Hoover and Echchaibi to lead seminar at RCCongress 2010

Stewart Hoover, professor of media studies and Nabil Echchaibi, assistant professor of journalism at the University of Colorado at Boulder will be presenting a seminar at RCCongress 2010.

Hoover, who serves as director of the Center for Media, Religion, and Culture, has been a part of the Religion Communication Congress since 1980. The pre-Congress seminar is entitled, “Global Media; Global Religion: Research on Popular Media and the Remaking of Religions.”

Hoover and Echchaibi are two of the world's leading researchers and scholars of religion and the media. They have conducted research on the mediation of religion both in the U.S. and internationally and have looked in particular at the way the media are changing the religious cultures of Christianity and Islam in the West, in the Middle East, and in the developing world. Their seminar will feature results of their research as well as their thoughts about future developments, trends, and implications. There will be ample time for interaction and discussion.

"We want to look at these issues from a global context. You can no longer look at religion and media as something domestic or regional only," said Hoover, "Because my experience is primarily in Christianity and my colleague's expertise is in Islam, we look forward to doing a comparative analysis on how Christianity and Islam are different and similar, especially in how the media treats both religions."

Hoover is looking forward to this decade's Congress, which will be held April 7-10 at the Chicago Marriott Hotel.

"It's an amazing group of people from diverse backgrounds and religions and it's the best place to hear the perspectives and get to know what's going on in religious journalism, public relations, marketing and other communication aspects," said Hoover.

To see the full list of speakers, visit www.RCCongress2010.org/speakers.