Analysis of My Idea of Religion During The Era of Media Usage

My idea of religion and its relationship with media contains in this essay. I will explore definitions of “media” and “religion”, providing an overview of “mediatization of religion”, “religion in the media” and “media religion”. Also in the document, I present my view on religion, pointing out its “continuing dominance on the African continent”, highlighting its effect on political and socioeconomic of African countries. Although there mainly is no scholarly consensus over what precisely makes up a religion, it is often defined as a sociocultural system of designated behaviours and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations that connects people to supernatural, transcendental, and spiritual elements. Different people have different religious beliefs which is unique to their cultural orand societal beliefs. Media on the other hand, both electronic and print is an integral part of the African Society and the world as a whole. Harold Koenig argues that the definition of religion is generally agreed upon by scholars of religion: it comprises beliefs, practices and rituals that are related to the sacred, to God, to the mystical or to the supernatural. Religion, accordingly, is not just a typical function or variable amongst other variables: it constitutes the root from which the different branches of life sprout, grow and flourish. From this point of view, religion is of integral importance: it concerns the deepest root of human existence and integrates human life into a coherent whole. In mass communication, the media is classified to be communication channels, outlets or tools employed to store and deliver information or data. It refers to components of the mass media communications industry, which includes print media, publishing, the news media, photography, cinema, broadcasting, digital media, and advertising. The concluding part of this document provides future projection of religious dominance on the African continent supported with research work from various theological researchers.

The Dominance of the Religious Institution in Africa

In Africa, the most dominant religious factions are Christianity, Islam and the traditional African Religion. The continuing dominance of religion in Africa has been studied by various theological scholars. In a research conducted by Pew Research Center in 2015, a number of only three African countries were included in the top 10 in numbers of Christians in the population: Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia. Together, these nations accounted then for just over 216 million Christians. In Kenya alone, it is estimated that over people living in the country are Christians 80% Christian and there are a significant over 4000 registered churches in the country. The Pew Center recently predicted that , there will be approximately 727 million Christians in Africa, by 2060. “Overall, there are about 2.3 billion Christians in the world and 1.8 billion Muslims,” the report says. “That gap is expected to narrow by 2060, when . . . there will be 3 billion Christians and nearly 3 billion Muslims. That’s because Muslims, on average, are younger and have more children than do Christians.” A leading American research group has presented new projections that the number of Christians in various denominations and sects is steadily rising in Africa and could dominate the faith numerically worldwide for decades to come.

Islam on the other hand is likewise growing in dominance. It is estimated that about 44% of the total African population of 1.02 billion identify themselves as Muslims which is the highest percentage among other continents. This means that about 446 million are Muslims where the most dominant worshippers can be located in the northern part of the continent in countries such as Algeria Egypt and Tunisia. Most experts and media sources state that approximately 90 percent of the population is Sunni Muslim and approximately 10 percent is Christian (estimates range from 5 to 15 percent). Irrespective of the dismissing dominance of the traditional African Religion, it is also estimated that over 100 million people from 42 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa alone continue to adhere to the customs and beliefs of the religion.

Digital Travel editor of Telegraph in the UK, Oliver Smith, in just article explains the dominance of religion in Africa. According to him, “In sub-Saharan Africa, on the other hand, the share of respondents who consider religion very important in their daily lives is much larger, ranging from a high of 98% in Ethiopia to a low of 71% in Botswana. In all but two countries in the region (South Africa and Botswana), more than 80% of adults say religion is very important to them, yielding a regional average of 89% who say this.” 

The afore-mentioned figures prove the dominance and continuing dominance of the religious institution on the African continent. In my view, the religious institution is the most dominant in Africa which I support with arguments and facts from a variety of scholars in the rest of this essay. But first, we need get an overview of religion in the media and media religion and how the religious institution is becoming dominant on the African continent.

Overview of Religion And Its Continuing Dominance 

Religion can be found in every aspect of the African society, the education sector, the health sector, politics and normal everyday life. Religious institutions set up first cycle, second cycle and third cycle schools in communities in Africa. For example in Ghana were the Catholic Church, the Presbyterian Church and the Methodist Church establish schools which promotes their dominance in communities. For example, Adventist Girls High School Islamic Girls Senior High, Anglican Senior High School to mention a few are educational institutions established by religious bodies which allows them to impact their beliefs and ideologies, thereby increasing their dominance. In politics, the religious institution continuous to establish its dominance by acting as an independent body in the political Sphere. using Ghana as an outstanding example, the power and authority of the peace Council which is mostly constituted by religious leaders and the national chief Imam cannot be underestimated. The are key figures decision makers and opinion leaders in the country. In the health sector, religious bodies are ever present to provide help to people, an opportunity which allows them to be the most dominant institution on the continent . For example, St. Lawrence Hospital, Comboni Kyamuhunga Hospital, Kitgum, St. Joseph's Hospital, St. Anthony's Hospital are a few hospitals established in Uganda by religious institutions. Some scholars have also produced documents on how the religious institution is becoming the most dominant on the African continent.

