In order to develop a more nuanced and critical account of the evolving relation between religion and the news, it is important to consider not only histories, con- texts, and producers, but also our fourth element: audiences. Over the last three or four decades there has been a critical turn toward the audience, and an increased rigor in thinking about the nature and locations of reception. This has included news audiences. Many different theories have been developed to make sense of the unpredictable and varied interactions with various media that are found among viewers, listeners, and Web users. Media analysis and, more precisely, accounts about news, have shown how audiences are always changing, always developing. This is a significant phenomenon, which media scholars (Livingstone 2006 [2003]: 337–59), cultural theorists (Miller 2006 [2001]), anthropologists (Rothenbuhler and Coman 2004; Askew and Wilk 2002, especially 237–322), and other social sci- entists have mapped in detail. Drawing upon these insights, the complex activity of the audience can be taken into account. This research supports the case that audi- ences are by no means bound to be passive receivers of news stories, but have the potential to become dynamic respondents in the face of the stories that they see or hear.
The situation is complicated further as the communal context in which audiences watch, read, or hear the news may also be different from the professional worlds of the paid journalist and religious leader. There are inevitably points of overlap, but
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audiences may belong to other religious communities or to none at all. The result is that individuals can bring a new set of narratives, experiences, and beliefs to a news story that has emerged from outside their own religious tradition or worldview. This can provoke unexpected reactions. Audiences are now much more easily able to interact publicly with news stories through online posts, blogs, and comments. Audiences never were entirely passive, but now it is much simpler to express oneself to a wider public. Increasingly expressive audiences are adding to what Michel de Certeau (1984: 186) describes in another context as the “interminable recitation of stories.” As stories are repeated, they are edited, adapted, and elaborated upon by audiences. As they circulate they can grow or dissipate in significance.
Nevertheless, the engagement with the painting of Guernica is an example of how expressive audiences may even be turning the process of “agenda setting” on its head. It is commonly claimed that news media set the agenda for public debate. Bernard Cohen (1963: 13), for instance, claimed that the press“may not be success- ful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.” This quotation appeals to journalists who claim that significant power resides with their craft. In the light of active and dynamic audiences, this is open to qualification, especially with the increase of citi- zen journalism through Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. Even media magnate Rupert Murdoch is very aware that younger audiences (especially 19–34 years old) are increasingly turning to different parts of the Web for news. He believes that mem- bers of this age group“don’t want a God-like figure from above to tell them what’s important” (Allen 2010: 143). Sometimes audiences want to tell journalists which stories are significant, though whether new media actually facilitate this process is open to debate. Some stories do circulate through independent media and percolate into the public sphere in such a way as to put the issue onto the professional news journalist’s agenda in an unexpected fashion. In other words, the range of agenda- setting sources has radically increased for both audiences and journalists over the last two decades. This can be observed in the multiplicity of voices that were heard in the public sphere reflecting, debating, and commenting on unprovoked attacks on civilian populations, and can be found both offline and online, in a range of alternative media; digital media—including blogs, Facebook, and Twitter—have facilitated these conversations.
In Democracy and Tradition, Jeffrey Stout (2004: 163, 166) suggests that “[m]ore people seek their moral edification from poems, novels, essays, plays and sermons than from moral treatises or philosophical articles,” and that “[t]here is a massive modern democratic literature on character and the virtues awaiting exploration out- side of the philosophical canon.”13 Stout supports his point by making imaginative
use of several novels to illustrate and to develop his own argument. How far can Stout’s claim be extended to go beyond the traditional communicative forms that he identifies? In other words, how far have the electronic media, such as Web sites, television, and radio programs become the places where many people consciously and subconsciously seek their “moral edification” alongside the news? Reception studies suggest that combined with the family, friendship circles, and other formative settings, such media provide audiences with a place and a set of resources for moral edification, development, and education.
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Conclusion
News stories invariably take on a life of their own, reappearing in unexpected places and forms. The bombing of Gernika was no exception. News stories about this attack are mere drops in what Salman Rushdie (1990) describes as the never-ending “sea of stories.” There are, in the words of Roland Barthes (1989: 89), “numberless” narratives appearing in “infinite forms” throughout human history. Why do some stories, even some explicitly religious ones, attract so much attention? Some stories have the magnetic power to stand out from other tales. Good images help. Picasso created an unforgettable picture, which is inextricably connected with what hap- pened over 80 years ago. His picture became a powerful and memorable symbol of the impact of total war.
