By Paola Banchero, University of Alaska Anchorage
When a group of AEJMC members petitioned to establish the Religion and Media Interest Group in 1996, they set out to do fulfill four main purposes: 1. to serve and study the religion media; 2. to serve and study the needs of journalism educators who work at institutions with religious affiliation; 3. to encourage research about the relationship between religion and the media; 4. to demonstrate that media researchers, practitioners and educators recognize the value of religion in society, and to dispel stereotypical perceptions to the contrary.
All these years later, it’s obvious the interest group has taken its mission further afield, though those four purposes still inform our research, teaching and service. A look at the research presented at the past couple of conferences and the Journal of Media and Religion show the diversity of interests of religion and media scholars. If there is one overriding trend it is that scholars have learned how closely religion aligns with culture, is part of culture. Media also permeate and become part of culture. Thus, it makes sense for us to talk about eco-theology, the movement among religious peoples, including evangelical Christians, to stitch together an environmental ethic with their concepts of the moral obligations humans have to protect the earth. It also makes sense for us to look at entertainment media and glean what the theologies of Glenn Beck to “Lost” to “The Simpsons” mean to our media and culture. If audiences are integrating faith into an increasingly large part of their lives, it’s up to media scholars to ascertain what that means for media.
Jim Trammell, of Highpoint University and past chair of the interest group, said the value of religion and media research to other scholars is that the research covers how ideology influences the way we use and interpret media.
“We all have a set of beliefs and ideals (be they grounded in religion, politics, or whatever) that shape the way we understand the world. Those sets of beliefs influence how we approach media differently,” he said. “It is reasonable to believe that liberals have a different set of expectations about media than conservatives do. Evangelicals have different media buying habits than fundamentalists do. Your perspective on the role of media in the free exchange of ideas is probably different if you are British than if you are American. But aside from identifying these differences, it is worth considering what it is about being liberal, or evangelical, or British that influences how we use media.”
As diverse as RMIG’s scholarship has become, there is room to expand the research agenda. At the Denver conference, RMIG teamed up with the Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Bisexual Interest Group for a panel entitled, “Sex, Religion and Media.” Dane Claussen, who moderated the panel, pointed out that since the publication of his book also called, “Sex, Religion and Media” in 2002, few research undertakings have linked all three subjects. The panel yielded ideas for future directions in this area. The panelists, Jason Shepard, Cecile Holmes of University of South Carolina and Tien-Tsung Lee of University of Kansas and Gary Hicks of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, each offered an enriching perspective. Shepard looked at the reaction to the gay male kiss on television and how the FCC may respond to complaints about the graphic nature of such kisses. Holmes discussed the lack of understanding in newsrooms about forgiveness when it is framed as religious redemption, a common theme in news stories about leaders who have “sinned,” especially in a sexual context. She described situations in which reporters were incredulous about calls for forgiveness, from the Catholic Church sexual abuse crisis to the Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker sex scandals of the 1980s. Lee and Hicks looked at public opinion about gay men and lesbians and how religiosity is one factor predicting anti-gay attitudes.
Another area ripe for exploration is religion as it is used and shaped in relation to media outside the United States. Possibly the most downloaded issues of the Journal of Media and Religion have been its Volume 7, issues 1 and 2, which focused on Iran. The issues contained such articles as “The Role of Media in the Threats and Opportunities of Globalization for Religion.” However, a still small fraction of papers submitted to the interest group center on religions, audiences or media outside our national borders. Researchers are branching out from Christianity as a main area of interest and regarding other faith traditions as worthy of exploration. Others are contextualizing other areas and explaining them as religious in nature. For example, a person’s devotion to a sports team could be viewed as religious in nature: it is ritualized, often rooted in culture, and is acted upon through media.
The Religion and Media Interest Group seeks to address how religion colors, heightens, and changes mass communication. Join us in that exploration.