 |
new directions in
media - culture -
religion - spirituality
For much of the 20th century, thinking and research in
media and religion were constrained by seeing media and religion as two
different domains. Media were seen primarily as providers of entertainment
or tools to be used for communicating religious ideas. Religion was
understood primarily as specific ideas and practices defined to a large
extent by religious institutions.
New ways of thinking about media and religion have been
emerging over the last two decades that recast these in a totally different
light and give new directions to research and understanding in the area. This new study of media and religion
from a cultural perspective looks at things like:
- how people build their own eclectic religious and/or
spiritual meaning in everyday practice, using visual, material,
technological and institutional mediated sources;
- how the characteristics of media in a culture influence
the conceptualization and construction of religious ideas, structures and
material practices, not just their transmission;
- how differences in religious thinking and practice
occur when religion and spirituality are differently mediated, both on a
broad cultural level, a communal level and an individual level;
- how the ideas and practices of religious institutions
are linked to the media, economic, political, class, and intellectual
dynamics within which they have grown.
This website provides some resources and links to assist
those interested in exploring the area further.
|
on this website
|
|
