The anthropology of media and the question of ethnic and religious pluralism

Abstract

This essay discusses anthropological approaches to the study of media interacting with contexts of ethnic and religious diversity. The main argument is that not only issues of access to and exclusion from public spheres are relevant for an understanding of media and pluralism. Background assumptions and ideologies about media technologies and their functioning also require more comparative analysis, as they impact public spheres and claims to authority and authenticity that ultimately produce and shape scenarios of ethnic and religious diversity. This additional dimension of diversity in the question of media and ethnic and religious pluralism is particularly apparent in crises of political and religious mediation. The latter often result in desires to bypass established forms of political and religious mediation that are in turn often projected on new media technologies.

Religion out loud religious sound, public space, and american pluralism, Weiner, Isaac

“…Indeed, demands of Western mosques to use loudspeakers have sometimes shifted attention to otherwise unnoticed church bells. One of Weiner's arguments, namely that the power of sounds to fade in the background is telling of the politics of belonging, recalls Patrick Eisenlohr's (2011) observations about religious media as successful when the process of mediation goes unnoticed. Unnoticed mediation is experienced as immediate and turns religion into something distinct from media for worshipers, whereas both Eisenlohr and Weiner describe religious practices as media, not by privileging sensational forms over content and dogma but by arguing for their deep connection.…”

Mediality and materiality in religious performance: religion as heritage in mauritius

“…The long sequences of de-and recontextualization of na't with their enormous potentials for transformation, reinterpretation, and alteration of multiple kinds are not only stabilized, but made to literally disappear, as this media practice conveys the sense of an immediate link to a setting where a recognized scholarpoet composed and uttered the poetry in a moment of divine inspiration and presence. In this sense, compared to print, sound reproduction, if working properly, is treated as a vanishing medium (Eisenlohr 2011).…”

Islam og revolution

“…Islam som tema relaterer sig også til sådanne videoer, og for at kvalificere brugen af dem, er det først og fremmest vigtigt at traenge bag billedernes "umiddelbarhed". Nyere medieringsteori kan hjaelpe i denne retning (Eisenlohr 2011, Engelke 2011, Hirschkind 2011, Meyer 2010, de Vries 2001. Her påpeges at det som medieres (budskab, billeder, lyd, osv.)…”