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Watching Joyce Meyer in Cairo: Christian Satellite Television in the Middle East
Abstract
This paper will examine the rise of Christian Satellite Television in Middle East over the past twenty years. The ways in which satellite television has altered the transmission of news, culture, and politics has been well-examined in the scholarly literature, but few have explored how this “new” media has allowed, for the first time, the expression of the specific spiritual, moral, and political concerns of Christians in the Middle East. An investigation of channels like SAT-7, Noursat, Al-Haya, Al-Shifa’, Aghaby TV, and CTV reveals how satellite television has created a new marketplace of ideas for oft-marginalized Christian communities in the region. The evolution of American sponsored and funded channels like Al-Haya TV, which frequently promote a charismatic form of Christianity, has encouraged indigenous Christian communities—like the Copts of Egypt—to pioneer their own channels and to develop competitive programming that uniquely represents a local, Middle Eastern perspective. This paper will argue that in this competitive environment, indigenous Christians have been pushed to retool their message and to become more flexible in how they present information to their audiences. In particular, I will focus on the Coptic case in Egypt: for decades, Copts had felt excluded from Egyptian state television and had little space to present their liturgical traditions, religious worldviews, and theological beliefs. With the development of two satellite channels exclusively devoted to Coptic concerns (Aghaby TV and CTV), Copts have a new outlet for religious expression. For the most part, programming has been dominated by Coptic clergymen and blessed by the Coptic Patriarch Shenouda III. A new generation of tech-savvy priests, like the Cairene Abouna Dawud Lam‘i, have become household names among Copts, known for their gentle but charismatic style of preaching. But increasingly the Coptic laity—men and women—have created more “secular” shows, devoted to everything from women’s issues to cooking. Coptic video-films, which are funded, directed, and acted by lay Copts, are regularly broadcast on these channels, and they have allowed for a reinterpretation of classical stories of martyrdom in a more modern guise. Occasionally, Coptic channels have also become an instrument for voicing political concerns, especially following violent, sectarian-motivated attacks targeting Coptic worshippers (in 2009 and 2010). This paper, in all, will emphasize the importance of understanding the role of Christian satellite channels and their ability to interject new and diverse voices in the Middle Eastern media landscape.
Discipline
Media Arts
Geographic Area
All Middle East
Egypt
Sub Area
None