Summary
Contents
Subject index
Since the 1970s, more and more religious stories have made their way to headline news: the Islamic Revolution in Iran, televangelism and its scandals, and the rise of the Evangelical New Right and its role in politics, to name but a few. Media treatment of religion can be seen as a kind of indicator of the broader role and status of religion on the contemporary scene. To better understand the relationship between religion and the news media, both in everyday practice and in the larger context of American public discourse, author Stewart P. Hoover gives a cultural-historical analysis in his book, Religion in the News. The resulting insights provide important clues as to the place of religion in American life, the role of the media in cultural discourse, and the prospects of institutional religion in the media age.
This volume is highly recommended to media professionals, journalists, people in the religious community, and for classroom use in religious studies and media studies programs.
Religion and Broadcasting
Religion and Broadcasting
Until now, relatively little attention has been given to the treatment of religion by the most public, pervasive, and “democratic” of all the media: broadcasting. Our concern here is news, but broader questions have been repeatedly raised about the role and place of religion in broadcast entertainment content as well. Stephen Carter, for example, points to prime-time television as a major context in which religion is constructed in American public life in his book The Culture of Disbelief.1
By assessing the status of religion in broadcast news we can address two separate but related issues. First, we can look at broadcast practice vis-à-vis religion as a measure of the broader public construction of religion. Second, we can use this analysis to ...
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