Religion and the media
Religion in the U.S.
• Religion plays a significant role in the lives
of Americans
– High for industrialized nations but somewhat
less than poor nations
• Gallup
Secularization
• Sociologists have often argued that the role
of religion is in long-term decline within
advanced capitalist nations
Secularization
• The argument is that the traditional
community structures that maintained
religious practice break down due to
industrialization, urbanization,
diversification and the new social structure
leads away from traditional religious
practice
Resurgence of religion in modern
American society
• During the 1970s and 1980s a number of
changes occurred that seemed to invalidate
the ‘secularization’ theory
– Resurgence of evangelicalism
– Rise of the electronic church
– Political activism among ‘fundamentalist’
Protestant organizations
• State by state comparison of religiosity
• http://www.pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=50
4
• Proportion of population professing varied
faiths
• http://religions.pewforum.org/affiliations
Changes in the approach to
religion
• Religion is becoming more individualized,
nondenominational, relativistic
• “Seeking”
• Construction of an individualized faith
based on ideas from a variety of sources
Most churched people change from
their original religion at least once
• Charitable contributions by individuals,
foundations and corporations reached
$284.99 billion in 2008, a decrease of 5.6%
from 2007 after adjusting for inflation.Of
these charitable contributions:
– Religious organizations received the largest
share, with 34.7% of total estimated
contributions.
– Educational institutions received the second
largest percentage, with 13.3% of total
• “Religious leaders are right in sensing that the
centrality of the media is a direct challenge to
authority. Because they furnish a more
homogeneous cultural context within which most
of us live and which most of us refer in terms of
our social relationships, ideas and values, the
media make boundaries between a sacred culture
inside the faith and a profane culture outside
increasingly irrelevant.”
• Hoover
• Postmodern society, with its fragmented
and diverse influences, peoples, etc. creates
a crisis of identity so that one of the main
sources of individual motivation is the
development of a meaningful self, with the
religious self a significant and sometimes
dominant concern.
• People in an individualized society
construct their identities from a myriad of
sources, with faith following suit. Because
people will pay for the resources to
construct such a self, a marketing-driven
media system will supply a vast amount of
content for the project.
Significant issues relating
religion and media
• Use of media to service the faithful
• Use of media to spread the faith
• News coverage of religion and religious
issues
• Representation of religion and the religious
in news and entertainment programming
Spreading the word
• In the US, there is a long history of the use
of media to service the faithful and/or
convert non-Christians
– Earliest uses of the printing press were to print
Bibles and religious texts
– Religious journals were the most common type
of periodical distributed during the mid-1800s
– Spirituals, religious music are a mainstay in the
music industry
Televisual media and religion
• Controversy over the use of radio, film,
television and, recently, new media as
religious media
• Evangelicals have embraced use of new
media through history
– Great Commission
Development and nature of
religious broadcasting
• Radio and the beginnings of the religious
broadcasting
– Radio broadcasting mainly focused on live
broadcast of religious service
– Even early on, though, there were evangelists
who used the airwaves to spread the word
Radio
S. Parks Cadman
Billy Graham
Public service broadcasting
• FCC regulations in 1930s and 1940s
required stations to provide free public
access to public service organizations
– Networks gave over responsibility to the
Council of Churches, which was made up of
‘mainline’ denominations
– NBC and CBS effectively denied access to
evangelicals
– MBS allowed, then later began to limit
Evangelical broadcasts
• Because they were denied the free access to
the airwaves afforded mainstream religious
groups, evangelicals had to pay to gain
access and learned the necessary lessons to
be financially successful
– Write-in requests (consumer analysis)
– On-air donation (development of appeals for
money)
– Aesthetic techniques that reflected good
marketing/promotional tactics
Legal and regulatory changes
• Lobbying by representatives of evangelical
broadcasters led to legal and regulatory
changes that provided access to the
airwaves
• Development of networks, greater
availability of time slots provided openings
for religious broadcasting
Recent use of radio
• Effectiveness in poorer nations
– Rapid growth of evangelicalism in Africa, Asia
Development of the electronic
church
The game changes
• During the 1970s several changes occurred
at once that led to the dominance of the
evangelical broadcasters
– Removal of legal advantages mainstream
denominations enjoyed
• First Amendment issues, limitation of FCC power
and oversight—Reduced demand for public service
– Greater need for money/competition
• Vast increase in competition and channel capacity as
cable enters the cities, continues to today
The shift to evangelical
broadcasting
Crystal Cathedral
Easter, 2005
Modern televangelism
Televangelism Scandals
Reform and renewal
Current state of televangelism
• Televangelism once again is coming under
fire for the large amount of money and
limited accountability it receives
– Congressional investigation
• Many scholars argue that the evangelist
message is less accepted in current times,
especially by younger generations
Current state of televangelism
• More diverse in theology
– Rise of black televangelism
– Non-denominational televangelism
– Self-help theology
• A new set of players
– A larger number of televangelists on cable
channels, etc.
