Religion and Media 2003 Abstracts
Religion and Media Interest Group
A Structural Equation Model of Religiosities Effect on Mass Media Use and Civic Participation • Greg G. Armfield, Missouri-Columbia • This research looks at the relationship of mass media, religion, and secularization theory with regard to civic participation. A structural equation model was created and successfully tested to test the structural interactions of religion, secularism, and mass media in relation to civic participation. Findings show current mass media use by religious individuals is driven by secularization theory (Buddenbaum, 1986; Buddenbaum & Stout 1996).
Appalling Sin or Despicable Crime: An Exploration of Media Frames Surrounding the Catholic Church Priest Sexual Abuse Scandal • Lois A. Boynton and Dulcie M. Straughan, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper examines newspaper coverage of revelations about Father John Geoghan’s sexual abuse of boys and the Church’s cover-up attempts. The study employs quantitative and qualitative analysis of stories to examine the scope of scandal coverage, sources used by reporters, and whether stories provided an analysis of the crisis or focused on the events. Furthermore, the paper identifies and analyzes frames used to describe the scandal and the issue of assignment of blame for events.
Religion News and Cultural Categories: The Intersection of Religion, Media, and Culture in Journalism • Cheryl Casey, New York University• This paper considers how religion is covered in contemporary newspapers. Using the framework of analysis developed by Silk, the paper identifies the topoi, or common cultural categories, which help journalists make sense of the multitude of beliefs, faith groups, and modes of spirituality characterizing American religiosity. Examples of news coverage of the death of Mother Teresa are used to uncover dominant topoi and illumine the relationship of religion, media, and the culture at large.
Following The Party Line: Xinhua News Agency’s Coverage Of The Falun Gong Movement • Chiung Hwang Chen, Brigham Young University-Hawaii • This study examines the relationship between government and news media in China through analyzing the media’s coverage of the government’s crackdown against Falun Gong. I argue that although the economic reforms since the 1980s might have financially disrupted the news media’s reliance on the government, the press, especially government-owned news organizations, still functions as propaganda agents for the Chinese Communist Party as journalists uncritically follow the party line in reporting on the Falun Gong movement.
Religious Socialization and the Media: A Qualitative Study of How Baby Boomers View the Entertainment Media as a Cultural Resource for Parenting • Lynn Schofield Clark, Colorado • Employing perspectives from cultural studies and developments in the ethnographic study of religion, this paper explores six themes that emerged in the discursive strategies of U.S. “baby Boomer” parents when they were asked about what they hoped to teach their children about religion. The paper examines how and under what circumstances parental approaches to religious socialization cultivate a view of the entertainment media as a threat or as a possible aid to religious socialization.
Created in Whose Image? Examining Network TV’s Treatment of Religion • Scott H. Clarke, Michigan State • 39 fictional network television programs were analyzed for content relating to religious characters. Results suggest that television characters’ religiosity is not an important consideration for television producers as a whole. However, programs produced by Paxson Communications and Viacom; as well as those airing on the PAX network, have significantly more religious characters than average. This finding supports both gatekeeping theory and Paxson’s stated goal of increasing the amount of spirituality on network TV.
Aid Workers or Evangelists, Charity or Conspiracy: Framing of Missionary Activity as a Function of International Political Alliances • David N. Dixon, Azusa Pacific • In 2001, Christian aid workers were arrested by the Taliban in Afghanistan on charges of proselytizing. A year later, Baptist hospital workers were gunned down in Yemen. In one case, the country was an enemy of the United States; in the other, an ally. The way in which the proselytizing and the national government was portrayed changed from one set of coverage to the other, suggesting that political interests, not religious ones, drive news coverage.
