Religion and Media 1999 Abstracts
Religion and Media Interest Group
Mother Teresa’s Death As Mystical Narrative In National Newspaper Dailes • Dennis D. Cali, East Carolina University • Newspaper coverage of the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, overshadowed in part by the extravagant media attention to Princess Diana’s death, was arguably abbreviated. However, articles on the Teresa story captured the symbolic significance and mythic character of the diminutive nun. This essay explains how, isolating rhetorical qualities that render the articles, collectively, a “mystical narrative.”
Communication In Religious Lobbying: Making Meaning Through Journalism • Kyle Huckins, Northwest Oklahoma State University • “Communication in Religious Lobbying: Making Meaning through Journalism” examines influence-building strategies used by religious groups in their discourse on issues. Taking Hofrenning’s list of three such strategies (symbolic, language, and coalition-building), the study applies the trio to an organizational publication. The study of Christian Coalition’s Christian American concludes that the group of religious conservatives used varying issue emphases, contexts and alliances to mobilize followers, and gravitated toward a political rather than religious agenda.
Not Alone In A Crowd: Religion, Media and Community Connected-ness At The Dawn Of A New Century • Michael A. Longinow, Asbury College • Religion and media in America have intertwined each other in a variety of ways from the earliest decades of this country’s democratic experiment. Moreover, religious organizations and those interested in religion have adapted themselves in innovative ways to the changing formats of popular media through this century, in many cases bringing cohesion and community to American religion. The end of the Twentieth Century and the dawn of the Twenty-First bring hope that this intermingling of media and religion will not diminish and could grow and flourish.
The Press And The “Greening Of Religion”: Themes, Sources, And Conflict In Newspaper Coverage Of Faith-based Environmentalism • Rick Clifton Moore, Boise State University • This paper investigates news coverage of environmental activity among American religious groups in the 1990s. The press, in reporting this phenomenon, presented a facade of religious inclusiveness while consistently reporting the story in ways that focused on traditional American religious institutions. In addition, official sources were called upon much more frequently than unofficial sources. Finally, reporters tended to downplay conflict in stories, using novelty as the key news value and attempting to extend that novelty over several years of reporting.
The Effect of Digitalization on Religious Television Stations • Brad Schultz, Southern Illinois University • This study sought to investigate the effect of the government-mandated transfer from analog to digital broadcasting, as it pertains to religious television stations. The study measured attitudes of religious broadcasting executives through a mail survey and had three hypotheses: digitalization would result in more consolidation, syndication and the emergence of a new economic model. Support was shown for consolidation and a new model, but not for syndication.
Hollywood’s God: The Problem of Divine Providence • Jeffery A. Smith, Iowa • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
Secularists or Modern Day Prophets: A Study Of The Ethical And Moral Values Of Today’s Journalists And Their Connection To The Judeo-Christian Tradition • Doug Underwood, Washington • This nationwide study a strong religious orientation in their lives, and that their professional values are rooted solidly in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Respondents reported strong levels of religious belief by a variety of measurements. Even journalists who weren’t religiously oriented responded positively to a series of professional exhortations by famous journalists that contain strong religious overtones, as long as the maxims didn’t use language that is overtly religious in nature.
Watching The Religious Audience: The Complex Relationship Between The Christian Media, The Mainstream Media And The Conservative Protestant Audience • Hillary Warren, Wisconsin-Stevens Point • This paper considers the problematic relationship between the conservative Protestant audience and the Christian media. Using a combination of interviews and market data, the author finds that the Christian media is limited as an indicator of rank and file opinion. The paper concludes with several suggestions for research into this relationship, primarily focusing on the importance of small groups and interpersonal connections in the formation of media-related opinion in the conservative Protestant community.
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