Religion and Media 2011 Abstracts
A Bigger Footprint: Religion Coverage by Another Name • Jesse Holcomb, Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism • A content analysis of significant religion stories in recent years suggests that the presence of religion in the news is broader than previously thought. However, in some cases, events with religious significance were primarily covered by journalists as politics, crime, or terrorism stories. The findings point to a journalistic landscape in which religion and other beats are not neatly segregated, but reflect the connectivity of the 21st century public sphere in which we all live.
As Predicted: Fact and Improbability in News Coverage of Astrology • Rick Moore, Boise State University • This study examines a recent eruption of news about astrology. It uses as a lens research on how traditional news values might allow “mystical” ideas to maintain public acceptance in spite of scientific evidence against them. Contrasting that approach with a lens provided by Neil Postman, the current study finds reporting about astrology did not provide significant scientific basis for dismissal of the belief. The two lenses for discussing this provide very different insights, however.
Assuaging Death and Assigning Blame: A Lyric Analysis of Mormon Murder Ballads • Clark Callahan, Brigham Young University; Quint Randle, BYU • This paper uses Fisher’s narrative approach as a theoretical foundation for deconstructing 19th century Mormon culture through the use of its ballads. Specifically, this paper investigates Mormon and non-Mormon lyrical representations of murder (killing), “Mormon Murder Ballads.” This mode of cultural expression was especially relevant during the first 20 or so years of the church which was marked by both individual and group killings and persecution. Using narrative criticism, each of the selected songs was coded for themes—four main themes were identified in the analysis. These themes are blood and gore, broken promises of America, heavenly justice and vengeance, and rational perspective. These four theme offer insights into the social structures in which violent acts were contextually situated and how persecution was symbolized by 19th-century Mormons.
Coverage of Islam in the Egyptian Press • Gregory Perreault, Washington Journalism Center • This study investigates how Islam is covered by English-language Egyptian media. In past research, Arab media scholars have noted that Arab media, examined as a whole, is problematic to draw conclusions from because of it’s complex, varied nature. It is more effective to look at the environment with a more localized, media-specific approach. And existing English-language research on the coverage of Islam is mainly centered on Western media coverage of Islam. Little or no English research exists which examines how Egyptian media professionals and bloggers cover Islam, the major religion of Egypt. In this study, data will be gathered to help fill in this important gap in research with a very specific medium, country and language. In this study, conducted the year before Mubarak resigned, a news framing content analysis examines articles related to Islam in English-language Egyptian news sources Al Ahram Weekly, Daily News Egypt and Al-Masry Al-Youm over a three month period to determine how discussions of Islam are framed in coverage. Interviews performed with journalists who work in Egyptian English news media help discern the motivations and influences that affect coverage of Islam.
Cultivating, or alleviating, fear? How religion and media influence feelings about terrorism • Rosemary Pennington, Indiana University; Ammina Kothari, School of Journalism – Indiana University; Stacie Meihaus Jankowski; Jae Kook Lee • It has been almost ten years since the September 11th terrorist attacks. Religion played a pivotal role in the recovery of many people who witnesses the attacks; news media covered the event thoroughly and has been covering terrorism-related stories since. This study examined how both religiosity and media use influence feelings about terrorism. It found only a positive relationship between newspaper readership and fear of terrorism.
Marketing Religion Online: The LDS Church’s SEO Efforts • Chiung Hwang Chen, Brigham Young University Hawaii • This paper examines the relationship between new media technologies and religious marketing. Specifically, it looks at how the LDS/Mormon Church employs Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques to influence online search results. The paper acknowledges the reasonable motivations behind and the ethical practice of the LDS Church’s SEO efforts; however, it also brings up philosophical questions about religions applying proactive/aggressive business marketing strategies.
Perceptions of Media Trust and Credibility amongst Mormon College Students • Guy J. Golan, Syracuse University; Sherry Baker, Brigham Young University • Based on a wide body of media credibility research, the current study explores media credibility perceptions amongst a highly conservative and religious sample. A survey of Brigham Young University students reveals low assessments of media credibility across platform and specific news sources. The study point to higher assessments of traditional news sources over broadcast news sources. In addition, the study identifies participants concern over the potential of the mainstream news media to mislead individual from within and without the Mormon community. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our study and call for future research to further investigate the complex relationship between media credibility and religion.
