BALANCE GENERAL AL 30 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2017

Understanding religion in a cultural context is immensely significant. The perception of religious ideologies and practices may vary from one society to another, as this research argues, and may even have conflicting opinions. What may be seen as ‘extremism’ in one culture, for example, may not be seen as such in another. Religion may be treated by AJA (a pan-Arab and arguably religious channel) differently from the BBC (an international and arguably secular channel).

Stewart Hoover (2002) rightly states that studies of media and religion should take into account the question of ‘lived’ culture and actual practice. They should be methodologically daring, inventive, and creative, and should consider religion in the broadest possible terms. A wide range of issues present themselves as ‘religion’ when, in fact, they may not be; at the same time, a range of things may deny that they are an element of religion but resemble it in principal ways. Both of these are important areas of cultural inquiry: ultimately, it is the question of the social construction of religious experience that is central. How and where that is articulated and given a meaning, and in what manner, should be the analytic field where media and religion research is active.

The media, according to Hassan Hamed (2004), are considered as the most powerful creators and transmitters of cultural images. Media images and media presentation of different cultures and civilisations are decisive factors on how the public perceives cultural differences. The media facilitate the education of audiences about universal human concepts, such as the universal importance not only of respect for human rights and tolerance, but also respect for cultural, religious and ethnic diversity, throughout the world (Hamed: 2004).

The definition of what constitutes religion as a social norm, according to Nancy Ammerman (2007), is controversial among researchers (see Beckford 2003, cited in Ammerman). Some cultures and institutions strongly discourage the presence of any apparently religious meanings or practices; although religion is about how people make sense of their world, constructing a religious presence and defining goals for action are two different kinds of symbolic work, each with its own potential effect on collective action (McGuire: 2007; Lichterman: 1996).

Paul Soukup (2002) records in his article: ‘Media and Religion’ that, despite the desire for a broader understanding of religion and its effect on daily events presented by reporters, the culturally ‘received view’ of religion makes this difficult. Hoover (cited in Soukup: 2002) identifies several factors from this ‘received view’ that makes reporting on religion

problematic: (i) a growing secularisation has led to less news coverage of religion; (ii) many regard religion as a private matter; (iii) religion lies outside the realm of empirical data; (iv) religion is too complex a subject; and (v) religion is inherently controversial.

Religion is a personal response to seeking meaning in one’s life and in one’s universe. Religious expression is generally found within institutionalised religion, but the formal creed, rituals, devotions, and moral codes do not exclude a personal experience.

The central question of the cultural studies approach, explained by Robert While, is concerned with how individuals in groups use media to construct religious meaning in their lives, and how this religious meaning relates to many other aspects of human existence (White: 2007). The most significant impact of media, according to Marshall McLuhan’s ‘Understanding Media’ (1964, cited in Robert White, 2007), is not on individual psychology but on whole cultures and societies.

Stig Hjarvard (2006) approves of the theory that the interface between media and religion should be considered in their proper cultural and historical contexts, and the ‘mediatisation’ of religion is not assumed to be a universal phenomenon, neither historically, culturally nor geographically. As a channel of communication, the media have become the primary source of religious ideas, and, as a language, the media mould religious

imagination in accordance with the genres of popular culture. The media, as a cultural environment, have therefore taken over many of the social functions of institutionalised religions, providing both moral and spiritual guidance and a sense of community:

The interesting point may not be how much and what kind of religion is distributed by the various types of media. For a sociological understanding of the role of modern media in relation to religion, it is much more important to understand how modern media do not only represent religious issues, but 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 (Hjarvard: 2006: p. 1).

Joshua Meyrowitz (1997, cited in Hjarvard, 2006), suggests three media metaphors to distinguish between different aspects of media communication: media as a channel, media as language, and media as environment:

1. The metaphor of media as a channel draws attention to media transporting symbols and messages across distances from senders to receivers; according to this point of view, therefore, the research should focus on the content of the media: what kind of messages are transmitted, what topics occupy the media agenda, how much attention one theme acquires compared to another, and so on. The media are distributors of religious representations of various kinds; for example, key religious texts

like the Bible, The Qur’an, hymn books and so forth, are also media products that are distributed both within religious institutions and through general media markets. The media, in the sense of independent media production and distribution companies are, however, channels for the distribution of texts originating from religious institutions, only to a limited extent. 2. Media as a language focuses on the various ways the media

format their messages and frame the relationship between sender, content and receiver; in particular, the choice of medium and genre has an influence on important features like the narrative construction, reality status and mode of reception of particular messages, and as a consequence, the media will adjust and mould religious representations to the modalities of the specific medium and genre in question.

3. Media, as environment, will draw interest that concentrates on the ways media systems and institutions facilitate and structure human interaction and communication; since environments are much more stable than individual messages, this metaphor encourages studies of broader historical changes - how the invention of the printing press revolutionised the distribution of information in society, for instance.

Hjarvard (2006) notes that in earlier societies, social institutions like the family, school, and the church were the most important providers of

information, tradition and moral orientation for individual members of society. Today, these institutions have lost some of their former authority, and the media have, to some extent, taken over their role as providers of information and moral direction, and at the same time, the media have become society’s most important story-tellers about society itself:

The media’s specific impact on religion may be manifold and at times contradictory, but as a whole the media as channel, language, and environment are responsible for the mediatisation of religion. Mediatisation designates the process through which core elements of a social or cultural activity (e.g. politics, teaching, religion etc.) assume media form (Hjarvard: 2006: p. 4).

The media are large-scale suppliers of narratives – fictional and factual – about adventures, magic occurrences, the fight between good and evil, and so on (Clark: 2005, cited in Hjarvard: 2006).

Hoover (2002: p. 2) notes that the realms of both religion and the media are themselves transformative and being transformed:

Religion today is much more a public commodified and personalised set of practices than it has been in the past. At the same time, the media (movies, radio, television, print and electronic media, and more) are collectively coming to constitute a realm where important projects of ‘the self’ take place-projects that include spiritual, transcendent, and deeply meaningful “work”. This means that, rather than being autonomous actors involved in institutionalised projects in relation to each other, religion and media are increasingly

converging. They are meeting on a common turf, the everyday world of lived experience.

Different media touch different senses—the ears, the eyes, the whole consciousness—and the individual responds by constructing the meaning of the text according to the major sense influence, thereby producing an ‘oral culture’ or a ‘visual culture’. The perspective of McLuhan and his student, Walter Ong (1982), also helped to shift interest of religious communicators from broadcast effects to the interaction of medium and religious cultural movements.