It is increasingly understood that the“sensational, the spectacular, the tragic, the sordid and the deviant, tend to get prominence over the orderly, the integrated, the normal and the constructive” (Neville Jayaweera, cited in Maslog 1994: 121).14 While
the bombing of Gernika was sensational, spectacular, and tragic, as we have seen it was one reader, Pablo Picasso, in particular, who would immortalize this story. Both The Times of London and the New York Times published on Wednesday, 28 April 1937, gave an understated but incisive report by war correspondent George Steer (see Rankin 2003).15 While the English-speaking press embraced the story exten-
sively, some parts of the French press appeared to have been more absorbed by the strength of the response in Britain and the States. Nevertheless, Steer’s account was reproduced the following day (29 April) in the French Communist newspaper that Picasso read regularly, L’Humanité. His reading of this and other stories appears to have contributed to his haunting artistic vision, and would inspire many other audi- ences in the future. The way Guernica has been used, or even hidden, has changed over the last 70 years. For example, the tapestry copy of Guernica at the United Nations was famously covered over with a blue cloth just before Colin Powell began a press conference defending the proposed invasion of Iraq (January 2003; see Patterson 2007).
Picasso’s painting of Guernica has multiple histories and contexts. It has been appropriated in different ways by a range of producers and audiences. In this chapter I used the story of Guernica, alongside other examples, to illustrate several different elements vital for developing a critical account of the relation between news and religion. Through this account I have suggested that in order to understand the relation between news and religion, as part of popular culture, it is vital to analyze histories, contexts, producers, contents, and audiences. Taking these elements into consideration will also enrich analysis of individual news stories, whether they explicitly deal with religious issues or simply have religious ramifications or reso- nances. We have seen how there are various kinds of histories to be excavated, contexts to be mapped, news producers and actual news content to be analyzed, as well as audiences’ interaction with news stories to be considered.
Many scholars draw upon these and other elements to inform their research and writing. When analyzing news and religion, it would also be useful to draw upon different aspects of these four elements, particularly in relation to developing reparative patterns in a rapidly evolving communicative environment. By reparative
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patterns I mean practices that will contribute to enriching historical analysis, shar- pening cultural criticism, improving journalistic practice, and nuancing interpreta- tions of audience reception. This is beyond the scope of this current chapter, but it would be a valuable future research topic to consider how religious communities can, and sometimes do, play a significant role in these developments. More precisely it would be useful to consider how both religious groups and journalists covering religion can contribute to these reparative practices. Such future research could begin by investigating how celebrity journalism, simplified news copy, and specta- cular popular culture events can result in making invisible, distorting, or excluding some of the many stories about religion. This could lead to a careful consideration of the practices and approaches that might transform and enrich the evolving and often complicated relations between news and religion.
Notes
1 The Spanish Civil War lasted from July 1936 to April 1939. It was fought between the Republicans and Nationalists, who were eventually led by General Franco. The Nationalist forces were ultimately successful, leading to Franco being in power for 36 years.
2 Picasso was commissioned to create a mural for the Spanish Display at the 1937 Paris International Exposition.
3 See also recent discussions of“mediatization,” such as Lundby (2009) and Cohen (2012). 4 See especially the introduction and Chapters 1–6.
5 I am drawing here upon Clifford Geertz’s (1973) famous definition of culture that emphasizes the practice of interpreting“webs of significance.” For theological reflections on culture, see also Tanner (1997, especially 3–58); Gorringe (2004); and Gallagher (2003).
6 Apostolos-Cappadona argues that Picasso was“particularly drawn to the lamenting Mag- dalene in the Isenheim Altarpiece,” and that examples of “the sixteenth-century German master’s influence can be found in Picasso’s Crucifixion drawings after 1932, as well as in Guernica.”
7 The republicans, with strong communist tendencies, were commonly anti-clerical and anti- Catholic. See, for example, the photograph of the “execution of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.” This photo, reproduced in the Daily Mail with the caption “Spanish reds war on religion,” shows six men firing up at a statue of Jesus at Cerro de los Ángeles, near Madrid, August 1936 (see Ealham and Richards 2005: 80, 168).
8 For example, during the First World War, the Bishop of London (A.F. Winnington-Ingram) drew uncritically on stories from both The Daily Mail and The Times.
9 For a more recent appropriation of the Frankfurt School, see Lynch (2005), especially Chapters 4 and 9.
10 Such critique has a long history: see, for example, Gabler (1998).
11 Formal evidence hearings started on 14 November 2011 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, with the formal part of the inquiry concluding July 2012. See The Leveson Inquiry (n.d.). For the report see The Leveson Inquiry (2012).
12 Hargreaves argues that“freedom of the press” and uncovering the truth remain essential goals for journalism.
13 See also how Martha Nussbaum (1986; 1990) analyzes narratives and characters in Greek tragedies and novels.
14 See Maslog (1994: 119–21) for section on “News Values.”
15 It was Steer’s story—published on Wednesday, 28 April 1937, in both The Times and the New York Times—that was translated into French and Spanish for dissemination in mainland Europe and beyond.
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