Researching Digital Media and Islam in Africa: Recommending a Framework

Abstract

This chapter focuses on contemporary media-religion studies in West Africa. First, it recommends an analytical framework (religious authority) and a relatively recent media theory (mediatization) that permits a more flexible disciplinary approach. Together they represent a methodology that positions media-religion research in an emerging field. It addresses transnational or de-territorialized effects of digital media in contemporary religious traditions. Second, the chapter proposes that the contextualization of research on media and religion in Africa be conducted in conversation with the “waves” convention, which attempts to historicize digital media studies in recent years as quasi-distinct stages with specific objectives and methodologies. The chapter also calls for methodological alternatives to the dominant Western-centric analyses of religious phenomena and their relationship to both new and traditional media.