"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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"From Jesus to the Internet is the first systematic survey of the historical relationship between Christianity and media. Although many see the relationship between religion and media as a distinctly modern phenomenon, in this book the scholar Peter
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Horsfield examines Christianity through its history as a mediated phenomenon, showing how profoundly it has been shaped by the many media forms used in embodying and spreading its stories." (Back cover)
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"The list of critical terms selected and explicated in this book will signal many things to readers. It will certainly indicate that the study of media and religion is broadly interdisciplinary. Before the 1980s, the field, if it even was one, was largely the domain of historians of Christianity, Ch
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ristian communicators, and seminary professors, geared toward the improvement of church communication policy and practice, education, evangelism, and preaching. Matters have changed since then. Though religious organizations scholarship has explored the subject. Anthropology, cultural studies, media studies, visual and material culture, film studies, and religious studies are among the next generation of disciplines drawn to the study of media and religion. The new paradigm that this book articulates has described itself under a triad of terms: religion, media, and culture. What the third term means will be considered in detail in the Introduction here and in several of the Key Word essays. For the time being, it is important to say that the religion, media, and culture approach is not limited to the tendency to focus on journalism and communication policy, which is the legacy of the older practice. The aim here is not to dismiss or ignore them but to expand the remit and to change some key assumptions about what “religion” and “media” are in academic study. The difference turns on the third term, culture. The dominant approach taken here is constructivist in nature." (Preface, page xii-xiii)
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"This is the first book to bring together many aspects of the interplay between religion, media and culture from around the world in a single comprehensive study. Leading international scholars provide the most up-to-date findings in their fields, and in a readable and accessible way. Some of the to
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pics covered include religion in the media age, popular broadcasting, communication theology, popular piety, film and religion, myth and ritual in cyberspace, music and religion, communication ethics, and the nature of truth in media saturated cultures." (Publisher description)
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"The growing connections between media, culture and religion are increasingly evident in contemporary society, but until now have rarely been theoretically linked. The contributors to this volume effectively combine these areas into a coherent whole. The issues they examine include: the decline of r
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eligious institutions during the late twentieth century; the increasing autonomy and individualized practice of religion; and the surge of media and media-based icons that are often imbued with religious qualities, and the ensuing effect on cultural practices." (Publisher description)
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"What has been the influence of television on religion, and vice versa? Horsfield studies the institutional structure of television with this question in mind. Part I provides a historical overview of the development of religious television and an
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analysis of its structure; Part II is a survey of relevant empirical research; Part III is a projection of the future as indicated by current trends, and a suggested strategy for a realistic use of television by the church. His conclusion is that religious broadcasting has been overly influenced by television's institutional structure." (Eleanor Blum, Frances G. Wilhoit: Mass media bibliography. 3rd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990 Nr. 662)
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