Mediating authority

Media technologies and the generation of charismatic appeal in southern Mali

Bibliographic Data

ID7213601
AuthorsDorothea E Schulz (University of Cologne, corresponding author), Dorothea E Schulz1 (University of Cologne)
Year2015
Volume16
Issue2
Pages125-145
Publication date2015-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCulture and Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1475-5610 • E-ISSN: 1475-5629
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14755610.2015.1058525
OpenAlexW1708721858
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited17

This article offers a close analysis of the media performances of a particularly successful preacher in Mali, Sheikh Cherif Haidara, to study how authority is generated in the interaction between a leader and his followers, and to examine the role of mass mediation in this process. Informed by Weber's reflections on the nature of charismatic authority, the article takes charisma as a form of appeal that is mediated through aesthetic forms, and remediated and ‘channelled’ by virtue of particular media strategies and formats. By raising questions about the nature of charismatic attraction and by illustrating under what conditions it becomes effective, the article contributes to recent scholarship that addresses the role of the aesthetic in the validation or ‘authentication’ of religious experience

Aesthetics · Appeal · Charisma · Charismatic authority · Mediation · Political science · Scholarship · Sociology · Virtue · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Asian Studies and History · Law · Philosophy

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