The relationship between religion and media is constantly
evolving and developing to incorporate new methods to convey new ideas through
new forms of expression; thus the way in which people respond to such changes
in perception develop as well. This review aims to better understand the impacts
of media on the public image of the Christian faith and to develop a clearer indication
in regards to what extent media influences public perception and furthermore,
popularity of certain religions. Vivacious, yet easy-going 19 year old James
Cook University student from Townsville, Shannon Henaway, was more than happy
to share her thoughts on the relationship between religion and media. Ms
Henaway, a parishioner of the Assemblies of God Church was raised in the church
following the beliefs of her parents’ Christian Fundamentalist worldview.
Having grown up in that environment and having completed her schooling in a
Christian school, Ms Henaway said that she was always ‘keenly aware of it (her
faith)… it’s normal to me’; however, as she matured she said that her ‘family’s
core values became my own in young adulthood’.
As a young nursing student, Ms Henaway does not actively involve herself
with promoting the beliefs or mission statements of her church outside of
positive discussion and obvious passion for her faith; however she is
constantly surrounded by religious comments made in the media whether about her
own religion or another. Whilst there are some concerns in regards to
over-exposure when it comes to publicising aspects of religion, Mitchell states
that “rather than worrying about the potential dangers of media such as
television, film, radio or the internet, many writers or practitioners also
emphasise their potential for reaching new audiences” (Mitchell,
2007, p. 38),
furthermore enabling people to have the ability and freedom to better
understand the different options that are available.
Despite the popular belief that members of the younger
generations are not being involved in religious communities or practices, Ms
Henaway is a brilliant example of a young woman continuing in her faith
journey, the same one she began when she was little. She does however
understand with quite a deep comprehension as to why Christianity, as a
traditional religion is perhaps not for everyone within today’s society. Ms
Henaway stated that ‘a lot of traditional religious groups are seemingly having
a lot of difficulty in remaining relevant to current generations. An inability
to evolve with the changing times whilst still remaining true to their core
beliefs and faith makes it difficult for people to see the need to adopt such
religions into their lives. People aren’t going to want something that they
don’t see a need for anymore’. This shift in perspective as illustrated by Ms Henaway
was previously argued by Emile Durkheim, with the understanding that “the
growth of moral individualism is bound to reduce the significance of organised
religion” (Redmond & Holmes, 2007, p. 172). Einstein relates
the modern search for religion to a shopping adventure for a convenient
“religious institution that meets their needs” (Einstein, 2011, p. 332). These perspectives
highlight the developing culture and perception that surrounds traditional
religions such as Christianity. Furthermore, it is critical to establish what
impacts varying media styles have of the perception and popularity of religion.
When Ms Henaway was asked if she thought that religions
should have their own media, she strongly replied that she personally does not
believe they should. She mentioned that ‘Christian TV and other such media
forums are great for believers but are completely irrelevant to the wider
community. Moreover, believing that the whole mantra of Christianity is one of
evangelism and being relevant to the world you’re living in; religious media
doesn’t do this effectively at all’, she stated. Comparatively to this personalised
perspective, scholarly writers have mentioned that “the fundamental problem of
religious communication is how best to represent and mediate the sacred” (O'Leary,
1996, p. 787).
Furthermore others such as Campbell and Mitchell respectively have claimed to
see “media technology as a God-given resource to be embraced for religious
purposes” (Campbell, 2010, p. 20), as “Ben Armstrong,
former Executive Director of National Religious Broadcasters in the USA sees
the ‘awesome technology of broadcasting’ as one of the ‘major miracles of
modern times’; for him, television and radio have ‘broken through the walls of
tradition’” (Mitchell, 2007, p. 38). Amongst the many
positives that have arisen as a result of mass media coverage on religious
events and topics it is to be noted that media does come with its downfalls.
As previously illustrated there are multiple benefits to a
strong relationship between religion and media. However, unfortunately, as a
result of the child abuse allegations in recent years against members of the
Catholic Church, Ms Henaway has been a victim of some public indiscretion
against her faith. Ms Henaway has said that most of the media reports about her
religion, and she believes religion in general, are very much one-sided angles
that focus on the negatives. She continued to say that there were ‘many
prominent issues surrounding the Catholic Church, illustrating the inadequate
way that sexual abuse of children has been dealt with has political and global
ramifications’. She spoke of her disappointment in seeing the status of
Christianity within Australian culture go from being regarded as a ‘pillar of society’
to now having the perception of religion and its fundamental beliefs as being
‘labelled irrelevant and archaic’. It is important to understand that it takes
more than one form of media to create such a drastic change in public
perception, “differences between kinds of media do make a difference, but, at
the same time, it is a technological fact that we are in an era of
‘multi-media’….What they know and what they do from one bleeds over to the
other” (Hoover, 2006, p. 142). People often
underestimate that influence that media has on public perception, Hjarvard has
stated that “it is important to stress that modern media do not only present or
report on religious issues; they also change the very ideas and authority of
religious institutions and alter the ways in which people interact with each
other when dealing with religious issues… media can be seen as an agent of
religious change (Hjarvard, 2008, p. 11)”. For instance,
a new miniseries on the History Channel in the USA called The Bible, has
received great reviews as it “continues its unprecedented success with its home
entertainment launch and quickly became the biggest selling TV on DVD in the
last 5 years among other new records. THE BIBLE series is flying off store
shelves around the country with 525,000 units sold. It was watched by an
astonishing 95 million viewers” (Lightworkers Media, 2013, p. np). The size of the
success of this miniseries based on the Christian Holy Bible illustrates and
highlights the great extent to which media plays in advertising and
popularising religion when it chooses to.
Following the at times, negative public perception that the
media encourages, through multiple means, Ms Henaway insists that ‘although
media may present differing views and standpoints on particular issues; I’m
firmly established in my beliefs’. She continues to state that ‘for me
personally, it isn’t the attending ‘church’ or fulfilling that duty that makes
you a ‘Christian’. There were times where I didn’t attend. Christianity is a
conscious decision made daily to live and behave in such a way that your life
becomes bigger than yourself’; an idea that can’t exactly be promoted in an
advertisement. Furthermore, through interviewing 19 year old Nursing student,
Shannon Henaway, it is apparent that despite her Christian Fundamentalist faith
being at times scrutinised by the media, she is confident in her beliefs and
understands that media is a tool in which has the ability to rapidly change
public perceptions, and acknowledges that sometimes the media is with you
whilst other times it is clearly challenging.
Reference List
Campbell, H. (2010). When Religion Meets New Media.
London: Taylor and Francis.
Einstein, M. (2011). The Evolution of Religious
Branding. Social Compass, 331-338.
Hjarvard, S. (2008). Mediatisation of religion : a
theory of the media as agents of religious change. Northern lights : film
and media studies yearbook, 6(1), 9-26.
Hoover, S. M. (2006). Religion in the Media Age.
Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
Lightworkers Media. (2013, April 8). News.
Retrieved April 15, 2013, from The Bible:
http://www.bibleseries.tv/the-bible-1-tv-on-dvd-in-the-last-5-years/
Mitchell, J. (2007). Questioning Media and Religion.
In G. Lynch, Between Sacred and Profane (pp. 38-46). London: I.B.
Tauris.
O'Leary, S. D. (1996). Cyberspace as a Sacred Space:
Communicating Religion on Computer Networks. Journal of the American Acadamy
of Religion, 781-808.
Redmond, S., & Holmes, S. (2007). Stardom and
Celebrity. London: Sage Publications.