Fundamentalisms and the Media

This title looks at the complex role that media play in the rise and spread of fundamentalist movements within various religions traditions. The turn of the twenty-first century has seen an ever-increasing profile for religion, contrary to long-standing predictions of its decline. Instead, the West has experienced what some call a 'realignment' of religion where it persists in conjunction with other institutions and structures. Outside the West, religion is an ever more prominent force in social and political movements of both reform and retrenchment. Across these contexts, no issue in religion is of as much concern as fundamentalism - or rather the fundamentalisms within various traditions - which are seen to be fomenting religious, social, ethnic, and political tension and conflict. The contributions to this volume represent the first effort to look at 'fundamentalisms' and 'the media' together and address the resulting relations and interactions from critical perspectives of history, technology, geography, and practice. The result lays important groundwork for scholarship on these new and increasingly important phenomena.

"The relationship between the media and various forms of "fundamentalism" has been intimate, complex, mutually reinforcing - and largely misunderstood. This superb volume of essays goes a long way toward enhancing our grasp of this crucial topic." - Randall Balmer, Professor of American Religious History, Barnard College, Columbia University, USA

Stewart M. Hoover is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he directs the Center for Media, Religion and Culture. Nadia Kaneva is Assistant Professor in the Department of Mass Communications and Journalism Studies at the University of Denver.