The relationship between media and religion in American society has been a subject of ongoing scholarly debate and analysis. In his seminal 1995 work titled Unsecular Media, Mark Silk critiques the idea of “secular” media being “anti-religious” and pushes against the widespread common opinion. Furthermore, in a land he controversially claims to be irreligious, Silk argues that pundits hardly fall in the neutrality camp. In return, they prioritize and support the most well-known and considered religious traditions and views that meet and reflect cultural norms and secure order and stability in society. However, Silk points out that the media is usually uncomfortable with certain beliefs or movements that may attempt to destabilize the norm or traditional order.
One of the preliminary tasks, which is very important when evaluating a relationship between media and religion in the United States, is assessing to what degree the media and religious factors are now interwoven. The media world from the mid-1990s is beyond recognition. Information and entertainment fell into the hands of millions with the rise of digital platforms, social media, citizen journalism, and diversified alternative sources of information. The new techniques have shaken the old role of the gatekeepers and the leading narratives of the journalistic institutions, which were the knowledge of the time. Nevertheless, those changes most likely portray a different light on religion than these patterns and tendencies still present in the American media landscape.
One constant takes place in how American media reports about religion – this is the fact that the press overemphasizes such traditional, institutional exhibitions of religiosity. Despite the cultural sensitivity these days, common media discourses ignore claims of those who practice traditional religions or those whose religious orientations may not conform to Judeo-Christian values and customs. This preference could result from, among others, historical dominance and cultural embedding of those traditions into the American socio-cultural realm, as well as the fact that hegemonic forces that perceive those traditions as being in line with the core identity and values of the nation regard them as highly compatible and desirable.
The media field is very different now than it was in 1995. Yet, the news outlets of modern-day mainstream Americans still seem to convey an “establishmentarian” bias favouring the traditional religious faces. The commemoration of significant Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter is conspicuous in the media. In contrast, the events or ceremonies associated with unreligious groups are frequently disregarded or presented as curious things. Muslims and Hindus are no exceptions to it either, though the reporting tends to look at the sedated religion, which blends in well with the American ways and reality. For instance, the media will most often either ignore or link the Muslim positive and reformist voices, which are seen to be a monolithic mass because of their perceived connection with religious terrorism. This way, the media validates the same “standard” religious pattern by bragging about the mainstream across different platforms, old and new media.
Silk notices the “authoritarian” position of the media (Silk 142). Radde-Antweiler’s study of media representations of religion stresses the consideration when defining the ‘true’ faith. The main trend among contemporary mass media is the ‘authenticity’ of belief and tradition (Radde-Antweiler 128). This genuineness is connected to the plausibility of the institutions’ bottom line, the lengthy tradition, and the following of the tradition and the hierarchies of the society. Therefore, media narratives can repress groups of people from society, to be seen as freaks or simply as nothing so that they will remain that way, and the centre of the story gets back to the hegemony and the legitimacy of the norm.
The exaggerated pattern is obvious in the historical treatment of new religious movements (NRMs) by media outlets in The United States (Beckford 115-121). Coverage of articles focusing on NRMs has often been carried out sensationally, with a profound degree of negative stereotyping and lack of comprehension or fair portrayal. Such a nondenominational approach might be seen clearly through the media’s depictions of the Raelians, who are ridiculed harshly in the “Spaced Out” article by Newsweek, or the dark, mocking parodies of Scientology in South Park show’s episodes “Trapped in the Closet” and “Super Best Friends”.
Nevertheless, the complicated interplay between media and religion in the USA is not exclusively characterized by the authoritarian way the latter develops myths and narrations or the favouritism of a strict notion of their relations. Media represent tools and important spaces for expressing religion, identity management, and media platforms used for contesting dominant cultural codes (Hoover 12-15). The digitization of social media and online networks in the last decades has allowed varied religious communities to announce their presence, adding perspectives lacking in mainstream outlets, evolving new typologies of communal identities and constructing new meanings.
There is no doubt that the internet has empowered and enabled the spread of alternative interpretations of Islamic teachings among Muslims in the U.S. and globally to shape their religious positions (Echchaibi 92-96). Through the empowerment of digital autonomy, there is a circle that helps Muslim voices contradict and refute mainstream media narratives that often reduce or complicatedly portray Islam as a monolithic, heinous, or inherently violent force.
Religious representation in the media is not limited to covering faith issues or the role of faith in political decision-making. Several theorists, like “Theological Productions”, have also argued that media technologies and practices become meaningful sites of religious meaning, spiritual expression, and ritual engagement (Geraci 35-40). In this light, the borders or boundaries that separate from media viewed as secular with the realm of religion become extremely obscured as media forms and processes are enhanced and appreciated on the theological and spiritual basis for different people and individuals.
Although digital media represent yet another path for the articulation of religion by the people and adjusted religious identity recognition, it should not be undervalued to evaluate whose voices win the loudest echoes in these fields. Media manufacturing and utilization stand for repeated social activities that can also ensure the existence of power configurations and, at the same time, give rise to the disagreement of some of the perspectives on these digital platforms (Couldry 29). However, as the democratization inspired by religion and culture plays out, there is the possibility of dominant narratives still coming into play and replicating the hierarchy of legitimacy and authenticity criticized by the noted scholars Radde-Antweiler and others. Consequently, the emancipatory capacity of new media should go through the excavation, which takes place through an intersectional lens sensitive to the complex dynamics of race, class, gender, systematic lane and other exclusions.