Media as Influential Factor of African Religion Institutions

The media is an essential factor in the dominance of the religious institution in Africa. This is done through media ownership by religious bodies, frequent dissemination of media messages and many others. Many social functions of religion, especially where it concerns community building and rituals, have been taken over by the media”. And religious institutions themselves have subsumed to ‘media logic’, i.e. framing their actions and activities in forms appealing to the media, and to audiences that live with media.

The Christian Messenger is an English-language monthly publication and the official newspaper of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana. The Voice of the Cape, Radio Islam International, Markaz Sahaba Live, Cii Radio and Radio Al Ansaar, are some Islam Radio Stations in South Africa. Aseda TV, Kiss TV, Fire TV are religious television stations in Ghana. These re just a few media outlets own by religious groups. I will there analyse the relationship between media and religion to explain how religion is thriving and reaching wider audiences as the day goes by. Religion and media are two interconnected institutions. The relationship that exists between these two institutions are essential to human life. The boundary that exists between Media and Religion has been studied by various scholars. In line with such efforts, various researchers have tried to show the necessity of building new bridges between religion and media. These efforts by researchers is a determination to unify these two important elements of modern human life (media and religion), which historically could also be understood in the context of to a greater extent a complicated relationship between science and religion. I will therefore proceed to present and analyse the relationship between media and religion based on how the media portrays religion in its reportage.

Print Media and Electronic media present religion in different ways, a newspaper may promote a religious organizations by publicising events, or may inform its readership about various aspects of a religion. Other newspapers may write features on national or international religious events, example Hajj, or the appointment of a new Vatican Pope. In magazines, there are many religious publications which often educate and promote media messages of religion to support and strengthen the faith of people in their practices. Religious groups can use the internet to their advantage by promoting their religion to the world and bringing together the faithful by sharing news and using online and social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. For example, Many religious charities, use their websites to alert people about natural disasters around the world and to seek for donations online.

In Charles Hirschkind's Experiments in Devotion Online: The YouTube KHUT. B A he explains the use of YouTube in the Islamic religion. In his research, he explained that, “One khut.ba-based genre that does enjoy great popularity among Muslim Internet users, and that I explore here, consists of short video segments of Friday khut.ba on YouTube. These khut.ba segments are usually between one and ten minutes long, and have been placed on the site by someone with a YouTube account. Such accounts are available free of charge to anyone wishing to either post videos on the site or append responses in the “Comments” section located at the bottom of the video window. In the upper right hand corner of the YouTube screen is a link to the YouTube account of the person who put the video on the site. This personal account page itself includes a number of different sections, including links to collections of favourite videos, comments by visitors, and whatever personal biographical information the page owner has decided to provide.”

Religion as a Way of Living 

As stated in the introduction of this essay, there is no generally agreed definition of religion. John Mbiti agrees with that assertion and has argued that it is difficult to define religion. According to him, it is even more difficult to define religion in the context of African traditional life. Despite this difficulty, he asserts that for Africans, religion is an ontological phenomenon: it pertains to the question of existence or being. Religion has rules about conduct that guide life within a social group and it is often organised and practised in a community, instead of being an individual or personal affair. Religion makes up an essential part of the complex African society. Religion irrespective of its flourishing popularity on the continent, many sub-Saharan African countries are amongst the world's poorest nations. Regrettably, according to a recent report of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), nine countries in sub-Saharan Africa rank among the seventeen most corrupt countries in the world.

