Critical Review and Interview

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.