers to provide firmly empirically grounded arguments about exactly how processes of marketization and mediatization work to effect social, cultural, and institutional religious change. This book directs particular attention to the ways in which processes of marketization and mediatization have been accompanied by the spread of a set of powerful discourses and discursive formations that have proliferated throughout ever more social and cultural domains and increasingly come to underpin contemporary criteria of eff ective institutional and organizational life, agency, practice, and communication. The focus of this book thus lies firmly on the ideational and discursive dimensions of processes of marketization and mediatization. The book is further based on the premise that the ideational and discursive dimensions of marketization and mediatization have had the strongest and most clearly observable effect on long-established institutional Christian Protestant churches that have retained close structural relationships to states and core social establishments, and for which the gradual general transition from a previous vertical national-statist model of social organization toward a horizontal, deregulated, and market- inspired network model has been most challenging." (Introduction, page 8-9)
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"The purpose of this study is to determine whether the media language code is suitable for transmitting religious messages. In religious media communication one observes a tendency not to respect the classical news values, and in fact tends to limit them. This approach makes religious media communic
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ation fail at the start. Using textual analysis and qualitative research techniques, e.g., focus groups and Delphi, we investigate some news values relate (positively or negatively) to the religious messages. Here we present three most expressive of them: conflict, scandalousness and story. If messages are formed by news values, then religious messages are formed by means of values that we named the gospel values and can be identified with traditional Catholic Church virtues. Finding possible connections between the news values and the gospel values seems to be one of the basic solutions for the religious message media coding." (Abstract)
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"Although the issue of religion does not occupy a prominent place in the works of Stuart Hall or even in Cultural Studies in general, some contemporary phenomena related to media and religion relations can be analyzed within this key of interpretation, mostly when we think on the intersection with i
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dentity. In this text, some theoretic and conceptual possibilities are outlined in order to understand the process of mediatization of religion from a perspective of articulation of identities, focusing, in particular, on questions related to body and culture." (Abstract)
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"Este livro é uma introdução a alguns dos principais temas, conceitos e ideias para estudar as relações entre mídia e religião na sociedade contemporânea. O objetivo, mais do que discutir as teorias, é apresentar um panorama do que vem sendo pensado a respeito, mostrando, a partir de exempl
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os, situações cotidianas e estudos de caso, como as relações entre mídia e religião se enquadram em questões políticas, históricas e sociais. Os pontos de vista teóricos apresentados são diferentes, às vezes até mesmo opostos: essa variedade é um convite ao diálogo entre as teorias, pensando que o conhecimento pode ter vários caminhos. Embora seja muitas vezes uma questão de fé individual, a religião é vivida em público – e isso a torna um tema para as Ciências Sociais, particularmente, para a Comunicação. O modo como a pessoa religiosa se veste, fala, vive com os outros, escolhe seus relacionamentos afetivos ou mesmo profissionais está, em alguma medida, ligado às suas crenças. Portanto, a religião neste livro é entendida como uma prática social, algo que acontece na relação entre as pessoas. E, fechando o foco, o estudo está nas práticas sociais religiosas ligadas à mídia e à comunicação." (Palavras iniciais, página 9)
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"In their article on 'Building the Sacred Community Online', Oren Golan and Nurit Stadler zoom in on the latest attempts of Chabad, the extrovert Jewish Hasidic group, to harness the newest digital technologies to propagate and popularize its staunchly traditionalist reading of Jewish heritage. Also
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known as 'Lubavitch', Chabad is the Hebrew acronym of 'Wisdom, Intellect, Knowledge', three of the more elevated kabalistic spheres (cf. Proverbs 3, 19-20). To many, Chabad's embrace of communication technologies looks like an example of enlisting the devil to do God's work, though it does not look like that to them. This paradox, and Golan and Stadler's account of its newest coming, touches on some of the most fundamental issues of Jewish communications, as well as the much broader problem of religion and communications. The general religion and communication nexus may be divided into two major themes. One is the issue of religious communications, or media theology - namely, the problem of interaction of God and humans. But it also consists of the issue of communicating religion, namely, the handling and disseminating of what the religious believe to be a divine message in this world. As we shall see, both these issues are particularly relevant to Chabad. But the more immediate context for understanding Chabad and its use of media is the universe of Jewish communications. Here too there is a duality: 'Jewish' connotes both Jews and Judaism - a social entity and a religion - and here too, both aspects are relevant to understanding Chabad's media practices today. In order to link Stadler and Golan's study to these broader themes, we will work diachronically. We survey the beginnings and historical development of Chabad communications and beyond them the beginnings of Hasidic communications." (Abstract)
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"The contributors to The Media and Religious Authority examine the ways in which new centers of power and influence are emerging as religions seek to "brand" themselves in the media age. Putting their in-depth, incisive studies of particular instances of media production and reception in Asia, Afric
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a, Latin America, and North America into conversation with one another, the volume explores how evolving mediations of religion in various places affect the prospects, aspirations, and durability of religious authority across the globe." (Publisher description)
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"Religion and popular culture is a fast-growing field that spans a variety of disciplines. This volume offers the first real survey of the field to date and provides a guide for the work of future scholars. It explores: "key issues of definition and of methodology, religious encounters with popular
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culture across media, material culture and space, ranging from videogames and social networks to cooking and kitsch, architecture and national monuments, representations of religious traditions in the media and popular culture, including important non-Western spheres such as Bollywood." (Publisher description)
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"Afghanistan once housed tourists from around the world intrigued by the Silk Road stories, the poetic and mystic culture, the majestic landscape and the hospitable people. Their experience in Afghanistan was frequently captured through journalism and photojournalism of the early 1900s. However, Afg
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hanistan’s very own media culture was born during this same time with Seraj-ul-Akhbar being the country’s first newspaper, published on 11 January 1906." (Abstract)
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"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
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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)
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"Este trabalho delineia trilhas da pesquisa em Mídia e Religião, focalizando a aproximação desses estudos com a área de Comunicação. A pesquisa focaliza os livros sobre o tema publicados entre 1980 e 2013. São delineados três momentos, não isentos de mesclas e sobreposições: (a) investig
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ações a partir das Ciências Sociais, em particular da Sociologia da Religião; (b) primeiras articulações nos estudos sobre comunicação eclesial; e (c) a consolidação do tema na área de Comunicação. Observa-se como mídia e religião se articulam na produção de conhecimento no campo das pesquisas em Comunicação." (Resumo)
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