The global crises that arose from the publication of Jyllands-Posten’s satirical cartoon about the Prophet Muhammad in 2005 and the subsequent uproar caused by the anti-Islamic film ‘Innocence of Muslims in 2012 are the best exemplification of the complicated working relationship among media representations of religious awareness and general social tensions in the modern world. Those disputes, in turn, unleashed heated controversies and debates in the international arena about the frontiers separating free speech, the resilient problem of the balance between creative expression and religious respect, and the part media institutions take in resolving such cultural issues. While some critics alike decried the media for showing insensitivity by using crude portrayals that would only cause more pain to the religious sentiments of the viewers, others strenuously argued for unrestricted media freedoms to be made without any feeling of responsibility that may result in deep social disruptions.
Such controversy highlights the powerless situations most modern institutions face in the context of a global informational system and the challenges of transitioning to the rapidly changing environment brought about by the internet. Power and meaning are socially constructed and narrated by media audiences and producers and symbols, as Jesús Martín-Barbero argues in realizing the excitement of the “mutation” of mass media into sacred environments (Martín-Barbero 107). The travelling of religion’s iconography in the electronic networks and its collision with many legitimate cultures’ sensible realities denote the high stakes of such digitalized new shrines. Media institutions find themselves amid an ethically sensitive issue of kindling intercultural conversations among communities rooted in their distinctive beliefs and identities, which will inevitably grow in intensity with the advent of technological innovations.
Ultimately, the complicated interplay between the media and religion in American society cannot be explained by any simple formulas or dogmatic analysis. Though Silk’s line of thought aroused as an answer to the “establishmentarian” bias still deserves some credit, present-day media about the way it is diverged, pluralistic, and dynamic seems to move in an open manner that is projected far beyond a unified narrative. Traditional mainstream assets may also give room to evidence of religious inclination toward dominance and institutional refusal of groups perceived as outsiders. While the art of discourse has always been a part of peaceful interactions between diverse religions, the sudden emergence of digital media has created a sudden conducive space for diverse religious voices to declare their unique identities publicly and lived experiences in ways that would not have been possible 30 years ago.
However, digital media didn’t simply smash the power relations outlined by Stepan-Nikolayevich Silk in bits and pieces. Whilst the World Wide Web can easily let a vast number of new players or alternative viewpoints gain more influence, the power of cultural and commercial forces that get more exposure still decides what’s trending. The powerful main digital platforms remain biased toward corporate interests, governmental policies and social norms, which may limit or even suppress some more radical and dissenting religious opinions. By way of example, sacred practices are less crystalized in cyber Buddhist communities due to the often intricate virtual world policies enforced by tech firms. By that, the online religious discussion space is more and more under the influence of hate speech, misinformation, and ideological polarization. In other words, online media platforms also help standardize religions in data-driven ways, and the information propagated spreads with the help of algorithms as the hierarchies and symbols keep building up.
In essence, while Mark Silk’s observations in 1995 about an establishmentarian trend in American media religion coverage were highly instructive, the current terrain is far too diversified and dynamic to be confined to such a monolithic perspective. Views, beliefs and values of privileged members of society may still enjoy preferential treatment in traditional outlets. Still, these mechanisms have not remained unchallenged as elaborately as technologies democratized by society and individuals’ assertive pluralism have fiercely been battling this dominant framing. The role of the media and religions in the U.S. cultural context is a multifaceted and fluid juncture that requires constant multi-sided and theoretically astute research and investigation.
Beckford, James A. “Mass Media and New Religious Movements.” Cult Controversies: The Societal Response to New Religious Movements, Tavistock Publications, 1985, pp. 104-137.
Couldry, Nick. Media Rituals: A Critical Approach. Routledge, 2003.
Echchaibi, Nabil. “From Alt.Muslim to Muslim Memorials Online.” Digital Media and the Arab Spring, edited by Philip N. Howard and Shireen Hussain, Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy, 2011, pp. 85-109.
Geraci, Robert M. “Theological Productions.” Virtually Sacred: Myth and Meaning in World of Warcraft and Second Life, Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 27-52.
Hoover, Stewart M. “Religion, Media and Identity: Theory and Methodology in Audience Research on Religion and Media.” Mediating Religion: Conversations in Media, Religion and Culture, edited by Jolyon Mitchell and Sophia Marriage, T&T Clark, 2006, pp. 9-19.
Martín-Barbero, Jesús. “Mass Media as a Site of Re-Sacralization of Contemporary Cultures.” Rethinking Media, Religion and Culture, edited by Stewart M. Hoover and Knut Lundby, Sage, 1997, pp. 102-116.
Radde-Antweiler, Kerstin. “Authentizität: Die symbolische Innszenierung religiöser Identität [Authenticity: The Symbolic Staging of Religious Identity].” Crowd und Masses, edited by Stefan Jonkers, Transcript Verlag, 2013, pp. 121-137.
Silk, Mark. Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America. University of Illinois Press, 1995.