Religion, Affect and Cognition in Listener Contributions to NPR’s Talk of the Nation: Before, During and After 9/11. • Anna Turner; William Kinnally, University of Central Florida • Broadcast media often provide forums for public expression. This exploratory study sought to examine broadcast content to find support for Marx’s notion that religion is used as a tool to reduce suffering during a time of public crisis. Additionally, the project looked beyond the notion of religion to examine how affective and cognitive expressions evident in broadcasts of public’s voices differ in times of crisis. Public contributions to Talk of the Nation, a nationally broadcast, call-in talk show were analyzed using linguistic inquiry and word count software (LIWC). This longitudinal analysis included three week-long periods in the years before, during, and after 9/11. No differences were observed for expressions of religion or expressions of positivity. However, differences in expressions of negativity and cognitive processes were observed.
Secular and Religious Press Framing of the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill • Dave Ferman, University of Oklahoma • This study examines the differences in frames used by major American secular and religious publications in describing the controversy over the role American evangelists played in a bill introduced in the Ugandan parliament in October 2009 that would include the death penalty for some homosexuals. Fame analysis is also applied to study how the publications employed the hypocrisy topos, one of seven topoi descried by Silk as used by journalists in writing about religion and religious leaders. The findings indicate extensive differences between secular and religious publications, both in how they framed the evangelists’ influence on the bill and homosexuality in Africa, and how they employed the hypocrisy topos when looking at the messages that the evangelists used both before and after the bill was introduced and became a major topic of news reports and public debate in America and around the world.
Seeking to understand interactivity in church websites • Matthew Broaddus • When people seek to express their faith it is now often online in a cyber faith setting. This quantitative study provides a brief summary of the trends facing modern churches in the U.S., presents literature on cyber interactivity and Diffusion of Innovation Theory, reviews previous academic research in the area of innovation adopted by churches, and presents the results of a content analysis conducted on church websites to understand what interactive features churches have adopted.
State and national media coverage of Oklahoma’s proposed constitutional amendment outlawing the consideration of Sharia law in court decisions • Joel Kendall, Southwestern Oklahoma State University • This study analyzes state and national media coverage during Oklahoma’s November 2010 election season on a state constitutional amendment designed to ban the use of Sharia law in state courts. This study analyzes the way the media handled coverage of the issue before and immediately following the election. It analyzes six months of print and broadcast coverage of the debate surrounding the state question leading up to the November election and the 10 days following the election. It studies to what extent state and national news organizations educated potential voters and framed the debate in terms of level of attention to the debate, favorable or unfavorable opinion of the amendment, and explanation of issues involved. The researcher concluded that the proposed amendment received sparse coverage by both state and national newspapers, and that reader-submitted opinions comprised most of the state coverage. Furthermore, state or national media offered little discussion or explanation on the concept of sharia law in any articles leading up to the election.
The Impact of Responsiveness and Conflict on Millennials’ Relationship with Religious Institutions • Richard Waters, North Carolina State University; Denise Bortree, Penn State University • Research continues to document a decline in the number of young adults affiliated to a religious institution; however, most measures of spiritual behavior indicate that Millennials reflect similar beliefs of previous generations. This study examines how institutional responsiveness and personal conflict with the religious institutions impact the relationship that Millennials have with organized religion. Through a survey of 284 young adults, this study found that Millennials evaluate their relationship with their religious institution favorably and that their involvement with religion can be predicted by how they evaluate this relationship. Additionally, structural equation modeling revealed that perceived personal conflict had a detrimental impact to the relationship while institutional responsiveness to Millennials helped restore the relationship.
The Second Level Agenda Setting Effect of News Coverage of Islam in American Newspapers • Brian J. Bowe, Michigan State University; Shahira Fahmy, University of Arizona; Wayne Wanta, Oklahoma State University • Second level agenda setting offers a way of demonstrating the effects of news content by providing evidence that the attributes emphasized in news coverage become more salient in the minds of media consumers and more influential in terms of actual effects on opinions and attitudes. This study examines the substantive and affective attributes of the religion of Islam in coverage of 18 U.S newspapers and compares those attributes with results of a Gallup Center for Muslim Studies’ poll to determine whether the coverage of Islam in the media influences perception, as second-level of agenda-setting suggests. Two hypotheses were tested, and the analysis of media coverage of attributes linked to the “object” of Islam and public perceptions of Islam suggests little support for attribute agenda-setting.
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