Page 167 - Key Words in Religion Media and Culture

150 Joyce Smith

Before going further, you will note the italicized “the” in Marty’s
description. It does not take long, even in the eighteenth-century case, to
realize that the public is in fact constructed of sub-publics, collectivities that
may have as their common thread gender, religion, socioeconomic class, or
ethnic identity. Marty’s the the public is the collection of all American sub-
publics. He has noted that it is often only when there is a debate over “public
opinion” that people become aware that they are conceived as being part of
the the public (Marty 1999:1). And chief among the recognition of a general
public as well as its subdivisions is the press.
How are publics put together (and subdivided) with the help or even
manipulation of the media?

Karl is down the street from FirstMate at the fair-trade coffee shop. He
refuses to buy anything but equitably produced food. But he likes the
engaged atmosphere of this shop, where local media have placed alternative
newspapers at the front door. Above them is a corkboard where ads for
bicycles and notices of anti-globalization rallies are posted.
The shop originated as a socially-active Christian church initiative, but
there are no obvious signs of this genesis. Karl’s grandparents belonged
to the founding church, but this isn’t why he likes this spot, and his
grandparents never darkened the coffee house’s door.
Karl takes a lot of flack because he totes a reusable coffee mug. He
wouldn’t identify himself as a ‘granola cruncher’ any more than he would
describe himself as a Mennonite.

Can one opt out of a public? No, because one cannot opt in. But one can
be part of a public nonetheless. Though Karl refuses to adopt the labels of
“granola cruncher” or Mennonite, to many in his community he is a member
of both publics, because of his consuming decisions and the nature of his
surname.
The gap between Karl and his grandparents speaks to the difference
between local religious publics as communities of belief and practice and
those that might more easily be identified as consumer communities. At the
most basic level, this consumption is material; hence, Karl and his insistence
on fair-trade coffee. But it also makes it attractive to the researcher to begin
to relate the idea of a religious public to the selection and consumption of
cultural products and symbols. Karl might not self-identify as a “granola
cruncher,” but his choice of food, clothing, and media combine to suggest
membership in such a public.
I will explore the relationship between media and publics via four
interactions: religious publics exerting influence on the the public; media
products and processes influencing publics and subpublics; governments