Pentecostalism and media in Africa

Theoretical explorations of power and agency of media platforms and their users

Bibliographic Data

ID5144920
AuthorsMurtala Ibrahim (0000-0001-9575-2392, University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume17
Issue1
Publication date2023-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligion Compass (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1749-8171 • E-ISSN: 1749-8171
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/rec3.12452
OpenAlexW4313590686
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited38

This survey paper interrogates four theoretical frameworks often invoked to analyze intersections between media and religion: mediatization, mediation of meaning, mediation of the beyond, and religious social shaping of technology. The paper surveys several research works informed by the aforementioned theories that study Pentecostals' engagement with different forms of media in Africa. This paper suggests that these theories need to be revised to provide a balanced assessment of Pentecostalism and media technologies. Advancements in technology, particularly sophisticated of algorithms, transformed media into an intelligent and dynamic space that enormously influences media consumers. The theory of mediatization gave power and agency to media logic. However, the other theories (mediation of meaning, mediation of the beyond, and religious social shaping of technology) focused on human agency and saw media as an inert space with many features that users can use as they see fit. To remedy this unbalanced relationship, the paper calls for a new theory that accounts for the agency of both the users and the media platforms

Epistemology · Mediation · Political science · Public relations · Social media · Social science · Sociology · Structure and agency · Computer Science · ICT in Developing Communities · Law · Media, Religion, Digital Communication · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology

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