Week 2- Looking at Hjarvard to better understand the Mediatisation of Religion

No longer is it that to experience religion you have to attend a local service or personally take yourself into a sacred space; with the vapid rise of social media and the greater population using internet sites for general everyday use, religion amongst many different topics is easily accessible through many forms of media. The mediatisation of religion is not limited to newspaper articles and television but is commonly seen throughout blog posts, twitter, Facebook and other social media sites.

A positive thing about the mediatisation of religion is that now more people are able to gain a more in depth knowledge about a wider variety of topics than they would have been able to without mediatisation and the wide exposure that comes with it. The mediatisation of religion allows for exposure of certain religions that otherwise people would have not known about. This enables people to become more tolerant and understanding of religions that are not their own as they are able to be invited into the knowledge without having to be in person asking questions. Rather, people can discreetly educate themselves on the beliefs and practices of other religions without having to step too far out of their comfort zone.

Stig Hjarvard commented on the quite significant role that the media has within today’s society in terms of making comments on religious issues in a public domain and furthermore the great influence that the media plays on how the audience would perceive such issues or discussions if they haven’t had much previous knowledge about the topic being portrayed. The example Hjarvard used were the Muhammad cartoons published by the daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which through effect illustrated the prominent role that papers have in the public circulation of religious representations and the framing of religious controversy (Hjarvard, 2006). Newspapers particularly get seen by many people and can therefore have the potential to shift a group of people’s perception on an issue through something as simple as a carton. The mediatisation of religion and especially communication surrounding religion is especially evident in online forums for “the Internet has become a prominent platform for the dissemination and discussion of religious ideas”(Højsgaard and Warburg 2005), what some people regard as a safe place to openly discuss their ideas about both newly formed  and personalised religions but also those that are more long standing. Therefore it is critical not to underestimate the influence that the mediatisation of religion has on the way people perceive it.

Finally, a great point that Hjarvard makes is that it is important to understand that the “media works as agents of religious change”(Hjarvard, 2008). People through the media are exposed to much more about much more. This enables people the freedom to learn about other religions that they may not have known before. Through social interaction with other’s on the internet or by participating in forums or even through printed media such as magazines or newpaper articles, people in general are coming to better understand each other and furthermore, how to be more tolerant and understanding people as it allows people to much more easily connect with one another.

 

References:

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.

Hjarvard, S. (2006), ‘Religion og politik i mediernes offentlighed’ (‘Religion and Politics in the Public Sphere of the Media’), in L. Christoffersen (ed.), Gudebilleder: Ytringsfrihed og religion i en globaliseret verden (Images of the Gods: Freedom of Speech and Religion in a Globalized World), Copenhagen: Tiderne Skifter, pp. 44–71.

 Højsgaard, M.T. and Warburg, M. (eds) (2005), Religion and Cyberspace, London: Routledge.

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