Mbiti had an assertion that most Africans are intensely religious. According to him, religion permeates all departments of life to such an extent that it is not easy or possible to isolate it. Although the African religious consciousness was initially derived from the practice of traditional religion, Christianity and Islam have given further impetus to this consciousness. In African traditional life, the individual is immersed in religious participation that starts before birth and continues after death. For the African, 'to live is to be caught up in a religious drama'. Religion is indeed fundamental for Africans, since human beings live in a religious universe. Both the universe, and practically all human activities in it, are seen and experienced from a religious perspective. This means that the whole of existence is a religious phenomenon, which leads Mbiti to argue that in the African worldview, to exist is to be religious in a religious universe. In this sense it is unthinkable for an African to live without religion. This religious worldview informs the philosophical understanding of African myths, customs, traditions, beliefs, morals, actions and social relationships. This same worldview also accounts for the religiosity of the African in political and socio-economic life. Mbiti argues that it is obvious that - in their encounter with indigenous religious traditions - Christianity and Islam have succeeded in converting many Africans. However, traditional religion shows resilience in its impact in such areas as Africans' historical-cultural roots, self-consciousness and expectations

Religion Influence on Arfican Political Life

Admittedly, just as religion influences the socio-political and economic spheres, so is religion also influenced by these spheres. African political and economic elite have often resorted to religion in their intense competition for the diminishing resources of wealth, political power and prestige. In African societies such as Nigeria, the state provides a source of power and wealth, more so than any other institution in society. The power and wealth provided by the state is usually competed for with enormous ferocity. The religious dimension in socio-economic and political contestation in Africa could be said to be both pervasive and complex. Kalu argues that the intrusion of spirituality in contemporary political dynamics is, firstly, given impetus by the claim of African politicians that African political ethics are rooted in an African traditional worldview. Secondly, religion is employed in the political and economic spheres by those who legitimate their power by appealing to ritual sources to be found in traditional religion and culture. These two factors 'enable traditional secret societies such as Ogboni, Nyamkpe, Owegbe, and Ekine to serve as instruments for mobilising economic and political power' in contemporary African society. Whilst Christianity and Islam, like traditional religions, serve as instruments for the mobilisation of political and economic power, they are also wrongly used by the elite as 'instruments of political conflict'. At the same time, however, if religion is so entrenched in the socio-political and economic lives of Africans, it is unimaginable that it does not also have a vital role to play in the transformation of the continent.

Conclusion

These are some scholarly works produced on media and its dominance on the African continent in relation to everyday life, politics and the media. Therefore, in my opinion, religion uses the media and media messages, (also, religious bodies make uses of social media platforms, video platforms like YouTube to spread their messages( to reach a wider audience, charity works, investing in every sector of the African society from health, education and politics to continue to be the most dominant institution.

References

1. Meyer, B. (2015). Sensational Movies: Video, Vision, and Christianity in Ghana. University of California Press.

2. Amanze, J. N. (2015). Religious Broadcasting in the Mega-Churches of Lagos: A Cultural Analysis. Africa Today, 61(4), 76-97.

3. Marshall-Fratani, R. (1998). Mediating the global and local in Nigerian Pentecostalism. Journal of Religion in Africa, 28(3), 278-315.

4. Asamoah-Gyadu, J. K. (2013). African charismatics: Current developments within independent indigenous pentecostalism in Ghana. In Burgess, R. G. (Ed.), Pentecostalism in Africa: Presence and Impact of Pneumatic Christianity in Postcolonial Societies (pp. 73-87). Brill.

5. Omoyajowo, A. (2012). The New African Christianity: Emergence, Diversity and Influence. Africa World Press.

6. Raudvere, C. (2010). Sharing the Light: Representations of Religious Experience in a Nigerian Multimedia Event. In Jordan, P., & Tomalin, E. (Eds.), Materializing Religion: Expression, Performance, and Ritual (pp. 180-200). Routledge.

7. Kimaro, H. C. (2009). Christianity, media and the state in Africa: The case of Tanzania. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 18(3), 206-221.

8. Meyer, B., & Moors, A. (2006). Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere. Indiana University Press.

9. Newell, S. (2009). The Power of Media in the Struggle for the Human Rights of the Homosexual in Uganda. Journal of African Media Studies, 1(2), 257-272.

10. Dibua, J. I. (2011). Religion, Media and Social Change in Africa: What Does Religion “Do” to Media?. Journal of Religion in Africa, 41(1), 35-53.

11. Engelke, M. (2010). A problem of presence: Beyond scripture in an African church. University of California Press.

12. Meyer, B. (2004). Christianity in Africa: From African Independent to Pentecostal-Charismatic churches. Annual Review of Anthropology, 33, 447-474.

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13. Marshall-Fratani, R. (2001). Media and the Rhetoric of Body-Minds in Northern Nigeria: Ethical Controversies in Blasphemy and Islam. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 71(4), 573-611.