Media and Religion: The Global View

234 Pages·2021·30.748 MB·English

by  Stewart M Hoover (editor), Nabil Echchaibi (editor)

MediaandReligion
Religion and Society
Edited by
Gustavo Benavides, Frank J. Korom,
Karen Ruffle and Kocku von Stuckrad
Volume 74
Media and
Religion
The Global View
Edited by
Stewart M. Hoover and Nabil Echchaibi
ISBN978-3-11-049986-5
e-ISBN(PDF)978-3-11-049787-8
e-ISBN(EPUB)978-3-11-049608-6
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Acknowledgements
A project such as this has many sources, and many have contributed to this
one. We’d first like to thank our scholarly colleagues in the Center for Media,
Religion,andCulture.ThepapersinthisvolumeresultedfromoneoftheCen-
ter’s conferences, and the depth and significance of that event were duein no
smallmeasuretotheeffortsandreputationofthefaculty,graduatefellows,and
visitingfellowswhocontinuetomaketheCenteranexceptionalplaceinglobal
discourses on media and religion. The Center also depends on an exceptional
staff,includingduringthecourseofthisprojectDonaOlivier,KimberlyDonovan,
ErinAshbaugh,ClaireWaugh,ValerieAlbickerandHelenGurnee.Finally,andin
manywaysmostimportantly,oureffortsinresearchandscholarshipwouldnot
bepossiblewithoutthesubstantialsupportoftheUniversityofColoradoandits
newCollegeofMedia,Communication,andInformation,whichcameintobeing
whilethisprojectwasinprocess.TheDeanofthecollege,LoriBergen,Associate
Deanfor research Andrew Calabrese, and MediaStudiesDepartment Chair Rick
Stevenscontinuetobeimportantpartsofwhatmakesourworkpossible.
Finally, we want to thank those who contributed directly to this volume.
First,theeditorialstaffatDeGruyter,inparticularAlissaJonesNelsonandSophie
Wagenhofer,whohavebeenpatientlysupportivethroughout.Wealsobenefitted
fromimportantassistancefromFellowsinourcenter,andwantparticularlytoac-
knowledge Dr. Ryan Bartlett, who provided invaluable editorial assistance and
consultationatkeymomentsintheprocess.
StewartM.Hoover
NabilEchchaibi
Boulder,CO
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110497878-202

