2005/2

Pradip Thomas

The term Christian fundamentalism is generally used to describe the doctrines and attitudes of a number of Christian groups and sects who are united in their belief that Christian triumphalism is mandated in the Gospels and that, as such, Christians are duty-bound to translate this vision into political reality through the ballot box and by influencing the political agenda of their governments. The alliances between successive US Presidents and the Religious Right – Reagan, Ford, Bush Sr and Jr and the Christian Coalition – illustrate this tendency. The launch by the US government of its Arabic language satellite TV news station for Muslim Iraq on 2 May 2003 in collaboration with the US-based fundamentalist Christian organisation Grace Digital Media is a recent example of such an alliance.*

Kathleen McNeil

Reviewing the history of the troubled use of the words ‘fundamentalism’ and ‘fundamentalisms’, the author examines several criticisms in order to develop a conceptual framework that offers some cohesion to the term ‘fundamentalisms’, a term that will most likely to be used among us for the foreseeable future.

Dennis A. Smith

This is not what we were promised. The Modern Age, we were told, would bring us all the benefits of reasoned human enterprise: science and technology would grant us control over our environment and freedom from want; mindless passion would yield to understanding; even our inner demons would yield to the bounty of progress. When Brazil embarked on the modern adventure in the 19th Century they chose as their slogan ‘Order and Progress’. That sums it up nicely.

J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu

In 1992, the sub-Saharan African country of Ghana voted for constitutional democracy, following more than a decade of military dictatorship, and private ownership of the media was legalized. The new democracy has generated at least four private TV and many FM radio stations across the county including Joy FM whose owner is a member of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC).

Marleen de Witte

Barely a decade after the deregulation of the Ghanaian media, the broadcasting scene has drastically changed. Privately owned, commercial FM and TV stations are mushrooming, claiming Accra’s soundscape from the state-owned Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. A whole new popular culture evolves around radio and television, consisting of media personalities, RTV awards, review magazines, and live shows. But what strikes one most is the abundance of religion in the new media scene.

Jörg Becker

‘If Turkey joins, will God and Allah be included in the constitution?’ This question was put by the magazine Spektrum in the heading of an article about the impending decision, in early December 2004, by the EU Commission on whether to initiate accession negotiations with Turkey. This is an example of provocative journalism: a completely bizarre claim launched in the public domain only to be then attacked all the more vigorously.

Renée de la Torre

México es actualmente uno de los países en donde se vive un conflicto permanente entre la cultura secularizada y la fe católica. Hay que recordar que México fue una de las naciones que adoptaron de manera más temprana una ley laica, en cuyos artículos se prohíbe la intervención de las iglesias, de los sacerdotes, de los principios religiosos, en todo el ámbito político del estado, pero también en los ámbitos públicos, como son la participación de las iglesias en partidos políticos y procesos electorales, la prohibición de la religión en las escuelas públicas, y la reglamentación de que ninguna asociación religiosa puede ser propietaria de canal de radio o televisión.1

Walter Ihejirika

If one is asked to characterise the current religious and media situation in Nigeria, two visible phenomena will be very hard to omit. These are: the proliferation of the churches belonging to the Pentecostal Christian denomination, and the dominant presence of their religious leaders in both the print and electronic media in the country. Conversion to these churches has been on a steady increase, with membership rising up to 20 million within a thirty-year period. There has also been considerable impact on the Nigerian media landscape.

Silvio Waisbord

Communication specialists have not sufficiently discussed the place of communication in development programmes. Although theoretical and methodological aspects as well as programmatic experiences have received a great deal of attention, the institutional context of communication practice has been rarely addressed.

Jörg Becker and Christian Flatz

We are confronted with prejudices and enemy images on a daily basis, including in the media. The image of foreign countries and foreigners presented has often been examined. All such studies come to a largely similar conclusion: ‘foreigners’ are discriminated against in our media. The wealth of studies, however, cannot hide an obvious blank spot: the absence of studies on the image of foreign countries and foreigners in alternative, religious, feminist, socialist, left-wing and left-wing liberal media. As the following short article shows, together with a group of political science students from the University of Innsbruck, there has been an attempt to close this gap.