Religion and Media 2008 Abstracts
Religion and Media Interest Group
‘I’d vote for him because…’ Religious beliefs and closed mindedness as factors
explaining how individuals use political endorsements when evaluating candidates • John Wirtz, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities • The current study explores the degree to which agreement with orthodox Christian beliefs (Hunsberger, 1989) and cognitive closed mindedness (Webster & Kruglansk, 1994) explain variation in how individuals use endorsements when evaluating political candidates. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three candidate endorsement conditions (Christian/conservative, secular/liberal, local/neutral) and asked to read a portion of a campaign website including position statements and the political endorsements. Participants then described what was important when evaluating the candidate.
Time to “get” religion? An analysis of religious literacy among journalism students • Jeremy Littau and Debra Mason, University of Missouri • Research shows the earlier students are exposed to a topic, the greater the potential for long-term knowledge gain. A survey (N=513) tested religious knowledge for journalism students and non-journalism students. Results indicate journalism students scored poorly on basic religious knowledge and in fact fared no better than non-journalism students. We argue that small changes in curriculum emphasis can help increase religious knowledge and improve job performance for journalists, who face an increasing diversity in both readership and news sources.
Reporting Buddhism in Taiwan • Chiung Hwang Chen, Brigham Young University-Hawaii • Through analyzing media coverage of Buddhist events and utilizing interviews with key actors in media and Buddhism, this paper examines how the mainstreaming of Buddhism in Taiwan has changed, if at all, people’s perception and understanding about Buddhism. Specifically, the paper assesses both the position of Buddhism in contemporary Taiwanese society and the media/Buddhism relationship.
The Double-Edged Sword: LDS Church Leaders’ Messages on Media, 1900-1948 • James Phillips and Brad Rawlins, Brigham Young University • This study is the first attempt to examine every remark LDS (Mormon) Church leaders have made in the church’s bi-annual conference regarding mass media. Utilizing grounded theory, sermons covering the pre-television era were inspected, with several themes emerging. Overall church leaders viewed media as a powerful tool that could be used for good or ill, cautioning church members to practice selective exposure.
The Press, Pulpit and Public Opinion: The Clergy’s Conferral of Power and the Concomitant Call for a Journalism of Advocacy in an Age of Reform • Ronald Rodgers, University of Florida • This study of the discourse that appeared in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in books, the newspaper trade journals, and periodicals – both secular and religious – reveals the pulpit’s publicly stated conferral of its role of agent of education and moral uplift to the press as the moral agent for change in an age of reform and demographic upheaval.
“Who Does God Want Me to Invite to See This Movie?”: Thoughts on Marketing The Passion of the Christ to Evangelicals • Jim Trammell, St. John Fisher College • The analysis explores dominant themes of The Passion of the Christ’s marketing campaigns to evangelical Christians, and explores what these themes reveal about the relationship between religion, media and consumption. The marketing suggested that Passion’s purported accuracy, authenticity, rating and images culminate into an experience that would appeal not only to the faithful, but to the unchurched as well. It also challenges the notion that religious cultures are weakened through cultural consumption.
A Question of Ethics: Comparing Framing of Stem Cell Research in Evangelical and Mainstream News Media • Nicole Smith Dahmen and Lisa Lundy, Louisiana State University • Scientific knowledge is gained through a complex environment and is heavily influenced by one’s beliefs, values, and the views of other people. As such, the religious connection in stem cell research provides a fruitful area of inquiry. This study extends previous research to compare mainstream news coverage with evangelical news sources.
Cinematic Spiritualities: Finding Religion in Bollywood • Ally Ostrowski, University of Colorado • Bollywood cinema is a proverbial machine, cranking out upwards of 800 new films each year. Recently, however, Indian directors have begun looking toward Hollywood for an abundance of storylines to reform for Bollywood consumers. In most cases the original Hollywood plotline is indiscernible amidst the Bollywood panacea of singing and dancing and Indian religious references are often inserted to validate and legitimate characterizations, situations and bring an Indian cultural atmosphere that Bollywood audiences require.
Effectiveness of Islamic School Teachers in the Intervention of U.S. News Media Framing of Islam on Muslim Students • Thomas E. Ruggiero, University of Texas at El Paso • Informed by Said’s Orientalist theory, this study examines the perceptions of young Muslims and their teachers at U.S. Islamic schools, and how they react to U.S. news media framing about Muslims. Results suggest Muslim teachers and students agreed that news media coverage of Muslims focused primarily on terrorism and war, providing a simplistic and generalized description of Muslims, and of a severe lack of positive images for young Muslims to emulate.
Free from Religion, Bound to Language: The Dilemma of Atheist Discourse, a Case Study • Melissa Tully, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This paper is a case study of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a nontheist, educational group concerned with freethinking and the separation of church and state. Using the FFRF as the primary example, this paper examines discourse related to atheism and non-belief, particularly focusing on the FFRF discourse and news coverage of the Foundation.
Religion, Media Credibility and Support for Democracy in the Arab World • Guy J. Golan, Seton Hall University and Spiro Kiousis, University of Florida • Ever since the events of September 11th, 2001 and the subsequent war in Iraq, the U.S. State Department has invested much effort into winning the hearts and minds of individuals all around the Muslim world. Using secondary data from a large-scale public opinion survey of Arab youth in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the current study presents a model that identifies the complex and multidimensional relationship between religion based variables, media credibility and individual assessments of democracy.
Scandal is a Sin: How Church and Victims Framed the Boston Catholic Priest Abuse Scandal • Stacie Jankowski, Indiana University • This study examined the framing of causes and solutions by the Catholic Church and abuse victims during the Catholic priest abuse scandal in the Boston Archdiocese from 2001-2003. A random sample of news articles from The Boston Globe and the Boston Herald was analyzed according to source, frame, valence, and thematic or episodic mentions. The analyzed stories were then compared both within the newspaper and between the newspapers.
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