Contents
Acknowledgements V
StewartM.HooverandNabilEchchaibi
Introduction 1
StewartM.HooverandNabilEchchaibi
ConjuringtheReligious,theGlobalandtheMediated 21
FlorencePascheGuignard
HighTechMediations,LowTechLifestyles:TheParadoxofNatural
ParentingintheDigitalAge 41
DeborahJustice
Multi-siteMediatedWorship:WhySimulcastSermonsNeedLiveLocal
PraiseBands 63
KathleenM.Ryan
SilencingtheTonguesofAngels?TheAestheticsofDestructionin
EnvironmentalEdens 83
DevinWilson
AnattainBuddhismandGames:EmptinessandtheMagicCircle 99
SolmazMohammadzadehKive
TheNationalMuseumandReligiousIdentity:The“IslamicPeriod”at
Iran’sNationalMuseum 105
MagalidoNascimentoCunha
Media,Religion,andtheFabricofCultureandCommunication
inContemporaryBrazil 125
StevenHu
DigitizingJesus:ExpandingPublicsandCultivatingCivilitywiththe
JesusFilmSmartphoneApp 141
VIII Contents
SeungSooKim
DigitalMediaandImperialFormations:The2012LadyGagaControversy
inSouthKorea 159
StewartM.HooverandJ.KwabenaAsamoah-Gyadu
MediaCurationandRe-emergentReligioninGhana’sRoadsidePublic
Sphere 181
PradipThomas
Religion,MediaandCultureinIndia:HindutvaandHinduism 205
Contributors 219
Index 221
StewartM.HooverandNabilEchchaibi
Introduction
MediaandReligion:TheGlobalView
Theseconddecadeofthe21stCenturyhasbecomeaperiodofgreatchangeacross
theworld.Upheavalsineconomiesandmarkets,inpoliticalsentiments,andinthe
global flows of populations and peoples have led to upheavals in politics. These
have been obvious in, but not limited to, the developed nations of the North
AtlanticWest.The“Brexit”voteintheUnitedKingdom,followed by theone-
termTrumppresidencyintheUnitedStates,seemedtosignalashiftthathad
already begun earlier in Hungary, Russia, Poland, India, and elsewhere. The
rise of so-called “illiberal” and “populist” politics in these settings moved
aheadwiththeelectionofJairBolsonaroinBrazilandthefurtherentrenchment
ofright-wingmovementselsewhere.Thetwinupheavalsof2020–thecoronavi-
ruspandemicandthentheU.S.-generatedturmoiloverracialinjusticethatthen
spread much further – in a sense linked the world in new and unprecedented
waysandfurtherroiledtheseculturalandpoliticaldevelopments.
Thereareinterestingparallelsamongmanyofthesethings.Onedimensionthat
ispresent–andincreasinglysignificant–istheroleofreligion.Inmanyplaces,reli-
gionhastakenonanewforceandinfluence,anddonesoinwaysthatarealsonew.
Itisnolongeratthe“side.”Nordoesitremaintaken-for-grantedortacitculturally.
Ithasachievednewprominence,andthisprominenceisafunctionofanothersignif-
icant dimension: the role and place of media, mediation, media institutions, and
mediapracticesinthesematters.Toagreatextent,itistheimaginationofreligion
anditsroleinbroadersocialimaginariesofmeaningandvaluethatiskey.Therole
ofsocialimaginariesintheconstitutionofpower,ofmeaning,andofthedefinition
ofidentitiesandboundariesisofcriticalimportance.And,asshouldbeclear,such
imaginariesaredeeplyinflectedwithreligion,withthememoryofreligion,withthe
architectureandthegenealogyofreligion,andwiththehistoricaltrajectoryofreli-
gion.Inimportantways,theinteractionbetweenthesevariousvalencesofreligion
andthevariousvalencesofmediaisdeterminative.
Thisistheburdenofthisbook.We,andthescholarswepresenthere,areen-
gaged in a deep inquiry into the contemporary constitution of the relations be-
tween religion and the media. This is no simple task. All religions have always
beenmediated in one way or another.Allrequire meansby which theyarecele-
brated, shared, recorded, and mystified. Some of these “media” are the tradi-
tionalones: song,dance,movement,poetry,painting. But today,weknowthat
many religions are mediated by what we think of as the “modern” media of
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110497878-001
2 StewartM.HooverandNabilEchchaibi
communication: mechanical, industrial, electronic. These “media” – what we
think of as “THE media,” are the determinative context of action across social,
cultural,andpoliticalspaces.Thewaythatthesedomainstodayoperatewithin
logics of media is a subject of broad public and scholarly comment. There is a
great dealsaidand writtenabout mediaand politics and about mediaand eco-
nomics. There are broad scholarships focused on the role of media in cultural
understandingsofrace,gender,class,andsocialidentitiesofvariouskinds.
But,eventhoughitiseasytoassumethatmodernmediationmustalsoimpinge
onreligion,ourunderstandingsasscholarsandascitizensofhowthisisthecase
lagbehindtheseotherareas.First,ithasbeenconventionaltothinkof“religion”
and“themedia”asseparateandhermeticspheresofvalueandaction.Second,it
hasbeenconventionaltothinkofthingsprimarilyintermsofthe“effects”ofone
upontheother.Third,ithasbeenconventionaltogeneralizeourunderstandingsof
each of these domains based on their functions in what have been thought to be
entirely different registers of action. These determinative ideas about religion and
media have limited our abilities to fully understand them in a period marked by
powerfulchangesineach.
Change and Evolution
The media have, of course, undergone succeeding periods of restructuring from
thetime–inthemiddleofthelastcentury–whenthemediaspherewasmarked
byarelativelyfewpowerfulsourcesandchannels.Formuchoftheworld,thiswas
determinedbypowerfulpublicbroadcastingsystemsofvariousforms.Elsewhere,
suchasintheU.S.,broadcastingsystemswereprivatebutwereconcentratedand
in the hands of major industrialcorporations. The print media were more widely
privatized,butweresimilarlyconcentratedinownershipandcontrol.Themedia,
thus constituted and structured, were easy to see and understand as a concen-
trated center of action, hermetic and self-generating. And media practice further
enforcedthisconception,withafewmajorvoices,suchastheBBCandlaterCNN,
comingtodominateanddeterminetheglobalcirculationofnewsandinformation.
All of this began to change in the 1970s with the beginnings of a rapid re-
structuring of the production and distribution of global media. Technological
change brought about entirely new sources, contexts, and channels. Satellite
transmissionopenedupopportunitiesfornewsystemsofdistributionbothdo-
mesticallyandinternationally.Thedevelopmentofsmall-formatvideoproduc-
tion and the videocassette led to new opportunities for new voices and new
networks to form. Driven in part by these trends, new commercial models for