Communications, New Technologies, and Innovation

This chapter outlines the discussion over the influence of new media and communications technologies on the spread of (particularly charismaticized) Protestantism in Africa. It links the contemporary debate to the debate about the origins of Protestantism in the sixteenth-century communications revolution sparked by the invention of the printing press. Building on the work of scholars such as Lamin Sanneh, the chapter addresses issues of translation, the nature of modern media technologies and their semiotic impact on mediated messages; the construction of the public square and the ‘re-publicization of religion’. Particular attention is given to the rise of charismatic media empires, involving integrated print, digital, and satellite/television media, often in support of pentecostal/charismatic prosperity-preaching megachurches and their celebrity pastors.