"Through extensive fieldwork and archival research, Febe Armanios explores how Western evangelicals and indigenous Christians harnessed terrestrial and satellite technologies to promote Christian ... television in the Middle East. The sixteen channels analyzed in this study fall into three main categories: Western-backed conservative outlets with a charismatic and apocalyptic outlook; middle-ground channels that sought to balance their international sponsors' expectations with local interests; and grassroots initiatives rooted in ancient church traditions. The histories and programming strategies of primarily Arabic, but also Turkish and Persian, Christian channels reveal how media producers forged unexpected political alliances, pursued sectarian objectives, and navigated various transnational influences. Satellite Ministries explores how modern expressions of faith, technology, and political power intersected and clashed across the Global South and beyond." (Publisher description) more

"This article examines the depiction of women and gender within Coptic Orthodox video films or “hagiopics” produced between 1987 and 2010. As part of a recent religious renewal, hagiopics have expanded, altered, and reinvented traditional stories of saints and pious figures and have also generat ... ed, within this traditionally patriarchal setting, a wider space for the articulation of female voices. While their inclusion can be seen as potentially empowering for women, this paper suggests that during Pope Shenouda III's reign (1971–2012), the films became a powerful vehicle for broadcasting the church's conservative teachings on female power and authority, marriage and marital dissolution, spousal abuse, and femininity. By highlighting an array of exemplary female characters, hagiopics capture women's role as custodians of a distinctive Coptic ethos and of family and communal cohesiveness. The films’ emphasis on women's physical modesty, submissiveness, and obedience to male figureheads also hints at the modern church's anxieties about women's increasing autonomy in choosing marriage partners and their growing demands for more equal treatment within the church." (Abstract) more