• Benny Hinn
• Creflo Dollar
• Joyce Meyers
Joel Osteen
Conflict with traditional
community churches
• Local community churches feared that they
would lose people from their congregations
and donations for their continued activities
• Televangelists argued that they increased
the fold and did not compete with
traditional churches
Research findings
• Church donations have decreased
• Church congregations declining
• "Before the year 1900, over 90 percent of Christian giving was
channeled through the churches and denominations." But the 20th
century has seen the rise of some 40,000 para-church organizations
with finances independent of churches. Christian giving to Christian
causes independent of churches and denominations rose from 36
percent in 1980 to 60 percent in 1995. "One major example and cause
of this that springs to mind is Christian broadcasting," which by 1977
accounted for $500 million in the United States alone. On average,
only about a third of Christian giving goes to denominations and local
churches.30 The rise of para-church organizations may partially explain
why the practice of tithing is more and more uncommon among
Americans.31
–
Generous Giving
Increase in the number of
nondenominational Christians
Televangelism and politics
• Goethals, Gregor T., and Phillip Charles
Lucas. "Religious Broadcasting."
Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay
Jones. 2nd ed. Vol. 11. Detroit: Macmillan
Reference USA, 2005. 7709-7716. Gale
Virtual Reference Library. Web. 16 Apr.
2010.
Audiences
• In the 1980s, eight televangelists, according
to Nielsen and Arbitron audience data, were
watched by 85% of the total national
religious television audience.
Religion and Politics
Jerry Falwell
• http://www.thearda.com/mapsReports/repor
ts/counties/21067_2000.asp
• Distribution of denominations, Fayette
County, 2000
Culture clash
• Antagonistic and polarized ‘clash of
cultures’
– Activist Evangelical Protestants from 1980s
forward
• See Hollywood, liberal media as dangers to the
public morality, enemies of religion
– Patrick Buchanan speech
– Some claim the culture wars are ending, while
others point to Sarah Palin as an example that
they are still quite significant
• Increasing identification with both
evangelical Christian religions and size of
the group who claim no religious affiliation
• Incorporation of religiosity into political
campaigns of both Republicans and
Democrats
•
•
•
•
GodTube
http://www.godtube.com/
Tangle
http://www.tangle.com/
Christians and Christianity in the
news (US)
• One of the most significant complaints
against traditional news and entertainment
media among religious spokespeople is that
the media either ignore religion or treat it
with disdain
Source: Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in
Journalism and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Pew Forum, Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2008
Criticism of the sorts of topics in
news on religion
• Traditional news values are applied to
religion
– Events rather than trends
– Sensationalism (celebrity, sex, violence, the
bizarre)
– Conflict
– Focus on the powerful (President Obama and
Pope Benedict)
– Shallowness
Unique features of religious news
• Presumed hypocrisy
• Role of faith
Source: Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in
Journalism and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Week
Topic*
Percent of Links
Feb. 9-13
Catholic Indulgences (#3 story that
week)
7%
Feb. 16-20
Founder of Islamic TV Station Charged
8%
with Beheading Wife (#4 story)
Mar. 9-13
Decline of Organized Religion (#1 story) 30%
Mar. 16-20
Culture Wars (#4 story)
5%
Apr. 6-10
Same-Sex Marriage (#1 story)
26%
Apr. 20-24
Same-Sex Marriage (#2 story)
16%
May 4-8
Same-Sex Marriage (#1 story)
14%
May 25-29
Same-Sex Marriage (#1 story)
35%
Jun. 15-19
Same-Sex Marriage (#2 story)
6%
Oct. 26-30
Nov. 30-Dec. 4
Scientology (#4 story)
Swiss Ban on Minarets (#1 story)
11%
17%
Religion in the blogosphere: Source: Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence
in Journalism and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism
and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, Coverage of
Pope’s visit to the US, 2008
Political reporting model
• In essence, the news media treat religion as
a political story
– The model of political reporting may disservice
politics, but it is criticized even more for its
impact on religion
Problems with political model
• Contributes to distrust of religious leaders,
institutions and even alienation from faith
• Gives relatively equal weight to atheists,
cults and non-mainstream religious voices
compared to spokespersons for widely held
beliefs
• Argues that there is no real truth, just
various interpretations with equal validity
Religious news
• Dissatisfaction with mainstream news has
led to the development of a range of sources
of news produced for a religious audience
– 700 Club
– Religion News Service
– Religion Today
• Losing our religion
•
•
•
•
GodTube
http://www.godtube.com/
Tangle
http://www.tangle.com/