Press Freedom and Religion: Measuring an Association Between Press Freedom and Religious Composition • Guy Golan, Louisiana State and Colleen Connolly-Ahern, Florida • The current exploratory study argues for the inclusion of religious composition variables as possible measures of press freedom. An analysis of press freedom and religious composition measures in 190 nations along with correlation measures reveal highly significant associations between the religious composition of nations and their level of press freedom. The study calls upon future studies to further examine the association between religion and press freedom and argues for the inclusion of religious variables in future studies on press freedom.
Religious Beliefs, Media Use, and Wishful Thinking in the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election • Barry Hollander, Georgia • A long-documented link exists between vote intention and a prediction of who will win a political campaign, described in some research as wishful thinking. A number of factors are thought to enhance the effect, such as selective exposure to media content and similar others, and moderate the effect,- such as exposure to public opinion polls and knowledge about politics. Religious factors were found to increase wishful thinking, an impact moderated to a small degree by exposure to the news media.
Preferred Shades of Green: Religion as a Factor in News Framing of Environmental Advocacy • Rick Clifton Moore, Boise State • Are religious groups portrayed more negatively in the media than are secular groups? This study addresses this question by measuring portrayal of two groups engaged in similar environmental advocacy campaigns. One group was clearly evangelical, the other a-religious. Using a research method similar to that used by Kerr and Moy (2002) I found news stories about the groups were not significantly different, but articles by weekly columnists did present the religious group significantly more negatively.
Presentation of Media Practice: Dramaturgical Analysis of Religious Accounts of Media •Jin Kyu Park, Colorado-Boulder • This paper attempts to apply Erving Goffman’s “dramaturgical approach” to the analysis of the interview contexts as well as “accounts of media” articulated during the interview by the media audience. Especially, the interest of this paper lies in how religious meanings and identities of audiences are employed in their presentation of self in terms of media practice.
The Economic Response of Religious Television Stations to Digital Implementation • Brad Schultz, Mississippi • A theoretical model of organizational behavior (Oliver, 1991) was applied to religious television stations in the U.S. to assess their economic responses to the digital television conversion. Results showed that religious stations are more likely to abandon or reduce operations, but have strong resistance toward selling and would like to explore new revenue opportunities. Because of this dilemma, religious broadcasters viewed the conversion as a burden, not a benefit.
Authenticating the Religious Experience: A Textual Analysis of the Construct of History and Religion at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah • David Scott • Using a textual analysis as suggested by Stuart Hall in his introduction to Paper Voices, this author examines the manifest and latent discourse present in the marketing, tours, and historic presentations of Temple Square in Salt Lake City. This study demonstrates how these elements rhetorically perpetuate theological constructs by emphasizing particular historic artifacts and bounding religious discourse within the discursive construct of “museumness” and the mythology of the “pioneer.”
Religious Community on the Internet: An Exploratory Analysis of Mormon Websites • Daniel A. Stout, Brigham Young • In light of considerable speculation about the impact of the Internet on religiosity, this exploratory study evaluates actual religious websites in terms of what they contribute to various dimensions of community. An analysis of three Mormon websites reveals that while some features promote service and diversity, cultural values unique to the religion encourage more restricted network interactions than those described in general studies of Internet and community.
Use Of On-Line Bulletin Boards By Churches – An Exploratory Study • Amanda Sturgill, Carly Engibous, Megan Holmes, Pattama Jongsuwanwattana and Prachi Purohit, Baylor • This paper considers the use of an electronic bulletin board or forum as a part of a church site through detailed examination of 20 of the boards. Through examination of individual messages, the authors develop a coding scheme for bulletin board messages and found that the messages serve either an announcement purpose or a community-building purpose.
Journalism in Service to the Church • Martin Yina and Tony Rimmer, California State-Fullerton • This paper examines Catholic diocesan newspapers from the perspectives of the editors and reporters who work for them. The goal of the study was to better understand what it means to work as a journalist in such newspapers. The study applied the qualitative tradition of phenomenology. Interviews were conducted with journalists at diocesan newspapers in the Midwest, the West and the South.
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